CDC, PESO officers ink pact to boost Clark jobs

CLARK FREEPORT – The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) and the Public Employment Services Offices of Tarlac and Pampanga provinces signed on Sept. 30 a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that aims to boost employment generation inside the Clark Freeport.
CDC President Benigno N. Ricafort signed the MOA together with Tarlac PESO Manager’s Association President Arnold Samson, Pampanga PESO Manager’s Association President Luningning Vergara, DOLE Region III Division Chief Alex Inza Cruz, and Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA) Executive Vice President Darwin Malinit.
Ricafort said the MOA allows the CDC and its partner agencies to easily facilitate employment generation through four core development goals: After-sales support service to Clark locators, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and parallel development, and participative management.
“This partnership with the PESO is expected to pave the way for the so-called convergence to evolve and become bigger as more partners both from government and the private sector are being sought to take part of this network all in the name of facilitating job generation for our people,” Ricafort said.
Under the MOA, the PESO association shall provide CDC a monthly report on available manpower database according to age range, gender, education, and experience.
It also requires the PESO association to provide a pre-screened list of qualified applicants to CDC for endorsement to Clark Freeport locators.
“Both CDC and the PESO association shall undertake to link up an online common database using a single entry system of applicants to ensure availability of pool of applicants,” the MOA also said.
CDC Customer Service Department Manager Rodem Perez said the state-owned corporation aims to take advantage of technology in fasttracking the application and screening process by linking PESO partners to its existing online job application and electronic referral system.
Perez added: “With this endeavor we are hoping to eventually replace the tedious and manual system of accepting job applications and processing their referral to locators on a daily basis.”
He said the other salient features of the system are minimal user-friendly fields that that will encourage more applicants to join the manpower pool.
The system, Perez added, is convenient and cost-effective to locators, job seekers, and the CDC since the application forms are available online and could be sent via email.
“Job seekers need not travel to CDC and file their application but they can do it at any Internet café, at home or at their respective offices, or even at school,” Perez said.
The CDC, CILA, and the PESO associations signed the agreement during the opening of the Clark Freeport Jobs Fair 2009 held at The Event Center of SM City Clark. Thousands of job seekers flocked to the jobs fair, which offered more than 3,000 job openings available in at least 32 Clark-based firms.