A farmer for a long time, Rolly Mateo, 43, had known the carabao as the quintessential “beast of burden”.

This was until when he and his colleagues in the Bantog Samahang Nayon Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Brgy. Bantog, Asingan, Pangasinan, were handed financial assistance by DOLE Regional Office No. 1 Director Grace Ursua in the form of a P495,000 check trough Mayor Heidee Chua of the local government unit of Asingan, which is a DOLE accredited co-partner in the implementation of livelihood projects in the municipality.

“Following the instruction of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz in January to improve the delivery of its livelihood programs in convergence with the Departments of Science and Technology; Agriculture; Trade and Industry, and other concerned government agencies, we are implementing the first livelihood assistance project under the DOLE-DOST Convergence Program on Technology-driven, Resource-based, and Sustainable Livelihood Program in Pangasinan by helping the Bantog Samahang Nayon MPC,” said Ursua.

Baldoz and DOST Secretary Mario Montejo signed in January a convergence program that will bring technology, livelihood, and employment on the ground. The convergence program is the two agencies’ contribution to Project Rehabilitation Assistance on Yolanda, or RAY, but the DOLE is implementing the program in all regions. Ursua said the cooperative will use the grant to purchase an additional 600-square meter lot for its milk processing center and 10 more carabaos.

It will also buy antibiotics and vitamins for its animals. For this project, the LGU-Asingan shelled out P148,500 and promised to give the cooperative three more carabaos and a 400-square meter lot for its dairy processing center.

The cooperative set aside a counterpart of P23,500. At present, the cooperative has three carabao-based integrated business activities, namely, dairy production and processing, meat production and sales, and organic fertilizer production.

A total of 84 farmer-members benefit from these businesses. Rolly and his colleagues earn P30,000 to P40,000 annually, on the average,

First ‘techno-preneurs’under DOLE-DOST convergence program in Pangasinan are carabao farmers

from one dairy animal. The cooperative also sells carabao beef, or cara-beef, the meat of male carabao calves, and produces organic fertilizer from carabao manure.

Ten of the 84 cooperative members are trained as milk processors; 30 are engaged in carabao milking; and 20 are engaged in vermi-composting. The rest are engaged in carabao-breeding, rice production, and forage farming for carabao food.

Rolly and his colleagues, grateful to the DOLE for the assistance, said they will use the grant to provide employment to more farmers.

“The carabao is also a better source of milk compared to goats and cows, as carabao milk has higher calcium, phosphorus, beta carotene and other nutrients, and much lower lactose and water contents,” they said.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding among the DOLE, LGU of Asingan, regional offices of the DOST, DTI, Department of Agriculture; Philippine Carabao Center; Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; and the BSNMPC highlighted the awarding of the grant.

“As Secretary Baldoz said, the goal of this DOLE-DOST Convergence Program is to transform entrepreneurs into “techno-

preneurs”, Filipinos who are engaged in livelihood using available local resources and technologies developed by the DOST. With our strong convergence here today, I can see a bright future for the BSNMPC,” Ursua remarked.

Mayor Chua, in thanking the DOLE and its partner-agencies, said in jest that the “people of Asingan will no longer be called “digitals”, a pun for “dagitay taga-taltalon” (those from the fields).

“We are already empowered with technology. Our products are now being sold not only in Pangasinan, but in places like Baguio City and La Union. With this convergence project, I am confident that Asingan and Pangasinan will become the home of carabao-based industries in the country,” she said.

Under the MOU the DOLE will provide financial grant, take the lead in project coordination, capability building on labor education and productivity, and monitoring and evaluation. The Asingan LGU will provide infrastructure support in marketing, agriculture, social services and other support services.

The DOST will lend technical support and consultancy services in product packaging and labeling; productivity; and quality, such as food safety assessment, energy audit, clean production assessment, inter-agency design, and engineering assessment. It will also help cooperative register with the Food and Drug Administration.

The DTI will assist in marketing and linking the cooperative’s various products through trade fairs and other market channels; and provide technical services on business registration, and expansion.

