Lucena City, Quezon – The Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) in South Luzon held a training on Construction and Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) for partner local government units (LGUs) on September 4–9.

The infrastructure development (I-BUILD) component of the PRDP South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) partnered with Persons 360. The Persons 360, an accredited safety training practitioner of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), discussed the importance of occupational health and safety in the construction industry.

The training participants from the CALABARZON Region were LGU representatives from the municipalities of Candelaria, Mulanay, Guinayangan, and the cities of Lucena and Luisiana in the provinces of Quezon and Laguna. LGUs from the regions of MIMAROPA and Bicol also attended the training with the regional PRDP I-BUILD personnel.

The COSH training emphasized the institutionalization of emergency response teams based on the department order of DOLE. However, according to the resource persons, this is not a priority for some contractors due to insufficient budget.

“We are happy that all I-BUILD subprojects in the region have a safety officer in place. This is a proof that the PRDP is strict in terms of the proper and better implementation of rural infrastructures projects,” PRDP CALABARZON RPCO I-BUILD Alternate Component Head Gene Sta. Ines said.

In PRDP, the inclusion of a safety officer is part of the Program of Works (POW) as pay item. The POW is one of the required documents before an I-BUILD proposal is approved by the Regional Project Advisory Board.

The training participants were also exposed to the work of the Emergency Response Team and Safety Officers when they visited the Light Industry Industrial Park (LIIP) in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna.  ### (Lawrence Albert A. Bariring, DA-PRDP CALABARZON RPCO InfoACE Unit)

The training participants visited a construction site at the Light Industry Industrial Park (LIIP) in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna to observe how the Emergency Response Team and Safety Officers work. (Photo by Engr. Rhishel Peñara)