TAGUIG CITY -- The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief Secretary Isidro Lapeña joined the local officials and residents of the Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) during the groundbreaking ceremony of the city’s training center on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

On top of the event is also the launching of various skills training programs to be offered by the TESDA Training Center - IGACOS for its people.

"Despite the pandemic, I am glad that this cooperation has proceeded as planned. And here we are today, to mark this milestone as a meaningful engagement for the betterment of our community and our kababayans through technical education and skills development programs," Lapeña said in his speech.

It was October last year when TESDA and the Local Government of IGACOS, headed by Mayor Al David Uy, signed a deed of usufruct to allow the agency in using the one-hectare land where the training center will rise.

The one-storey training facility is now being constructed through a training cum production scheme participated by the scholars who have undergone various construction training courses conducted by TESDA-XI.

With the city relying on its agriculture and tourism industry, TESDA Training Center - IGACOS will be offering trainings like Agri-crop Production NC II, Cookery, Beauty Care, Construction Painting, among other training courses.

Witnessing the empowerment of Sarangani IPs

On Thursday, July 1, 2021, Lapeña traveled to Sarangani Province to witness how the Indigenous People (IPs) in the community of Alegria, one of the villages of Alabel town, spend their market day in Alabel Food Hub - the offshoot of Project IPEACE (Indigenous People Empowered as Agripreneurs towards a Collective End).

Project IPEACE is one of the collaborative initiatives of the TESDA-led Poverty Reduction, Livelihood, and Employment Cluster (PRLEC) of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in the SOCCSKSARGEN Region.

Launched a year ago, Project IPEACE is already on its third phase after the training and immersion, and the establishment of their own food hub which opens every Thursday.

"I want to congratulate all our IP farmers who participated in this food hub. I heard that you have already earned around 450,000 pesos in a span of nine weeks. The food hub became not only a source of food supply, but also a source of livelihood," Secretary Lapeña told the community during his visit.

The Alabel Food Hub is the first of its kind in SOCCSKSARGEN and PRLEC plans to replicate this in other provinces of the region.

Lapeña is serving as the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security for Region XII (Central Mindanao) which is composed of four provinces: Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani. (TESDA)