by anyajulia | Oct 5, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
IF plans do not miscarry, Cortesanons would have a brief preview of the dance drama of epic tale Wadje, fully performed by amateur Cortesanon artists from the town’s riverside barangays.
Set for a minor launch this October 17 and a repeat performance for October 21, Cortes Foundation Day, the dance drama entitled Wadje sa Abatan sa mga Panghitabo would showcase debuting local artists retelling the handed oral traditions about the famed lady warrior Wadje.
Early this year, the National Commission for Culture and Arts tasked Drama Committee Chair and Boholano multi-awarded artist tasked Lutgardo Labad to study the possibility of a cultural shows complementing Abatan Community Tours.
With a trigger fund from the government through House Committee on Tourism Chair Edgar Chatto and from PROCESS Bohol’s interest in complementing the community tours, executive director Emilia Roslinda initiated the first coordination meetings toward the goal.
Lucky for Cortes, a Cortesanon theater artist and New York based stage director Lorely Garrote-Trinidad, local artists Blair Panong, Sebastian Ocon, Phillip Panong, Rey Anthony Chiu, grounding research for a workable script first started April this year.
Months later, after interviews and research, the frail but epic character of Wadje was a common thread for local lores about the place.
Prodding open the oral memories handed from generations, researchers unearthed the buried tale of Wadje and husband Mag-ile, warriors of Sacsac.
The tale was all too colourful not to be noticed.
The sketchy storyline patched from oral traditions. folk tales and a little persistent archaeological venture grounded the story about Wadje’s transformation from a submissive wife to a ruthless sentinel of the Abatan River came, said pool of writers.
The development in turn excited PROCESS, a non-government organization helping Abatan Riverside Communities keep watch over the river environment.
Nothing could be more fitting than Wadje personifying river environment protection: Abatan river tour’s foremost come-on.
After months of workshops at the Cortes Central Elementary School, choreographers Alfonso Corbita and Toto Cuhit honed the amateur thespians until they gained enough confidence to perform the scenes plucked out from the script.
But, if the audience would be in for a drama loaded with powerful lines, they are in for a big surprise, said a local artist in a casual talk.
Wadje uses powerful dancing to show the entire story in so little time.
It entails doubling up on the effort and skill of local artists to come up with a compelling story which Cortesanons and every tourist should grasp in a sitting.
More than that, the raves would rather be on when Wadje would finally jump into the stage, more than four hundred years after her story fail to lie still in the marshlands of the Abatan. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 5, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
THE call to help typhoon stricken communities in Metro Manila and nearby provinces resound in Bohol as government and the civil society launch massive relief drives for the purpose.
Governor Erico Aumentado, who initially gave P200,000 for relief has also designated the office of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development (OPSWD) as the relief hub for all government sourced donations.
Unconfirmed sources added that donations collected here would be sent directly to the National Relief Operations Center in Malacanang prior to its distribution to stricken communities in manila and nearby flooded provinces.
After the massive flooding that submerged most parts of Metro Manila, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has temporarily converted Malacanang as national relief operations center early this week.
The move was made to augment the relief operations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the typhoon victims, reports said.
Here in Bohol, radio station DyRD / Bohol Chronicle launched with the Diocese of Tagbilaran its own fund and relief goods raising for victims of storm Ondoy.
Immediately after Bishop Leonardo Medroso appealed for support on the air, donations flooded and calls for cash pledges swarmed the lines.
To maximize on the efforts, sources said Rev Fr. Warli Salise of the Bohol Social Action Center is now coordinating with the parishes to gather all donations before it could be simultaneously sent to Manila Thursday next week.
Reports have also conformed that the initial donations would be shipped to Manila, care of Negros Navigation.
But with the apparent immediate need of dry clothing and other usable stuff, the country’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, through the PAL Foundation is also offering to airlift goodies consigned to relief organizations in Manila.
With the development, Capitol, through retired Lt. Col. Raul Mendez urged kindhearted Boholanos to immediately send their donations to the OPSWD for quick shipment to Manila.
Cash donations pooled in the drives would accordingly be coursed through Caritas. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 3, 2009 | Headlines, National News
“SCIENCE on the Move” has to stop.
