Employment of students

Student beneficiaries of Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) are now engaged to work for 52 days. There are 731 SPES babies already deployed to various workplaces. Government offices and private companies hire them to do some menial tasks akin to on-the-job trainings only that they are assured of getting paid by the services they rendered on a daily basis. The program intends to help the poor but deserving students support their education.

Our Public Employment Service Office (PESO) which holds office at city hall is the frontline implementer of this program. For jobseekers, there is one person they should see not only because she is the chief of the office, but because of her love to her job. PESO Manager Lilibeth D. Pantinople, in a short stint as head of the office was able to solicit 49,400 jobs last year from different companies and posted them to www.phil-job.net, a website managed by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). This has earned for the city an award for being the top performing PESO in the country in the implementation of the Labor Market Information Program.

Wow! Davao City is indeed growing by leaps and bounds. We have developed a good linkage to companies here and abroad, thanks to that excellence of PESO in manpower pooling. Postings of thousands of job vacancies spruce up the image of the city and seen more as a blessing rather than as a pre-conceived idea about shortage of manpower. Our graduates, fresh from the mental battle of hurdling examinations, deserve to march from the portals of their schools head high because more job options are open for them in our labor market.

There are invisible hands to make this happen. Very high points can be given to Resource Generation agenda of Mayor Sara Duterte. In her BAROG program, our mayor lays down boundless possibilities to gladden the hearts of young and old generations. BAROG which stands for Barangay Empowerment, Academe, Resource Generation, Peace and Order, and Governance, is living to stand by its principles. It is peace and order and investment friendly environment that generate more and more employment opportunities for the people in this city and region.

Meanwhile, with particular interest to this SPES baby, he got employed in city hall many years ago when he was still in college. At first thought, there were some irrational fears to overshadow the excitement to have that “feel” of what is it like to be employed. But this baby must weather the storm, take up the challenge, and mingle with “co-employees” because he has to support his education. Lucky for him, he was assigned at the Chief-of-Staff Office of the City Mayor in 1997. The job was actually not a hard nut to crack for him being assigned as a writer as he was concurrently then Editor-in-Chief of a university school paper.

This baby worker has lived a life of independence from his parent’s constant mercy. As academic scholar since high school, he has spared his parents from paying tuition and miscellaneous fees. He worked hard during summers to earn money so that there will be happy days during enrolment. The grant of the State Scholarship Program by the Commission on Higher Education was a good break for his college education. He could have enrolled in reputable schools but he chose a state university from which he should earn his degree.

In one occasion, he applied for the Special Program for the Employment of Students under PESO and was accepted. That paved his way to be employed in a government office without much difficulty then as a contractual worker. Later, being admitted into the rolls of plantilla personnel, and to pursue his post-graduate studies, he enrolled in a college of law. Until he graduated from that course, he never asked anything from his parents, except prayers. That SPES baby was me. I marched from the portal of my university head high and loudly expressed in my mind: “I did it!”. Nothing could be sweeter than the victory of preventing your parents to suffer from the agony of paying your education.

It is the value towards work that really matters. As it is said, work and be happy. Try to be sloppy at home with nothing to do all day. You get bored and worse, unproductive. Try to flex a muscle for something like house cleanup, bathing your pets (or animal companion), and all these ordinary household chores and you will rejuvenate your spirit. I have high respects to student beneficiaries of SPES because I could speak from that experience. Next task for our SPES babies, try to give some real treats to your parents, like the idea of dining out and I am pretty sure, they will put you in the pedestal. I did it.