Pres. Gloria Scholarship benefits 5,136 Capiceños
by Julie Baraquia
The various qualifications availed of by the scholars under the program include Commercial Cooking, Bartending, Food and Beverage Services, Housekeeping, Household Services, Computer Hardware Servicing, Consumer Electronics Servicing and Shielded Metal Arc Welding, among others.
“Some of the graduates are already employed, reaping the fruit of success,” said a Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) Capiz Provincial Office news release.
However, TESDA is offering “Jobs Bridging” for those graduate scholars who are still unemployed.
Jobs bridging is an assistance given to scholars to find employment thru referral to or matching with local and foreign employers/companies looking for skilled workers.
Starting this August, Tekbok Training providers will be asked to set up “Blue Desks” in their training institutions to provide job referral/job matching services and other forms of assistance, noted the TESDA press release.
The Local Government Units (LGUs) will also be requested to set up their own “Blue Desks” to be manned by their respective Public Employment Service Office (PESO) and/or their Community Training and Employment Coordinators (CTEC).
The PGS that was previously named PGMA – Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) has already distributed 809,000 scholarships nationwide. This is an offshoot of the pro-active Jobs-Skills Matching Process of TESDA which provides free training, training support fund as well as competency assessment.
The program is in support to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s call for the government’s economic resiliency program to enhance job creation and preservation. (TESDA-Capiz/PIA)
334 farmer-beneficiaries to benefit from ARC expansion
Brgy. Salngan is now an expansion area of the Jaguimitan-Alimono Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) in Passi City under the Agrarian Reform Development Project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
ARC is a convergence zone for the delivery of various support services such as infrastructure projects, livelihood and financing programs.
DAR 6 Assistant Regional Director for Operations Felicidad C. Banares presented the Certificate of Confirmation to the officials of Brgy. Salngan and the Jaguimitan-Alimono ARC in a simple ceremony held at the barangay’s multi-purpose hall recently.
The Certificate of Confirmation is a proof that Brgy. Salngan is now officially included in the National ARC masterlist as a priority area for Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) intervention and foreign-assisted projects.
Infrastructure projects like farm-to-market roads, post harvest facilities, basic social services such as potable water system, power supply, school and medical facilities are among the much needed support for development identified by the residents of Brgy. Salngan.
Banares assisted by Passi City Vice Mayor Jovi Palmares and Iloilo Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Eribardo Erispe also unveiled the Salngan-Jaguimitan-Alimono marker during the ceremony.
During the ceremony, some 13 farmers also claimed full ownership of the land they till after they received their Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs)from Banares and Erispe.
In her State of the Nation Address last Tuesday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that through the distribution of millions of hectares of land,700,000 indigenous people and more than a million beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)can proudly say they their own land.
The President said she will also ask Congress to pass the CARP extension immediately. (PIA)
MIGEDC-JICA puts up traffic surveys, experiments
The workshop will be run by the UP Technical Center for Transportation Studies experts, to be participated in by traffic personnel from MIGEDC member municipalities, namely Pavia, Oton, Sta. Barbara, San Miguel Guimaras and Iloilo City.
UP Prof. Lorenza Padojonig, JICA MTM-MIG consultant said the participants will be trained to undertake surveys on traffic volume, speed, travel time and delay, queue length and vehicle origin-destination.
Padojinog said the training exercise will have for its site the busy intersection fronting UPV-Iloilo and the Jollibee at Gen. Luna St., the area being identified as almost always congested and difficult to regulate.
She said the TWG members will either conduct surveys or run social experiments way back in their respective towns after the workshop, with financial assistance from the JICA.
Padojinog added that the capacity-building activity seeks to lay the ground for the drafting of the Traffic Management Action Agenda, intended to gather the transport and traffic problems and issues around Metro Iloilo and Guimaras, to arrive at some level of improvement.