On its part, the PCC will provide for the processing center building; assist the dairy processors in developing Good Manufacturing

DOLE Regional Office No. 1 Director Grace Ursua (5th from left, front row), and DOLE-accredited co-partners together with the farmer-beneficiaries.

Turn to page 7

DOLE Good News

� February 2014

The DOLE Good News is published by the Department of Labor and Employment, with editorial office at the Labor Communications Office, 6th Floor, DOLE Building, Intramuros, Manila. The views expressed herein are those of the writers and/or their sources and do not necessarily reflect those of the DOLE’s or the Philippine Government’s.

Readers’ queries, comments, and suggestions are welcome. Mail or fax them in, or call us at telephone numbers 527-3000 loc. 621. Our fax number is 527-3446. You may also visit our website: www.dole.gov.ph; or e-mail us at dole_lco@yahoo.com or laborcommunications@gmail.com.

EditorNICON F. FAMERONAG

Director, LCO

Associate EditorKAREN R. SERRANO

Staff WritersMARK JAIME L. CERDENIA

MA. VERONICA R. ALMAZORACELESTE T. MARING

HAZEL JOY T. GALAMAYREVELITA F. LAXINA

Editorial AssistantsGIRLIE MARLYN E. ARCEMADELYN D. DOMETITA

Graphic ArtistGREGORIO I. GALMAN

PhotographerJOMAR S. LAGMAY

Circulation ManagerGIRLIE MARLYN E. ARCE

Contributing Regional Writers

DIANA JOYZ ESGUERRA - NCR

PATRICK T. RILLORTA - CAR

ARLY S. VALDEZ - Region 1

REGINALD B. ESTIOCO - Region 2

JEREMIAH M. BORJA - Region 3

FRANZ RAYMOND AQUINO - Region 4A

ANDREA JOY AGUTAYA - Region 4B

RAYMOND P. ESCALANTE - Region 5

AMALIA N. JUDICPA - Region 6

EMMANUEL Y. FERRER - Region 7

FLORENCE D. PANAO - Region 8

GAY IRIS TANGCALAGAN - Region 9

MILDRED E. DABLIO - Region 10

JOCELYN C. FLORDELIS - Region 11

CHARMAINE DAWN L. SONSONA - Region 12

IRIS C. ASIS - Caraga

DOLEGood News

Turn to page 7

The Labor Communications Office is open to receiving letters from readers expressing their views and comments, and/or suggestions on articles that appear on the DOLE Good News. Letters should be no more than a hundred words. Your letters will be published in succeeding issues of the DOLE Good News. Send your letters to:

Department of Labor and EmploymentLabor Communications Office6th Flr. DOLE Bldg. Muralla St. Intramuros, Manila

or e-mail us at dole_lco@yahoo.com/laborcommunications@gmail.com

If you believe in Good News,

tell us.

President Benigno S. Aquino III conferred on 10 February the Presidential Award of Excellence to

five licensed overseas recruitment companies in a simple awarding ceremony at the Rizal Hall of Malacañan Palace in Manila.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said the Presidential Award of Excellence is the highest honor bestowed upon a licensed overseas recruitment agency that exemplify the highest standards of ethical recruitment and deployment of Filipino workers for overseas employment.

“I initiated this three-tiered reward system for private recruitment agencies when I was POEA Administrator pursuant to Proclamation No. 1519, series of 2008. Now, we are continuing with the awards,” said Baldoz.

The other awards given to outstanding recruitment agencies are the Top Performer Award and the Award of Excellence. To

President Aquino III fetes outstanding licensed recruitment agencies

qualify for the Top Performer Award, an agency should be in operation for at least four years. The Award of Excellence is given to an agency that has been conferred the Top Performer Award three times.

The Presidential Award of Excellence is bestowed an agency that has been a recipient of the Award of Excellence at least five times.

POEA Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said the recipients of the Presidential Award for this year are Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Co. of Manila, Inc., EDI Staffbuilders International, Inc., and International Skill Development, Inc. from the land-based sector, and Anglo-Eastern Crew Management Phils., Inc. and United Philippine Lines, Inc. from the sea-based sector.

