DAVAO CITY — The Integrated Livelihood Program (ILP) for 572 fishing industry workers in Davao Occidental affected by the closed fishing season in Davao Gulf is continuing amid the relief and response efforts undertaken by government agencies after the earthquake that hit southeastern Mindanao last June 8.
“Yes, we are continuing since the closed fishing season from June 1 to Aug. 31 has been continuously implemented. As programmed, we completed the orientation, the beneficiaries are now doing community work, and they are already in training,” said Paul Cruz, provincial director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Davao Occidental Provincial Office, said partly in Filipino.
He said initial training focused on safety at sea, and next will be a training under the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
“After the 15-day working engagement, DOLE will pay the emergency employment, then later the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development),” Cruz said.
The Integrated Livelihood Program is an inter-agency approach to providing alternative livelihoods to affected fishery workers in Davao Occidental — 451 are sea-based, and 121 are land-based.
The ILP, Cruz said, is not a piecemeal approach but rather a continuous package of livelihood services that will cover affected workers during the closed fishing season in the Davao Gulf, enforced by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
The ILP will initially cover Davao Occidental, and plans are underway to make the program regionwide.
Cruz said the beneficiaries of the ILP were not affected by the earthquake as there were no reported casualties among fish workers.
“They are on the coast, and the affected are those in the mountainous areas,” Cruz said.
The DOLE Davao Region Office is also participating in the relief and response efforts following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region on June 8.
“We in the DOLE had a clean water campaign to help in the relief operations. That is the initial, then later on, during the installation of temporary shelters, we will have an emergency employment, then those packing relief goods, we could include them in the emergency employment,” Cruz said in Filipino.