by admin | Dec 5, 2018 | DOH Updates, Local News / Bohol Balita
If only to personally jumpstart the World AIDS Day and its succeeding activities, a nurse and sitting legislator in Bohol, volunteers to have a Human Immune deficiency Virus (HIV) testing December 1, at the Panda Tea Garden and Suites.
Waiving her right provided by the Philippine AIDS Control and Prevention Act, Third District Board Member Jade Acapulco Bautista, formerly US based nurse by and now a legislator at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in Bohol subjected herself to an HIV testing and in fact, performed for herself the capillary pricking necessary to extract sufficient blood samples for the test to determine reactivity.
Intending to help but still constrained to a task she is demanded to do as a legislator, BM Bautista said she is still open to suggestions in legislating measures to reverse the spread of HIV, a deadly virus, especially in Bohol.
Herself the SP Committee chair on Health and Public Sanitation, BM Dano who sits as a model for HIV testing as a medical professional, allowed herself to the test, if only to show there is nothing to fear, in fact, get a reassurance that one can keep an HIV-free status from then on.
“It is more reassuring that one can get an additional sense of responsibility especially in advocating for more protection and in maintaining the already attained HIV status,” another Department of Health nurse Nickson Felix Epe said.
Dano, who said Bohol’s [anti-HIV] campaign is doing very well, also admitted further that sustainability of the campaign can only be attained with everybody’s cooperation.
“The Provincial Health Office is doing very well [as regards the campaign], but they can not do it without everybody’s cooperation,” she said.
Dano’s act is also in line with the local efforts to curb the HIV epidemic which has become “alarming.”
A United Nation’s study bared that the Philippines has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific.
Data in the study showed that in 2010, there were an estimated 16,000 HIV cases in the Philippines. By 2017, the cases have been estimated threefold to 67,000 and by the same estimates, by 2022, authorities fear the cases can reach 142,000, “if we remain to have the same level of response,” nurse Epe stressed.
In the Philippines too, 94% of those who are newly diagnosed for HIV are male, and more than half of these males are aged between 25-34 while some 28% are of the 14-24 age bracket at the time of testing.
But this does not exclude females too. From January to September in 2018 alone, there were 467 newly diagnosed cases and of the country’s female cases reported in the 15-24 age group skyrockets from 13% in 199 to 29% in 2018.
Of these, sexual contact remains to be the predominant mode of transmission at 98%, DOH data shows.
While the National Capital Region still keeps the most number of newly diagnosed as to residents they shared during the testing, Region 7 or Central Visayas ranks fourth owning 10% of the newly diagnosed cases.
The problem with HIV is that the only cure is prevention, unlike other diseases where prevention is better than cure, stresses Epe.
Over the staggering data and disheartening exponential increase in affected cases, health authorities have called for HIV testing.
The more the virus has taken control of the body, the bigger is the chance that one can fall into the opportunistic infections that could hasten the development of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), explains Bohol HIV coordinator Mila Israel.
Over this, health authorities have batted on Information Education and Communication as something any anti HIV advocate can easily contribute.
This Monday, December 3, Bohol is holding an HIV and AIDS Summit at the Reynas The Haven and Gardens.
The summit aims to expound on HIV in the context of the Community, Health Care, the Government and the School.
After 8 parallel sessions, organizers would be engaging participants to join in the signature drive for HIV Awareness in the hope of establishing a new awareness and consciousness demand, and this finally, health authorities can inject the necessary information that can guide young teens to un-informed or ill-informed adults about the risks of HIV and to the community. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
WAIVING HER RIGHTS. If only to assure people that there is nothing to fear about HIV testing, BM Jade Bautista presents herself as a model to jumpstart Bohol’s HIV testing drive even as health authorities said early detection can also mean early introduction of anti-retro-viral treatment to dampen the spread of the disease. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
by admin | Dec 4, 2018 | Headlines
In case you get to the Tagbilaran City Airport to find the air facility closed, do not panic.
Instead, compose yourself, pick your trusted tricycle driver and ask the driver to get you to Dao Integrated Bus Terminal where the airport air-conditioned shuttle buses stop.
Or, you can just wait for the bus to get past the Port of Tagbilaran, the Plaza or Dauis Junction and catch a ride from there.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has provided these buses to facilitate the transfer of passengers from the airport to the city terminals and then to the port and back to Panglao airport, to Alona and them through the Panglao Circumferential Road on a looped service, for 40-50 pesos.
On the other hand, it would finally be different mornings from then on to residents near the Tagbilaran airport, the unusual calm which only happens during ill weather would now be permanent.
Gone, starting 6:00 PM November 27 would be the shrieking jet engines warming up, or the sonic booms that could usually bust lightbulbs in nearby houses as each departing plane wiggles its tail for their goodbyes.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has issued the Notice to All Airmen (NOTAM) that the Tagbilaran City Airport has been closed for operation effective the last flight November 27, 2018, and the has been transferred to the new Bohol Panglao International Airport (BPIA) effective November 28, 2018.