Secretary Baldoz will present the Awards of Excellence and Top Performer Awards to 13 select licensed land-based and sea-based agencies for their

outstanding performance in the overseas employment and manning industries.

Cacdac said recruitment agencies are evaluated on a four-year cycle on the basis of the following criteria: volume and quality of deployment; agency management and recruitment capability; compliance with recruitment rules and regulations; industry leadership and pioneering achievements and contribution to developing overseas employment policies; and social awareness and responsibility.

He said the recipients of Awards of Excellence are Abba Personnel Inc., CF Sharp Crew Management Inc., Baliwag Navigation Inc., KJGS Fleet Management Manila Inc., Magsaysay MOL Marine Inc., Marlow Navigation Phils Inc., OSM Maritime Services Inc., Pacific Ocean Manning Inc., and Sea Power Shipping Enterprises Inc.

OUSTANDING PH AGENCIES RECEIVE PRESIDENTIAL AWARD. His Excellency President Benigno Simeon Aquino III joins Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, and other DOLE officials in congratulating the Presidential Awardees for outstanding land-based and sea-based agencies. The awarding rites was held at the Malacanan Palace.

DOLE Good News

�February 2014

Danilo Dalisan of Brgy. Sto. Tomas, Baguio City, has been a baker for 10 years, but one day, to his dismay, he suddenly found himself out of work. For lack of something

productive to do, he volunteered to be a baker-trainer to a group of women in the barangay who called themselves the Sto. Tomas Proper Women’s Association. The Association members have two things in common. They are mothers of child laborers and all share the passion for baking.

One of the women-members is Margie Ciriaco, a mother of three working children. She and the other members thought of starting a bakery, but don’t know how. An opportunity came in September 2012, when the DOLE Cordillera Regional Office, which have known the desire of the women, awarded the Association a grant of P499,750 for the purchase of baking equipment, tools, and materials to start a bakery.

But even before the Association could go full-time in their new-found livelihood, they needed to polish their baking skills. They thought of Danilo Dalisan, who gamely agreed to train them for three months. Dalisan, who was still jobless then, imparted his knowledge and shared his baking expertise to the women who learned fast.

The DOLE-CAR also conducted for the 12 women a TCP, or training cum production, to test which bakery products will sell so that the raw materials the DOLE-CAR granted them will not go to waste. The DOLE-CAR also taught them marketing. Soon, the women were already baking, and customers begin to notice their bakery products. The cash register of the Association began to ring with profits, slow at first, but pointing towards faster income.

Today, the Association is one successful story in the books of the DOLE’s Community Enterprise Development Program in Baguio City--a bakery ran by the owners themselves. Ciriaco and her colleagues work in the bakery by selling the products themselves.

“I now earn an extra P200 per day by delivering bread and pan de sal to my regular customers. I work from 6:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M.,” Mrs. Ciriaco narrated.

“Ar-aramidek daytoy tapno matulungak ti asawak gapu ta maysa laeng isuna nga pison ken saan nga permanente ti trabaho na. Jay matub-tubok iti panagilakok iti pan-de-sal ket dakkel iti tulongna ti panag suportak iti pamilyak nang-nangruna iti tallo nga annak ko. Tatta ket saandan nga agkol-kolekta iti basura nga ipan da idiay collection area tapno tumubo da laeng iti lima nga pesos iti maysa nga sako. (I do this to help my husband who is a laborer and has an irregular employment. My income from selling pan de sal supports my family, especially my three sons, who usually go out early morning to collect and deliver garbage to the collection area for P5.00 pesos per sack.),” she added.

Baker Dalisan recounted that after only three months of teaching the members of the Association, the bakery now provides P1,000 in income per month to each of the 12 women.

“I, myself, was paid P2,000 for my assistance to the women from September 2012 to January 2013. I am happy for them,” Dalisan admitted.

In one of his field visits, DOLE-CAR Regional Director Henry John Jalbuena dropped by the bakery in Brgy. Sto. Tomas and expressed amazement at how quickly the community-based enterprise had become profitable. He had a brief chat with the members of the Association who thanked him for the DOLE grant.

