by admin | Aug 30, 2017 | Local News / Bohol Balita
SINANDIGAN UBAY, August 30, 2017 (PIA) –Aiming to sustainably replenish the stocks of swimming blue crabs (lambay) in Bohol, the government and a private sector group signed an agreement to formally establish a hatchery for the crustaceans popularly imported for their meat here at the local Multi Species Hatchery.
The government through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional Director Dr. Allan L. Poquita and Robert G. Eduardo chairman of the Philippine Association of Crab Processors Inc. ( PACPI) formally signed the agreement to mutually cooperate in the production of blue swimming crab August 30, here at the Multi species hatchery right in the middle of Danajon Double Barrier Reef.
Dr. Poquita said the historic event marks the rebirth of the blue crab meat industry through sustaining stocks in the region severely depleted by over harvesting in the past.
He said the project is consistent with BFAR mandate to promote the replenishment and propagation of crabs and achieve food security.
Here, the project intends to acquire suitable berried female crabs from fishers, but them at premium prices and bring them to the hatchery for spawning, according to Chairman Eduardo.
The ultimate goal is to be able to produce at least 20,000 to 30,000 hatchlings every month which would be dispersed to BFAR identified areas along the beneficiary towns and islands along the Danajon Bank, Dir Poquita added.
One of the projects goal is to enhance the Spawning Potential Ratio for blue crabs to a sustainable levels of at least 30%, according to PACPI Executive Director Josette Emlen Genio.
This means that of a female crabs average of 80,000 eggs, only 27% survive and mature enough to spawn, Genio cites recent blue crab studies by BFAR, PACFI and ECOFish.
Common at the Danajon and elsewhere in the Visayas, swimming blue crab (portunus pelagicus) is the country’s 4th in production volume for fishery commodity and 3rd in value production, BFAR emphasized.
However, swimming blue crabs which fetch a P180 to 200 a kilo in wet markets need to go past a gauntlet of obstacles including predation, undersized harvesting and a local culture running counter to sustainable harvest practices to make it past reproduction age.
Visayans prefer to harvest and eat berried or gravid crabs; the eggs indicate good meat.
The Memorandum of Agreement allows BFAR to allocate space, equipment and facilities for lambay production, advance mechanisms to curb the harvest of undersized and egg-bearing females, provide technical supervision in the hatchery production, identify future dispersal activities and monitor stocks, documenting the entire production progress process.
The agreement also makes PACPI provide technical and non technical staff and honorarium who will partner with the hatchery manager, give financial support to the project operation including acquisition of broodstock, feeds, fertilizers for natural food culture and facilities maintenance, provide additional equipment and supplies if needed and help BRAF document the processes.
For the one year project duration, PACPI dedicates P742,200.00 for the operation expenses and wages plus additional supplies and equipment if needed and a separate budget of P354,200.oo for post project assessment to determine the impacts of the hatchery reared-crablets to the wild stocks. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
PACPI Chairman Robert G. Eduardo and BFAR 7 Regional Director Allan L. Poquita along with Sinandigan Ubay BFAR Multi-Species Hatchery Chief Conrado Toston sign the MOA formally establishing the blue swimming crab hatchery here. (rahc/PI-7/Bohol)
by admin | Aug 27, 2017 | Local News / Bohol Balita
By JUNE S. BLANCO
REP. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) takes seriously the “teaching a man to fish” part of the saying rather than the “giving a man a fish” part.
He says “teaching” gives a man independence through skills he learns from training – and empowers him to provide for his family.
On the other hand, “giving” merely turns such a man into a mendicant, and in the process, robs him of dignity.
His efforts at teaching skills have earned Aumentado the National Kabalikat Award from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
TESDA recently celebrated its 23rd anniversary during which it conferred awards to partners in attaining its goals.
Aumentado had tapped the rich pool of TESDA trainors in different fields to train his constituents, hence the award given at the TESDA Auditorium, at the TESDA Complex, in Taguig City, Metro Manila.
The solon said TESDA cited him as legislative partner in promoting manpower and skills development for his constituents, especially those who cannot afford to pay for higher education.