And as the last plane, Philippine Airlines flight 2778 flew off Tagbilaran City’s runway C1/17-35 and disappeared over the tall Maribojoc mountains to Manila, the control tower lights dimmed and finally sent out the flight plan for Air Force 1 leading it to the controllers of the new PBIA.
Onboard AirForce 1 is President Rodrigo RoaDuterte, who would be leading the unveiling of the airport markers signaling the opening of the new facility that would be Bohol’s latest ace on the sleeve in tourism arrivals.
As Tagbilaran City’s runway C1/ 17-35 closed, the NOTAM consequently opened BPIA runway 03-21.
The opening of the BPIA now elates pilots.
Any delays in Tagbilaran City aiport’s last flight at 4:00 PM could spell a whole lot of problems.
Operating as a sunrise to sunset airport, any flight delay would detain the last flight, for safety purposes.
Not only does Tagbilaran City airport keep one of the shortest runways in the country at 1.8 kilometers, the absence of navigation guides makes keeping the plane grounded a prudent call for even the best pilots.
At the new BPIA, aside from a longer runway 03-21, the new P 8.9 billon features state of the art Instrument Landing System (ILS) that even pilots of lesser flight hours will find the runway throroughly sufficient, and without any obstruction unlike the tall buildings in Tagbilaran and the Dayo Hill or Maribojoc Mountains.
In Tagbilaran, a where a touchdown forces the aviators to immediately lower the flaps, pull the thrusts in reverse, or the plane stops on somebody’s yard of gets stopped by the perimeter fence, PBIA has properly marked lengthy blacktops.
Night landing or takeoff here won’t be a problem as the new facility even features glide slope guides, that a pilot can easily land a plane without even looking out the aircraft window.
As the last PAL flight from Tagbilaran soars into the dusk, the old city airport also bows out after serving decades as a provincial airport bringing in a huge chunk of Bohol’s development and progress.
An identified ace upon Bohol sleeves during the start of the provincial campaign as eco-cultural tourism destination, tourists taking the Tagbilaran Airport are those who do not necessarily go to Cebu, while most Cebu tourists make it a point to go to Bohol.
The following day, November 28, air controllers who have resettled in Panglao accepted to runway 03-21 Cebu Pacific flight 5J 619, the first commercial flight that landed in Panglao.
The day before, a special inaugural flight of Air Asia flight RPC 8950 flown by Boholano pilots and crew landed in Panglao, the first Airbus 320 which made a historic landing.
On command was Anda’s Captain Primo Dagondon along with First Officers JovannaJumamoy (Inabanga) and Kristine Boniel (Bien Unido) bringing in the plane in the morning before the official Presidential launching. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
PANGLAO SHUTTLE BUSES. The Department of Transportation presented these brand new shuttle buses which will serve the transport of airport passengers and tourists in Panglao, over 10 of these air-conditioned buses serve on a looped route from Panglao to Tagbilaran daily, for the convenience of commuters. (PIABohol/DOTr)
by admin | Dec 3, 2018 | Headlines
In about three years of anti-drugs operation in Bohol, authorities have taken off the streets over six kilos of addictive substances, with an estimated street value of over P81 million, which that could have eaten to the core of the Boholano Boholano society.
Bohol Police chief, PSSupt. Angeles Geñorga bared this during the recent joint meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council attended by no less than Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Chairman, Secretary Catalino S. Cuy.
During the briefing which Coronel Geñorga gave to update council members on the current situation of the drug clearing operations across the province, he bared the anti-drug operations from July 2016 to October 2018.
During the 27 months of operations, local authorities have confiscated 6,418 grams of dangerous substance methamphetamine hydrochloride (meth) or otherwise called shabu with a DDB with a street value of P 81,154,394.65.
Along the process, excluding the operation plan ToktokHangyo (Tokhang), authorities have arrested 1,183 persons in 925 conducted operations, and have filed 1,843 cases in the proper courts, Geñorga said.
The biggest feat however is that, during that period, Bohol police anti-drug authorities were able to convince 39, 143 drug users to surrender so that appropriate measures for rehabilitation could be recommended and given them.
Moreover, the Camp Dagohoy Chief reported to Sec. Cuy and to the members of the joint meeting that in December of last year, Bohol started the Seal of Good Housekeeping Project (SGHP).
A component of the drug clearing operations, the SGHP includes putting up of drug free stickers in homes all over the province.
Started in December of 2017, the stickering program is a joint effort of the local puroks, barangay anti drug abuse teams and officials, municipal anti drug abuse council and the local police.
Houses with identified drug users are not given the drug free seal until the user gets through and completes the three or six months of rehabilitation.
