ILOILO – Putting up public employment services office (PESOs) in villages could prevent illegal recruitment, according to Francisco Heler, provincial PESO chief.
So far, 20 of the 43 local government units (LGUs) in this province have established village PESOs.
The 20 LGUs have a combined 965 villages.
Heler said the provincial PESO is urging LGUs to establish their respective village PESOs to protect job seekers against illegal recruiters and help with employment information dissemination.
The village PESO will be the one to check the legitimacy of recruitment companies.
“The PESO in the village will check if the recruiter has the necessary requirements, or has secured the permission of the municipal mayor and the municipal PESO officer. If there will be no PESO officer in the villages, the unlicensed recruitment agencies might not be prevented,” Heler said.
Some of the villages are at risk of being victimized by illegal recruiters since “people in the barangay want employment because they want to work abroad for a higher salary.”
“If we cannot protect them, it defeats the purpose of the PESO which is employment facilitation and employment protection,” Heler said.
The PESO in the villages also serves as a venue to spread information on legal employment opportunities and recruitment.
“The huge help of the village PESO is to cascade the information on employment to the village level.They will help the municipal PESO cover all the villages in their locality,” Heler said.
The provincial government-PESO can also communicate to the village PESOs to relay employment opportunities, like the JobStart program, and provide free employability enhancement and skills training with allowance to qualified applicants.
“They can also help to organize overseas Filipino Workers and their families in their respective families. With this, we would know what they need in terms of livelihood because we offer a reintegration program to returning OFWs,” Heler added.
The PESO-Iloilo chief has assured that several local chief executives committed to establishing the village PESOs. (PNA)
