By Maroe T. Genosa/PNA
BATANGAS CITY — Lovers, couples and city folks who are still in search for Valentine’s Day gifts and presents can visit a trade fair on Thursday for the Valentine’s Day offering of crafts and novelties made by inmates, now known as Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL), at Plaza Mabini here.
In a media interview, City Jail Warden Neil Felipe Ramo said Tuesday that the trade fair is one of the projects implemented by the San Jose Sico City Jail to help in the livelihood, capacity-building and improve the lot of PDLs.
Ramo said the project intends to enhance the PDLs’ creativity, skills and talents as they craft livelihood products while under detention and lead normal lives upon their release from prison.
Under the livelihood training program, he said the male inmates are trained on crafts, artistic decors, paintings and other costume jewelry beads, while the female inmates undertake skills enhancement in food processing.
Ramo said there are currently 298 PDLs at the city’s Sico Jail, where around 75 percent of inmates have drug cases.
Meanwhile, the Valentine’s Day Trade Fair opens from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. where various crafts and products made by the PDLs from the city and 57 other jails in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) Region are up for sale.
For prospective buyers and shoppers, the products that will be showcased include beadworks, paintings, paper maché, and crochet stuffs.