The women also expressed gratitude to Sto. Tomas Proper barangay officials led by Punong Barangay Miguel Kiwas for their support to their enterprise.

The Association’s bakery continues to be profitable. In the succeeding months after his visit in 2013, Director Jalbuena said he was informed the members’ income had increased from P2,500 each per month in a two-month period and again rose to P3,000 each a month from April 2013 to the present. “The determination of the women, strong leadership of the barangay officials, and support

of the community to the Association had ensured the success of the bakery,” said Jalbuena.

The surprise of the baking enterprise is that Mr. Dalisan has been hired by the Association as full-time baker. The Association also has 14 bread sellers who work two hours each day. Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz encouraged the women to create a ripple effect to

ensure the sustainability of their bread production which has benefitted not

only Brgy. Sto. Tomas Proper but also the nearby communities.

In Baguio City, 12 mothers of working children now successful bakers

The Association is one successful story in the

books of the DOLE’s Community Enterprise Development Program

in Baguio City—a bakery ran by the owners themselves.

DOLE Good News

� February 2014

Oro in Region 10 (+45), and Davao in Region 11 (+40)--propelling the DOLE to net a ‘good’ sincerity rating in the annual survey.

Relative to this, Baldoz said the challenge to the DOLE is not to “backslide” in the ratings.

“Our direction this year is clear: We should not slide back from ‘good’ to a lower rating. Our sincerity in fighting corruption must be above ‘good’ and we are working towards ‘better’, if not ‘best’,” she told Josef Werker of the European Times in an exclusive interview by the latter in Intramuros, Manila.

The 2013 Survey of Enterprises on Corruption, the 11th in a series of SWS surveys on the issue since 2000, was conducted with the support of Australian Aid-The Asia Foundation

Partnership in the Philippines, and in partnership with the National Competitiveness Council and Makati Business Club’s Integrity Initiative program.

“Last month, I congratulated the officials and employees of the DOLE on this achievement. Today, I congratulate the officials and employees of the DOLE Regional Offices Nos. 3 and 4-A who, since 2010, have been exerting tremendous effort to hew very closely to President Benigno S. Aquino’s governance philosophy of matuwid na daan,” Baldoz said.

Baldoz said that the results of the survey could be proof that the DOLE’s head-on fight against graft and corruption, which has been intensified since she assumed office as Secretary of Labor and Employment in 2010, is

gaining more traction. She had upped the challenge on

accepting bribes and gifts for all occasions and from all clients by instructing all DOLE officials and employees

not to accept--by politely turning down-

-bribes and gifts of any kind from its clients and

from all people having any transaction with the DOLE and its offices.

“This latest measure is one of the ‘way forward’ steps that we will

take starting this year until 2016,” Baldoz said.

‘These are PH’s industrial hubs,’ says Baldoz

In SWS survey, DOLE Regions 3 & 4-A score ‘very good’ in fighting corruption

DOLE-RO 4-A Regional Director Alex Avila (left) and DOLE-RO 3 Regional Director Raymundo Agravante (right).

SCORECARDTHE DOLE

Following the release by the Social Weather Stations of the results of its survey showing

that the DOLE, surveyed for the first time, netted a ‘good’ rating in sincerity in fighting corruption, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said the detailed presentation by the SWS of its survey showed that two DOLE regional offices, DOLE Regional Offices No. 3 and 4-A, had received ‘very good’ sincerity ratings.

Welcoming the report of Human Resource Development Services Director Katherine B. Brimon, Secretary Baldoz commented that this is ‘good news’ for local business people and foreign investors because the two regions are considered the country’s industrial hubs.

“The Metro Angeles area and the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas corridor are where most industrial manufacturing companies operate in Luzon, so the ‘very good’ sincerity ratings of our two regional offices in these areas could mean a lot in the decisions of the business sector to sustain or expand their operation,” said Baldoz.

Director Brimon reported to the Secretary that the rest of the DOLE areas surveyed by the SWS received ‘good’ sincerity r a t i n g s - - N C R (+37), Iloilo in Western Visayas (+37), Cebu in Region 7 (+48), Cagayan de

DOLE Good News

�February 2014

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz lauded the 51 DOLE offices

which received high ratings in the Anti-Red Tape Act, or ARTA, 2013 Report Card Survey administered by the Civil Service Commission.

