P6M livelihood training center set for sugar workers in Negros Or.

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – The putting up of a P6-million livelihood training center for sugar workers in Negros Oriental was officially agreed upon by the Department of Labor and Employment-Region 7 and the Dumaguete City government on Wednesday.

DOLE-7 director Ma. Gloria Tango and City Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria signed the memorandum of agreement for the project that is expected to start soon after the DOLE central office will download the funds to be sourced from the social amelioration project.

The livelihood training center will sit on a 400 square meter lot at the Dumaguete City High School compound in Barangay Calindagan, which was earlier donated by the city government as its counterpart to the project.

A DOLE briefing paper stated that the project met a snag in April last year when Governor Roel Degamo allegedly refused the request to allocate a lot for the project, citing that the non-availability of an area as well as “redundancy” of purpose.

Sometime in 2009, the Negros Oriental District Tripartite Councils of the Central Azucarera de Bais, the United Robina Sugar Milling Corporation and the Herminio Teves Company, Inc. had requested the Sugar Tripartite Council to allocate P6.1 million for the construction of the training center.

Tango said this is a long-overdue project and the MOA signing will pave the way for the realization of the center that will benefit sugar workers and their families in Negros Oriental. She also hoped the construction of the center will commence before the end of this year.

The center will offer a variety of skills training to provide support livelihood programs for sugar workers and their families, as well as complement efforts to eradicate child labor in the sugar industry once parents are more capacitated to boost their income thus removing their children from working in the sugarcane fields, Tango said.

This will also prepare the sugar workers for any eventuality, such as a repeat of a crisis felt by the sugar industry a few decades ago, and allow them to cope with challenges once they are equipped with alternative sources of income, she added.

Sagarbarria, for his part, assured everyone that the livelihood training center, while located in Dumaguete, should be regarded as a facility that will benefit the entire province of Negros Oriental.

The project proposal encountered some problems initially as some quarters believed it should be a venture spearheaded by the provincial government and not a joint endeavor with the city government.

Sagarbarria, however, noted that it is ideal for the training center to be erected in Dumaguete being the provincial capital and where various institutions and businesses are located.  (FREEMAN)