Baguio City gov’t needs 200 employees for posts

BAGUIO CITY -- Baguio City's Human Resource Management Office is urging job seekers to look at various vacant permanent positions in the city's local government.

Assistant HRM officer Edith Dawaten said on Thursday the city government is opening over 200 permanent positions spread across city hall's 18 departments.

She said that some of the vacancies have been published, some are already under ongoing deliberations by the personnel selection board.

“There are many vacancies for nurses,” she revealed.

Dawaten also cited a vacancy for Disability Affairs Officer, a post that has been just recently created to handle the affairs and needs of persons with disabilities.

She added that the city government is also implementing a new system of recruitment, which subjects applicants to a rigid process, based on instructions from the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

All applicants for the vacant positions will go through the new process of pre-employment, which includes technical, personality, psychological, and critical thinking tests, aside from an examination fit for each position.

Dawaten said the new hiring process is even more crucial for higher positions, starting from Salary Grade 22.

She talked about the Executive Order of the Civil Service Commission encouraging local government units to implement the pre-employment, personality test and critical thinking test.

“Because we know this is needed by the city, the mayor issued an administrative order approving the guidelines for the conduct of the exams by a psychometrician, who is licensed to conduct exams on personality test and interpret the results," Dawaten said.

“Although it's really tedious, this is an improvement in the city’s recruitment process,” the officer said.

Baguio City's new tourism officer, Aloysius Mapalo, was among the first ones to undergo the process.

“Dumaan ako sa butas ng karayom (I went through the eye of a needle). I had two separate examinations, two separate interviews, and the other processes, which took about a month to finish before they made the decision,” Mapalo related.

He dismissed the idea that “palakasan and whom-you-know system” is what applies in getting an employment in government.

“There were seven of us, all of them from the government, mas marami silang kilala dahil nasa loob na sila (they knew more people in the government because they were already there). But eventually, I got selected," he continued.

Mapalo was a professor, then dean of the engineering department of the University of the Cordilleras, after which he became the director for creative production and the dean of student affairs before he decided to join government.

Baguio City Councilor Joel Alangsab, who chairs the committee on governmental affairs and a member of the selection board, said that in joining the government, the qualification of the applicant has more weight.

He said it is difficult to push someone to a position in the government if the person is not qualified. The applicant has to have the qualification aside from the requirements.

He said under the Baguio City government, employees are rewarded for their exemplary performance and service, while those who under-perform in several rating seasons are dropped from the rolls. -- PNA