The interactive hip science exhibit refused to open at the Block of the Island City Mall Friday October 2, 2009 while super-typhoon Pepeng continues to move west-northwest heading towards Luzon.
Science on the Move, a mobile component of the fascinating Philippine Science Centrum in Manila is now mounted at the conspicuous “the Block” at the ICM Parking lot and continues to be available for Boholanos since September 1 until October 10.
The traveling science center features interactive hands-on exhibits to help learners get a good grasp at science and technology concepts in interesting, entertaining and dynamic teaching process, states the brochure available to viewers.
Fast becoming an annual hit to students and teachers, the exhibit now has filled bookings allowing guided tours at 250 student learners per hour at most.
Set in the Block, an air-filled tarpaulin structure occupying the most of the ICM parking lot, the venue, which is only anchored by tether cords may not withstand sudden gusts of wind.
With the impending after-effects of a super-typhoon packing some 185 kilometer per hour winds near its center and gustiness of 230 kilometers per hour, local exhibit organizers decided to momentarily close.
In a text message advisory to prescheduled group tour organizers for the day, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) provincial information officer Vina Antopina said “we do not take chances with the safety of our viewers.”
Considering the vulnerability of the venue to strong winds, based on gathered satellite images, we might be hit by strong tailwinds, DOST through Antopina advised.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and added, this is beyond our control.
To their pre-booked tour groups for the day, DOST assured they are trying to set another date for all of Friday’s bookings so everybody could be accommodated. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 3, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
WITH geo-hazard maps may be available to some Municipal Planning and Development Officers, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) wants it available to all local government units here.
According to Vice Governor Julius Caesar Herrera, the move is crucial so as to allow local governments to be aware of hazard prone areas in their responsibility and base their land use plans on the inputs.
He added that the legislative body acknowledges the urgency of allowing the information to seep into every community to better prepare the people of any hazard coming their way.
On the alleged poor government reaction to the flash floods that caught Metro Manila residents by surprise last week, Herrera said people must know what are the risks coming to them.
In a resolution introduced by Herrera and approved en masse, the legislative body directs the at least three local government agencies to make the geo hazard maps available to all local government units in Bohol.
The Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs) and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) with Bohol Disaster and Coordinating Council jointly undertook the Ready project in 1997.
The project allowed Bohol towns to have geo-hazard maps and even trained local government officials in emergency responses to disasters.
The hazard maps however are confined only at the municipal planning and development offices in some towns, revealed PDCC Action Officer Lt. Col Raul Mendez in an interview.
Over this, the SP asks the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the local Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) and the PhiVolcs to institute joint efforts to urgently produce the geo-hazard maps and make them available to LGUs.
Herrera said the DENR secretary has revealed on national television that they are on the process of preparing the maps that would identify hazardous geographical locations prone to floods, landslides, earthquake fault-lines. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 3, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
PINPOINTING danger zones may be something new for government agencies and units as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo asked them to better prepare, but its nothing new for Bohol.
Since 1997, Bohol through the Capitol has had the READY project implemented under the Philippine Vulcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs).
READY Project is basically hazard mapping and assessment for effective community based disaster risk management, explains Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) Action Officer Lt. Col. Raul Mendez.
Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA, Col. Mendez reiterated that with the Ready Project, towns have been capacitated to know which areas in their responsibilities are prone to disaster.
This allows them to plan well ahead and so local government can also appraise people about the risks involved in insisting to develop areas within the hazard zones.
The project also puts in place specific responses and evacuation plans to keep people save from disasters, Col. Mendez bared.
The presidential directive also came on the heels of disasters hitting Metro Manila and brought about by storm Ondoy.
“Somebody must be in charge of designating the areas,” the President stressed at the Cabinet meeting held at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
In Bohol, the PDCC has broken the usual reactive approach to disasters with the hazard maps now in place.
With Capitol, the local governments here have received trainings on Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System, a computer-software born out of the hazard maps, he continued.
Using the concept of simulation, Philvolcs geoscientists and now local governments who see the software as useful in their land use planning can now generate seismic and hazard maps for emergency response.
With officials trained and aware of these areas in their localities, it would be easy for barangay captains to implement land use plans to make sure people do not build houses on hazardous areas.
The result is a well-informed populace of the dangers, evacuation plans on the ready and more lives are saved, Mendez summed. (PIA)
