MANILA -- Since the start of the Duterte administration in 2016 until June 2018, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has provided free skills training to 20,550 drug surrenderers, the agency reported on Thursday.
Drug surrenderers have been among TESDA's priority beneficiaries, in support of President Rodrigo Duterte's fight against drugs.
"TESDA is open to anyone who would like to avail of our skills training and use these to have a better life," TESDA Deputy Director General Alvin Feliciano told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday evening.
Feliciano said TESDA will continue its free training program for the surrenderers.
"We have skills training for special clients. Apart from drug surrenderers, we also included in this program the Indigenous Peoples, rebel returnees, persons with disabilities, people in calamity-affected areas, among others," he added.
Feliciano noted that this program aims to serve the previously unserved and underserved.
"We want to give opportunities to everyone, so they could uplift their lives. These skills training could help them find a job or put up a business," he continued.
Meanwhile, based on TESDA's records, most of the surrenderers who have availed of the free skills training took the following courses: driving, cookery, automotive servicing, bread and pastry production, heavy equipment operation, carpentry, masonry, food and beverage services, wellness, steel fabrication, and shielded metal arc welding.
Feliciano reiterated that the program is open to all drug surrenderers, even those who were not surrenderers under the government's "tokhang" operations. (PNA)
