Doublespeak from TESDA Sec. Joel Vllanueva
Since Sunday, I was in the fabled island of Camiguin for the first time as the invited guest of my old friends, Benito "Bugs" Unchuan, Pacquito Unchuan whose family has an old ancestral home that they managed to restore and enlarge. When I was 10 years old, I joined my grandmother Ascension Segura from Cebu by boat, stopping in Jagna, Bohol then on to Camiguin for a brief stop in the pier, then to Medina in Gingoog. That was the only time I saw the famous Hibok-Hibok Volcano that erupted last December 1951.
Perhaps what I did not expect in my Camiguin visit was the Katibawasan Falls, which rises to 250 ft. and nestled in a rain forest. We were encouraged to swim in the waters but it was just too cold for my taste. But we did swim in the Ardent Hibok-Hibok Hot Spring pools, which were so refreshing; we stayed there for a couple of hours. No, we didn't have time to visit the White Island beach just a few hundred meters from the shore of Camiguin. Camiguin is a small island, but with so much spring waters… strange!
But we did visit the Island of Mantigue, which is really a rainforest surrounded by a white sand beach. Gov. Jurdin "JJ" Romualdo told me that he is in the process of relocating the squatters who live there because originally that island was uninhabited. Now it is a great tourism destination.
There were a few surprises in Camiguin, like the Zipline, which hurls you 750 ft. across the bay and back into the semi-floating restaurant. The only problem with my visit to Camiguin was that, first, it wasn't Lanzones season so I did not pick Lanzones from trees and, second, Camiguin was hit by a 48-hour blackout so it felt good to know that I had written my columns in advance, otherwise I wouldn't have appeared in this paper for two days.
The blackout affected even Globe Telecom users as their batteries also conked out. So my vacation included a vacation from my cellphone. One problem plaguing tourism in Camiguin Island is the lack of ships from Cebu. Yes, there are no more ferries servicing the Cebu-Camiguin route. Perhaps I should call upon my good friend, Jupiter Roble, and entice him to take on this vacant route to Camiguin, which is a beautiful island.
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Secretary Joel Villanueva of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority came up with something for Cebu saying, "For 2015, Cebu gets a funding of P75.78 million for the education of 7,375 scholars. This represents 51 percent of the total budget of P149.12 million for the entire region targeting close to 15,000 scholars. The scholarships are lodged in four programs of TESDA - Training for Work Scholarship Program, Private Education Student Financial Assistance, the Bottom-up Budgeting, and Special Training for Employment Program."
Finally at the last two years of his term, Pres. Benigno Aquino III has recognized the importance of the role of Cebu in the nation's economic development. I have no doubt this money would benefit the 7,375 scholars who come from all over the country, not just from Cebu.
While TESDA has finally given Cebu some kind of importance, it still closes its eyes to the daily reality that thousands of workers inside the AsiaTown IT Park experiences everyday. I'm talking about the wall of TESDA that has no sidewalk at all and therefore a sheer violation of the National Building Code (NBC). That wall has been there for a long time now but the problem only magnified when AsiaTown IT became a successful center for Business Processing Outsourcing, which ordinary folks know as call centers.
So Sec. Villanueva should be told that his wall should go down and make way for a sidewalk for BPO or TESDA scholars when they go to TESDA. Even Mayor Michael Rama who vowed "Tarongon ang hiwi" wanted to break down the TESDA wall some months ago asking the help of the Cebu media. But somehow, they never got into doing that.
Sec. Joel Villanueva obviously owes his "boss" Pres. Aquino something and somehow he has learned from him the art of doublespeak, which he should do. He gives Cebu P75.8 million for TESDA Scholars in Cebu but closes his eyes on that reality that students have to walk along the road because TESDA refuses to remove its wall so that a sidewalk can be constructed for pedestrians working at the AsiaTown IT Park.
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The big breaking news is that the Office of the Ombudsman has finally placed Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin "Junjun" Binay and 22 other Makati officials into preventive suspension for six months for the alleged overprice of the Makati Parking building. Of course, I'm sure DILG Sec. Mar Roxas would welcome this suspension as it is a black mark in the family of Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay in whose term as mayor of Makati that edifice was constructed. So will the Ombudsman also suspend the Vice President?
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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