BALANGA CITY, Bataan—The provincial government of Bataan has allocated P219 million for the infrastructure and school building projects this year to speed up development in the countryside.
Board Member Rolando Z. Tigas, chairman of the housing and land utilization and infrastructure committees of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, explained the appropriation is intended for the improvement and construction of school facilities, flood control, improvement of farm to market roads and other programs.
These would create effective and efficient delivery of quality education, health, social and public services to residents, Tigas added.
A former mayor of Samal town and one of the most respected contractors in Central Luzon, the board member said Bataan Governor Albert Garcia is focusing on quality education, poverty alleviation and improvement of road networks as key mechanisms for the socio-economic prosperity of the historic peninsula.
The governor has envisioned more infrastructure projects under the Public and Private Partnership mode to make accessible the numerous designated industrial growth centers, namely Mariveles, Limay, and Hermosa towns to prospective foreign and local investors, Tigas said.
He said the Department of Public Works and Highways in the province has earmarked P3 billion for the widening and improvement of the 70-kilometer Roman Expressway, which is becoming one of the busiest thoroughfares in Central Luzon.
The board member observed the operations of dockyards and port terminals, the country’s largest petroleum refinery and expansion of export–oriented manufacturing firms at the Freeport Area of Bataan, petrochemical park, and others large-scale businesses have contributed to its heavy traffic.
Meanwhile, in Orani, Bataan, a brighter future awaits 64 drug reformists here after they completed training on courses accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Felicito Payumo, president of the University of Nueva Caceres-Bataan, congratulated the graduates as they received their training certificates during the graduation rites at the Bahay Pagbabago earlier this week.
“You can now use whatever you have learned in case you want to apply for work as skilled laborer. If you want to put up small business, it is also applicable,” Payumo, former chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Bases Conversion Development Authority, said.
Payumo said that TESDA courses like those given to drug reformists from Orani were provided by UNC-Bataan.
He said that the school brings mobile training to include instructors, machines and materials to places where drug reformists are.
“We are offering courses which the drug reformists want for the start of their new meaningful lives,” Payumo, also a former three-term Bataan congressman, said.
TESDA courses offered by UNC-Bataan are shielded metal arc welding NCI; shielded metal arc welding NCII; food and beverage services NCII; housekeeping NCII; front office NCII; agricultural crop production NCI; and computer system servicing NCII.
Grace Vibar, UNC TESDA school coordinator, said 48 reformists graduated from shielded metal arc welding NCI and 16 from computer systems servicing.
The training started on Dec. 28, 2017 and ended Feb. 9.
Vibar said their school started offering TESDA courses in 2015 with the completion of five batches in welding, two batches in food and beverage services and computer servicing.
Chief Inspector Leovaldo Bacon, Orani police chief, said the graduates were former drug dependents in the town who surrendered voluntarily to the authorities. With PNA