Stressing the need to create more infrastructure to attain a more progressive and developed Philippines, Mayor Rody Duterte recently urged the government to establish more Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA) training centers not only in Davao City but for the whole country.
The maverick mayor explained that most of the local residents in the far-flung areas of the province are discouraged to apply in Tesda Regional Centers to register in the free courses offered by the government agency because of the distance of the centers.
He cited as an example, residents in the rural areas of his city whose nearest Tesda Training Center is in Tibungco.
“Those who are financially constrained will think twice about spending a minimum of P50 fare to go to the TESDA Regional Center in Tibungco because it is already enough budget for food for the family,” the mayor explained.
In most of his recent interviews, Duterte stressed that infrastructure is one of the solutions for a better Philippines. “If you dream of a better Philippines, you shape up. You have to work on the infrastructure. Because if there is none, if you do not offer the safest, cheapest and the fastest to do it, the Philippines will not progress,” the mayor disclosed.
“Whether I am a candidate or not, we have a serious problem in the country, the lack of infrastructure. Nahayaan e,” he added.
Tesda is the main government agency tasked to formulate manpower and skills plans, sets appropriate skills standards and tests, coordinate and monitor manpower policies and programs, and provide policy directions and guidelines for resource allocation for the TVET institutions in both the private and public sectors.
Duterte, however, stressed the need to lessen the current trend of brain drain of skilled Tesda graduates who immediately work abroad after graduating from the training center.
“In Davao, we are short of craftsmen like electricians and plumbers… We’re losing them as fast as we are graduating them,” he lamented.
The mayor stressed that Tesda graduates are very in-demand abroad, especially in the Middle East like Syria, Libya, and Iraq because these countries are in their reconstruction stage.
“These areas are shattered… The recovery and reconstruction after their conflicts, there’s really a need for more workers at our expense…. There will be a lot of movement of goods and services, especially Filipino craftsmen,” Duterte said.
He added there must be a law which will require all Tesda graduates to serve the country first and share the talents they have learned from the country’s premier training center before they can be allowed to leave the Philippines for greener pastures.
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