KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato (PIA) --  A Dulangan-Manobo community in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat has recently become the latest beneficiary of  Project TALA, a flagship program of the Joint Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (JRTF-ELCAC) XII. 

On August 18, personnel from TESDA and the Provincial Government of Sultan Kudarat, troops from the 37th Infantry Conqueror Battalion of the Philippine  Army, and other partners  went to Barangay Nalilidan in Kalamansig to launch Project TALA (TESDA Alay ay Liwanag at Asenso).

Led by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the JRTF-ELCAC XII's Poverty Reduction Livelihood, and Employment Cluster (PRLEC), Project TALA  aims to energize hardest-to-reach, off-grid communities through a skills training program that concludes in energization of houses through solar power.

TESDA XII regional director Rafael Abrogar II told Philippine Information Agency XII that 200 Dulangan-Manobo families living in Sitio Blanga of Nalilidan will soon have their homes installed with photovoltaic systems. 

Abrogar said the implementation of Project TALA for the residents of the remote village is in compliance with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's and Secretary Isidro Lapeña's mandate "to help our kababayans, particularly those who have long suffered from isolation and deprivation." 

As in the other Project TALA project sites, representatives of these Dulangan-Manobo households undergo TESDA's photovoltaic (PV) system installation and maintenance training course. 

Upon completion of the course, trainees will receive complete PV system kits that they will install their respective households. 

A PV system kit  consists of a solar panel, a solar charge controller, storage battery, two bulbs (3 watts and 5 watts), wirings, switches, junction box, electrical, tapes and screws.

Also, each trainee will receive P160 daily allowance and additional P500 for internet allowance and P500 for personal protective equipment. 

"For transparency purposes, I would like to announce to our partners that for the allowances of the trainees, we are already spending about P1.1. million," RD Abrogar said during the Project TALA launching. 

Troops of the 37th IB who have undergone training on PV systems installation and maintenance will help TESDA in the implementation of the project in the area. Sitio Blanga is a Community Support Program (CSP) immersion area of the Conqueror battalion. 

Abrogar also disclosed that several interventions have already been laid out for the residents of Sitio  Blanga, including a training in coffee production in partnership the private company Nestle Philippines. 

Regional Development Council XII private sector representative Ronan Eugene Garcia, who represented Gov. Suharto Mangudadatu in the event, also informed the participants that the government will fulfill its promise to rehabilitate the roads in the area to improve access to remote villages and for government services to immediately reach these places. 

"This (Project TALA) is a symbol for the people to live in the light and  for them to experience the wholehearted services of the government," PSR Garcia said. 

In an interview, an elderly resident of Sitio Blanga said he is grateful to TESDA  for the new opportunity. 

"Thank you TESDA for helping us who live in the mountains. Since childhood until now that I am already a senior citizen I have not experienced having electricity. For light at night, we only have flashlights that we buy  from the lowlands," he said in the vernacular. 

Along with the Provincial Government of Sultan Kudarat, a number of national government agencies such as. the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Labor and Employment,  the Department of Trade and Industry and others  have pledged interventions  for the residents of Sitio Blanga, in a whole-of-nation approach to end local communist armed conflict. 

In April this year, TESDA has energized the entire Sitio Ned and neighboring Sitio Lemdel in Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. Some 250 houses in the area are already energized. 

Across Soccsksargen Region, about a thousand households in geographical isolated and disadvantaged areas  (GIDA) have been lighted from Project TALA, Abrogar reported during the 21st meeting of the JRTF-ELCAC XII on Friday. (PIA XII)