Tesda offers training to inmates

• Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/10/30/tesda-offers-training-inmates-506693
• Monday, October 31, 2016

By Elias O. Baquero

THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) will soon start its livelihood training for the inmates in the region.

The agency is now coordinating with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) 7 for the implementation of the program.

Tesda Director General Guiling Mamondiong said they will be visiting jails soon to ask prisoners what livelihood training they want to be on.

“Thousands of inmates are lying and sitting inside their cells and the government is feeding them every day. Why not train them to become productive?” Mamondiong said.

Mamondiong believes not all inmates are guilty of the cases filed against them. Some had just no money to hire good lawyers to defend them in court.

The trainings that the inmates can avail include welding, carpentry, tile setting, massage therapy and computer technology, among others.

The livelihood training is an offshoot to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Tesda 7 Director Florencio Sunico signed with BJMP 7 Director Dennis Yu Rocamora last Oct. 10.

Based on BJMP’s records, there are more than 11,000 inmates in the region who are being fed by the government every day.

Rocamora said the number is still expected to increase, considering President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs and criminality.

Sunico, for his part, said Tesda is coordinating with different agencies in providing the skills training to the inmates.

Rocamora welcomed their partnership with Tesda, saying it is part of their mandate to develop the inmates before they will be released.

Under the MOU, Tesda will allocate funds for the livelihood training, and even provide raw materials for the prisoners’ projects.

Any profit that will be generated from their projects will be divided among the inmates and their share will be sent to their families.