‘Oplan Hatid’ now ‘Oplan Trabaho’

“Yolanda” survivors try their luck at the job fair organized by “Oplan Hatid” volunteers at Rizal Park. RICHARD A. REYES

The same group of private individuals behind the “Oplan Hatid” program at Villamor Air Base organized a job fair at Rizal Park on Sunday to help survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” find work before Christmas.

Dubbed “Oplan Trabaho,” the job fair was considered the second phase in the relief efforts of the over 2,000 volunteers who earlier provided transportation to survivors looking for their relatives in Metro Manila and other nearby provinces.

“Supertyphoon Yolanda destroyed not only houses and lives. It also destroyed some people’s faith in themselves. Let us help these people rebuild their lives. Let us help them start over by giving them jobs before Christmas,” the Oplan Trabaho team announced on its Facebook page.

Jaworksi Garcia, team leader for transport, told the Inquirer that they sent out text messages to all the survivors whom they had come into contact with and informed them about the job fair.

“The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board was very kind to provide 13 buses which picked up survivors from various points in the Metro and even in nearby provinces,” Garcia said.

Pickup services were arranged for typhoon survivors living in Taguig, Alabang, Bulacan, Parañaque, Pasig, Cavite, Rizal, Las Piñas, Antipolo, Novaliches and Makati City.

Paul Tamayo, a 30-year-old father, was at the job fair early in the morning to look for two house helpers who would take care of his two children aged four years and four months old.

“This is a give-and-take opportunity for us; the employers and the applicants. They will be able to help us with their manpower and we, in return, can financially help them by giving them decent jobs,” Tamayo told the Inquirer.

For Irene Tamayo, 25, of Jaro, Leyte, the job fair was the perfect opportunity for her to help her family in Leyte.

“Our house was totally destroyed by Yolanda so my older sister and I decided to come here to Manila to find jobs and help our parents,” she told the Inquirer.

The siblings who are currently staying with a friend in Tondo were both hired on the spot as cashiers by a clothing company.

Before lunch, more than 300 individuals had been hired while more than 1,000 others were to be interviewed as applicants for the following posts: call center agents, office staff, bus drivers, management trainees, factory workers, hair stylists, house helpers and many others.

The Oplan Trabaho group also announced that the National Parks Development Committee allowed them to use the Valencia Circle at Rizal Park for free.

Before the start of the event, a Mass was concelebrated by three Waray priests to “further boost the morale of the Yolanda survivors.”

“We are targeting jobs for about 5,000 individuals today. Almost 80 percent of them are from the typhoon-hit areas because they are really our priority. The rest are walk-in applicants who can either be family members or friends of the survivors,” Garcia said.

“This is just a stop-gap measure and we understand that these survivors have lost everything except their hope for survival and a better life. We would like to assist them in finding even temporary employment before Christmas,” said Labor Department Regional Director Alex V. Avila.