More than 50 companies in Santo Tomas City, Batangas, including a dozen locators at Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) economic zone, are hiring more than 4,000 workers to fill up vacancies.
The city government of Santo Tomas and FPIP listed down the vacancies at 4,184 during two “Sulong Buhay Job Fairs” at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) campus in Santo Tomas City.
The organizers divided the job fairs into two events—one for interested PUP graduates in Batangas and the other for Santo Tomas residents and the general public.
Roughly a third or 1,089 were jobs for overseas deployment, while the bulk of 3,095 were open jobs of local companies. FPIP locators were hiring 1,113.
The participating FPIP locators were Arkray Industries Phils. Inc., Brother Industries Phils. Inc., Canon Business Machines Phils. Inc., Citizen Finedevice Phils. Corp., EMD Technologies Phils. Inc., Ibiden Phils. Inc., Kanepackage Phils. Inc., My Brush Technology Phil Inc., Nippon Premium Bakery Inc., Phils. Manufacturing Co. Of Murata Inc., Shi Manufacturing and Services Phils. Inc., Shimano Phils. Inc. and United Services Akcess Inc.
Among their employment needs were engineers, accountants, psychologists, office supervisors, human resource personnel and production operators.
Santo Tomas Mayor Arth Jhun Aguilar Marasigan welcomed the close coordination among officials from the local government, FPIP and the private companies in holding the fairs.
“My administration’s top policy is providing access to decent jobs for Tomasinos and Batanguenos. Industries and locators in the ecozones have significantly contributed to the continued success of my administration’s core agenda of providing decent jobs for Tomasinos,” Marasigan said.
Vice Mayor Catherine “Cathy” Jaurigue-Perez said yhe job recruitment initiatives of the city government of Santo Tomas “have shown that investors such as ecozones, locators and companies are welcome to our city. They play an important role in providing jobs for the Tomasinos and generating revenues for the growth of the City of Santo Tomas.”
FPIP vice president and head of external affairs Ricky Carandang highlighted the importance of the job fairs. He said the job fairs “offer our locators a venue for hiring employees who will contribute to company growth. Local residents who are constituents of our LGU partners also benefit because they get hiring priority during these fairs.”
Based on information from the Public Employment Services Office (PESO) of the City of Santo Tomas, at least 922 prospective employees and fresh college graduates showed up at the PUP venue and submitted their application forms. Of the total, 217 were hired on the spot, while 609 were to undergo further processing, including 104 seeking overseas jobs. Close to 4,000 of the vacancies remain open for the taking, the PESO data showed.
Lopez-controlled First Philippine Holdings Corp., together with partner Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, established FPIP as a world-class location for global manufacturers and traders and as a platform for creating jobs for ordinary Filipinos and tax revenues for the government.
The 520-hectare ecozone, straddling the cities of Santo Tomas and Tanauan, now provides employment to almost 80,000 Filipinos, aside from generating hundreds of millions of pesos in tax revenues for the host LGUs.