Baldoz hails PRC for online ID renewal system for professionals
Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday presided over the official launching of the Online Renewal Application System (ORAS) of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), setting into place an automated system whereby Filipino professionals can renew their Professional Identification Cards (PICs) without having to fly home and fall in line at the PRC offices in the Philippines.
The ORAS is one of two novel PRC services which are now technology-based. The other e-Service, the Online Verification for Filipino Professionals (OVFP), enables the public and employers to check the authenticity of the license of the professionals they are dealing with.
“The new PRC services are part of the DOLE reform measures in pursuit of the overarching goal of President Benigno S. Aquino III set in the 22-point labor and employment agenda to strengthen the opportunities, development, and employment of our number one resource, our human resource, as well as to ensure the protection of both local and overseas Filipino workers,” said Baldoz.
Baldoz was joined in the launching of the new ORAS and OVFP systems by PRC Chairman Nicolas P.Lapeña and Commissioners Antonio S. Adriano and Alfredo Y. Po in a simple ceremony at the Blas F. Ople Hall of the Department of Labor and Employment (BLES) in Intramuros,Manila.
Baldoz hailed the PRC for the two new services, saying these will afford overseas professionals substantial savings in money, time, and effort, and at the same time, reinforce government’s campaign to ensure the authenticity of Filipino professionals’ credentials at all times.
“This reflects, on the part of the PRC, the innovative and resourceful application of information technology in pursuit of safeguards on professional authenticity that can only redound to the strengthening and continuing preference for highly skilled Filipino professionals engaged in various fields and disciplines in industries worldwide,” said Baldoz, adding: “The same credential as professionals will be of productive value as they reintegrate into the local economic mainstream on their return home and contribute to the upgrading of the skills of our workforce.”
The labor and employment chief cited that Republic Act 8981 or the “PRC Modernization Act of 2000,” mandated the Commission to ministerially issue at the option of a professional his or her PIC, whose use is solely for the purpose of identification.
According to PRC Chair Lapeña, the ORAS is an online, extended service provided by the PRC for efficiency and convenience as it provides professionals with “an alternative means of applying for renewal of the Professional Identification Card (PIC) without the need to go to the PRC itself.”
Lapeña emphasized that the clients intended to be benefited by ORAS are “primarily the overseas professionals who usually resort to filing their applications through authorized parties.”
The system is designed to save our professionals time, money, and effort, adding that the transactions covered include the renewal, reprinting and duplication of the PIC, the PRC chief said.
As an attached agency of the DOLE, the PRC’s mandate is “to regulate and supervise the practice of the professionals who constitute the highly skilled manpower of the country.”
“In the light of the goal of President Aquino to reinvigorate labor and employment, the PRC, as the agency-in-charge of the professional sector, will continue to play an indispensable, strategic role in developing the corps of professionals for industry, commerce, governance, and the economy,” the labor chief emphasized.
The PRC website is www.prc.gov.ph
