by anyajulia | Jul 6, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
ALSO keeping its vision of transforming Bohol into a strong agro-industrial province, local authorities here put up a marketplace of ideas, technologies and products as well in an easy to find place.
Officially opened Friday, July 3, 2009 by no less than Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the Sandugo Agri Fair is a month-long one-stop shop for agricultural ideas, technologies and yes, products at farm gate prices, organizers said.
This as the Department of Agriculture and its local counterparts cut the ribbons to open the Fair at the Bohol Agricultural Promotions Center grounds.
The fair aims to bring in a single location tech-help and allow farmers and sector stakeholders to market share ideas and technologies as well as showcase the best mari-culture from Bohol’s bio-diverse coastal areas and its hard to parallel farmlands.
Moreover, it also attempts to open up a web-based menu of services and information for farmer scientists, revealed Provincial agriculturist Liza Quirog during the recent Kapihan sa PIA Thursday.
The month-long market place at the grounds of Bohol’s biggest aggie promotion establishment brings to the city, resources for the idea-hungry farmer scientist the technology which should be available at his own bidding, she continued.
Aside from marine products like oysters and seaweeds, the agri-fair also brings in best farm produce and even showcases the best processed food products by a technology assistance center managed by the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she bared.
Quirog explained that with the annual fair, farmers and aggie authorities here wish to bring out to the mainstream markets these products as well as promote for its adoption by presenting leading technologies.
Lined up aside from the traditional display of fruits, vegetables, adoptable technologies, demonstration booths and farmer information resources are techno-foras and congresses.
Such include Oyster Congress for July 9, Seaweeds Congress for July 10, Cassava Congress on the 15th, Organic inputs producers Assembly on the 17th and Coconut forum on the 20th.
On the 21st, farmers are in for a rice genetics and seed banking forum, Banana Congress on the 23rd, Refreshers Training in Ube and sweet potato on the 27th, Oil Palm Congress on the 28th and Corn Congress on the 3oth. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Jul 6, 2009 | Headlines, National News
COPS can heave a sigh of relief now that the infamous Pangilinan Law is on the verge of instituted amendments.
The Pangilinan Law or Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 exempts criminal liability to persons below 15 years old.
This has also become controversial for law enforcements who are often situated at the receiving end of suits for performance of their duty to keep peace.
No less than Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno confirmed that it may not be long when Senator Francisco Pangilinan, the one who frontloaded the law submits his proposals to amend the very law he introduced.
Other than Pnagilinan who himself ahs seen the trouble his law has caused, anti-crime advocates and law enforcement groups have lobbied for the immediate introduction of amendments to keep the intent of the law above all else.
Speaking during a press conference at the Leqazpi Suite of the posh Bohol Tropics, Puno admitted that the law indeed has its loopholes.
Particular problems of the law surfaced in a celebrated case in Laguna where a student beat to death a high school kid. But since that student is below 15, the police had no choice but to release him.
However, in fairness to the sponsors of the law, Sen Pangilinan and the UNICEF, it also provides “diversion” and intervention” programs to be implemented by the DSWD.
However, criminal syndicates who have seen the huge gray area to circumvent the law have used minors as couriers or the hands in the commission of crimes, knowing these kids can easily slip because of this impediment
Over this, policemen who for duty sake accost minors more often than not find themselves entangled with the law and this has caused demoralization among the ranks, a local station commander revealed.
With the amendment, at leas policemen would fear no more, especially when apprehending or accosting minors. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Jul 6, 2009 | Headlines, National News
USA ka pagtuon sa World Bank (WB) mipadayag nga napaugmad sa Pilipinas ang iyang governance ug pagsumpo sa pangurakot sa 2008.
Subay sa ilang Worldwide Governance Indicators gikan sa 1996 ngadto sa 2008, gipadayag sa WB ng ang Pilipinas miani ug .04% sa pagsumpo sa pangurakot gikan sa 0.79 sa 2007.
Niadtong 1996, ang nasud mitala sa taas nga korupsyon.
Gisagop sa WB ang nagkadaiyang timailhan subay sa lapad nga batakan sa pagpadagan sa kagamhanan, pagreklamo, kapepektibo sa kagamhanan, kalidad sa pagsuwayg sumpo sa pangurakot ug pagpatigbabaw sa balaod kabahin niini.
Ang mga timailhan subay sa daghanang respondents nga gisukitsukit subay sa ilang persepsyon sa governance, ug nga panglantaw sa kapid-an ka eksperto, pribado ug publikong sector lakip na ang non-government. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Jul 3, 2009 | Headlines, National News
Over 1.5M government workers and pensioners nationwide can now to avail between 30 to 60 percent discounts when buying Pfizer-manufactured drug products using the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) E-Card Plus.
With the integration of the Pfizer Sulit Card into the GSIS eCard, benefits of the eCard Plus now include hospitalization discounts in GSIS-accredited hospitals, tuition and laboratory fees discount with Systems Technology Institute, and banking account purposes.
The Pfizer Sulit Card was created seven years ago as part of their company’s health program in order to provide Filipinos better access to their high-quality medicines as a similar program they have is the ‘Bayani ng Bayan’ Card where overseas Filipino workers are the recipients of discounted Pfizer-manufactured drugs, according to Mateo. (PIA/FCR)
Click here for full article.
by anyajulia | Jul 3, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
TAGBILARAN CITY. WHILE most people perceive the garbage problem as the sole responsibility of the city government, City Mayor Dan Lim gingerly shrugs people to reality by showing them a waste treatment facility is not the end all and be all to all problems here.
The mayor’s stand goes well with the national government’s programs on informing people about the wide-ranging impacts of the phenomenon and how their action can influence the pace of climate change.
The city government’s critics have recently feasted on the touchy issue pointing to the failure of the waste to put up on time the promised waste treatment facility in Taloto.
While doing this, most critics follow through with the continued use of the now supposed to be closed Dampas garbage dump by the enactment of a national law on the ecological solid waste management.
Now pitted in a serious “damn if you do and damn if you don’t situation,” Mayor Lim said “the environmental problem caused by the absence of a waste treatment facility is a minor one.
This he said as he compares the problem to “the slow but inevitable problem caused by the global warming phenomenon.”
Speaking to address city residents gathered at the City Hall Atrium during the 43rd anniversary of the city charter, Lim who sees the garbage problem not just as a tree but the whole forest however did not have to elaborate to be sounding self-righteous and accusatory.
Giving to the city people enough to think about, his pitch on the global warming phenomenon did touch on the real problem of simply dumping trash.
While the city government has a fairly efficient garbage collection system going, a causal look at the type of waste for disposal would reveal largely unsegregated waste lumped into garbage bags, all doomed to the dumps.
Over this, Provincial Environment Officer Nestor Canda, in radio interviews earlier bared the need for the people to practice segregation at source to keep the usable and recyclable waste from filling the dumps just as easily.
In his message too, Mayor Lim said “the garbage disposal problem aggravated by the irresponsible dumping of trash on the shorelines by illegal settlers is dwarfed by the projected rising of the seawaters to a level that would threaten not only the temporary shelters but of the very lives of the residents themselves, he said.
City residents, especially those on the coastal areas have seen enough of the rising level of seawaters recently, phenomenon that became just as alarming with the annual extraordinary high tides in June.
Even then, the mayor did not turn his back on the responsibility when he admitted “we still have to iron out the problems related to our solid waste facility.”
He topped all these by saying “some of the concerns that we face today need immediate response. The others can wait but they entail bigger, more complicated and more expensive solutions from the city in the future.” (PIA)
