ILOILO CITY, Dec. 3 -- The country needs more volunteers not only for social welfare, but other sectors as well, like education and disaster response.

This was highlighted Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the National Volunteers Month celebration here, with the theme "Volunteerism for Inclusive Development: Empowering Communities, Building a Just and Resilient Future."

In an interview, Philippine National Volunteer Services Coordinating Agency executive director Donald James Gawe said they would like to align volunteerism with the development priority thrust of the government.

"There are studies that would show we have a high learning poverty. So, we need volunteers to help with literacy -reading, writing. Moreover, since we ar...