by magnolia_eic | Sep 18, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
IS tourism really that miracle engine behind Bohol’s economic boost? Many want to know.
But absent the necessary data that would confirm or deny the claim, Capitol is now eyeing a study
commissioned to do exactly that.
At the recent Kapihan sa PIA aired live over DyTR, researchers at the Holy Name University shared
that Capitol is now formalizing negotiations with the local research firm to make tourism profiles
of towns as a baseline data laying the substrata of the newest economic wonder engine claim.
Holy Name University’s Bohol Poll, which has established a track record of credibility after conducting
almost accurate predictions in its regular annual surveys since 1998 could be Capitol’s choice of
partners in the survey.
“The profile would give us an accurate picture of the tourism in the towns, its services, facilities and
supports structures,” Josephine Cemine of the Holy Name University Center for Local Governance
said.
Cemine also revealed that they are now studying Capitol’s request for assistance to help them put up
a data base that would rightfully support Bohol’s claims.
The negotiations however are not yet final, she hinted during the weekly forum held at the PIA.
The research data gathered could actually pinpoint if Bohol’s crafted vision to pre-position the
province as a prime eco-cultural tourism destination in the country has borne fruit in the last decade.
The data could also tell if eco-tourism benefits have created the “noted” economic up-liftment of
communities as recorded by the United Nation’s Human Development Index.
Romeo Teruel of the Bohol Center for Development Studies said that the present Capitol
Administration has put in regular employees at the Capitol research Unit because all locally funded
programs and decisions from then on would be research-based.
The Kapihan sa PIA segment for the week was on the celebration of the Development Policy
Research Month celebrated in September via Presidential Proclamation 247.
Taking turns in explaining the crucial role of research in policy decisions and local development,
Cimene, Teruel and Holy Name University’s Research center Coordinator Ma. Paz Espiritu emphasized
the crucial role of research-based development policies to help government allocate its scarce
resources. (racPIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Sep 18, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
WILL an ambitious 120% rice sufficiency in Bohol attainable two years from now? The Provincial Agriculture
Office believes so.
Rushing to fill the empty rice bowls of rice deficient Central Visayas, Bohol farm authorities shared that
attaining the 40% increase in the region’s rice production share in two years can be done as long as
concerned officials and workers take on the dare.
Rice is still Bohol’s leading staple crop supplying a rice equivalent of 107,983 metric tons for the region in
2009, registering a surplus of 844 metric tons. By 2013 however, it hopes to bag 35,118 metric tons surplus,
already considering consumption by increment population increase, Larry Pamugas, assistant provincial
agriculturist explains.
According to a rice sufficiency plan presented by the Office of the Provincial Agriculture, the ultimate
goal is to increase the current 67.9% of rice Bohol supplies to the whole region’s total requirement.
The end goal however is to increase the average per hectare yield to 250,550 to 265,833 metric tones from an
annual average of 229,636 this year.
This means an incremental rate of at least 2 metric tons per hectare yield from 2010-2013, increase
milling recovery to 65.4% and pitch for a 70% increase in the adoption of high yielding rice varieties.
Confident it can be done, Pamugas sees a glimpse of hope, as rice is only planted in 25% of the total
agricultural lands in Bohol, he showed.
Opening up a bigger share, say 40% of the total agricultural lands necessarily raise the chances of and
increased produce.
Moreover, he showed mayors during a recent meeting that producing high quality whole grains, organic
varieties and the world sought Japonica varieties along can already spell the difference in harvest yield per
hectare.
Agricultural promotion Center authorities here, led by Engr. Eugene Cahiles since the rice crisis threatened
to hit Bohol, have been convincing farmers to take the shift and see for themselves the huge difference.
Pamugas, who carries the burden of manhandling the ambition to its reality, also hinted that with the
government help to ensure access of industry through, public-private sector partnerships is a huge boosting
power to propel the dream.
He told mayors that private-public partnerships in financing and putting up the proper technical support can
spur quality seeds production.
The same partnership can help in putting up irrigation facilities, appropriate post harvest facilities, as well as
adoption of environment friendly and cost-effective technologies. (racPIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Sep 18, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
PERHAPS an out-building made of coconut and nipa leaves for a toilet merits no news at all.
