SENA desks now in Cebu Ecozone – DOLE chief

Remus M. Caducoy

Cebu City—Workers in the West Cebu Industrial Park can now file requests for assistance (RFAs) under the Single Entry Approach (SENA) program without having to go to a DOLE office; they can do it right within the zone, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz announced recently. 

Citing a report from Labor Undersecretary and NCMB Officer-in-Charge Hans Leo J. Cacdac, Baldoz said this came about as a result of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) forged between DOLE Regional Office No. 7 and Regional Conciliation and Mediation Branch 7 on the one hand, and the West Cebu Economic Zone administrators, on the other, establishing an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center at the West Cebu Industrial Park. 

The MOU was signed at the Cebu Industrial Park Development Inc. (CIPDI) office in Arpili, Balamban, Cebu recently. 

Salient features of the agreement include the establishment of SENA desks in the ADR Center to provide workers within the zone better access to conciliation-mediation services of the NCMB and the DOLE.  

With this as its main feature, the newly created ADR Center is considered as the first Single Entry Approach (SENA) office outside DOLE premises. 

The ADR Center will be manned by a staff of the economic zone with the assistance of the DOLE and NCMB, who will oversee and monitor its operation.

“The ADR Center is a strategy to bring DOLE programs and services closer to workers and employers in the western part of Cebu. Through this mechanism, workers can have greater access to the SENA program of the Department,” Baldoz said.   

“It is also a means to pursue the policy reforms enunciated in the 22-point labor and employment agenda of President Aquino, particularly item 6 which provides for streamlining procedures and removing red tape in the labor arbitration and adjudication systems,” she said further. 

She said that DOLE 7 OIC Regional Director Exequiel R. Sarcauga and NCMB 7 Director Edmundo T. Mirasol signed the two-page agreement, together with CIPDI General Manager Mr. Joseph Michael Santos, and Ms. Juliet B. Avenido, the park’s administrative manager. 

The signing ceremony was witnessed by ten locators of the economic zone, namely: Asian Craft; Tsuneishi Accommodation Cebu, Inc.; Air Liquide Phils.; Tsuneishi Technical Services Phils. Inc.; K & A Metal Ind. Inc.; Citysavings Bank; Metaphil International, Inc.; Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc.; and the CIPDI.