DARR02 HRMPSB finds ways and builds possibilities despite Covid19 pandemic
TUGUEGARAO CITY - The Department of Agrarian Reform Region 02 (DARR02) through its Regional/Provincial Human Resource Merit Promotion and Selection Board (HRMPSB) conducted series of written/online examinations and face to face/virtual interviews to all aspiring applicants who want to join the government service.
“With the adverse effect of this pandemic, thousands of workers in the private sector will lose their jobs. In response to Covid 19 pandemic, the vacancies published in the Civil Service Commission (CSC) website, the government will be filled-up,” according to DARR02 HRMPSB Chairman Alfredo “Bong” B. Lorenzo, Jr.
“We will stick with the timeline. We don’t have the luxury of time,” Lorenzo added.
Based on the DAR Region 02’s Approved Staffing Pattern (ASP), it has a total of 537 first and second level positions. Out of this, a total of 128 vacant positions were published by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Cagayan-Batanes Field Office 02 and CSC National Capitol Region (NCR), broken down at follows:
| Name of Office | No. of Vacancies |
| Regional Office | 9 |
| Cagayan | 16 |
| Isabela | 65 |
| Nueva Vizcaya | 21 |
| Quirino | 14 |
| Batanes | 1 |
| Total | 128 |
Cagayan Valley Regional Director Samuel S. Solomero volunteered in the formulation of the questionnaires for the promotional positions.
“The customized written examination will determine the level of knowledge of the applicants about the major programs of our Department,” Solomero stressed.
Senior Agrarian Reform Program Officer/Human Resource Management Officer (SARPO/HRMO)-Designated Noemi Menor-Knowlden on the other hand, composed the 90-item pre-qualifying examination.
A total of 342 applicants successfully took the written examinations administered in the designated Testing Centers in Region 02.
With the advent of CSC MC No. 14, Series of 2020 concerning the Interim Guidelines on Appointments and Other Human Resource Actions (IGAOHRA) for the period of State of Calamity Due to CoVid19 Pandemic, DAR R02 has adopted the online recruitment and selection process to give equal opportunity to applicants, particularly those living in NCR, Baguio and outside the country .
During one of the meetings of the DARR02 HRMPSB, SARPO Richard T. Francisco, member of the Board, recommended to conduct online examinations and virtual interviews for those applicants who can’t make in the traditional written examinations and face to face interviews.
SARPO Francisco made use of the different platforms available online in developing an online pre-qualifying and promotional examinations. The system will immediately display the result/score of each applicant without going through the tedious checking of answers manually.
“After the online examination they can no longer access the link given to them- this is one of the security features of the online exam,” Francisco said.
A total of 10 applicants took their pre-qualifying/promotional examination thru online while 20 applicants were interviewed via Zoom application.
Under DAR Memorandum 315 dated 02 September 2020 signed by Undersecretary for Finance Management and Administrative Office (USEC-FMAO) Atty. Lucius Jun-Jun G. Malsi, it is specified that for Salary Grade (SG) 1-9 including Sherriff, the Regional Director will sign the appointments, while SG 10 and above including Division Chiefs, Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officers and Attorney V positions, the DAR Secretary will sign the appointments.
This endeavor, despite of national emergency, was made possible with the full support and cooperation of the Regional and Provincial HRMPSB members and secretariat. The deliberation process has started on 07 October 2020.
