Ten Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs) will be recognized by the labor department for their exemplary delivery of job facilitation services as part of the celebration of DOLE’s 87th anniversary on Tuesday, December 8.
Three provincial PESOs tied for the top title as champion in the first class province category while Calabarzon bagged most of the awards among the regions.
Hailed as champions in this year’s national search for best PESO are Laguna, Tarlac, and Davao del Sur, with PESO Tarlac earning the hall of fame for winning the best PESO award for three consecutive years.
In Calabarzon, bagging the best PESO awards are PESO Angono, Rizal; PESO Pila, Laguna; PESO Balete, Batangas; and the University of Batangas for the first to second class municipality, third to fourth class municipality category, fifth to sixth class municipality, and job placement office categories, respectively.
PESO Angono, Rizal; PESO Balete, Batangas; and the University of Batangas Job Placement Office were likewise elevated to the Hall of Fame status.
The awards will also be conferred to PESO Mandaluyong City (National Capital Region) for the highly urbanized city category; PESO Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental (Region 10) for the component city category; and PESO Marinduque (Mimaropa) for the third to fifth class province category.
This year’s champions will receive P150,000 each, while the Hall of Fame Awardees will be receiving another P250,000 each. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III expressed appreciation for the dedication of the PESOs in making employment facilitation programs and opportunities more accessible in the local communities.
“May our story of productive partnership be the driving force for the PESOs, through the leadership of the PESO Managers’ Association of the Philippines, further extending our reach to inaccessible areas and improve our services to job seekers and the Filipino workforce,” Bello said.
This year’s search for best PESO also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the PESO Act or Republic Act No. 8759.
The law mandates the establishment of a PESO in every province, key city, and other strategic areas throughout the country to ensure prompt, timely, and efficient delivery of employment service and provision of information on DOLE programs.
To date, there are 1,952 established PESOs in the country, 531 of which are now institutionalized.
The amended PESO law mandates institutionalization of the PESOs to ensure their continued operation and sustainability.
It entails the creation of permanent plantilla positions and establishment of computerized systems for improved labor market information and employment facilitation service.
To commemorate the PESO Act’s anniversary, the Bureau of Local Employment is publishing a coffee table book, which provides an overview of the milestones that have made the PESO a vital office in addressing unemployment, underemployment, and job mismatch in the country.