Through these years, Aumentado’s office has been, and continuously is being a partner in the development of the Boholano workforce.
TESDA Central Office statistics show that Aumentado’s office – always ready to be of service to the public – had benefitted 8,168 Boholanos who availed of the trainings and scholarship programs from 2014-2016.
He has 5,173 assessed and 5,597 graduates employed. His office also invested P 25,473,141.41 for Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
TVET is the education or training process that, in addition to general education, involves the study of technologies and related sciences and acquisition of practical skills relating to occupations in various sectors of economic life and social life. It comprises of formal (organized programs as part of the school system) and non-formal (organized classes outside the school system) approaches.
by admin | Aug 20, 2017 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
By JUNE S. BLANCO
WHAT is it in election years that pulls down net satisfaction ratings (NSRs) of candidates?
This was what happened to three of Bohol’s incumbent top leaders in 2016 – except for Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) whose NSR increased by six percentage points.
The three top leaders managed to recover in 2017. Gov. Edgardo Chatto and Rep. Rene Ralampagos (Bohol, 1st District) moved up by four percentage points each – from +81 to +85 for the former and from +50 to +54 for the latter. Rep. Arthur Yap (3rd District) fared better: +74 this year from +63 in 2016 or up by 11 percentage points.
But Aumentado topped his six-point increase of +63 in 2015 to +69 in 2016 with a 15-point jump to +84 this year.
While Chatto’s, Relampagos’ and Yap’s yearly ratings from 2014 to 2017 would look like the pulses of the heart in an electrocardiogram. Aumentados’s ratings steadily climbed, with no dips at all.
Aumentado thanks his supporters for the trust and confidence in him.
While he rode on the good name, accomplishments and popularity of his father and relished the sympathy votes when he first entered politics as replacement candidate and won in 2013, he said the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Bohol Poll results already reflect what his constituents feel about how he has gone about his work.
To note, his namesake father, immediate congressional predecessor and former Gov. Erico Boyles Aumentado, passed away on Christmas Day of 2012 – at the height of the campaign.
The solon said the 2017 results inspire him to strive even more to bring to a higher level his services to his constituents – and development to his district.
And, he added, he dedicates this “ace” to his father. He had always looked up to his father as his role model in public service, he explained.
by admin | Aug 17, 2017 | EDCOM News, Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
The Province of Bohol through the Bohol Tourism Office conducted of Bohol’s first ever “Coastal-wide Dive Forum” on August 11, 2017 at Bohol Plaza Resort, Dayo Hill, Dauis, Bohol.
The forum was in partnership with the Bohol Provincial Tourism Council (PTC), Inc. and the Panglao Association of Dive Operators (PADO) has taken new steps in its efforts for sustainable tourism development.
LGU environment and tourism officers, representatives of Municipal and Provincial Tourism Councils, headed by Atty. Lucas M. Nunag, scientists, national agency representatives from the Department of Tourism, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippine Coast Guard, PNP Tourist Police and employees of the provincial government attended the forum.
Also present and facilitated the workshop, were private sector stakeholders many of whom are dive operators all over the province, hotel and resort owners, business groups and individuals advocates for Bohol’s sustainable environment and inclusivity of business practices.
Jo Cabarrus, Head of the Bohol Tourism Office welcomed the participants and gave the forum’s statement of purpose. Atty. Mitchell John Boiser, Acting Provincial Administrator and the Provincial Legal Officer in behalf of the Governor speaks of the forum as timely, considering that the diving industry in our province is flourishing with the influx of tourists who come to Bohol to experience one of the best dive sites in the country. Aside from Balicasag being famous as a world-class dive spot, there are other sites like Cabilao, Anda, Jagna and many more that offer the same exhilarating experience. He emphasized that the diving industry and the community need to be conscientious in creating balance between tourism development and ecological preservation and that government needs to lay down the rules and implement them and for stakeholders and implementers to follow such enactments.
The forum aimed to instill the importance of marine resource conservation for environmental sustainability and formulate appropriate legislations thereto; raised issues and concerns besieging the diving industry. In the workshop conducted, strategies were generated for the development of a uniform marine life protection policies and standards by all MLGUs and ensure that players in the industry comply with such diving industry operations.
