BAGUIO CITY — Line agencies in the Cordillera region have assured the continued provision of aid to landslide victims in Itogon town where scores of people perished in September 2018, in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to provide them a sustainable livelihood.
“We have been distributing livelihood assistance to the victims since last year. We also disbursed checks to 988 residents of Itogon,” Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – Cordillera Director Janet Armas said Tuesday.
Each of the 988 received a check worth PHP20,000 as seed fund for internally displaced persons, an assistance program of the DSWD.
To assure that the fund will be used as intended, the DSWD, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan, and the town’s barangay captains and other officials signed a memorandum of agreement to strengthen the partnership as the DSWD’s monitoring arm for the implementation of livelihood activities of the beneficiaries.
Armas said this is aside from the financial aid and burial assistance earlier extended to the bereaved families.
In last week’s event, Caritas-Baguio Director Fr. Manuel Flores said they shouldered the six months’ house rentals of about 300 profiled families, whose houses were totally damaged or were located in areas declared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau as permanent danger zones.
Residents of these areas have been ordered to vacate their houses and move to safe areas to prevent them from returning to the danger zones.
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) – Cordillera acting director, Engineer Manuel Wong, said that immediately following the declaration of a cease and desist order (CDO) on all small-scale mining activities, they offered scholarships for 300 persons, 279 of whom availed of the scholarships, and 268 graduated and got their certification after the training.
The urgent conduct of the skills training was aimed at enabling affected persons or families to seek new employment in areas unrelated to mining for gold.
“After completion of the training, those granted skills certifications were referred to partner business establishments of TESDA, such as the local department store chain Tiong San and other companies in Metro Manila,” he said.
Freda Gawisan, Baguio-Benguet provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry, said the trade department set up a Negosyo Center in Itogon for those who want to start a business and gave them some training in business management.
Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment Baguio-Benguet field office chief, Dr. Emerito Narag, offered emergency employment where workers were paid PHP320 a day, as a stop-gap measure.
“We integrated a Special Program for the Employment of Students, and emergency employment for the displaced miners and their families,” he said. **Pamela Mariz Geminiano/ PNA)
