by anyajulia | May 16, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
LOCAL local officials see the hiring of 26 students for a restaurant here as starting countless job opportunities for Catigbianons in this time of financial grip.
Both Mayor Roberto Salinas and Vice Mayor Necita Digaum agree that the ripple effects in the opening of Katigbawan Resto would definitely affect the town’s economic base and raise household incomes better.
The officials said this in time for the semi-hiring of 26 students who could also pick up food handling training that could land them jobs in the future.
Salinas, who admits he also shares a poor past said the students hired on a shifting basis would complement a regular restaurant staff of 6 and would be paid on hourly rates patterned after major food chains in the country.
On the process, they too earn enough to pay for their fares to school, and a little extra to possibly prop up family’s income by unburdening parents of daily expense needs, Salinas said.
During the opening, restaurant manager Jocelyn Angcahan said that they patterned their hiring scheme with that on big-time fastfood chains by allowing students time for work and yet keeping them in school.
The student waiters wear custom printed yellow with green collar and trim polo shirts, the traditional Catigbian green caps, black pants and leather shoes. They also stuck like sore thumb in an air-conditioned restaurant with function rooms and amenities in a largely agricultural town about 30 kilometers from the city.
The students, she said would be scheduled for duty after their school hours and would be rotated on a shifting basis, well enough to keep them off work during examinations and other school related activities.
The big thing here, Catigbian Mayor Roberto Salinas admitted “is that an investor has finally come to set a good example to people in food handling business here”.
“This is definitely going to set the standard in food handling here,” he asserted.
All the workers here underwent sputum examinations, carry medical clearances, and work in full uniform, the mayor and retired navy captain said sharing the vision of the investor, Manila based Wilbenson Arlegui.
The restaurant serves Boholano food including the traditional native chicken adobo, haling-halang and tinola, kanding kaldereta, paklay, papaitan, kilawin, kalabaw nilas-ay, adobo, balbacua and other visayan specialties, said manager Angcahan.
The resto opening also came as a new development when town officials campaign for employment and jobs generate jobs to reduce the impact of the worldwide economic slowdown. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | May 15, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
BOHOL police still score 8 against illegal drugs form February to April, despite the absence of deputization orders to the provincial anti-drug task force members from the regional drug enforcement agency.
With a scenario made difficult by technical requirement of police deputization as drug agents to consummate anti-drug arrests, Bohol police force are now hopeful of a full blast operations as soon as their element members of the Provincial Anti Drug Abuse Task Force get their marching orders from the regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Anent to that, on the 8 apprehensions here, PSInsp. Vener Santos of Camp Dagohoy rated police accomplishment, 4 in a scale of 10, knowing they could only do with clipped wings.
He admitted cops have been fairly cautious about drug raids as the operation needs joint operations between the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as a technical requirement.
He was however positive that the rating would surge as soon as the Bohol Police Office through PSSupt Egdardo Ingking seals the deputization papers with the regional drug agency, which may not be long.
Moreover he said at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA aired live over DyTR that police deputization as drug agents also go with a special training from PDEA.
The trainings, he explained would be on the technicalities of drug arrests and raids, which has become the main reason why drug cases could not proceed to second base.
Police officers need to meticulously go through the a tough checklist when proceeding to a drug arrest, raid or buy-bust operation, he explained.
Failure to approximate the technical requirements is a simple ground for dropping the case, one of the few downsides in drug cases. The next reason for courts dropping the case is when police officers do not show up in arraignments and succeeding court hearings.
On non-appearance of apprehending cops during the prosecution of the case, the Philippine National Police through the Department of Interior and Local Government has already dismissed 13 police officers to date, all for this simple duty neglect.
On the totality of the drug problem, Inspector Santos, who represented Director Ingking during the weekly forum, admitted that it has become a problem no amount of police enforcement could solve alone.
He then urged community to stop ignoring the “social cancer” and inform the policy about ant suspected illegal activity.
With the porous boundaries police need to guard against the shipment of drugs on board small sea crafts, Santos said the police would treat any information confidential.
The police hotline manned 24 hours a day, Santos said, is 0915-318-1146. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | May 15, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
A huge amount poor patients can use, from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) remain untapped.
