Three-term Senator, now Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda asserts the need to push for further amendments on the 1999 Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act, a law she co-authored during her first term as Senator, to provide better employment facilitation and opportunities for the Filipino people.
The 1999 PESO Act was last amended in 2015 to include the creation of permanent plantilla positions for PESO personnel, funding of PESOs through LGUs’ internal revenue allotment, and improvement of labor market information and employment facilitation service through computerized systems of monitoring, coordination, and reporting.
The three-term Senator filed House Bill 631, which seeks to broaden the scope of the existing PESO Act to include entrepreneurship. The existing PESO offices shall then be renamed as the Public Employment and Entrepreneurship Service Office (PEESO), while similar offices, to be known as the Barangay Employment and Entrepreneurship Service Office (BEESO), will be established at the barangay level.
“As of November 2021, we have a total of 48.64 million Filipinos in our labor force, 6.5% of which are unemployed, while 16.7% are underemployed,” Legarda said. “While the creation of more jobs remains to be the main strategy in resolving our unemployment and underemployment problems, facilitating the matching of job seekers and available job opportunities is critical in achieving optimal allocation and distribution of labor in the shortest possible time,” she further pointed out.
Legarda stated that the inclusion of entrepreneurship in the mandate of the PESO aims to offer employment and entrepreneurship opportunities that are tailored and suited to each job seeker through various trainings and consultations.
She likewise added that “the creation of BEESO will provide a more efficient system that would facilitate and regulate labor market by bridging the gap between the job seekers and employers especially our rural workforce.”
Legarda explained that to be more effective, officers of PESO in local government units should take a more proactive role as local employment policy advisers, employment creation managers, and training managers. This can be achieved by having counterparts at the barangay level who will ensure that job seekers from far-flung areas will have the needed information on the currently available jobs, entrepreneurship trainings, and consultations in the labor market.
“The amendment to the PESO Act will address the long-drawn issues of unemployment and underemployment in the country,” Legarda affirmed. “Promotion of entrepreneurship will not only hone the skills of every Filipino but will also encourage self-employment opportunities and generate more jobs and income.
“Moreover, having BEESO officers in every barangay all over the country will augment job matching and guarantee that all job seekers will be provided with service and assistance they need to land a job,” she concluded.
*All photos were taken before the pandemic.