NCDA to hold seminar on how to handle PWDs in
tourism industry
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY, Aug. 10 (PIA) – The National Council
on Disability Affairs (NCDA), in partnership with the Department of Tourism
(DOT) will be holding the seminar on how to handle Persons with Disabilities
(PWDs) in tourism industry on August 18, 2016 here.
According to NCDA acting executive director Carmen
Zubiaga, this one-day seminar is aimed at promoting the government’s National
Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) and other equally important laws and mandates
on disability among duty bearers and stakeholders in order to attain goals on
“Accessible Tourism For All” as provided thereof.
“The seminar will involve the participation of the
workers in the business industry, hotel and restaurant managers, tour guides,
resort and transport operators, and other DOT-accredited establishment. Other
participants in this seminar would include officials of the government who
oversee the implementation of tourism industry, the media, among others,” added
Zubiaga.
It can be recalled that the Regional Council on
Disability Affairs (RCDA) led by the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) Caraga has conducted on July 20-22, 2016 the seminar on how
to handle the behavior of children with special needs. This time, the NCDA and
RCDA will be giving focus to the PWDs.
The National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA)
is the national government agency mandated to formulate policies and coordinate
the activities of all agencies, whether public or private, concerning
disability issues and concerns. As such, the NCDA is the lead agency tasked to
steer the course of program development for persons with disabilities and the
delivery of services to the sector.
The NCDA is tasked to monitor the implementation of
several laws to ensure the protection of PWDs’ civil and political rights.
These laws include Republic Act No 7277 (Magna Carta for Disabled Persons),
Batas Pambansa Blg. 344 (Accessibility Law), Republic Act 6759 (White Cane Act)
and ILO Convention No. 159 (Vocational Rehabilitation of Persons With
Disability). It has also been tasked, through Proclamation No. 125, to
coordinate activities and to monitor the observance of the Asian and Pacific
Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002) in the Philippines. Proclamation No. 125
was issued by the President on January 15, 1993, to enjoin both the government
and the private entities to organize projects based on the policy categories
mentioned in the agenda for action of the decade. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)
DOLE Phils back to normal operation after talks
with SurSur guv
By Nida Grace Barcena-Tranquilan
TANDAG CITY, Surigao del Sur, Aug. 10 (PIA) – The
DOLE Philippines, Incorporated (Stanfilco Division) operating in three towns of
this province was reportedly back to its regular operation on Monday, August 8
after DOLE Phils. officials met with Governor VicenteT. Pimentel Jr. over the
weekend at his residence here.
The special meeting was also attended by the
concerned agencies, local chief executives of Tagbina, Barobo, and Tago, and
Philippine Army.
The said meeting was aimed to resolve the issue
concerning the company's sudden declaration of indefinite shutdown of its
operation.
The company cited security threat made by the New
Peoples Army as the main reason of their closure. The Philippine Army assured
that they will secure the national highway to prevent the incident from
happening again. The local government officials also vowed to support the
security forces in solving the insurgency problem in the province.
It can be recalled that the said company declared
an indefinite shutdown of its operation on August 3, affecting more than a
thousand employees mostly Surigaonons. A protest rally was conducted in Barobo
town condemning the New People’s Army for being responsible in the series of
burning incident of the company's container vans. (NGBT/PIA-Surigao del Sur)
Feature Story: Coffee perks up farmers’ lives
By Joie L. Ceballos
The soon to be launched Robusta coffee in Tagbina,
Surigao del Sur was 50 years in the making. And if the farmers of barangay
Kahayagan in this municipality took them that long, this coffee must be very,
very good!
In 1965 farmers started to grow coffee in a forest
reserve area owned by Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP).
Their organic coffee has already created local yet loyal customers, but it was
very slow to go mainstream due to lack of support.
Since their product has a big market in Caraga
region, 30 farmers created the Mabuhay- Kahayagan Coffee Growers (MKCGC) in
2007 and contributed P1,000 each for their starting capital. Three years later,
the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed an area covering 2,772
hectares for the coffee plantation.
But for these poor farmers, running farmers,
running the cooperative was not easy, most especially when coffee growing came
to a halt brought about by the low buying price of fresh berries. With
continued guidance from DAR, the organization was encouraged to just plant more
and utilizes the land until Nestle became the organization’s valued buyer.
Nestle provided the organization with quality variety of coffee and several
planting and growing trainings. On the other hand, the DAR developed the
organizations maturity with various capability-building trainings and
continuing seminars on product development.
Under the common service facilities component of
DAR’s Agrarian Reform community Connectivity and Economic Support Services
(ARCCESS) project, MKCGC received one unit flatbed drier and sprayer all worth
P1.4 million. The dryer encouraged the farmers to expand their coffee farms so
that it could cater bigger volume than of the present facility.
The DAR also helped the cooperative by looking for
partner-agencies to develop their coffee business. Aside from the DAR’s
dehuller machine for the coffee beans, the Department of Agriculture also
provided one, the Department of Social Welfare and Development gave P350,000 to
help with their coffee production needs and the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST) offered one industrial coffee
grinder and two industrial coffee roasters. The DOST also taught the
farmers about the nutritional facts of coffee.
The business went on the nestle using the world
market’s fair price and the cooperative grew to 143 members with a working
capital of more than P100,000.
But MKCGC could not just stop as supplier to
Nestle. With a special arrangement, Nestle allowed the use of 5 percent - 10
percent of the farmers harvest for their own product. And with the business development
service component of DAR-ARCCESS, MKCGC was trained in roasting, grinding and
packaging that gave birth to another business opportunity for the cooperative -
the Tagbina Robusta Coffee.
While waiting for the approval of the facilities
from the ARCCESS’ common service facilities component like roaster and grinder,
MKCGC, in pursuit of bringing their product closer to the market, tapped
outsource services but continues to hope for the approval of the facilities.
Construction is on-going for the MKCGC’s coffee
processing center implemented under DAR’s village-level processing center
enhancement program. Under this program, the DAR gave P500,000 and the Tagbina
town provided a counterpart of P200,000 for the construction of processing
center.
The Tagbina Robusta Coffee, which soon be launched
in the market, will not only provide our coffee time with new aroma but also
perks a new hope of success for Tagbina coffee farmers. (DAR-CARAGA Info
officer/PARO-SDS/PIA-Surigao del Sur)
15th HRSD confab, venue for transition
By Robert E. Roperos
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte, Aug. 10 (PIA) –
“The 15th Human Resource and Skills Development (HRSD) conference is a good
venue for transition,” said Mindanao Technical Vocational Education and
Training (MinTVET) spokesperson John Franco.
During the press conference on Tuesday, August 9
held at the lobby of the Philippine Gateway Hotel here, Franco said the conduct
of the annual summit served as venue for the technical-vocational sector to be
updated with the latest development that our country is facing specifically
with the ASEAN integration that has been implemented.
“We need to be updated with the latest technology,
methods, and curriculum in tech-voc so that Mindanaoans will be given the
opportunity to compete not only in the national but as well as in the
international skills,” Franco said.
With the new officials under the Duterte
administration, Franco added the conduct of the activity will give challenge to
those officials who are tasked to continue what has been started by the
previous administration so that no Filipinos will be left behind in as far as
skills development is concerned.
Meanwhile, Angela Natividad, another spokesperson
of MinTVET underscored that with the ASEAN Integration, this means that skilled
workers in the ASEAN member-nations can freely go in and out from these
countries which specifically means that “our Filipino skilled workers can work
freely with these member-countries as long as they are technically qualified.
Likewise, skilled workers from other ASEAN member-countries will also do the
same.”
With this development, Natividad stressed that
there is a need for the Filipino workforce to be updated to cope with the
demand of the ASEAN integration. “This will also mean that our TVET graduates
will be given greater chances to be hired and work abroad… this is the reason
why we need to upgrade their skills,” Natividad added.
The Human Resource and Skills Development (HRSD)
Conference is an annual gathering of Technical-Vocational (Tech-Voc) schools in
the six regions of Mindanao which primarily aimed to strengthen the education
and training of manpower skills among Mindanaoans.
This is also to ensure that tech-voc students and
school administrators will be given the opportunity to be acquainted and
somehow share the best practices that each region is doing for skills
development.
This year, Caraga Region hosted the grandest event
of the TVET in Mindanao. According to the Secretariat, as of 10:00 a.m. on
Tuesday, some 586 delegates were in attendance. (Regional Information Officer,
TESDA-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)
Caraga’s HRSD confab sets record-breaking
participants
By Robert E. Roperos
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte, Aug. 10 (PIA) – A
record-breaking number of delegates in the 15th Human Resource and Skills
Development (HRSD) Conference has been noted by the Secretariat.
Mindanao Technical-Vocational Education and
Training (MinTVET) spokesperson John Franco revealed during the press
conference here on August 9 that as of 10:30 a.m., the Secretariat has recorded
some 583 in the attendance.
“This attendance is the biggest in the history of
HRSD Conference,” he said. This figure, according to Franco has somehow
surpassed the number of delegates during the previous years’ conduct of the annual
gathering of Mindanao TVET sectors.
We are so thankful to the host region – Caraga and
the host organization – the Caraga Association of Technical Vocational
Insitutions, Inc. (CATVII) for this resounding response from our partners in
the different regions in Mindanao.
We also salute the leadership of the provincial
government of Surigao del Norte thru Governor Sol F. Matugas for the hundred
percent support extended to CATVII, TESDA-Caraga, and the MinTVET.
In other development, MinTVET Spokesperson Angela
Nativitidad is elated over the peace and order situation in the city saying
that with the presence of foreigners just walking around the corners, this
means that the security in the city is stable.
“There’s nothing to worry about the security as well
as the peace and order here in the city… So, I think, this is one of the
perfect venues we have so far in HRSD,” Natividad said.
The 15th HRSD Conference is hosted by the Caraga
Association of Technical-Vocational Institutions, Inc. (CATVII) and TESDA-Caraga
and is anchored on the theme: “Onwards TVET: Changes and Transitions towards
2020.” The two-day event opened on Tuesday and will end Wednesday, August 10,
2016.
It aims to convene as one and unified sector in
Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Mindanao discussing,
sharing and exchanging common points that would significantly contribute to
national and regional TVET success.
It also aimed to discuss the challenges of the
future of TVET amidst the current global financial crisis and its effects on
the TVET sector. Likewise, it serves as a venue for sharing and learning from
best practices in skills development and training and education as a benchmark
initiative for continuous improvement.
Participants of the conference include: Private and
Public TVET School Administrators, TVET Institution Heads, Training Managers
and Trainers, Industry Groups or Associations, TVET Industry Partners, TESDA
Provincial Directors, Training Center Chiefs, ROD/Finance Chiefs, and selected
TESD Specialists. (TESDA-Caraga/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
