21 July 2016
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will open its training centers all over the country to help drug dependents and dealers get hooked on a different addiction -- skills training.
"This is in response to reports that convicts and inmates resort to their old trades after serving time in jail because they have no other means of livelihood,“ Guiling Mamondiong, the newly-appointed TESDA Director General, said.
Mamondiong directed the agency's regional and provincial directors to coordinate with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the implementation of the initiative.
"We will work hand-in-hand with the DILG and the PNP in identifying the beneficiaries and the skills training that may be available to them," he said.
"This is one way of helping them get clean and stay clean," the new TESDA chief added.
Mamondiong said the Duterte administration's war on drugs should not only involve stamping out the drug syndicates and pushers but it should also be comprehensive in nature, which would involve rehabilitating those who desire a new life.
Introducing them to skills training, he said, will tap their potentials and make them realize their value to their families and to society.
"When armed with skills and the opportunity to be engaged in livelihood or get employed and earn money, these drug users and pushers will be transformed," Mamondiong said.
He added that sometimes, all the people in distress need is another chance.
TESDA is the government agency mandated to promote and implement skills training programs in the country. Through the years, it has produced world-class graduates who have found employment locally or abroad.
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