Aquino’s Cebu trip a ‘‘new approach’’ to celebrating Labor Day–Coloma

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu –No, President Aquino didn’t go to Cebu on Friday to avoid the rallies against him in Manila.

The President’s visit to Cebu was just a “new approach” to celebrate Labor Day, according to Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma.

“He is the President of all Filipinos. As President, he would like to reach out on our countrymen to as many regions and provinces of the country,” he told a news conference here on Friday.

He stressed that before Cebu, Mr. Aquino was in Negros Occidental for the inauguration of Negros First Cybercentre in Bacolod City.

It was not the first time that Mr. Aquino decided to celebrate a national holiday outside Metro Manila.
During the People Power I celebration in 2014, Mr. Aquino decided to hold the reenactment in Cebu instead of Manila.

President Aquino spent the night in Cebu from Negros Occidental. He stayed at Radisson Blu at the North Reclamation Area and had dinner in Mr. A, a restaurant in Barangay Busay that has a panoramic view of Cebu City.

About 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Mr. Aquino was at J. Centre Mall in Mandaue City, Cebu for the launching of JobStart Philippines, a program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Mr. Aquino, who was 30 minutes late, was given a tour of the nine booths by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz who gave a short briefing on the program.

Since he was late, he was not able to interact with the JobStart beneficiaries which was supposed to be part of the program.

Before he arrived, militant groups staged a rally a few meters outside the mall but were blocked by policemen from getting near the venue.

It was the first JobStart Philippines launching in Cebu after its pilot implementation in Quezon City, Metro Manila and some parts of Luzon.

In her message, Baldoz said the program aims to “redefine job readiness by jump starting youth careers through enhanced career guidance, labor market information, life skills training, job-matching and referral, technical training and internship”.

The program is open to 18-24 years old high school graduates. It is a six-month internship with partner companies where the beneficiaries can earn and also gain work experience.

Participating employers will pay 75 percent of the minimum wage which is equivalent to P255 per day for Cebu rate.

Since this is a tripartite program of DOLE with Asian Development Bank and the Government of Canada, Baldoz said ADB will also provide a monthly counterpart of P1,000.

The Government of Canada will pay for the training of beneficiaries while DOLE will do the processing.
Baldoz said that as of the 1st quarter of 2015, a total of 200 beneficiaries had graduated while 1,553 were still undergoing training.

It took only 20 minutes for President Aquino to tour the nine booths where he had short briefing about their programs and services.

Among the booths set up there were that of Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, DOLE’s JobStart Philippines, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

President Aquino also watched a short demonstration of a TESDA scholar on bartending. He was joined by Secretaries Baldoz, Coloma, Mar Roxas of Interior, Joel Villanueva of Tesda and Rene Almendras.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III and Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes were also with the President.

From J. Centre, he went to the Before leaving, he stayed for about 20 minutes in a separate room.
He left J. Centre Mall at 11:20 a.m. and proceded to Barangay Subangdaku, also in Mandaue, to inspect the facilities of the new hospital, University of Cebu Medical Center, before heading to Naga City for inauguration of the Cemex Philippines’ New Mill Facility Markers at the company’s Cement Mills-3 area of the Apo Cement Plant.