MANKAYAN, Benguet – Municipal officials led by Mayor Materno Luspian and representatives from concerned government agencies and stakeholders formally inaugurated the new municipal training center located at Poblacion and the gong making building at barangay Bedbed, here, Friday morning.
Luspian disclosed that the construction of the municipal training center was funded by the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) while the local government shelled out more or less P1 million to complete the one-storey gong making building situated at barangay Bedbed.
He explained that the 2-storey municipal training center will serve as a facility that will cater to the skills and livelihood training needs of interested residents from the town’s 12 barangays for them to acquire the needed skills from licensed trainors accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) that they could use to earn income for their families and help them move out from the shackles of poverty.
“We were able to partner with concerned government agencies, the private sector and responsible stakeholders for the realization of our major projects that will contribute in efforts to improve the town’s economic situation. We want our people to be resilient by maximum the use of our existing facilities for them to acquire the needed skills which they could use to earn sustainable income for their families,” Mayor Luspain stressed.
Luspian, who is a 5-term local chief executive of Mankayan and a 2 term president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Benguet chapter, is setting sights for the province’s lone congressional post which will be vacated by 5term Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan we will be completing his 3 consecutive terms by the end of June this year.
The local chief executive was able to propel the robust growth and development of Mankayan during his stewardship because of strategic linkages with concerned government agencies and the private sectors that infused funds for the implementation of priority development projects that were completed over the past several years.
Mayor Luspian urged residents to start availing of the available skills and livelihood trainings that will be provided by the training center soon after the same will be accredited by the TESDA for them to have additional skills that they could use in looking for sources of livelihood that will contribute In improving the economic standing of their families in the future.
For the gong making building, Luspian revealed that the Bedbed senior citizens is awaiting the delivery of the fabricated machine which they could use in improving the production of quality gongs that will be either placed as orders by interested individuals or groups or fabricated to suit the culture and traditions of various tribes in the different parts of the region or from other parts of the world who want to avail of the gongs produced in the locality.
He asserted that the Bedbed senior citizens group will be in charge of the operation of the gong making facility considering that the local government embraced the gong as its main product which they continue to aggressively market to help sustain the operation of the industry and prevent the same from extinction.
By HENT
