by magnolia_eic | Jun 11, 2010 | Headlines, National News
NOW that he has been proclaimed, President-elect Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III has given his prospective Cabinet members the green light to start transition work with the outgoing administration.
Incoming Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said she already met Wednesday with officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to be briefed on the job.
Aside from Soliman, Aquino had confirmed as members of his official family Teresita Deles as peace adviser, and Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa as most likely the executive secretary.
In Malacañang, Presidential Management Staff head Elena Bautista-Horn said the transition team she now heads will submit a blueprint to the incoming administration.
She said the blueprint includes a 20-page situationer on the Arroyo administration’s “accomplishments and challenges,” including a world food crisis in 2007 and an economic crisis in 2008. She also said they will give the incoming administration two three-inch-thick books including the functional transitional report and operational transitional report of the bureaucracy. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Jun 11, 2010 | Headlines, National News
US President Barack Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated Philippine President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III Thursday, a day after the latter’s proclamation at the House of Representatives.
In a press statement issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary, Obama made a phone call to Aquino Thursday morning to congratulate him personally.
The US President hailed the May 10 Philippine elections as “a model of transparency and positive testament to the strength and vitality of democracy in the Philippines.” He also noted the “deep historic and people-to-people ties between the US and the Philippines and the two countries’ strong cooperation on security and economic issues in the Asia Pacific region and globally.”
The White House said the two leaders agreed to take the cooperation between the two countries to a new level and to meeting at a “mutually convenient” time.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also congratulated Aquino, saying the “successful election exemplified the vitality of the country’s democratic institutions and should be a point of pride for Filipinos everywhere.”
Some 4 million Filipino-Americans are living in the United States while more than 100,000 Americans currently reside in the Philippines. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Jun 10, 2010 | Headlines
Former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore urged Filipinos to urgently address the effects of climate change felt around the world.
Gore was in the country to talk on climate change and present the updated Asian version of “An Inconvenient Truth,” a multi-media presentation on the threat of climate change and solutions to global warming.
With only a decade or so left to address the problem as what scientists claim, the US vice president said it is fortunate that environmental issues confronting the world are reversible.
He said a clear manifestation of global warming, is the occurrence of storms worldwide.
Gore also enjoined the government to work with concerned groups or agencies and to review policies on the environment.
He said the country could adopt clean energy sources to address climate change. (PIA Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Jun 10, 2010 | Headlines, National News
THE Department of Education (DepEd) asserts, schools are no smoking zones and anyone caught violating the order would be suspended.
And the ban holds true, even to teachers and non-teaching staff.
DepEd official and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said anyone caught violating the no-smoking rule will be brought to the principal’s office, or if a teacher or non-teaching staff is caught, he will be prosecuted and suspended.
“There have been existing DepEd orders on smoking ban but with this, we want to affirm that the schools – including the students, teachers, and non-teaching staff – are covered,” Secretary Mona Valisno said in reports.
Over the announcement, DepEd has accordingly instructed all principals and school heads to ban smoking inside the campus, even in open or covered spaces around school buildings and instructed regional and division officials to oversee the implementation of the order.
Secretary Valisno said the DepEd order No. 73 or the “Smoking Ban in Public Schools” released June 4, ordered public schools to ban smoking in public schools effective immediately.
She also stressed that DepEd would be strict in implementing the smoking ban in all school premises “to protect our school children from inhaling second hand smoke.”
Since 2003, DepEd has declared school premises as “Zones of Health” and “No Smoking Areas.”
DepEd Order No. 33 prohibited smoking and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products inside public and private campuses, buildings, offices, including the premises and buildings of the division, regional and national offices.
Some time ago, the agency also ordered through DECS Order No. 63, s. 1998 and DECS Order No. 2, s. 1991 a prohibition on smoking in all offices under the Education Department.
According to health experts, carbon monoxide absorbed in the blood can affect one’s health including the disrupting brain processes.
“We want to ensure that our teachers especially our students are free from the adverse effects of smoking by prohibiting the act inside the campus,” Valisno ended. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Jun 10, 2010 | Headlines, National News
PARENTS should be wary when buying plastic school supplies for their kids, an environmental group has found out that many of these materials available in the markets have poisonous substances that may be carcinogenic.
Environment group calling themselves EcoWaste said a study they initiated on marketed school supplies bare that many of them are laced with phthalates like di-ethyl hexyl (DEHP)
Phthalates, Ecowaste said, are toxic additives to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic products to give it softness, flexibility and durability.
Citing a study done by the University of Illinois Medical Center, Ecowaste said DEHP disrupts the function of the endocrine system, affecting normal growth and development among children.
The group then wants a national ban on children’s products laced with phthalates as the United States and the European Union have banned the use of phthalates in children’s toys and childcare articles. The US Environmental Protection Agency said DEHP is also a probable human carcinogen.
The study showed that products found to have high levels of DEHP were green long plastic envelope (19.881 percent), PVC plastic book cover (18.997 percent), PVC notebook cover (18.543 percent), PVC plastic lunch bag and PVC backpack (both with 17.120 percent DEHP). (PIA Bohol)