“The ratings of the 51--out of the 55 DOLE offices included in the survey--means we are compliant with the provisions of R. A. 9485, or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, otherwise known as an “Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of Government Service to the Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape, Preventing Graft and Corruption, and Providing Penalties Thereof ”. I commend the offices that had performed well in Survey in terms of overall client satisfaction and challenge those who failed to try harder by improving their services,” said Baldoz.

She said the DOLE will use the results of the Survey to further streamline and improve procedures.

“We have to simplify and make our procedures more transparent to avoid corruption. If we want to be competitive, we need a systematic approach to raise, or even surpass, the standards of good governance,” said Baldoz.

The CSC conducts the Report Card Survey to check if agencies comply with ARTA provisions, such as the no-noon break policy; no fixing activities; easy-to-read identification cards, or nameplates; and presence of public assistance and complaints desk, and to gather feedback on the effectiveness of and compliance with anti-red tape measures. The Survey also checks on an agency’s compliance with ARTA provisions on physical working condition, frontline service, service quality, and overall customer satisfaction.

The 55 DOLE offices included in the Survey are five DOLE regional offices; 21 field offices; and four attached agencies and their regional counterparts. Of the 55, only four, or seven percent, failed in the survey.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-ARMM was rated outstanding in the survey, while the DOLE-Cordillera Administrative Region received excellent rating, together

51 DOLE offices get high ranking in the ARTA 2013 report card

with DOLE field offices in Tarlac and Occidental Mindoro; Overseas Workers Welfare Administration regional offices in San Fernando, Pampanga; Tuguegarao, Cagayan; Legazpi City, Albay; and Tacloban City in Leyte.

Those who were rated good, or from 69.99 percent below, were the DOLE field offices in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Calamba City, Laguna, Romblon, Albay, Iloilo, Guimaras, Antique, Siquijor, Negros Oriental, Leyte, South Cotabato, Mountain Province, Makati, Pasay, and Compostella Valley; OWWA Regional Welfare Office s in the ARMM, Region III, IV-A, IV-B, VII, X, Davao, Butuan City, Region IX, CAR, and Iloilo; and the Philippine Overseas Employment Office in Calamba, Legazpi, Bacolod, Region VII, Tacloban City, EDSA, Cagayan de Oro City; Philippine Regulation Commission Regional Office in Lucena City; and TESDA-Negros Occidental.

Acceptable ratings were received by DOLE field offices in Dagupan, Lipa City, Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, Agusan Del Norte, and Quezon City.

The offices who failed the Survey were the OWWA in Koronadal; POEA in Tuguegarao and Clark; and the PRC in Iloilo City.

In the survey, government offices were rated based on two ARTA ‘cores’. These were Core 1, which involves compliance with the ARTA provisions and assessment if the frontline office has a Citizen’s Charter visible to transacting clients and an anti-fixing campaign; if frontline staff wear identification cards; if there are no hidden transaction costs; if there is a manned Public Assistance and Complaints Desk; and if the frontline unit observes the No-Noon Break policy.

Core 2, meanwhile, checks the overall client satisfaction on the service quality, physical setup, and basic facilities of an office.

The CSC said government offices rated excellent increased from eight percent in 2012 to 18 percent in 2013.

The CSC conducts the annual survey in high-density and most-complained of service offices nationwide. Clients are given the ARTA survey form to accomplish right after they availed of a frontline service of a government office.

This year, 168, or 18 percent, of the 929 government offices surveyed received an excellent rating, or a score of 90 to 100.

SCORECARD

� February 2014

DOLE Good News

The DOLE will employ 200,000 students and out-of-school youth this year under its banner program, Special Program for

the Employment of Students, or SPES, mandated under R.A. 7323, as amended by R.A. 9547.

“Our 2014 SPES budget of P500 million given by Congress has been rolled out,” said Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, noting that the earliest to report update on SPES implementation is the DOLE Regional Office No. 9 which has already allocated P28.3 million out of its 2014 allocation of P30.478 million for some 14,732 beneficiaries.

