THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said workers in the firecracker industry who may be displaced by a looming ban on their products may be offered assistance in setting up businesses or retrained for construction work.
“We will definitely help offer livelihood and negosyo offers, [o]r jobs like in the construction industry,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said on Thursday in a text message to reporters.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday called for a law banning firecrackers nationwide. Such a ban would displace around 75,000 workers, especially in Bulacan.
Retrained workers can help partly make up for the shortage of construction workers, a potential bottleneck for the government’s ambitious infrastructure program.
Former undersecretary for competitiveness and ease of doing business Ruth B. Castelo said late last year that there is a shortage of about 2.5 million workers in the construction industry.
Workers in the construction industry are estimated at 3.3 million.
The DTI has a collaboration with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to supply the needed workers and has signed an agreement with Japan to help train them. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato
