BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, June 7 (PIA) –They have trained and achieved the skills necessary for building back a better Bohol, but where are the jobs?
That question has its answer now as the national government, through Interior and Local Government (ILG) Secretary Mar Roxas and Budget Secretary Butch Abad handed to Bohol leaders some P2,389,494,190.00 forming its share in the Bohol Disaster Rehabilitation Program (BDRP).
The amount is expected to jumpstart local employment and keep the recently skills-trained able bodied earthquake victims employed, Sec Roxas hinted during a briefing at the Mansion Friday.
A few days after the great earthquake rattled Bohol international and local organizations as well as government skills training agencies switched to relief and rescue operations.
Some days more, when clearly there was so much to be done for rebuilding, training for work programs flourished, tapping unskilled yet able bodied earthquake victims for skills trainings and corresponding government certifications.
Skills trainings offered by the government’s key technical skills development authority include basic carpentry, basic masonry, house-building wiring installation, basic welding, electronics repair and basic engines repair, all in anticipation for the huge rebuilding which would demand the right skills, according to TESDA sources.
“The possibilities for work in the flurry of rebuilding activities in the towns would be immense,” Roxas told Boholanos gathered at the turn-over of the check.
At the ceremonial turn-over of the check, SILG Roxas clarified that the amount would largely be used for local infrastructure rehabilitation, based on the figures which Bohol earlier provided.
The secretary who arrived in Bohol early morning Friday to get to his usual market inspection sortie he took up as former Trade Secretary, explained that the figure was taken from a post disaster needs assessment.
Earlier in Bohol, local leaders pushed for a damage assessment during the months immediately following the earthquake which left Bohol a nasty pile of rubbles from both public and private infrastructure.
Governor Edgar Chatto, in his message beamed to local radio stations in Bohol bared that town and provincial engineers got into the grueling task of identifying critical public infrastructure damage and classified them according to degrees of affectation for possible rehabilitation or rebuilding.
“The sum of all these figures from the towns, which include critical provincial and municipal roads and bridges, government buildings like provincial and town halls, public markets, gymnasiums and cultural centers, schools and day care centers were set in the BDRP,” Chatto claimed.
Sec Roxas also went on to say that the rehab amount excludes those which the national government channeled through the Public Works department to fix cracked and compromised national highways, bridges and key road infrastructure including ripraps and embankments.
The amount is also exclusive of the Health department funds which it released separately for government hospitals, rural health units and birthing centers as well as barangay health centers as well as the education department’s school buildings which the earthquake damaged. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)