by anyajulia | Aug 25, 2008 | Features, Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
IF plans do not miscarry, news reports filed at city paper or radio editorial desks would come from designated community information officers.
This as Bohol Association of United Development Information Officers (AUDIO) is tying up with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in a project that seeks to finally coordinate information management and streamline un-coordinated government information dissemination programs.
AUDIO and the PIA in Bohol are in the finalization process of training modules that is aimed at empowering barangay residents and officials by enhancing their developmental news writing, reporting and other communication skills, Yvette Matabalan of the local PIA revealed Thursday.
The move is also in line with a perception that the government developmental are rarely felt in the communities because of failure in the government communication process, an AUDIO officer added.
The jointly adopted program also aims to expand the network of town and government agency information officers to the communities while opening back the clogged feedback mechanism the government needs to assess its presence and impact on the community in general, the source said.
A roll out team pooled from the resources of both organizations would be assigned topics to discuss in series of workshops, says AUDIO president Francisco Obedencio.
The move to involve expand the information network to barangays in Bohol was prompted by the initial suggestion from local government operations officers who see promising potential information officers in communities.
Already presenting a project proposal for the joint effort is Candija, under Mayor Sergio amora, Obedencio revealed during a meeting at the Jjs Seafoods, Mandarin 2 room.
By empowering barangay residents, we make them more capable of serving frontline services and in the process, elevate government response faster.
Training modules include basic news writing for English and cebuano, basic broadcasting and radio reporting, emceeing, common barangay human resource enhancement trainings as well as foto-journalism.
According to Matabalan, training people is empowering them to ask the right questions from people, elicit information that may affect local legislative policies and systematically reinforce community life. (rachiu/PIA)
WIDENING INFO-NETS to the communities, info-officer members of the AUDIO and the PIA were presented the details of the community-based information network at a recent enhancement workshop held at Jjs Seafoods August 21.
by anyajulia | Aug 25, 2008 | Headlines, National News
BOHOL Governor Erico Aumentado refused to comment on Bohol security measures in place against possible spillover attacks from the Mindanao conflict but assured the local authorities are prepared.
At the Governor’s reports Friday, Aumentado, who was asked about Bohol contingency plans on the matter, assured the Provincial Peace and Order Council will meet next week to tackle the issue.
“We have an operational Bohol Local Internal Security System (BLISS)”, he assured listeners of the weekly program.
The government, internal security forces and the local government units conceived the BLISS to expand the security local capability. This is through engaging communities’ help in repelling reporting re-entry of communist terrorists who left Bohol during the recent anti-insurgency operations, explained Bohol PSSupt. Edgardo Ingking, during a PPOC presentation months ago.
The pull-out and the re-assignment of the 302nd Brigade to Negros which left only a few internal security units operating here heightened the implementation of the BLISS.
Now, after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-induced conflict, the country’s military leadership pulled out Bohol’s 43rd Infantry Battalion to help secure Lanao. The movement also significantly decreased the number of armed internal security units here.
Over the development, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was visibly angered and deeply frustrated by the treacherous MILF acts now doubts the prospects of an early conclusion of the peace process between government and the MILF.
In a statement aired by Press Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the President said she detests the MILF leadership’s lack of control over its base commands, which resulted in the slaughter of innocent civilians and displacement of thousands from their communities.
“The President is deeply saddened by the fate that has befallen the people of Lanao del Norte and regrets that the MILF’s failure to restrain its field commanders reflects the organization’s lack of sincerity to push for a successful conclusion of the peace process,” Ermita said.
At the recent National Security Cluster-Cabinet Meeting, the President has directed the military and police forces to conduct full, vigorous, and unrelenting pursuit operations and use every available arsenal at their disposal against rogue elements of the MILF.
This instruction bolsters an earlier directive from the President for government forces to take back every inch of territory from these marauders at all cost, prevent their re-occupation at will, and to ensure that peace, order and security are restored.
As the military forces have their hands full in a mission to bring to justice the rogue MILF elements, she also warned other armed groups not to take advantage of the situation in Mindanao by undertaking their own destabilization efforts.
In such occurrences, government armed forces will not hesitate to act in a manner that is most appropriate and swift to contain these groups, Ermita read. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | Aug 25, 2008 | Headlines, National News
NATIONAL Food Authority (NFA) in Bohol gears up to buy 100,000 bags of palay this cropping season, a figure thrice as much as its regular procurement program in the past years.
And while private commercial buyers are buying at about P12 per kilo, NFA gets it at a higher price, assistant manager Ma. Fe Evasco said during a radio interview over a local station.