“Protecting the resources in the coastal vicinity of Bohol is a shared responsibility between and among LGUs, local communities, NGOs and private sector. If the marine resources are properly managed, sustainable economies will last not only in this generation but also unto the future.”, according to Neil Antoque, a Marine Biologist and Coastal Extension Officer of DENR Bohol, who gave an input on the Science of Coral Reef Ecosystem, its Relationship to the Diving Industry and The Relevant Enabling Policies, Rules and Regulations in Marine Conservation for Livelihood Development.
As best practice model in diving operation, Mr. Holger Horn, President of PADO, shared the Status/Profile of the Diving Industry in Panglao and their Efforts to Save Panglao Dive Sites for Sustainability. On the part of government, Panglao, Coastal Resource Management Officer (CRMO), Darwin Menorias, presented the CRM Initiatives in Marine Conservation vis-à-vis Diving Industry Operations.
The following next steps were noted down: (1) Creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) for a future Bohol Dive Expo; (2) a unified ordinance/legislation (relative to marine conservation, diving regulations and incorporation of diving policies in the Bohol Tourism Code), (3) a Position Paper to DOT so strengthen PCSSD/to establish Regional Offices to facilitate accreditation applications and (4) the establishment of a community-based monitoring task force.
Ms. Liza Quirog, Chief of Staff of the Office of the Governor and Head of the SEEM Cluster, a dive enthusiast and a conservationist at heart, in her closing statements, remarked, that “in order to make our aspirations happen, we can only depend and raise our expectations on the things that we can control. Let us not expect or put to task people who or agencies which are not under our control. For we can only make sure that things are done because WE CAN DO it ourselves or that the agencies or personalities that are mandated to do them are under our systems; either of the Philippine government or under our community’s influence”.
The workshop closed with the signing of the Commitment- ‘to act collectively to conserve and sustainably use our seas, coasts and marine resources for sustainable development’, by all the participants.
by admin | Aug 13, 2017 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
By JUNE S. BLANCO
BETTER job opportunities for his constituents, and a cleaner, greener and fresher earth.
These are the ends-in-view Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) is pursuing so that he filed twin bills last week.
House Bill (HB) 5951 proposes to establish a special economic zone in Bohol. On the other hand, HB 5549 which he co-authored, aims to improve air quality and mitigate the effects of climate change.
To manage and administer the special economic zone, the bill also proposes the creation of the Northern Bohol Special Economic Zone Authority (NBSEZA) with the corresponding appropriation.
But, Aumentado said, businesses and industries that locate in the NBSEZA must only be light, and environment-friendly.
These must complement, not compete, with agriculture and tourism which are Bohol’s prime economic drivers, he emphasized.
Heavy industries, he noted, tend to be detrimental to the environment.
The bill is now being studied by the House committees on Economic Affairs and on Trade and Industry.
Meanwhile, Aumentado said, HB 5549 aims to require parents to plant one tree for every child born to them.
The bill is now being studied by the committees on Natural and Resources, on Ecology and the Special Committee on Climate Change.
Among others, the committees will finalize the mechanics of the requirement, including the types of trees recommended and the planting area for families who do not own land.
The solon said when passed, this law will be the country’s contribution to the mitigation of the effects of climate change.
He said the Philippines cannot compare to Bhutan wherein 70% of its land area is still covered with virgin forests.
This means, he explained, Bhutan is not only carbon neutral but carbon negative, meaning, the oxygen its forest cover produces is more than the carbon dioxide its population, households, machineries and industries produces.
As things are, Aumentado admits, the Philippines cannot yet hope to become another Bhutan.
But the one tree per child policy can certainly improve air quality and with it, the health of its citizens, he explained.
by admin | Aug 12, 2017 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
PANGLAO, Bohol, August 7 (PIA) –Clean energy revolution in small amperage light rolls off from here and it is a wolf in sheep’s cloak.
An ordinary dirty energy kerosene lantern which otherwise would have given a warm flickering incandescent glow now gets a new light source: clean Light Emitting Diode (LED) powered by solar energy.