According to Geñorga, of the 301,397 households all over Bohol, after 11 months, 236, 835 households have been given the drug free seal, the police accomplishing some 78.58%.
Of these, the towns of Loay and Talibon have been identified as accomplishment leaders with 96.70% of their households now sporting the drug-free stickers. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
DRUG CLEARING CLEARED. Local authorities now struggle to keep its drug-cleared status after the regional team has validated and found that some households have indeed been cleared. The biggest question now however is, there are already cleared households with members nabbed in anti-drug operations. (Bohol PNP)
by admin | Dec 2, 2018 | Headlines, Police Reports
Considering the increase in population, complexity of criminal activity and the previous month’s inflation that made life harder for the country, November of this year in Bohol proved to be a much better year compared to the same month last year.
According to Camp Francisco Dagohoy Police Chief Police Senior Superintendent Angeles Geñorga, they noted a 49.15% decrease in crimes in November this year, compared to last year.
Citing the police Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) or the enhanced police e-blotter, PSSuptGeñorga pointed out that the total crime volume (TCV) in November 2017 reached 651 incidents; comprised of 210 index and 441 non index crimes.
By November of this year however, TCV based on the CIRAS data only reached 331; or 107 index and 224 non-index crimes, constituting the nearly half of the volume from last year’s data.
CIRAS is the enhanced e-Blotter and Geographical Information System (GIS)
which contains the initial report and updates of all reported incidents of crimes and is used by the desk officer, crime registrar and analyst in crime reporting and
analysis.
To prove his point, the Camp Dagohoy chief went on to show to the members of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) in a joint meeting with the Provincial Anti Drug Abuse Council (PADAC) that the Philippine National Police (PNP) has adopted a system of tracking criminality using data from the local performances on the eight focus crimes.
These crimes include theft, physical injuries, robbery, rape, murder, homicide, motor napping and car-napping, PSSuptGeñorga said.
Over-all data in theft in Bohol dipped 44.44% this November as it reached 90 incidents in 2017 only to be tamed to 50 this month.
For physical injuries, from 56 cases in 2017, police authorities have3 successfully trimmed the number to 22, which constitutes a 60.71% decrease.
For robbery cases, crime incidents still dove from 29 cases in 2017 to 22 this month, according to Camp Dagohoy chief. This, he pointed out is 24.14% dip.
In cases of rape, from 11 cases last year, only 8 cases have been reported in November, which posted a 27.3% crime incidence decrease, according to PSSuptGeñorga.
Murder cases in Bohol in November of last year reached 11 cases, a data that CIRAS now said only reached 3 cases, making Bohol police score a 72.7% victory record.
As to homicide, Bohol again established a very high crime reduction rate when the month recorded a zero homicide incidence as against three cases in November last year.
Bohol also saw an 80% reduction in motor-napping incidents in the comparative between the two months last year and this year, when from eight incidents, now it is just two cases.
As to car-napping incidents, Bohol crime statisticians maintained a clean slate with no incidents recorded in the last two years, Supt Geñorga said.
Police authorities have ascribed the decrease in crimes to improved police presence on the streets, the implementation of pro-active police community relations activities coupled with more effective law enforcement.
Besides, majority like 8 of 10 police crime-busters interviewed readily admit that the sharp decrease in drugs and the continuing crackdown contributed to the police anti-crime accomplishment. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
IMPROVED POLICE PRESENCE. PSSupt Angeles Geñorga reports a near half trim in crime volume in Bohol in November as against the same month of last year, a fact most credit to better police presence and more pro-active law enforcement as well as lessened drugs. (PIABohol)
by admin | Dec 1, 2018 | Major Events
Call it familiarity of the trails, or perhaps, relentless training and unmatched endurance, Bohol and Cebu Bikers each took two championship posts in four age group categories in the very successful Bike ta Bai’s Epic Challenge 2018.
Boholanos from Paseo de Loon took the Elite and 40-49 age group championships while Cebuano bikers from Salt+Fin and MedTrek Team completed the top four most coveted posts in Bohol’s first distance and endurance mountain bike challenge November 25, 2018.
Not really intent on giving up the bragging rights as the kings of epic distance mountain biking, Boholanos showed world-class extreme biking skills to keep Cebu bikers from sweeping the categories and reign supreme in the recently capped Epic Challenge 2018.
Boholano elite biker pair of NichoLumay (Batuan) and AdelinoBuligan (Calape) and team mates Jonathan Pagaura and Ernesto Garcia from Paseo de Loon Elite Cycling Team worked as a team never really outdistancing each other to motivate as well as guide the spent racer back into recovery pace to grab the top two positions in the race.
Lumay and Buligan, in racing number 09-1 and 09-2, crossed the line in spectacular fashion after taking turns in taking the lead to finish the grueling 85 kilometer route that winds through the killer climbs of five towns, in an aggregate time of 4:11:52.61 seconds averaging a nearly impossible 20.68 kilometers per hour.
