ILOILO CITY, Iloilo  (PNA) — Scholars of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Western Visayas are earning well after their skills training and after they have been provided with tool kits. TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva has launched the TESDA Specialista Technopreneurship Program extending additional support to the scholars. There are 589 specialistas in the region trained, provided with tool kits and formed into groups so that they could better be assisted in terms of their livelihood.

COPS ALARMED

DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental (PNA) — Law enforcers here are alarmed by the apparent increase in the availability of illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in the locality. Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (PAIDSOTG) chief, Insp. Janelito Marquez said the perceived abundance of shabu in the city and other parts of the province was confirmed by last week’s arrest of a suspected big time drug pusher and a runner who yielded more than half a million pesos worth of the prohibited drug.  Seized from the suspects were 10 big plastic sachets of suspected shabu, with an estimated value of R590,000, so far the biggest illegal drugs haul in the city and the province in decades.

CASH AID

CEBU CITY, Cebu (PNA) — Some 47,872 Cebu City senior citizens recently received the first tranche of R3,000 cash assistance from the city government for this year. With a total of 51,003 qualified senior citizens in the city, that means 3,131 senior citizens have not yet received their share of such financial assistance. Office of Senior Citizens Affairs head Roland Llaguno assured all qualified seniors will receive their cash gifts raised from R5,000 last year to R7,000 this year. Cebu City Hall last June distributed R3,000 each to 47,872 senior citizens, according to the records of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca).

KIDS FED

SAN JOSE, Antique (PIA) — The Council of Human Resource Management Practitioners or HRMP — Antique Chapter has launched a feeding program in Pantao Elementary School, San Jose.  This is in line with the group’s "adopt a school project" where about 200 pupils are expected to benefit from the feeding program, said Antique human resource management officer Corazon Jarandillo. The Antique HRMP led by Alma Melicano launched said feeding program on July 17. The program which aims to improve the nutritional status of children in the said school will be undertaken Tuesdays and Thursdays. HRMP vice president Theresa Montinola said they would like to sustain the program.

P.P.A.-D.O.J. ANNIVERSARY

CATARMAN, Northern Samar (PIA) — The Parole and Probation Administration marked its 36th year with the theme “PPA-DOJ @ 36 “Performance, Professionalism and Accountability in Community Corrections.” North Samar Chief Parole and Probation Officer Felipe Irinco said this is the 36th year since former President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree 968, establishing a probation system to promote the correction and rehabilitation of an offender, and providing the latter with a chance to reform and prevent further commission of offenses.