Cebu hosts labor and employment summit

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu hosted the last leg of the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) series of summits on labor and employment, the output of which will be included in President Aquino's Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan for 2011 to 2016.

The first day of the three-day Cebu consultation which kicked off last October 28 was devoted to youth issues such as youth unemployment, career guidance, skill-jobs mismatch, and decent jobs as alternative to migration.

During the second day of the consultation, International Labor Organization (ILO) country manager for the Philippines Lawrence Jeff Johnson talked about the ILO Jobs Pact and the technical assistance the organization will provide the Philippines for its own Jobs Pact.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said that the agency is aiming to make the country's human resource as "more competitive and employable" while promoting industrial peace at the same time.

The Cebu summit gathered over a hundred representatives from Regional Development Councils (RDCs) in the Visayas, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs), Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Councils (RTIPCs), chambers of commerce and industries, the youth sector and civil society.

All the output from this summit will be consolidated with the outputs from Luzon and Mindanao. These then will be presented in the multipartite National Summit on Labor and Employment (NSLE) on December 1, 2010.

The December 1-summit will have the theme "Developing our human resources, promoting full and productive employment, and ensuring social protection for all".

In organizing the summit, Dole is guided by the joint statement at the 5th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministerial Meeting on Human Resources Development. This emphasizes the need to devote attention on maintaining and expanding employment among others.

President Aquino is expected to grace the yearend national summit wherein key labor organizations, employer groups, government agencies, civil society organizations and other institutions will sign the Philippine Jobs Pact.

"In essence this represents the President's emphasis on public-private sector partnerships (PPPs) to attain economic and employment growth," Baldoz added. (FREEMAN)