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A. LE FLOCH
Special livelihood programs for sugar workers in Negros Occidental during the dead season, and for porters from the shutdown Bacolod airport will be implemented soon, Liduvino Geron, first vice president for programs management of the Land Bank of the Philippines, said yesterday.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves who was leaving for Paris last night told the DAILY STAR he had instructed Geron to act on the matter.
Gov. Isidro Zayco raised the problem of displaced sugar workers with the President during her visit to Negros Occidental Thursday last week and she instructed Teves to look into the matter and coordinate with the governor.
The “dead season” refers to the off-milling period in the sugar industry when there is little, to no work on sugarcane farms.
Zayco had earlier said the dead season usually lasts for three to four months and, during that period, sugar planters provide assistance to their workers. But because of poor production this crop year brought on by a long rainy season it is expected to last from April to September.
Geron said they are coming up with a special program for displaced workers during the dead season. “Our people in the field will discuss the program with the governor this week,” he said.
The assistance will involve micro finance for livelihood programs so that it will be sustainable, Geron explained.
Geron said the problem of the sugar workers and the porters was also brought to their attention by Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who was in Bacolod during the President’s visit last week.
The 72-year-old Bacolod airport was closed down in January 2008 with the opening of the new Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City.
“We are also coming up with a sustainable livelihood program for the displaced airport workers,” Geron said.*CPG