Not far behind were elite teammates Jonathan Pagaura and Ernesto Garcia who also clocked in at 4:12:17.34 seconds, the second pair to cross the line in Punta Cruz Historical Watchtower complex where the race started off at 7:00 in the morning on a Sunday.
Third to cross the line were Cebuanos from Salt+Fin team with LitoBelarma and Roger Niere, who were champions in the 39 and under category, the pair registering a 4:15:25.87 finish.
Fourth to cross the line and coming in second on the 39 and under category are CebuanosJohn Paul Juson and JhepPoyJuson who clocked in at 4:27:20.02.
Coming in fifth over-all and hailed as Champions for the 40-49 age group are Boholanos of the Paseo de Loon Team with Rogelio Torreon and Roberto Saniel, who crossed the line at 4:29:04.93.
Roughly a minute later came Pathfinders Multi-Sports team of Cebu who crossed sixth over-all as Paul Ryan Lucero and RedanCantilla came in third for the 39 and under category with a combined time of 4:30:24.16.
Over thirty minutes of lull, barged in seventh over-all and grabbed the second place for the 40-49 age group were Butchie Zamora and Glenn Flores of TriBohol at an aggregate time of 5:05:15.76.
Eighth in the over-all pair of arrivals after non stop bike pedal cranking third placer for the elite category; Cebuanos of the Team Big Ring Race and Adventure: MetchelPilapil and JezamBaldomar, who clocked an aggregate of 5:05:58.66 seconds.
Ninth over-all zipping along the downhill to finish were Cebuanos Teddy Ponce and Edwin Pesons (Mandaue) of Agwantista Mountain Bikers who came in at 5:06:43.43 which earned them the Third place finish for the 40-49 age group.
Tenth overall and hailed as Champions in the 50 and above ager group were Cebuano bikers Renato Fuentes and Francis Solatorio of team MedTrek who both garnered a combined time of 5:18:17.94.
In eleventh place over-all are Boholanos of the Bohol BikeKings Feliciano Perez and GodofredoAlbuladoracoming in with an aggregate time of 5:50:32.22, which earned for them the 2nd place for the 50 and above age group.
Meanwhile, in the twelfth place over-all were Boholanos of the Bohol Bikers Club tandem of VenancioAmora and ConcordioBernales who had a combined time of 5:58:58.15.
The extreme distance and course race featured a grueling climb that drained most riders who thought it was wise to crank up and gain the high ground in spectacular race to the first kilometer of uphill climb to the highway.
“They should have exercised restraint during the race considering the distance alone,” commented BtB Epic technical consultant JojoOcullo, who along with BtB members, plotted the 85++ kilometer race course that would take the riders through barangay roads and trails of Maribojoc, Antequera, San Isidro, Calape and Loon and traverses across the mountains that are not promising to give a biker a painfully slow ascent, but leaving their throats parched as sandpaper.
Organized by BtB as the first distance extreme mountain bike race in Bohol, “the Epic Challenge has, as advertised, a race and a test in self-sufficiency where a biker would have to use his prudence to supply himself with enough provisions for him to finish and conquer the race,” remarked organizer Gerry Marmito, who always considered the success of the race as a team effort and because of the support of the local government units of the traversed towns, their race volunteers and the great weather that lasted during the most crucial time of the race.
Participated in by bikers from as far as Mindanao, Bacolod and Ilo-ilo as well as joined in by foreign endurance mountain bike enthusiasts, the Epic Challenge had most bikers on the verge of giving up on the killer climb segment from Loon town to Tan-awan and the equally tricky technical sections of JandigMaribojoc.
Early in the race, Bikers who were released in age group waves found themselves lumped in tricky downhill in Bayacabac, and when some who had the nerves slashed through and rampaged the steep loose gravel descent, others had to walk their bikes for a safer traverse.
The trails were challenging, and the guys were great on the trails, it was a day worth the camaraderie, a biker from Bacolod said.
Charlie Bamford, who went through the trail despite not being able to beat the registration schedule said it was an amazing event.
“Truly Epic. Wonderful route with a killer last climb. Well signposted throughout (loved the orange ribbons). This was one of those very few days when I really felt “alive”. Great meeting fellow bikers & admiring their wheels,” Bamford who came in with his wife from Tacloban said.
Already keeping the biggest number of participants at nearly three hundred mountain bikers in four age group categories, the Epic Challenge would be a tough feat to beat, Cebu bikers who have gone through the trails admitted. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
THE ONLY WAY IS DOWN. Bikers negotiate a technical downhill section during the epic challenge, where organizers were able to mobilize LGU support in another bid to offer extreme mountainbiking as sports tourism alternative here. (PIABohol/BikeTaBaifoto\)
