BACOLOD City – A total of 70 former rebels and their dependents in northern Negros Occidental completed various trainings with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) this month.
The participants availed themselves of the agency’s Special Skills Training Program (SSTP), a report from the TESDA and the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (79IB) said on June 23.
On June 18, some 47 trainees from Calatrava town finished a course on bread making (Leading to Pastry Production) National Certification (NC) II while a group of 23 participants from Escalante City completed the training on electrical installation and maintenance, also NC II, on June 19.
Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Alvaran, commanding officer of 79IB, commended the former rebels and their families for showing determination, perseverance and sacrifice to finish their respective trainings.
“The knowledge you have acquired, together with the materials and equipment that you received from this program, will enable you to help your families. Continue your journey towards a peaceful and prosperous life and never turn back to the way of living you once had,” Alvaran said.
In Calatrava, the training program was implemented by TESDA in partnership with the municipal government, 79IB and Atoniya Skills Education Inc. while those from Escalante were trained by the TESDA Provincial Training Center in Cadiz City.
Under the SSTP, the participants are provided skills training with entrepreneurship, free assessment, allowance of P100 per day, and free starter tool kits.
The 70 graduates received training allowance ranging from P1,000 to P2,800 each.
TESDA acting provincial director Beverly Insular said the SSTP was conceptualized in response to the mandate of the agency as the chair of the Poverty Reduction, Livelihood and Employment Cluster (PRLEC) of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
“TESDA has been making sure that our programs and services are felt by all sectors of society to live up to our agency’s tagline ‘TESDA Abot Lahat’,” she added.
The PRLEC aims to provide responsive measures to address poverty affectation among marginalized communities and basic sectors through the whole-of-nation approach.
Jaime Cogonon, one of the graduates in Calatrava, said the training and the tool kits will greatly help them in setting up a livelihood.
“I thank the government through the TESDA, Atoniya Skills Education Inc., and the Philippine Army for extending your helping hand to us,” he added. (With a report from PNA/PN)