The action agenda is expected to reflect concrete action plan which the localities will pursue in the next five years. (MIDGEC-JICA/PIA6/ESS)
8,000 Capiz farmers turn landowners
by Jemin B. Guillermo
According to Planning and Monitoring Unit head Vivia Gelera of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Capiz, a total of 8,858 farmers here were granted Emancipation Patents (EPs) and Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs).
Gelera said that since 2001 to June 2009, they were able to distribute a total of 9,399 CLOAs and EPs covering an area of 12,785 hectares.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her 9th State of the Nation Address (SONA) said that with the government’s determination to implement the CARP, millions of Filipinos have benefited from the land distribution program.
In particular, President Arroyo spelled out that about 700,000 ‘katutubo” and CARP beneficiaries are now proud land owners.
Land distribution to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) from the CARPed lands has been one of the President’s long term contributions to progress.
With her remaining months as Chief Executive of the Republic, President Arroyo has urged Congress to immediately pass the extension of the CARP as well as the condonation of P42 billion agrarian liabilities.
Congress has recently approved the CARP Extension bill with Reforms. It is poised to ratify the harmonized version that resulted from the Bicameral Conference Committee meetings held by the House and Senate Panels on Agrarian Reform during the recess.
The President is scheduled to sign the CARPER bill into law on August 7, 2009 to coincide with the anniversary of the signing of RA 3844 or the Agricultural Land Reform Code in honor and as a tribute to the Father of Land Reform, President Diosdado Macapagal, the DAR online news disclosed.
Meanwhile, Gelera revealed that the Capiz DAR office has still about 12,000 hectares of CARPed lands for distribution to qualified farmer beneficiaries until 2014.
She said that with the approval of the CARP extension, more Capiceño farmers would be benefited. (PIA)
Student journalists urged to write about climate change
Jed Kilbourn and Amaraine Laven said Ilonggo readers get low exposure to media stories because local papers, including school publications, have not dealt much on stories which explain climate change or illustrate its occurrences.
Kilbourn and Laven were resource persons on climate change during the PIA-sponsored Basic Journalism workshop, July 27, attended by more than 250 campus paper writers in Western Visayas.
Kilbourn said, although the Philippines is not a big contributor to global climate change, it will be profoundly affected by it, hence, the people should prepare for the risks and uncertainties they have to face.
Kilbourn and Laven said that their interviews with people in the region revealed a lack of full understanding of the total effects of climate change Western Visayas can face, like increased flooding, typhoons, crop failures and others, that could intensify.
They also said that local evidence of climate change vary from place to place so localized stories can focus mitigation and disaster risk management.
Kilbourn said campus writers can do much to increase awareness of the public so that they can advocate for poverty reduction and a cleaner environment.
He said further that no country has so far been doing much about global climate change, but a country can always begin on its local scenario.
“Public information and education is the first step. Journalists can do much in this,” Kilbourn and Laven said. (PIA6/ESS)
Capiceños enjoy benefits of RORO routes rehab
by Jemin B. Guillermo
In fact, more Capiceños opted to take the RORO routes to easily bring their farm products to other areas in the country, particularly Metro Manila with lesser transport cost using the RORO bus.
They insisted that using the RORO transport system is more affordable, fast as well as safe.
Engineer Nilo Gavia, head of Capiz Second Engineering District of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), revealed that the Capiz section of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway that runs for 50 kilometers from Sapian to Dumarao and links the province with Aklan and Iloilo is undergoing rehabilitation.
Gavia said that the rehabilitation of the national highway is part of President Arroyo’s Strong Arroyo’s SRNH major legacy project that she spelled out in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2006.
He pointed out that the SRNH was conceived to support tourism development and promotion in the Central Philippines Super Region that has been designated by President Arroyo as the country’s tourism belt.
During President Arroyo’s 9th SONA which was delivered July 27, the President revealed that with the economic measures that her administration has implemented to boost government revenues, the country was able to develop critical infrastructures like seaports, airports, and roll-on-roll-off routes.