Baldoz said the DOLE Regional Office No. 8 has reported that it has already allocated its 2014 SPES budget of P15.415 million that will provide temporary employment to 7,687 youth beneficiaries all over the region, while the DOLE Regional Office No. 7 said in a report it has already allocated P42.405 million of its P47.777 million budget for the employment of 12,032 young people.

For the rest of the DOLE regions, Baldoz said she is still waiting for updated status reports on the SPES implementation, and bared that their SPES budgets are as follows:

National Capital Region, P87.113 million; Region 1, P17.490 million; Cordillera Administrative Region, P10.458 million; Region 2, P28.067 million; Region 3, P44.751 million; Region 4-A, P33.764 million; Region 4-B, P23.360 million; Region 5, P12.915 million; Region 6, P23.192 million; Region 10, P27.049 million; Region 11, 23.277 million; Region 12, P48.008 million; and Caraga, P18.014 million.

Under the SPES, the DOLE shoulders the 40 percent of the salaries of beneficiaries, while their employers--government agencies, such as local government units, and private companies and other sponsor-institutions--pay the 60 percent.

Started in 1992, the SPES has helped hundreds of thousands of students get education. From 2010 to 2013, the SPES has assisted 493,742 poor, but deserving, students, 42.5 percent of whom are women. In 2013 alone, the DOLE, through the program, has given income-earning opportunity to 167,569 SPES beneficiaries, assuring them of money for their education.

School-to-work assistance programDOLE’s SPES to provide work and income of P500 million to 200,000 youth this year

am one of those thousands of young people who dreamed of becoming somebody in society someday. As I was thinking of it, the primary consideration was in the area of finances.

How will I be able to finish a degree later on was a consideration. I was raised in a poor family, but this didn’t hinder me to broaden my dreams, as well as my horizons. This served more as an inspiration to me to really pursue a degree in college no matter what the cost.

“I can still remember the moment when we decided to pass an application to the provincial capitol for potential SPES grantees that summer. March 2004 when I was about to finish high school, I’m glad I made it. It was a very wonderful experience for me since I was able to experience how hard it was to find a job and aside from that being an employee as well.

Who would think that a simple girl, who first tested her waters and started as a SPES grantee when she was 16 years old will now be a famous TV host and personality in General Santos, City. Though many said that I am already successful, still I continue to pursue for more because I know I can still do better. I can still impact the community I belong. All these and more are the fruits of the hardships, struggles that I have encountered before.”

— Reian Hazel Hacosta, a proud SPES Baby from General Santos City

In General Santos City, behind the glamour is a SPES baby

“I

DOLE Good News

�February 2014

Yolanda Manalo has been a bus conductress for more than 20 years. Before she found her niche in the

bus transport industry, she had tried her luck at being an overseas Filipino worker (she worked as household domestic helper for two years), but home and family beckoned so she went back to board a bus again until she met her husband Alex, also a bus conductor.

Sometime in February 2008, Yolanda met a minor accident when she fell while helping an elderly woman alight from her bus in an area in Muñoz, Quezon City. Her bosses at Pascual Liner, Inc., allowed her to rest for three days. Thereafter, she reported back to work. She didn’t undergo any medical or laboratory examination.

In September 2010, another road incident would define Yolanda’s fate. A car suddenly overtook her bus along the Trinoma area in Quezon City. A dangerous collision would have happened had the bus driver not immediately stepped on the brakes.

Due to the bus’s abrupt stop, Yolanda strongly hit a metal frame. Her right hip was torn. If not for that providential pocket rip, she would have been thrown to the windshield. She felt a searing pain. She got a three days’ off, but went back to work as if nothing happened.

However, on 28 August 2011, unbearable pain shooting from her lumbar area sent her to hospital confinement. Her X-ray revealed spondylosis. She was prescribed a long rest and medication.

