Jobless and out-of-school youths hired as "Job Order Personnel", during a time of deep depression, are proud and grateful to share in the following awards accorded by the National Government to the City Government of Pasay.

Since 2010, when Antonino "Tony" Calixto assumed as mayor of Pasay City, making use of the unemployed and out-of-school youth, as job order personnel within three years — with the help of his sister, Congresswoman Imelda "Emi" Calixto-Rubiano, and city councilors — transformed what was notoriously known as the "Sin City" into the new, vibrant and only "Travel City of the Philippines".

Drastic changes took place in the fields of education, health, sanitation, peace and order, infrastructure, good governance, tourism, and other sectors affecting society.

Mayor Tony launched his main thrust of offering functional literacy to the residents in line with his vision that an educated and informed citizenry will lead to the social and moral transformation of the city.

He believes that being able to read and write would enable people to know what is good and what is right, to make choices and develop their potential, make critical and wise decisions, and help them live and function effectively in society, within the context of their environment and the wider community.

Mayor Tony encouraged "out-of-school youths" to attend the Alternative Learning System to enable them to go back to regular school or work thru TESDA. The ALS yielded the following positive results: learners who completed the program increased from 1,918 in 2010 to 2,567 in 2011.

Similarly, the number of ALS accreditation and equivalency test passers increased from 29.20 percent in 2006 to 41.52 percent in 2011.

In 2011, 12.46 percent of learners returned to regular school while 4.40% were employed.

He subsidized Remedial Reading Program for adults, the first of its kind in the National Capital Region. The results of the RRP were outstanding in terms of the increased mean percentile score of learners in the National Achievement Test.

MPS increased from 59.84 percent in 2012 to 54.115 in 2013 in NAT for Grade 3 pupils.

MPS increased from 59.84 percent in 2012 to 63.24 in 2013 in NAT for Grade 6 pupils.

MPS increased from 41.98 percent in 2012 to 54.11% in 2013 at NAT Secondary Level.

And because of all these efforts, Mayor Tony won honors and official recognition from the National Government, unprecedented in the history of Pasay City.

Pasay City won two national grand awards and three consecutive First Placer awards in DepEd's Regional Literacy Search for Outstanding Local Government Unit-Highly Urbanized Category, as follows:

1. In 2014 and 2016, Pasay City claimed the "National Literacy Grand Awards, beating all Highly Urbanized Local Government Units from all regions of the country;
2. In 2010, the Department of Education awarded Pasay City "Most Outstanding Implementer of National Literacy Program (First Place) under the Local Government Highly Urbanized City Category in the NCR;
3. In 2012, the Department of Education again adjudged Pasay City as the "Most Outstanding Implementer National Literacy Program under the Highly Urbanized City Category";
4. In 2014, for the third time, Pasay City bagged First Place, besting all other 16 local government units in the National Capital Region; and
5. In 2016, for the fourth time, Pasay City won again First Place in the National Capital Region
The next episode will cover how Pasay City won national awards in the field of health when it utilized job order personnel in feeding and medical missions in barangays where there are families without regular income; and more awards in other areas of good governance.
(To be continued)