But when it eloquently shows a community’s first tentative steps to break a habit that kept generations from
learning the benefits of sanitation and hygiene, it surely gives them the print space.
In Danao, Bohol, communities have started to dig the truth behind health, sanitation and clean environment,
a fact that makes Danao Mayor Thomas Louis Gonzaga hopeful in his drive to bring his town off the hooks of
poverty.
“I believe in good health starts with a clean environment” the mayor said and adds, “education is the key to
good health.”
Unsuccessful in their initial attempt to get the people digging for their own sanitary toilets despite the
town providing toilet bowls, cement and technical help, the need to get people understanding the value of
cleanliness finally got to them through the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program (4PS).
Implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the 4Ps in Danao town also
allowed beneficiaries, whom the town granted toilet construction materials, to sit on community assemblies
and family development sessions.
It was through DSWD’s Family Development Sessions (FDS) that program partners sa Department of Health,
LGU and Department of Education picked the opportunity to deal with educating the beneficiaries the
importance of having toilets.
Here, what the town could not do: educating their people was unwittingly advanced by the 4Ps.
Educating the people to contribute to a cleaner environment in line with the town vision of a brisk extreme
eco-tourism activity as an engine for over-all development was then a big problem, Mayor Gonzaga admitted.
We want the communities to install sanitary toilets for health and hygiene purposes, but habit seems to get on
the way, the athletic town chief executive confessed.
Adopting an approach called community driven development, communities identify their problems and map
out solutions to them, explains a municipal social welfare officer of one of the DSWD 4Ps beneficiary towns.
4P is a national government poverty alleviation program that provides social assistance in conditional cash
grants to extremely poor households to help them break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Its long-term objective is for communities to improve their health and education particularly of children aged
0-14 years old.
To continually avail of the cash grants, the government ascertains that family beneficiaries attend health and
pregnancy assistance sessions, regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines for children, responsible
parenthood sessions, mother’s classes, parent-effectiveness seminar and family development sessions.
To keep the children informed, children of beneficiaries must attend day-care, pre-school, elementary and
high-school at least 85% of the time. (rac/PIABohol/DSWD7)
by magnolia_eic | Sep 17, 2010 | Headlines, National News
ANG Senate blue ribbon committee magsugod na sa ilang imbestigasyon karong Martes sa mga gipasangil sa usa ka retiradong obispo nga adunay mga opisyal sa administrasyong Aquino nga nagdawat og binuwan nga suhol gikan sa mga jueteng operators.
Si Senador Teofisto Guingona III, pangulo sa blue ribbon committee, niingon nga ang maong hearing maghatag sa hapsay nga forum alang sa mga hingtungdang tawo aron pagsaysay sa ilang mga nahibaw-an bahin sa giingong jueteng payoffs.
Matud pa ni Guingona nga tumong nilang mahibaw-an ang gidak-on sa maong problema, unsaon pag sulbad niini, ug kon aduna bay kinahanglang himoong bag-ong balaod.
Si Guingona nagkanayon nga ila nang gidapit sa maong hearing si retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, kinsa maoy niingon nga adunay ubang opisyal sa kagamhanan ni Presidente Aquino ang naglihok isip jueteng operators o mga protektor sa jueteng operators.
Gidapit usab silang Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office (PCSO) Small Town Lotteries (STL) project manager Romualdo Quiñones, ug Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Deputy Director General Raul Bacalzo. (PIA)
by magnolia_eic | Sep 17, 2010 | Headlines, National News
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported on Wednesday that the number of jobless Filipinos had declined by 200,000 as the country recovers from the effects of the global financial crisis.
DOLE said data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that unemployed persons nationwide dropped to 2.7 million in July compared to the 2.9 million jobless workers recorded during the same period last year.
Based on results of the NSO’s latest Labor Force Survey (LFS), male workers account for 62.6 percent of the total number of unemployed citizens while a majority or 52.5 percent belong to 15 to 24-years age group.
About one-third (32.5 percent) of the unemployed were high school graduates, 22.7 percent were college undergraduates, and 20.5 percent were college graduates.
Labor officials said the lingering effects of the financial crisis have increased the number of jobless Filipinos last year with Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon (CALABARZON) region bearing the brunt. (PIA)
