TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Isidro Lapeña spearheaded the launching of Liwanag At Malasakit Ramdam ang Asenso at Ginhawa Project in the provinces of Leyte, Eastern Samar, and Southern Leyte.

Lapena first attended a meeting of President Rodrigo Duterte with the Joint National and Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in Eastern Visayas, before spending his days afterwards visiting TESDA offices and meeting the Regional Poverty Reduction, Livelihood, and Employment Cluster together with the different local government units.

Project LAMRAG was first launched by Lapeña in Eastern Samar last March 19, with TESDA Deputy Director General for TESDA Operations Lina Sarmiento, Chief-of-Staff Juliet Orosco, TESDA-VIII Regional Director Gamaliel Vicente, Jr., local officials, PRLEC member-agencies, and regional officials of the Department of Energy.

Last Monday, the project was launched in Southern Leyte and on the following day, in Leyte Province.

Like its equivalent training programs launched in other regions, Project LAMRAG in Eastern Visayas aims to provide solar lighting systems in Geographically Isolated Disadvantaged Areas including the PRLEC-identified barangays.

It trains residents of GIDAs in Photovoltaic Systems Installation NC II through the scholarship and community-based training programs of TESDA and the installation of Solar Home System Components under the Household Electrification Program of DoE.

Lamrag is the Waray term for liwanag or light.

The TESDA chief hopes the agency’s skills training, along with the projects of the PRLEC and other RTF-NTF-ELCAC Clusters will help bring lasting peace and development in the communities of Eastern Visayas which were once a stronghold of the New People’s Army.

“Now that they will know how to bring light inside their homes, we will follow it up with more skills training related to agriculture, construction, livelihood, and other training programs that can help uplift their living conditions and develop their community,” he said.

During the RTF-ELCAC Meeting with President Duterte, Lapeña also led the awarding of Certificates of Scholarship Commitment to the six priority barangays in Northern Samar under the Barangay Development Program.

TESDA is also set to provide skills training and scholarship to 1,768 individuals in Eastern Visayas who have received Certificates of Land Ownership from the Department of Agrarian Reform.