Cities to hire more workers

Saturday, March 14, 2009

CEBU CITY -- At least three cities in Cebu are working with the labor department to create temporary jobs in government, especially for those hit hardest by the economic crisis.

Mandaue City already received P300,000 from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to help implement an emergency employment program.

The Talisay City Council approved last Tuesday a resolution authorizing Mayor Socrates Fernandez to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Dole, for the city’s inclusion in the scheme.

A Talisay City councilor learned that the Lapu-Lapu City Government has availed itself of this program thrice to help workers displaced from the Mactan Export Zone.

In Cebu City, one sign of the economy’s troubles is the dwindling number of employers who join the city’s job fairs.

Still, City Department of Manpower Development and Placement (DMDP) Assistant Department Head Fidel Magno said that with 51 companies joining the March 21 jobs fair, many jobseekers can find work.

“It’s not like before, when we would have at least 80 companies during a job fair,” said Magno. “But there are still many who join.”

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently ordered all government agencies to set aside 1.5 percent of their maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) budgets.

The P7 billion in projected savings will be used to hire 180,000 temporary positions in government agencies. It is not yet known how many of these positions will be filled in Central Visayas.

“This program will serve to cushion the impact of the economic crisis,” said Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Central Visayas Director Pedro Noval.

Noval also serves as the Association of Regional Executives of National Agencies (Arena)-Central Visayas president.

The emergency employment program is covered by the P1.41-trillion national budget President Arroyo recently signed.

Noval expects the bulk of the emergency jobs to come from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Government agencies would not have to make sacrifices in projects and programs because of the 1.5 percent they have to set aside. In fact, with the addition of the employees, government agencies can meet their target programs and projects,” said Noval.

Talisay

Talisay City Hall’s job-generation strategy for displaced workers is expected to get a boost from Dole’s funding support.

Under this program, Dole will shoulder 80 percent of the workers’ salary while the City Government will pay the balance. The MOA will be signed this week.

Councilor Edward Alesna, the proponent, said the labor department has allocated P400,000 for this emergency employment program in Talisay.

“So we only have to shell out P100,000 as our counterpart fund for this program,” said Alesna, chairman of the council’s labor and employment committee.

“Their employment may only be temporary but at least we are providing them with jobs with a minimum salary as provided by law for three months. This will help their families a lot,” Alesna said.

After three months, Alesna said the city can renew its request for funding support from Dole.

In May, the Talisay City Government will also hold a job fair. It also intends to hire students during the summer, to help them save enough for tuition.

City Administrator Richel Bacaltos said the department heads will also convene this week to finalize other job-generation strategies.

Cebu City

The Cebu City Government said it is “intensifying” its job creation programs to help combat the effects of the crisis.

“Before, we would have participating companies from the Mactan Economic Zone. Now, they look mostly for technical personnel, not factory workers, because they are streamlining their workforces,” said Magno of the DMDP.

Cebu City offers 16 jobs fairs each year, including overseas jobs fairs that cater to foreign companies.

Magno said the DMDP also conducts strategy seminars “to increase acceptability,” where job applicants are taught how to prepare a good resume and application letter, how to present themselves, and how to handle job interviews.

To deal with the crisis, this year’s training programs include skills persons can use for self-employment, including “commercial cooking,” said Magno.

Mandaue

Mandaue City Major Jonas Cortes plans to hire displaced workers to implement administration projects, instead of letting private contractors do the job.

“Kumingking ra ni (This is limited), but at least we are doing something for these displaced workers,” said Cortes.

Mandaue is badly affected by the crisis, the mayor admitted, since most of the furniture-exporting firms are based in the city. As orders from the United States and other recession-hit countries plunged, local companies either let go of hundreds of workers or closed shop.

Representative Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu Province, 6th district) recently granted P1.5 million to 11 cooperatives, from her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Ruiz has also pledged P1 million each year for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to train displaced workers in other skills, like welding.

The “retooling” program is free, said her chief of staff, lawyer Gonzalo Malig-on.

Cortes, for his part, is eyeing the use of the Special Education Fund (SEF) to set up “bakeries sa barangay” to supplement the pupils’ nutritional needs.

The city is also helping barangay-based cooperatives in marketing their products to big establishments, like convincing malls and factories in Mandaue to buy the brooms made in Barangays Paknaan and Labogon.

Barangay Canduman sells fertilizers made through vermiculture, a conversion process that involves feeding biodegradable solid waste to worms.

Priorities

While they give up part of their budgets to help pay for temporary jobs, government agencies assured their services will not be compromised.

“Of course, operations might be affected. But we are trying our best that the effects would not affect the quality of education that we are delivering,” said Department of Education (DepEd)-Central Visayas Director Recaredo Borgonia.

“What we would have to do in order to save is to cut on travel or make sure that we travel for more than one purpose,” said Borgonia.

Likewise, the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas assured that none of its health services would be affected by the order to set aside 1.5 percent of their operating funds.

“There would be minimal effect on operations on the part of the DOH. Operations and services would continue,” assured DOH Director Susana Madarieta.

She added that the order to hire workers was a big development for the department, considering they have not hired new employees in the past three years.

“Now, at least we can get new ones,” said Madarieta.

The DOH will implement, for one, its Nurse Assistance to Rural Service (Nars) program, which will see to the temporary employment of at least 360 nurses in Central Visayas. They will be sent to different rural areas for several months.

“And if the nurses perform well, we might also get them to work for us in the hospitals,” said Madarieta. (EPB/RHM/GC/OCP/Sun.Star Cebu)