The city council has approved Ordinance 07, s. 2024 institutionalizing the “Matakal Jen Obda Skills Festival” in the City of Baguio every last week of September.
It is also a way for the city, as the center of education in the North, to give importance to the promotion and development of talents and essential skills among its citizens.
As used in the ordinance, Matakal Jen Obda refers to an Ibaloy term which means “skills in working.”
The purpose and objective of the festival are to increase awareness of the importance of relevant technical skills that everyone must acquire; improve the local skills index in general which in the process would help the city in identifying the needed skill-based training for its constituents; strategically address skills and competency mismatches; discover local talents and competent and skilled youth who could represent the city in the national and world, or international skills Olympics; and promote technical-vocational education and training as an equally important learning career path.
It serves as an avenue for technical-vocational training centers and local entrepreneurs to meet their counterparts from various industries for employment collaboration, re-skilling, and re-tooling; and an avenue for local skilled workers to showcase their competencies which may encourage the youth to acquire the same in combination with their formal education and academic training.
In addition, the festival highlights the correlation between quality work and acquiring relevant skills strengthened by a personable attitude as essential attributes for one to be a workplace high performer; and promotes the city as a dynamic learning city for all levels from basic, technical-vocational, to higher education.
The ordinance created a working committee to be comprised of a chairperson who is the local chief executive; a vice chairperson who is the representative from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Baguio-Benguet; the implementing office, which is the Baguio Federation of Technical-Vocational Institutions, Inc.; and members from various government and private offices/schools, associations, and institutions
The programs and activities of the festival include a skills fair and exhibit, local skills Olympics, skills and innovation summit-cum-career fair, skills benchmarking, skills demonstration by Special Education learners; skills presentation related to indigenous people’s creative practices, capacity development for trainers and creative skills advocates, and such other activities and programs as determined by the committee.
The amount of P500,000 shall be appropriated for the purpose and shall be included in the annual budget of the City Administrator’s Office and primarily for the conduct of the annual skills festival, public consultation, collaborative meetings, and capacity development training for creative skills advocates and other stakeholders.
In Resolution 086, s. 2024, the city council has urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission of Elections to immediately conduct the Sangguniang Kabataan special election in Baguio to fill the vacancies in the SK councils in the different barangays.
In the resolution, results of the synchronized BSKE last Oct. 30, 2023, showed that some barangays in the city have an incomplete set of SK officials as there were not enough candidates to complete the entire membership or elective seats of the SK, wherein only 51 barangays have a quorum in their SK, 61 barangays with an incomplete set of SK officials and no quorum, and 16 barangays without an SK chairperson and members.
Such SK members shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the term of the vacant seat. For this purpose, any citizen of the Philippines residing in the said barangay for at least six months who attains the age of 15 years old at the time of the special election and who registers as member of the Katipunan ng Kabataan before the SK secretary shall be entitled to vote in the special election.
In Resolution 093, s. 2024, the city council recommended no conduct of demolition for three months at the Pacdal/Gibraltar satellite market.
The resolution further urged that all computed fees to be paid by the stall owners at the Pacdal/Gibraltar satellite market be waived and shall not be a reason for them not being relocated.
The city council approved Resolution 099, s. 2024, honoring Petra B. Lukingan as a centenarian of Baguio.
The youngest among the four children of farmers Cristina and Kidapan Batiel, Petra was born on Jan. 24, 1924, and raised in Data, Sabangan, Mountain Province where she completed Grade 1 and dedicated herself to toil in the fields to help her family.
She was married to Leoncio Lukingan in 1948 and blessed with four children. In 1979, they established their family residence at Kias barangay. While Leoncio was serving in the military during the Korean War, Petra lovingly nurtured their children, maintaining a strong familial bond despite the physical distance.
In 1983, their eldest military son, Henry, died in an ambush, while Leoncio succumbed to an illness in 2003.
Petra attributes her longevity, vigor, and clear vision to a diet rich in self-cultivated vegetables, alongside a preference for fish over meat.
May 6, 2024
