Where have all the workers gone?
PHOTO/Joan Bondoc, Philippine Daily Inquirer
IN A NUTSHELL: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque says PH is running out of construction workers due to infra projects • Tesda to offer free laborers’ training • Gov’t to recruit poor, farmers, ex-rebels to stave off shortage
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The country is running out of construction workers due to the government’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, Malacañang said on Thursday.
“Of course we have to do this, because apparently the Build, Build, Build program has already resulted in some kind of a shortage for construction workers here in the Philippines, ’no?” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing.
Roque said that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is offering a free laborers’ training to 100,000 people to supply the demands of the administration’s extensive construction project.
He said that the skills development agency would prioritize the recruitment of the poor, former rebels, and indigenous peoples.
“Graduates of the skills training especially the indigenous peoples, the poor, the rebel returnees will be recruited to play a vital role in the development of infrastructure projects such as the construction of roads, bridges and establishments,” Roque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday encouraged New Peoples’ Army (NPA) members to enroll in government-sanctioned skills training.
“Eh kung ang NPA ngayon walang training, pagawain mo ng kubeta, pag-flush mo, instead pag-flush ng dumi pababa, aakyat ‘yan sa itaas,” he said.
(If the NPA does not have an ongoing training, let them fix toilets, but when you flush it, the waste will not sink, it will go up.)
“So they would need some kind of a master carpentry, master plumber. ‘Yan ang gusto kong makiusap sa inyo (That’s my request to you.) If you have that kind of program of pacification, let me know,” he added.
The Duterte administration has allocated P460.5 billion for infrastructure development for 2018./ac