The charity amount is one coursed through PCSO fund allocations in the form of endowments to hospitals with at least 25-bed capacity, says department assistant manager Rubin Magno.
Magno, who sits at the PCSO Fund Allocation Department revealed that not many of Bohol hospitals availed of the sum which could be useful in times of financial grip.
These endowment funds can be used for treatment, out-sourced diagnostic examinations if the beneficiary medical institution does not have the necessary equipment that the patient needs or procuring medicines when the hospital pharmacy runs out of the specific medicine an indigent patient needs, Magno explained.
The fund should help indigent hospital patients who would otherwise shy from their health care benefits due to fiscal concerns, he added.
Seeing this gap, PCSO wants to get to these people and thus put in the funds, he said during the recent 10th leg of the PCSO Summer Charity Caravan held in Tagbilaran last week.
In Bohol, only three hospitals here yet accessed the PCSO endowments, relatively few, noting the number of poor residents who would get a stab at free hospital benefits, care of the PCSO, records show.
Of the three, PCSO named Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in Tagbilaran City, Congressman Teodoro B. Galagar District Hospital (TBGDH) in Jagna and Maribojoc Community Hospital (MCH).
He added that PCSO has put in P1M for GCGMH, P.5M for TBGDH and P.4M for MCH, amounts which can be replenished as soon as the hospital submits its liquidation reports, Magno explained.
He also pressed that the endowment amounts would be readily filled as soon as the hospital sends in the liquidation. This opens the possibility that a hospital could get millions if it hastens its fund replenishment processes, he stressed.
The funds, which can also be accessed by private hospital with complete facilities, can be had as soon as the hospitals with at least a social worker submits the application letters to PCSO coursed through Chairman Sergio Valencia.
The application letter would also need an enclosed project proposal for the funds soon to be accessed and a few days processing, he bared. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | May 15, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
WOULD selling the 112.5 MW Tongonan Geothermal Plant in Kananga Leyte affect the generation side, which Bohol desperately needs to power its dream Panglao Airport?
As far as the National Grid Corporation (NGC) is concerned, Boholanos need not be wary of the privatization bid for the plant that supplies 80-100 MW for Bohol now.
Just this week, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) formally opened the packaged sale of Tongonan Geo-Power Plant and Palinpinon Geothermal Plants.
This PSALM did when it opened the notice of bids of both generating assets on an as is-where-is basis in their websites and in major papers early this week.
Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant is presently the biggest bulk power supplier for Bohol, which NGC estimates at about 80 MW, well above the peak demand of 54MW says Bohol Area Control Center Superintendent Noel Rara.
Located in Sitio Sambaloran, Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga, Leyte, Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant consists of three 37.5-MW units, which were commissioned in 1983 and has supplied Bohol since the Leyte Bohol Power Interconnection Project Phase 1 was completed.
On this, “‘the privatization side would hopefully not affect power generation aspect of the asset,” he said during a telephone interview Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
In fact, the move is seen as a way to maximize the power generation output the two geothermal plants are putting out, he added.
The move however would put many investors eyeing the Panglao Tourism Zone in their maps as the critical power demand for the airport and its complex alone would necessarily tip the scales for Bohol power need.
Many also see the privatizations as a potential stall for the LBPIP Phase II, commonly known as the Bohol Backbone transmission upgrading project set to put up the reliable line to Panglao and identified agro-industrial zones here.
On the notice of bidding, PSALM also puts up the 192.5 MW Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant located in Valencia, Negros Oriental.
The PSALM Bids and Awards Committee has consequently invited interested parties to bid by submitting Letter of Interest (LOI) not later than 5:00 pm on 22 May 2009.
The bid submission deadline for the Visayas-based geothermal facilities is on 12 August 2009. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | May 15, 2009 | Headlines, National News
GOVERNMENT authorities have proposed a meeting among the Department of Energy and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) officials to take a look at the basis for computing oil prices.
The meeting aims to reconcile both agencies computations and come up with just one official price announcement from the government, Secretary Angelo Reyes said.
The move came as a welcome development for the numerous fuel consumers who feel oil companies shortchange them when fuel prices rise seemingly at their whims.
By the unified computation, the government could determine if the price hike artificial and is therefore unwarranted or if it indeed is commensurate to the capital oil companies invested. (PIA)
