ILOILO City – This city’s Public Employment Service Office (PESO) has officially entered the Hall of Fame of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) after clinching the “Best PESO” title for highly urbanized cities for the third time — a recognition underscoring its consistency in delivering jobs and inclusive labor services to thousands of Ilonggos.
“This signifies that our office is a performing office and has an outstanding status with the Department of Labor and Employment,” said PESO manager Gabriel Felix Umadhay.
The city’s PESO earned its Hall of Fame status after meeting DOLE’s five major criteria — referral and placement, labor market analysis, career guidance, awards, and innovation.
Umadhay said Iloilo City’s 94-percent success rate in job matching, which translates to employment for about 30,000 individuals annually, played a key role in its back-to-back wins.
Beyond job placement, the office has become a hub for labor market intelligence, providing monthly reports to schools, investors, and the business sector on manpower trends and career opportunities. PESO also conducts regular school visits for career guidance.
“They won’t have employment difficulty when they graduate because they know their career paths,” Umadhay explained.
To ensure inclusivity, the Iloilo City PESO implements 33 programs addressing the needs of marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, out-of-school youth, LGBTQ+ individuals, and low-income earners.
“Our goal is for the whole region to capture our practice and have them localized. We understand that, as a regional center, most of our workers are not from Iloilo City. We hope our different LGUs can extend the same protection that we give to our workers,” Umadhay said.
The city received P200,000 in cash for the office and an additional P10 million for DOLE’s emergency employment program.
Having reached Hall of Fame status, Iloilo City can no longer compete for the Best PESO title, but it now qualifies for the Excellence Award, a higher-tier recognition open to all Hall of Fame awardees once 25 local government units qualify.
Currently, there are 21 LGUs in the Hall of Fame — with Iloilo City among the newest standard-bearers of efficient and inclusive public employment service./PN
