Kalayaan jobs too hot not to be handled
A total of 561 jobseekers last Friday went home with good news to tell their families after they got hired on-the-spot (HOTS) during the opening of the three-day Kalayaan job fair held at Amigo Plaza Mall here in connection with the celebration of the 111th Philippine Independence Day.
Regional Director Aida M. Estabillo of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said they were among some 2,000 persons including fresh college graduates who applied for vacant plantilla positions and emergency or short-term job slots in government.
Those who did it were given employment contracts to work with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Education (DepEd), and Department of Tourism (DOT).
The emergency employment opportunities are being offered by government as part of its Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) designed to help Filipinos cope with the current global economic downturn.
Estabillo said there were 1,462 vacant government positions at stake right the start of the job fair right during Independence Day.
The other successful applicants in the fair were taken in by the Philippine Army, Department of Agriculture, National Irrigation Administration, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Health, DOLE, and the NARS program.
NARS (Nurses Assigned in Rural Service) is a training cum deployment project, jointly implemented by the DOLE, the Department of Health DOH and the Professional Regulation Commission, Board of Nursing (PRC-BON), designed to mobilize unemployed registered nurses to the 1,000 poorest municipalities of the country to improve the delivery of health care services.
June 13 was the turn of local private companies to accept and evaluate applications. Hundreds of jobseekers also trooped to the job fair site to submit their credentials and wait for a word from prospective employers.
On June 14 employment agencies that could be the answer to the prayers of many other members of the labor force who want to seek greener pastures abroad also conducted recruitment.
A female applicant said she went to the job fair to avail of the opportunity offered by government for jobseekers like her. “Let’s see if I’ll get the job,” she said with a ray of hope in her young eyes.
During the Freedom Day celebration, thousands of Ilonggos here were recipients of 2,909 scholarship grants from TESDA, DOST and CHED, 240 NARS training contracts, 116, educational assistance, and 77 livelihood checks amounting to P14.65 million for 2,686 beneficiaries.
Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez led the celebration together with Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Raul N. Banias and Iloilo City mayor Jerry P. Treñas. Gonzalez is the CLEEP Steward for Western Visayas. (PIA 6)