Tesda needs big funding to fight proliferation of fake NCs

MANILA, Philippines — A whopping P8.5 million funding could help the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) in terms of establishing “advanced security features” in its platforms meant for the creation of national certificates in light of the proliferation of fake documents online.

Past midnight on Wednesday during the Senate’s marathon plenary debates on the proposed 2025 funding of Tesda, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said it has come to his attention that there are fake national certificates.

READ: Tesda warns public on fake National Certificates sold online

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who was speaking on behalf of Tesda as budget sponsor, confirmed the existence of such.

“The answer is in the affirmative and it goes to show how important it is for an individual to get a certification by Tesda. Because it has become a passport for employment. Some companies are also using it as a basis for salary increases, etcetera,” said Villanueva.

Earlier, Tesda itself warned the public against fake National Certificates (NCs) that are being sold on social media.

Several Facebook groups offering national certificates for different technical-vocational courses were reported to the agency. Tesda warned that fake NCs are also being submitted to employers for job requirements.

Gatchalian then interjected that it’s a good thing since they will now have “budgets to prevent those fake…national certificates. So we have now budgets to address and curb the fake national certificates.”