Kabalikat awardees Sec. Art Tugade of the Transportation department, Sen. Sonny Angara and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda (second to fourth from left) are flanked by TESDA chief Isidro Lapeña and Cabinet Sec. Karlo Nograles during the agency’s 25th founding anniversary on Friday. (Facebook photo)

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda and Department of Transportation Sec. Art Tugade were among the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 2019 National Kabalikat awardees during the agency’s 25th anniversary on Friday held at its auditorium in Taguig.

The honor is the agency’s highest institutional recognition for the awardees’ continuous contributions to technical education and skills development program.

The annual Kabalikat Awards is likewise given to the institution’s most active and outstanding partners who have contributed in developing, enhancing and implementing multi-faceted skills training programs.

Salceda, who also bagged the regional honors for Region V, was recognized for his sustained and active contribution to Tesda dating back to his three terms as congressman of Albay’s third district, Albay governor for nine years and now as representative of his province’s second district.

His most recent contribution to Tesda was through the enactment of the Free Tuition law or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA), which he authored. The law secured the release of P7 billion in 2018 and another P7 billion in the 2019 budgets for its technical vocational programs. An additional P7 billion or possibly more, is anticipated in the 2020 General Appropriations Act.

In 2018, Salceda initiated the inclusion of Tesda in the UAQTEA that helped assure continuous funding for the agency’s training institutes, providing a platform to expand its short-term courses like Training for Work Scholarship and Special Training for Employment programs to two years as associate degree courses.

As governor, Salceda included Tesda in the tertiary financing programs of Albay, helping at least 55,000 students gain access to Tesda courses, either short-term or associate, in both Tesda training institutes and private technical-vocational providers.

In 2012, the Albay provincial government provided P25 million for the construction of two two-storey buildings in Daraga town. With provincial support, the Daraga Human Resources Development Center acquired the equipment needed as Tesda recognized it as the most modern culinary arts facility in Bicol.

For his part, Tugade committed the continuing partnership of the DOTr and TESDA, particularly the “Tsuper Iskolar” program.

“Stakeholders from the transportation sector, especially public utility vehicle drivers, are now assured of the needed assistance in the form of free skills training as the DOTr implements the PUV Modernization Program. There should be no room for anyone in the sector to worry about being disenfranchised as the PUV sector is modernized,” Tesda chief Isidro Lapeña said.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Dubai was the sole Kabalikat awardee in the national government agency category for enhancing and implementing training programs that resulted in better employment opportunities for skilled Filipino workers in the United Arab Emirates.

Also recognized was the municipal government of Bataraza in Palawan for advancing the Technical Vocational Education and Training.