JOEL P. MAPILES
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Governor Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda said winning the Best Public Employment Service on the national level should inspire the Pampanga PESO to do more for the workforce of the province.
Pineda also said that the PESO employees led by its head, Luningning Vergara that the award should serve as their morale booster to do an even better job in the months and years to come.
“I want the PESO to study the geographical landscape and background of the people we train so that their acquired skills would match the needed livelihood that would keep them earning steadily, and not venture into flash in the pan type of businesses,” the governor stressed.
The governor also commended the accomplishments of the PESOs and urged their staff to top their own record, “to give real and lasting help to people” even as “winning more awards would prove to be a bonus and serve as an inspiration to continue doing a good job”.
“While we are happy about the award because it is a recognition of our efforts, our mandate to provide opportunities of employment to our people remains in the heart of what we do now and in the future,” Vergara said.
Vergara disclosed that the governor has emphasized the need to double their efforts in providing the necessary skills and opportunities to people so that “they may be gainfully employed and their lives may be improved”.
Vergara reported that from the 20,471 applicants that secured the services of the provincial and municipal PESOs, some 13,286 were referred and of these, 12,137 were placed for local employment, both in the private and government sectors.
For overseas employment, some 2,908 applicants were referred and only 1,263 placed jobseekers were reported, due in part, Vergara explained, “to the failure of some agencies to report on their placed applicants”.
Relative to the governor’s recommendation, Vergara said that the PESO has conducted studies on the “mismatch” aspect of job search and employment facilitation and 19 career guidance seminars benefiting 5,191 students.
In addition to this, 23 job fairs were conducted in various municipalities helping some 17,341 jobseekers, particularly those who did not have the means to leave their towns to apply for jobs elsewhere.
Another thrust of the PESO which the governor applauds is the rehabilitation of provincial inmates. She is happy about the more than 600 inmates who were given livelihood trainings, especially about those who completed their elementary and secondary levels of education, 49 of whom are awaiting the release of their diplomas.
According to Vergara, this would prepare them for reintegration in the mainstream of society towards making them productive citizens of their community, something that the governor is bent on supporting to “give this sector of society a fresh chance to live new and better lives”.
