BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The Region 13 office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE-13) opened the PHIL-JOBNET project in an effort to promote employment for the benefit of jobseekers. The DoLE-13 also said that labor stakeholders can now utilize the PHIL-JOBNET on a “round-the-clock” basis. According to Dole -13 Director Ofelia Domingo, the PHIL-JOBNET is an Internet-based, automated job and applicant matching system, which aims to fast-track job seekers’ search for jobs and employers’ search for manpower. “It is a facility of DoLE with a centralized database maintained by the Bureau of Local Employment,” she said. (Mike Crismundo)

Aid projects

ESPERANZA, Agusan del Sur – Several far-flung communities in Agusan del Sur started to receive assistance from the Netherlands Red Cross and other non-government organizations (NGOs) in that country. The vital projects that are currently implemented mostly focus on disaster risk reduction, eco-system management and restoration, and climate change adaptation. Initially, 10 villages in two municipalities of Agusan del Sur are recipients of a multi-million-peso project from the Netherlands Red Cross and other NGOs. The villages include Hawilian, Guadalupe, and Langag of the municipality of Esperanza, and Mambalili, San Marcos, and Nueva Era of Bunawan town. (Mike Crismundo)

New teachers

ZAMBOANGA CITY –The Department of Education (DepEd) has allotted 394 new teacher posts this School Year for Western Mindanao, said DepEd-9 Director Walter O. Albos. He said DepEd Secretary Armin A. Luistro directed schools superintendents, who were tasked to appoint teacher-applicants, to hire qualified applicants following the agency’s merit and ranking system and the Localization Law, even as the DepEd chief enjoined the deployment of the new mentors to elementary and secondary schools with big enrollments in the region’s eight schools divisions. The division of Zamboanga del Norte received the most number of teacher positions. (Tony Pe. Rimando)

Birth listing

SOUTH UPI, Maguindanao – The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DSWD-ARMM) has started releasing authentic certificates of birth under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in its campaign to ascertain the propriety of beneficiaries in the state’s cash transfer scheme. For a start, DSWD-ARMM personnel led by acting Secretary Pombaen Karon-Kader distributed some 60 birth certificates to a corresponding number of children of 4Ps beneficiary-families from Sitio Guila-Guila in Barangay Kuya here on October 22. (Ali Macabalang)

Special mentors

PAGADIAN CITY – The Search for the 2011 Most Outstanding Special Education (SPEd) teacher in Western Mindanao was launched by the Region 9 office of the Department of Education (DepEd-9) here. DepEd-9 Director Walter O. Albos said the search, designed to recognize mentors who have rendered excellent services in the field of SPEd, is open to all tutors handling children with hearing impairment, learning disability, autism, visual impairment, intellectual disability, and mental giftedness. (Tony Pe. Rimando)