She cited as an example the development of the Subic-Clark Expressway that has helped create wealth for Subic and Clark, Pampanga.
Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza said that the programs and projects under the administration of President Arroyo are all focused on providing excellent services for the ordinary Filipinos.
He said that the advances in the transportation and infrastructure sector have productively benefited the poor Filipinos throughout the country.
Mendoza said that under President Arroyo’s term, the RORO project was put in place and three nautical highways which have linked the major islands in the country were established. (PIA)
DPWH highlights Aklan infra projects in time for SONA
by Venus G. Villanueva
Kalibo, Aklan (30 July) — Three major infrastructure projects implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) here since 2001 when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became President were highlighted by the department as completed projects.
A picture of Ibajay Bridge, inaugurated here by PGMA in June 2008 before Typhoon Frank struck Aklan took a prominent space in the two-page list of DPWH-completed projects since 2001 published in a national newspaper July 27 in time with PGMA’s 9th State of the Nation Address (SONA).
The two other major infrastructure projects in Aklan cited as completed include the Kalibo-Nabas Road, ADB sixth Road Project (Structural Overlay Component), 39.54 kilometers; and Culasi-Nabas Road, Aklan and Antique, ADB Six Road Project (Structural Overlay Component),44.31 kilometers, both implemented in 2005.
The Ibajay Bridge is 246 lm double lane leads to the Caticlan Jetty Port where commercial ships and RORO boats dock. Caticlan is the jump-off point to Boracay Island. It is a UK Steel Truss located 63 meters downstream of the existing bridge at Brgy. Polo, Ibajay, Aklan along the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) at Aklan West Road.
According to the DPWH, in the 21st century under the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the department has harnessed resources and manpower to put stone and steel to work to Drive Development Through Responsive and Responsible Public Works.
The DPWH has poured since 2001 concrete and welded steel to expand the road network to 29,370 kilometers, and the bridge network to 314,353 lineal meters.
In Aklan as of June 30, 2009, 5 major projects undertaken by the DPWH include the Aklan East Road, now 92% complete; Altavas-Jamindan Road, 90%; Caticlan Port Access Road, 60%; Kalibo Airport, Pook, Kalibo, 60%; and Caticlan-Malay-Libertad Road, Malay, Phase I, 100% complete. (PIA)
Leyte consumer prices drop from March-June 2009 levels
By Neil D. Lopido
Tacloban City (July 30) — The Prices of goods and services in the province of Leyte registered a significant drop since March 2009 according to report from the Leyte Provincial Statistics Office through its provincial statistics officer, Wilma A. Perante.
Perante informed that the biggest drop was noted from March to April by 3.4 percentage points and followed by a 1.7 percentage points from May to June 2009. The 11 percent year-on-year rate of price change in May 2009 had considerably dwindled to 9.3 percent for the month-in-review which means that increase in prices of goods and services was slower in June 2009 compared to that of the previous month, Perante further informed.
The statistics officer revealed also that the decline on the inflation rate of the major commodity groups accounted the significant decrease of the inflation rate in the province of Leyte in June 2009. These commodity groups include fuel, light and water which dropped by 3.7 percentage points, services by 2.2 percentage points, and food by 1.9 percentage points.
On the other hand, a slight increment of 0.5 percentage point was observed on the month-on-month price change in the province due to considerable increase of the month-on-month price change of services by 3.4 percentage points and on housing and repairs by 1.2 percentage points, Perante disclosed.
On the purchasing power of the peso (PPP), a one-centavo fall was noted from May to June 2009, posting the province PPP at 61 centavos for the month in review, Perante further disclosed.
