CDC trains Aetas for eco-tourism activities

CLARK FREEPORT – The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) spearheaded the training of 18 Aetas on eco-tourism as part of the state-owned firm’s development of the Next Frontier in the Sacobia Valley .
CDC Tourism and Promotions Office Manager Noemi Garcia said the Aetas were brought to the JEST Camp inside the Subic Freeport and underwent a one-day training on eco-tourism.
She said the participants in the eco-tourism training also took a crash course in survival training and capped the activity with a trek of the JEST Camp’s mountainous area.
Garcia said the Aetas were the same group that has successfully completed a course on tour guiding. They are now employed at the Clark Museum as tour guides.
CDC President Benigno N. Ricafort said part of their training was a tour to various national museums “to benchmark and observe” the work of curators and guides.
Ricafort added that the 18 Aetas have been selected as tour guides after an extensive training spearheaded by the CDC, in cooperation with the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region III office last June 15 to 19, 2009.
Last August this year, more than 100 Aetas and residents of the Sacobia Valley here have applied for security force for the Next Frontier area.
Ricafort said the hiring of Aeta security personnel is one of the CDC’s measures to provide livelihood programs for indigenous people in the Next Frontier area.
Dubbed “Special Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary” (SCAA), the project is a recruitment of Ayta Security Detail for the Next Frontier, Ricafort said.
Ricafort said the SCAA is a collaboration program of the state-owned firm with the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Air Force.
He said more than 100 Aetas, including non-Aeta residents, have applied in the program, adding that a total of 88 personnel will be hired for the SCAA project.
Ricafort reported that the applicants have trained at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija for 45 days, added that the CDC will provide for the trainees’ allowances and other incidentals for the duration of their stay in Fort Magsaysay.
The CDC president said the initial scope of SCAA personnel is “to assist and provide security to the surveying and engineering personnel to complete the land-marking of the Next Frontier Master Development Plan.”
Also, the SCAA is expected “to assist and provide security to the surveying and engineering contractors for the construction of the road infrastructure that will be funded with the advance rental payments of the Next Frontier investors.”
“The SCAA project is related to the CDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program for the Next Frontier,” Ricafort said, citing the recent hiring of 18 Aetas to serve as tour guides inside the Freeport and their eco-tourism training at the Subic Freeport.