METALS FABRICATION. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in the Cordillera Administrative Region provides equipment to the Tinongdan Indigenous People's Organization (TINPO) so the group could start a metals fabrication business in this undated photo. The DOST will train in the second week of July. (Photo courtesy of DOST Benguet)
MANILA -- About 1,200 members of the Tinongdan Indigenous People's Organization (TINPO) in Itogon, Benguet, will soon have an additional source of income in the form of a metalwork business such as fabricating windows, doors, tables, and farming tools, among others.
Helping them put up the business is the Department of Science and Technology in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DOST-CAR).
"The (group) asked for metal fabrication because 32 of their members have knowledge and skills in metal (works) and welding. Some had training under [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority]," Benguet Provincial Science and Technology Director Sheila Marie Claver said in an interview on Tuesday.
TINPO saw the need for this kind of livelihood, particularly in housing construction, because Barangay Tinongdan currently does not have a metals fabrication business, Claver added.
Their clients will be the residents of Itogon town, as well as neighboring towns of Bokod, Benguet, and Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya.
Claver said TINPO owns a lot where the metals fabrication facility will be built this year.
The DOST-CAR spent PHP376,320 to buy a set of equipment such as a compressor, drill press, welding machine, among others.
Claver said in the second week of July, the DOST will hold a four-day training at the Binga Dam Compound on metals fabrication of various products.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-Benguet will provide a resource speaker.
"We are also looking at the possibility of working with TESDA-Benguet to make the facility as a training site for their NC IIn program on metalworks so that residents will no longer have to travel to Baguio City to get the certification," Claver said.
She said TINPO is expected to manage the facility, and hire members to work on this project. (PNA)
