Twenty residents of Mangatarem town in Pangasinan affected by typhoons on Wednesday received livelihood starter kits from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

In an interview, DTI Pangasinan provincial director Natalia Dalaten said the 20 beneficiaries were trained in entrepreneurship as they started or resumed their businesses through the starter kits.

The recipients got different starter kits but most availed of a sari-sari store package.

“The livelihood kits each individual received depend on their request,” she said.

Each livelihood starter kit is worth PHP8,000 under the Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa (PPG) program, the brainchild of Senator Christopher Lawrence Go that started during the peak of the pandemic.

The DTI distributes goods, utensils or equipment instead of monetary capital to ensure that beneficiaries will pursue their businesses. They undergo entrepreneurship and consumer advocacy training before they qualify for the starter kit.

“DTI’s mandate is to teach them entrepreneurship as they would also learn their responsibilities to the consumers,” Dalaten said.

She said the PPG offers livelihood assistance to microenterprises impacted by fire incidents and other disasters, and aid to individuals through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to augment their capital and offer crucial support to small businesses.

Jovy Buduan, personnel of the Mangatarem Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office, in a separate interview, said they are grateful to the program of the government as the town was recently devastated by typhoons and enhanced southwest monsoon affecting the source of income of the residents and placing it under a state of calamity.

She said the DTI, in its other programs and projects, still verifies additional beneficiaries, specifically those severely affected by the calamities. (PNA)