Luckily, Pascual Liner, Inc. gave Yolanda three month’s rest, despite prolonged leave from work, in view of her good record, Further, she was able to claim eight months’ sickness benefit from the Social Security System and an eight months’ permanent partial disability (PPD) employees’ compensation benefit from the Employees’ COmpensation Commission (ECC), an attached agency of the DOLE.

However, she could no longer continue to work as bus conductress due to the bodily traumas she experienced. She eventually

Off the bus, a conductress finds sure income in small enterpriseresigned. She also enrolled under the Employees’ Compensation Commission’s KaGabay Program.

The KaGabay Program aims to facilitate the provision of free physical restoration services, such as physical/occupational therapy and rehabilitation equipment (prosthesis), as well as of free skills and entrepreneurial training for persons with work-related disabilities.

Under the program, Yolanda—who lives with her husband and three children, aged 24, 14, and 10, in Novaliches, Quezon City—had to take first 16 physical therapy sessions at the PGH, ECC’s partner hospital. The therapy session was free.

She subsequently attended a training on meat processing, and completed the ECC-funded, four-month long training on “How to Start Your Own Business Enterprise” (SYOBE) conducted by one of ECC”s partners, the Center for Small Entrepreneurs.

For Yolanda, who had no such training because her work limited her to the confines of the bus, it was an eye opener. She fully appreciated the SYOBE seminar, particularly in the areas of costing, record keeping, fiscal management, and discipline.

She was, after all, in her own right an entrepreneur. Off work, since 1998, she would sell burger, rice, meat viands, and snacks at the Pascual Liner bus terminal to augment her meager salary. After she resigned, she also engaged in direct sales, selling shoes, makeup/cosmetic products, RTWs, and school and company uniforms, even fresh tilapia.

With no regular job, Yolanda used her training under the program to continue her enterprise.

Last year, she joined the Occupationally-Disabled Workers’ Cooperative set up by her fellow KaGabay Program beneficiaries with the assistance of the ECC. She is currently an officer of the cooperative. Together with other members, she busies herself in manning a promising siomai stall at the MMDA bus terminal at the Coastal

Mall in Pasay City. The cooperative got the stall upon its strong representation as a marginalized sector.

“Myself and the other officers of the cooperative promise to make the venture a successful enterprise,” Yolanda vowed, saying the cooperative has already set its vision of putting up a similar stall in other areas.

Her self-confidence restored, Yolanda expressed gratitude to the ECC for its KaGabay Program, saying those with work-connected disabilities should enrol in the program as a good, measured step towards improving family incomes.

Practices; conduct training and monitoring and evaluation of the health, feeding and breeding, and hygiene and sanitation of the carabaos; and conduct training to enhance the cooperative’s organization capabilities.

“The PCC pledges to provide the cooperative another 40 carabaos worth P350,000,” PCC Director Gloria dela Cruz announced. The DA, on the other hand, will provide de-wormers and vaccines for the livestock, and technical consultancy services.

The TESDA, meanwhile, will provide basic and advanced skills training on dairy processing; conduct Skills Competency Assessment and Certification of members of the cooperative and of their families after graduating in vocational-technical courses.

Ursua said the regional office considered the marketability of its products, existence of facilities and equipment, availability of resources and raw materials, presence of assisting agencies, and the right values and attitude of the cooperative members in the selection of the BSNMPC as beneficiary of the convergence project.

“With the infusion of additional capital and technology assistance to the cooperative, already operating since 2005, we hope to create a sustainable enterprise which will be able to provide more income and employment to the people of Asingan,” Baldoz said after receiving Ursua’s report on the project.

“We have been doing a lot of livelihood efforts in the past several years, but the real challenge for the government is sustainability. The convergence of national and local government agencies to maximize the use of scarce government resources is what we need to build sustainable enterprises and to transform our people into ‘techno-preneurs’ borne out of their own ingenuity in utilizing local resources. By bringing technology-based and innovation-led entrepreneurship, we are opening an array of livelihood opportunities to the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized workers,” she added.

Joy Denoga (standing) of the ECC Quick Response Team, hands a bag of groceries to Evangeline Lozañes, mother of Dexter Lozañes, during her visit at the ECC. Dexter sustained an injury on his way to work.

