ILOILO City – With thousands of jobseekers placed and programs delivered beyond expectations, the Iloilo City Public Employment Service Office (PESO) has not only secured the title of Best PESO in Western Visayas for 2024 — it has emerged as a national benchmark for employment facilitation and is now in contention for the prestigious Hall of Fame Award from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The office achieved top regional honors after leading in multiple key metrics, including job placements, referrals, and implementation of labor-related programs.
PESO Iloilo City now represents Region 6 in the national awards slated for October, where it could be elevated to Hall of Fame status for its consistent excellence.
“This is a strong validation of the hard work of PESO Iloilo City and the intensified efforts of our mayor (Jerry Treñas) in making sure that jobs are accessible to all. This is a strong testament to our partnership with our employers,” said PESO manager Gabriel Felix Umadhay.
Among its recent distinctions are the highest number of registered, referred, and placed job applicants, best career development support program, and top implementer of the JobStart Philippines Program.
It also received the Extra Mile Award for the Child Labor Elimination Program and led in posting the most job vacancies and recording the most applicants under the National Skills Registration Program.
“The most important of these are the highest job recruitments, highest job referrals, highest job vacancies, and highest placed job applicants. These are the four essential functions of the office,” Umadhay emphasized.
Data from the PESO Employment Information System showed that the city facilitated 13,069 job applicants through 20 job fairs, 68 local recruitment activities, and 21 special recruitment events in 2024.
DOLE’s performance reporting system placed the figure even higher — at 18,022 job applicants served for the year.
Looking ahead, PESO is set to ramp up its services under the leadership of Mayor-elect Raisa Treñas-Chu. Umadhay said the office will shift more aggressively toward entrepreneurship and livelihood creation.
“Our goal is to produce more employers rather than employees. We will support startup companies, especially the innovative ones. We will provide free training. We will start negosyo (business) training in July to incubate more proposals, which we will use as data to request funds from DOLE,” he said. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)