PNoy to sign law increasing public employment service offices

MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III will sign into law on Monday the amendments to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act of 1999.

Aquino will sign the amendatory bill during the 15th PESO Congress in Pasay City on Monday afternoon. It will be witnessed by Sens. Sonny Angara, Cynthia Villar and Loren Legarda and several members of the House of Representatives.

Republic Act 8759 or the PESO Act of 1999 was enacted to create PESOs or multi-employment service facilities across strategic areas in the country.

The PESOs have served as venues for Filipinos to explore employment opportunities and other labor market information. To date, there are PESOs in 75 provinces, 142 cities and 1,374 municipalities in the country.

The PESO Act has also provided training activities, certification tests, career guidance, and job referral services.

The amendatory measure to be signed by Aquino seeks to create PESOs in all provinces, municipalities, cities and other strategic areas throughout the country,

Among the salient features of the PESO amendatory bill are the creation of permanent plantilla positions for PESO personnel and the improvement of labor market information and employment facilitation service through computerized systems of monitoring, coordination, and reporting.

Angara, author of the PESO amendatory bill, said the new measure will minimize unemployment and underemployment in the country.

"Just recently, the government has posted online over 3,000 job vacancies in five agencies in an effort to attract young graduates to careers in public service," Angara said in an earlier statement.

"With the amended PESO law, we can ensure that every new graduate with the right qualifications, even those who graduated from schools in the countryside, will be given an opportunity to apply for these jobs," he added.