First ‘techno-preneurs’ . . . from page 1

ECC in action

With DOLE’s assistance of P10-K each, 47 former OFWs, mostly women, start their livelihood in Region 9

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz awarded P10,000 each in livelihood

assistance, or a total of P470,000, to 47 former OFWs from Zamboanga City and the four other provinces of Region 9, most of whom are women, to either jumpstart or expand their small livelihood businesses.

The livelihood assistance is the DOLE’s National Reintegration Center for OFWs’ intervention to distressed OFWs who have come back for good in the country.

“The 47 women-beneficiaries are former OFWs who have given up their adventure in foreign lands and have decided to stay

for good in the country to be with their families,” said Baldoz, who was in Zamboanga City as guest of the DOLE Regional Office in its launching of various DOLE programs and services in the region.

Of the 47, 31 beneficiaries are from Zamboanga City; four are from Isabela City, Basilan; two beneficiaries are from Zamboanga Sibugay Province; five are form Zamboanga Del Sur; and five beneficiaries came from Zamboanga Del Norte.

DOLE turns over P732-K in grant assistance to workers’ livelihood rehabilitation in Bohol

Tagbilaran City—Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz joined Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto and DOLE Regional Office No. 7 Regional

Director Chona Mantilla in encouraging worker-survivors of the Bohol earthquake to hold fast to their dreams for a better future, saying the government is committed in lending them a helping hand to rebuild their lives.

“The DOLE’s commitment to support you and the province of Bohol in its rebuilding effort continues,” said Baldoz, as she and Gov. Chatto awarded five checks worth P732,152.40 to five workers’ organizations for their livelihood businesses.

The financial grants--released under th e DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program, or DILP--represented the latest DOLE assistance to worker-survivors of the earthquake. A total of 286 workers will benefit from the livelihood grants.

DOLE announces release of P5.6-M for 14,910 sugar workers

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz has approved the release of P5.6 million to the Sugar Industry

Foundation, Inc. (SIFI) to fund various socio-economic projects for sugar workers and their dependents for this year.

“The P5.6 million is for the education and health care of sugar workers, and part of the amount will also fund entrepreneurship projects of SIFI which will increase the sugar workers’ income and improve their skills and capabilities to enable them to access development opportunities and services in and outside of the industry,” said Baldoz.

Director Charisma Satumba of the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC), reported to the labor chief that a total of 14,910 sugar farm workers and their families are expected to benefit from the projects to be funded by the P5.6 million, specifically during the lean season when remunerative jobs are scarce in sugarcane plantations.

The SIFI is one of the DOLE’s social partners authorized to implement socio-economic projects for sugar workers under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

The Top Performer Awards will be presented to RRJM International Manpower Services Inc., Crossworld Marine Services Inc., Maersk-Filipinas Crewing Inc., and Scanmar Maritime Services Inc.

“This year’s awards highlight ethical recruitment as central to achieving excellence, with the theme “Achieving Excellence through Ethical Recruitment in the Service of Overseas Filipino Workers”, Baldoz said.

“It goes without saying that each and every award winner is an ethical recruiter,” she added.

According to Cacdac, ethical recruitment adheres to conduct of recruitment business and activities within the prevailing legal framework and processes.

“It means recruitment emphasizing the rights of persons as human beings and as workers, thereby shielding them from abuse, exploitation

and discrimination. Ethical recruitment, likewise, fosters cooperation between and among stakeholders in overseas employment, which, in turn, promotes transparency, good faith, and accountability,” he explained.

Aside from trophies, the awardees will also enjoy a package of incentives that include extension of validity of licenses, exemption from authentication/ verification by the Philippine Embassy/ Philippine Overseas Labor Office, and other perks depending on their awards category.

Baldoz said the challenge now for the awardees is to shine brighter as beacons of hope and ethical recruitment among their peers in the industry.

“Indubitably, the honor bestowed upon deserving recruitment agencies transcends the glory of accolades and prestige, and should eventually raise the bar of recruitment standards for the better protection of overseas Filipino workers,” she finally said.

photo: gmanetwork.com

President Aquino III fetes . . . from page 2