BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance granting homemakers in the city the opportunity to engage in gainful livelihood projects through a training program on various crafts and trades.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. stated the livelihood program shall be implemented through various forms of trainings and seminars on gainful livelihood crafts and trades that include recycled paper handicraft, food preserve, candy or ice cream-making, weaving, lantern making, painting, and other similar trades and crafts using indigenous materials.
Further, the trainings shall also include topics on effective productive marketing strategies for the products of the participating homemakers.
The ordinance tasked the City Social Welfare and Development Office to be the lead agency in the implementation of the pertinent provisions of the local legislative measure with responsibility for the necessary syllabus and learning materials and requirements, training staff and personnel necessary for the effective implementation of the livelihood projects in close coordination with other related departments.
The ordinance mandated the responsible office to hire trainors for the implementation of the program, specifically a particular craft or trade on a per project or job order basis.
The ordinance stipulated that the initial amount of P300,000 or so much thereof will be appropriated from the general fund of the local government under the social services department for the succeeding year to ensure the sustainability of the program.
Article 15, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution enunciates that the State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. It shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.
Yangot asserted that the constitutional mandate can be realized if efforts are made towards making each family self-reliant thereby leading to economic and financial stability of the family.
In the city, he revealed there are many homemakers who tend to the day-to-day chores and concerns of the family home playing a vital role in the attainment of stability in the family and they too can contribute in the attainment of self-reliant individuals if they will be engaged in gainful livelihood projects such as recycled paper.
Moreover, Yangot emphasized the grant of gainful livelihood to homemakers is one of the efforts on highlighting the unique crafts and folk arts of the city, the first-ever creative city in the Philippines included in the elite list of Creative cites under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He underscored the local government needs to give special attention to the family, especially the source of its strength, the homemakers.
By Dexter A. See
