The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) - Isabela, being the co-chair of the Poverty Reduction, Livelihood and Employment (PRLEC) cluster of the NTF-ELCAC, has urged all government agencies under the cluster to pour programs, projects and services in a former NPA-controlled village in San Mariano town and other geographically isolated and areas affected by armed conflicts in the province.

The call was made by TESDA Isabela head Dr. Demetrio Anduyan Jr, who presided the PRLEC meeting held at the TESDA - ISAT in this city.

Anduyan said barangay Dibuluan was once the lair of New People’s Army (NPA) and now that the area is cleared from insurgency, programs, projects and services must be rendered in order that the people in the area will benefit from it.

He said TESDA has allocated P1.3 million for its “Project PAGSIBOL”tor the Partnership Among Government Agencies for Skills Training Intervention and Better Opportunities for Livelihood.

The project fuses the resources of various government agencies in order to implement development projects in geographically isolated and areas affected by armed conflicts and hopes to alleviate poverty in the countryside in order to improve the quality of life of the people.

“We want that all government agencies will converge and render the necessary intervention to make the people in the place be productive,” Anduyan said.

Meanwhile, the 95th Infantry Battalion led by Lt. Col. Gladius Calilan under the 5th Infantry Division, Philippine Army, assured that security in the area in place as troops are already deployed in three strategic locations.

Source: PIA Isabela