TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said the frontline tourism workers who were affected by the oil spill in Mindoro will be subjected to capacity building and skills training programs to prepare and provide them with alternative sources of livelihood.

“At this point, it’s really about ensuring that our tourism frontline workers na kung mawalan man sila ng work for a few days or weeks because of the oil spill that we are able to provide them with alternative sources of livelihood and that is why we will be providing trainings to them, not just specifically focused on their present work but to alternative types of work,” Frasco said during her television guesting at Teleradyo’s morning show Sakto.

The Tourism chief said the training will be conducted by the Department’s regional offices.

Frasco also shared that she has already directed the Department’s regional offices, through 4B (MIMAROPA) and 6 (Western Visayas), to consolidate all of the names of the affected tourism workers and have them endorsed to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to avail of the assistance under the Tulong PanghanapBuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program.

“Per our monitoring, umabot na sa 63 tourism sites yung affected ng oil spill and up to 1,000 tourism workers. Kasali na din dito ‘yung ating community-based tourism. And so, we are monitoring this very closely and I’ve already directed the regional offices to craft a recovery action plan para naman po mabigyan natin ng guidance ‘yung ating mga affected tourism stakeholders and we are sure to provide social protection sa ating mga affected tourism workers,” she emphasized.

Likewise, the DOT, through its Office of Industry and Manpower Development (OIMD), will also conduct a learning needs assessment to develop a training module on oil spill to better equip tourism stakeholders in case similar incidents happen in the future.

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Cristina Lee-Pisco