“Wed like to inform our farmers that that the NFA is buying at P17 a kilo and we are also offering P1,800 fertilizer cash incentive for every farmer who can sell 50 bags at one time,” Evasco announced.
The P17 per kilo is the standard government support price for farmers, Evasco explained. This is even as reports last week bared that commercial buyers have started buying palay stocks at P12 a kilo.
“We have mobile procurement and stationary buying stations at our warehouses where farmers can deliver or sell their products, but unluckily, [unlike the commercial buyers,] we can not give out cash advances because it would be against government auditing rules,” she emphasized.
A farmer whose palay grains approximate 97% purity and 15% moisture content can sell it at P17 while the NFA adjusts its standard buying price if the quality is low, Evasco hinted.
This as the government even more incentives to farmers who would opt to go for certified rice and hybid and tested high yield varieties, Evasco pointed out.
Over tihap, Evasco explained that farmers who get an early cash advance from commercial buyers are at the mercy of them who now demand low buying price.
According to her, only private buyers with NFA accreditation are legally allowed to engage in rice buying. But, she also admitted there is no law banning commercial buyers from offering P12.
If commercial buyers offer prices higher than the government support price, it would be beneficial to the farmers. But below the support price, the government can be an option for farmers, she bared.
She also faulted the tihap, a crude cash advance strategy which binds farmers into selling their harvest low to the commercial buyers who earlier, lent them cash.
The situation has also alarmed Governor Erico Aumentado who directed Provincial Administrator Tomas Abapo to investigate the widespread sabotaging of palay buying prices by private rice buyers.
Atty. Abapo cited the farmers’ lack of access to capital to finance production costs and their daily sustenance that would push them to the tihap system.
This as the NFA sets up 51 more mobile palay-buying stations across the country in time for the main harvest season. The move is to give more access to farmers who sell their produce to the agency, in line with President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) commitments.
Sustained higher public investments in agriculture and fisheries and higher spending on the intervention measures of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the NFA, parts of it from “Katas ng VAT” subsidy program—has enabled the government to raise national rice sufficiency.
The mobile palay-buying stations will be on top of the food agency’s 350 stations scattered across paddy-growing provinces nationwide, according to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.
In a report to Yap, NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro said the food agency’s current buying stations include 52 such centers in Southern Luzon, 46 in Northern Luzon, 35 in Central Luzon and 22 in Western Visayas. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | Aug 21, 2008 | Features, Tech Talk
The Lenovo ThinkPad X301 will be released on August 27, as announced by Lenovo Philippines. The X301 is an upgrade of the ThinkPad X300 which was released earlier in April of this year. Lenovo has taken the wraps off a new ultrathin, lightweight notebook for enterprise workers.
Its specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor (Centrino 2) 1.2 or 1.4GHz
6MB of L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB
13.3-inch Display LED backlit,
options for a 64GB or 128GB SDD drive,
up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM,
WiFi,
high-speed mobile broadband3
Ultra-Wideband technology
a built-in GPS
WiMAX version later this year
weighs less than 3 lbs.
0.75 to 1-inch thin
ThinkPad X301 has new support for DisplayPort which makes viewing high definition content easy and ideal for models with the ultra-thin DVD burner. With support for both DisplayPort and VGA, users can even watch high definition content on multiple displays. And also with Lenovo’s improved Power Manager, it gives users more control over notebook functions to enable longer battery life, though there is still no indication on just how long does the battery last.
The ThinkPad X301 notebook will start at approximately Php128,100.
by anyajulia | Aug 21, 2008 | Features, Tech Talk
Dell’s answer to the Eee, formerly dubbed the Dell E and E slim series, is now officially called the Dell Inspiron 910 (aka Mini Inspiron). It is reported to be released on August 22 with a starting price at $299. Though it still has to be confirmed, from the Dell Philippines, if the Inspiron 910 will also released here and how much it would cost.
It has also been reported that it will be able to include an optional 3G connection at order-time and also confirms the lack of Fn-Key.
The Dell Inspiron 910 will have the following specs:
8.9 inch Display (1024×600)
Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz
4GB/8GB/16GB SSD
4, 8, 12GB Flash Drive
512MB to 1GB DDR2 RAM
Up to 8MB shared video memory
ALC268 Audio
1.3/0.3 megapixel camera
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth
WLAN/WWAN, Mini card support for Bluetooth
Card reader
3 USB 2.0 ports
4-cell battery (~5 hours)
Ubuntu Linux or Windows XP
~2.2 lbs (1kg)