Inflation Rate (IR) is the general rise of prices over a specified period of time. It indicates how fast or how slow price changes over two-time periods. Contrary to common knowledge, low inflation does not necessarily mean that prices are falling; rather, it means that prices continue to increase at a slower rate. On the other hand, Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) is a measure of how much the peso in the base period is worth in another period. It gives us an indication on the real value of the peso in a given period relative to the peso value in the base period. (PIA-8)
Calbayog partners with PNP, Army for security
By Ninfa B Quirante
Calbayog City (July 30) — Calbayog Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento met with the so called Security Cluster Tuesday for the update on the investigations being made by the PNP on the reported shooting incidents in Calbayog.
Also discussed was the coordination to be made between the PNP and the Philippine Army and their respective tasks to maintain peace and order in the city.
As reported earlier, the police troops from the Police Regional Mobile Group (PRMG) will be conducting checkpoints in Calbayog.
The Philippine Army through the 34th Infantry Battalion (34th IB) will conduct propelactic patrols in some barangays in Calbayog District particularly in the Upper and Lower Happy Valley areas, while the 20th IB will go on with its operations in the Tinambacan and Oquendo Districts.
As per report made by Calbayog PNP Chief PSupt Lito Bigoy, (as of July 22, 2009) the number of shooting incidents reported was at 27; and most of these incidents are results of personal grudges.
As of the meeting on Tuesday, nine cases have been filed in court; one case was reportedly settled amicably, another case found one suspect dead, 12 cases are being investigated while four cases are due for filing.
In an earlier interview dated July 14, 2009 Samar Provincial Director PSSupt Pancho Hubilla said that Samar is ‘very peaceful’.
Although the PNP chief admitted he was concerned with the killings in Calbayog City and other areas in the first district.
Two days after the interview, Matuginao Mayor Carlos dela Cruz was gunned down and killed by unidentified assailants in his very home in Catbalogan.
Matuginao is a municipality that belonged to the first district.
Dela Cruz, along with a cousin named Joel Adel were gunned down in the mayor’s house in Catbalogan, Adel however survived but could not identify the assassins.
Police are now pursuing all angles in this killing and have identified a suspect based on witnesses accounts, the suspect though remains elusive.
Hubilla meanwhile said his PNP force is addressing the problem.
In addition, a new batch of SWAT graduates have been deployed to problematic areas in Samar.
Peace and order is a high priority of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In her final SONA delivered on July 28, PGMA mentioned her concern for security and peace and order.
“High on our agenda will be peace and security issues. Terrorism: how to meet it, how to end it, how to address its roots in injustice or prejudice—and first and always how to protect lives”, PGMA cited.
She urged congress to : fund more policemen on the streets. (PIA Samar with Ron Ricafort)
Nat’l economic reforms felt in barangays
by Jemin B. Guillermo
Roxas City (29 July) — More projects and services could now be benefited by the barangay folks after stringent national economic reforms were implemented in the countryside.
Barangay Captain Lorenzo Mentino of Agcococ, Tapaz, Capiz said that because of the economic reforms implemented by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, particularly on revenue collection, their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) has significantly increased.
With more barangay IRA share, they can also provide more services to their barangay people, especially on social services and infrastructure support programs and projects, Mentino said.
He said that they are now ready to set aside augmentation fund to their elementary school to address the malnutrition problem of school children.
Mentino added that they can also utilize part of said IRA share for the improvement of their day care center and health station as well as other facilities for the benefit of their people.
Other barangays in Capiz also are investing on the health and accident insurance of their service providers such as day care worker, barangay health workers and barangay tanods.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, during her 9th State of the Nation Address (SONA) stressed that “our reforms gave us the resources to protect our people, our financial system and our economy from the worst shock that the best in the west failed to anticipate.”
President Arroyo said that the Philippine economy remains strong despite the global economic slump, attributing it to the bold fiscal and economic reforms she introduced when she took over in 2001.
She pointed out that among the fruits of said economic and fiscal reforms are better healthcare, surge in infrastructure, a strong education system, housing for the poor, food security and increased income for farmers and fisherfolk.
The said reforms also resulted to increased Internal Revenue Allotment for local government units, increased resources for social welfare and increase in the salary of state workers, among others. (PIA)
