Clark needs workers for SEA Games projects
CAPAS, Tarlac — Thousands of skilled workers from this town will be tapped to complete the New Clark City expressway, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and a track and field oval in time for the Southeast Asian Games which the country is hosting in 2019.
“New Clark City will hire 2,000 masons, 2,000 carpenters, and 1,000 welders. We have yet to find them so we have embarked on training programs with the help of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) to tap workers here,” Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan said during the groundbreaking ceremony for a Tesda Central Luzon Training Center at Barangay Cristo Rey here on Tuesday.
Sporting events venue
About 12,000 Aeta in Tarlac province would be encouraged to train and land jobs in construction projects for the New Clark City, said Tesda Director General Guiling Mamondiong.
About 40 of 9,450 hectares will be developed for international sporting events in the New Clark City, which is envisioned to be a “smart, green and resilient metropolis,” according to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
“We will provide what Tarlac requires in terms of job skills. Should they need training for agriculture so they could be more productive, we would offer those courses,” said Mamondiong.
Training center
Catacutan said Barangay Cristo Rey has 70,000 residents who could apply for training.
The training center will rise beside the Cristo Rey Senior High School which is under construction on a land that used to be part of the Camp O’ Donnell military reservation.
Cristo Rey accommodated people from Concepcion town in Tarlac and in Pampanga province who were displaced in 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo erupted. —Maria Adelaida Calayag
