DOLE: 500 'Yolanda' victims to get free recruitment for work abroad

MANILA, Philippines - Two licensed agencies in the country have committed to help 500 typhoon victims by recruiting them for overseas jobs free of charge, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLA) said Thursday.

DOLE Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz said in a release that Skills International Co., Inc. has expressed readiness to initially help 200 affected families by sending a family member to work abroad free of charge.

Marivic Daas, president of the recruitment firm, visited Baldoz delivered relief goods for the victim of Super Typhoon "Yolanda."

"We would like to work in partnership with the DOLE in any project to help the Filipinos," Daas was quoted as saying in the release.

Another recruitment agency, International Skills Development (ISD), has also pledged to the DOLE to recruit more workers in the typhoon-hit areas, particularly in Samar and Leyte, for its overseas client in Saudi Arabia.

The ISD has committed to hire over 300 workers for global construction firm ABV Rock Group, according to Hans Leo Cacdac, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief.

Cacdac said he was informed by ISD President Levi De Mesa that their personnel will be in Cebu City to coordinate worker recruitment from Samar and Leyte.

According to De Mesa, ABV Rock Group needs a worker for each of the following positions:

• electrical supervisor
• tiling foreman
• civil engineering supervisor
• finishing supervisor
• assistant civil engineer
• civil engineer
• mechanical engineer
• finishing marble works foreman
• finishing for doors
• gypsum and ceiling foreman
• assistant supervisor
• finishing group assistant supervisor
• finishing supervisor
• general foreman
• technician
• welder

The company also needs the following:

• 2 electrical foremen
• 3 mason block works and plastering foremen
• 25 masons, block works and plastering workers
• 15 tiling and finishing masons
• 15 marble fixers/installer masons
• 34 finishing carpenters for doors, gypsum and ceiling
• 62 shuttering carpenters
• 27 painters
• 52 steel fixers
• 15 scaffolders
• 2 scaffolding foremen
• 35 steel fixers

Baldoz said the help from the recruitment firms is a "magnanimous and timely offer of employment assistance."

"It complements our thrust to intensify the provision of local and all other employment services through the DOLE’s regional offices, Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs), and attached agencies," she said.

Last week, Baldoz had directed all DOLE regional offices and PESOs to exert an all-out effort in providing the typhoon victims with employment facilitation, livelihood and training assistance.