Twenty heads of Public Employment Service Offices (PESO) from the different towns of Pangasinan gathered together on Friday, November 18, 2016, at the mayor’s residence in Saint Vincent Village for the monthly meeting of the PESO Association of Pangasinan (PESOAP).

Municipal Administrator Rodelynn Rajini Sagarino was present to welcome the participants. She related how, having formerly worked for the National Anti-Poverty Commission, she was exposed to the issue of poverty and how complicated poverty is, requiring all sectors of government to work together to help solve it.

“I personally believe that we can’t get rid of poverty 100% – even First World countries have incidence of poverty. And employment is not the most important thing in fighting poverty. The first (thing to consider) is education. At least one member of a poor family needs to get educated, and education is the means by which a person can find a good-paying job. This, in turn, has a domino effect, with all members of the family graduating one by one from being poor.”

She also declared that the LGU has full support for PESO. “In fact, we have requested for the creation of PESO (albeit with the manager’s position pegged at supervisory level), and so it is now already a part of our 2017 budget.”

Atty. Sagarino also commended Bayambang PESO Manager Gerenerio Q. Rosales “for his being energetic and hard-working for the job, like all of you here, I’m sure.” “He is capable of doing the equivalent of work being done by 20 people,” she jokingly added.

Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao was also present to give further inspiration. He said he was banking on the PESO manager to attain a better rate of employment in Bayambang, with the municipality being ranked as one of the poorest in Pangasinan when it comes to employment as well as the highest in malnutrition, according to official records.

“Through the work of PESO Bayambang, we hope to lessen the number of unemployed people here. One indication that this is being slowly achieved is through job fairs, the biggest of which have been recently launched here, and I am impressed with the results so far,” he added.

Mayor CTQ also expressed his hope that, come 2017, PESO Bayambang would finally be institutionalized and become fully operational.

The meeting proper was presided by PESOAP President Alma Martinez. Discussed were upcoming job fairs and DOLE programs such as GIP (Government Internship Program) and SPES (Special Program for Employment of Students), among other topics.

(Bayambang PIO/Media Affairs)