Jinggoy favors TESDA return to DOLE

SENATOR Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada said he favors the return of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) as an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), noting it would be a “logical and sensible decision.”

“It’s a logical and sensible decision. And it’s consistent with the law, RA 7796, which created TESDA and which likewise named the Secretary of Labor and Employment as the chairperson of the board of TESDA,” Estrada said.

He added the reversion would also be consistent with the ‘rightsizing’ of the bureaucracy as enumerated by President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., during his first State of the Nation Address last July.

The TESDA board, as stated in RA 7796 (TESDA charter) is primarily responsible for formulating, continuing, coordinating, and fully integrating technical education and skills development policies, plans, and programs and allocating resources based on the DOLE secretary’s recommendations for the programs and projects the agency shall undertake said Estrada, who is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Labor Employment and Human Resources Development.

The above provisions, he added further, were also cited in Executive Order No. 5 issued by President Marcos Jr. last September 16, 2022.

EO No. 5 ordered the transfer of TESDA as an attached agency of DOLE to rationalize the functional structures of government agencies with complementary mandates and to promote coordination, efficiency, and organizational coherence in the bureaucracy.

“While the DOLE is the policy-coordinating arm for the promotion of gainful employment opportunities, protection of workers and promotion of their welfare, TESDA, on the other hand, is tasked to manage and supervise technical education and skills development,” Estrada said.

The move, Estrada further noted, is obviously aligned with the reform mechanism that the President mentioned during his SONA.

“Mas makatitiyak tayo na mapapahusay ang institutional capacity ng mga ahensya ng gobyerno kung magagampanan nila ang kanilang mga mandato at makatitiyak tayo ng mas maayos at mainam na serbisyo,” he said.

Meanwhile, thru his sponsorship the Commission on Appointments (CA) this Tuesday, September 20, 2022, approved the ad interim appointment of Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma as labor chief.

Laguesma has previously served as DOLE secretary under the administration of Estrada’s father, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada.