MOA signed to enhance pony boys’ tourism skills

One of the city’s tourism frontliners are the latest beneficiary of an inter-agency initiative that aims to raise the tourism and entrepreneurial services of stakeholders in the industry.
The pony boys or horse handlers and trainers at Wright Park and various regional line agencies led by the Department of Labor and Employment signed on Dec. 27 a memorandum of agreement that formalized the undertaking to help in poverty reduction by enhancing the productivity of the agency’s program beneficiaries.
The MOA is pursuant to DOLE’s Productivity Improvement and Kabuhayan Program and implemented in partnership with other agencies such as the Department of Tourism.
Among other things, the partnership aims to help enhance the tourism and entrepreneurial skills of members of the Kabalyero Guardians, Inc. and the Wright Park Horse Handler’s Consumers Cooperative.
Under the MOA, DOLE-CAR will provide assistance to the groups to make their livelihood sustainable and transform them into enterprises that will generate more employment opportunities to the community.
The DOT is responsible in training the beneficiaries on tour guiding and other skills that will make them compliant with the Filipino Brand of Service Excellence and share in the provision of article of clothing to the beneficiaries to attain a distinctive, uniform, and easily identifiable appearance.
The Technical Education and Skills Development, which is also one of the signatories to the MOA, is responsible in providing additional livelihood assistance or skills training, which the beneficiaries may use and apply in their tour guiding services and horse waste management.
The city government of Baguio, meanwhile, is in charge of providing the beneficiaries with continuing education and training on proper waste disposal and management, park cleanliness, and maintenance to ensure the protection of the environment and public health.
It will also provide check up and learning sessions with the beneficiaries on healthcare and grooming for the horses.
The other agencies that will provide assistance to the beneficiaries are the Professional Regulation Commission and Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
DOLE Sec. Beinvenido Laguesma and DOLE-CAR Director Nathaniel Lacambra witnessed the MOA signing. – Jane B. Cadalig