The Valentine’s Day celebration in Argao yesterday was filled with rosy tidings for the townfolks brought by Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde, one of the town’s most illustrious sons.
Remonde, once a mediaman and now a presidential Cabinet member, arrived at Argao in the morning with his wife Marit and his staff to grace the 63rd founding anniversary of Cebu State College of Science and Technology Agro-Industrial and Forestry College for which he was the invited guest speaker.
Remonde was also there to lead the groundbreaking of CSCST’s SciTech Argao Business Center, a project aimed at providing loans to micro-, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Argao.
In his speech, Remonde promised to boost the project with a share of the government’s P3 billion fund allotted for SMEs for 2008. The government itself has wanted to make the SME sector “a lot bigger and better.” Argao Mayor Edcel Galeos also pledged to provide P1.7 million for the project.
This CSCST project has been designed to train students become entrepreneurs, a career that Remonde said is a way to solve the country’s “labor-market mismatch.”
There is actually no shortage of jobs in the country, only lack of trained laborers for the right jobs, as “there are actually a million jobs available in our country that are unfilled,” Remonde told his townmates, citing the 40,000 jobs waiting for the multi-billion dollar shipyard projects in Subic and Cagayan de Oro City.
Remonde then visited the two-year-old Philippine Science High School located at the town’s mountain barangay of Talaytay. At a short ceremony held there to welcome his arrival, he pledged help for the construction of its P308 million complex that will house student dormitories, offices, and amphitheater, among others. PSHS has a population of 58 students.
Remonde’s final swing of his Argao visit was the groundbreaking of the President Diosdado Macapagal Sports and Cultural Complex. He told the people that the P20 million needed to start the project is now ready for release by Malacañang.
Remonde then punctuated his show of love for Argao by committing himself to his people into helping build farm-to-market roads there, with a first tranche of P10 million funding. — Liv G. Campo/RAE