“Thanks to Liter of Light and MyShelter Foundation who taught us how to do it,” confesses Jane Heberly Bompat, Grade VI pupil at Lourdes Elementary School (LES) in Panglao.
Assembled by LES kids, the repackaged lantern would soon be among the innovations the Liter of Light and its 34 Bohol children ambassadors would be using to spread light into the country’s communities still darkened by energy poverty.
“How could we help 20 million Filipinos without access to light? Do we give them light from patented sources which is expensive and hard to repair or do we think of innovations?” asked Liter of Light and MyShelter founder Ilac Diaz.
Asked how his mission came about, Diaz was more willing to share.
It all started with one bottle, one carpenter, one inspiration and an empty liter bottle of soda.
Diaz said they had to come up with a solution in providing light to help communities wiped out by Haiyan, and Filipino bayanihan was a good concept to start with.
Liter of Light filled the PET bottle with water and bleach and stuck it in house roofs to produce refracted illumination indoors.
But for Haiyan victims, “buying was an option but shipping cost would eat up about 70% of our budget, we need to come up with something unique not top down imported, patented and expensive , but bottom up and local so it can be fixed,” Diaz added.
“Why import when we could just overhaul what is there?” he pointed out citing the kerosene lamps which were given to communities after the disaster.
In these areas too, kerosene lamps caused other problems: they burned children and women and houses, he noted.
“In kerosene lamps, we thought of converting it to solar powered lamps using LED,” Diaz who presided over a workshop at the Asian Cooperation Dialog (ACD) in Panglao intoned.
“We want local materials, done by local skills and fixible so the community can build and rebuild or fix it again as we go,” he excitedly narrated his soon-to-be mainstreamed clean energy.
Operating on empowering people to do more to uplift them instead of doling out, Liter of Light saw that transforming a dirty energy into sun power is most sustainable.
“The country has this south-south orientation which provides us maximum exposure to the sun,” he commented on why solar of all low cost and renewable energy sources.
The lanterns they asked children to build is 1 ampere LED mounted on a printed circuit board and getting solar energy packed in a battery inserted inside the lamp.
At the ACD, 34 children: 17 boys and 17 girls patiently showed to the representatives of the 34 country energy bloc how to build and rebuild the solar lanterns.
The ACD gathered Asian energy leaders and think-tanks to share and exchange expertise and ideas about making energy sustainable and affordable to energy deprived areas.
This is transforming a dirty energy to a clean energy solution and the government is keen in its support because solar energy is the right energy because it preserves our resources, Diaz summed. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)
Carabao dairy: Bohol farmers
option for additional income
TAGBILARAN CITY, August 11 (PIA)–Then thought of only as a farm animal and meat source, the Philippine water buffalo now proves is also a source of extra income in high quality milk and cheese, says experts at the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC).
A potential source of additional income for farm families who have to sideline farm work to allow a birthing carabao the respite to nurture the young, carabao milk has been proven to be a good income source, according to PCC veterinarian Dr. Gondolino Bahinting.
To highlight on the viability of carabao as milk source, the PCC at the Ubay Stock Farm (USF) says other than giving off a calf, a mother carabao can also be a good source of high protein, low cholesterol, mineral and calcium rich milk that could be suitable for mozzarella.
Compared to other milk, a 200 milliliter glass of carabao milk contains about 9 grams of heat resistant protein.
“Because it doesnt break down easilly, the body tends to get more from it,” explains a dietician when asked about heat resistant proteins.
And carabao milk contains low cholesterol and is ideal milk for persons with diabetes, dyslipidermia, hypertension, kidney diseases, polycystic ovarian disease and obesity, PCC claimed.
Known to have high fat percentage and is thicker than other kinds of milk, the heavy carabao milk has been identified as good for healthy weight gain and is excellent for cheese and ice cream making, says PCC information officer Leniefe Libres.
In Bohol schools now, carabao milk supplemental feeding program supports the province’s goals of wiping malnutrition.
Besides, carabao milk is extremely rich in calcium and is a great source of minerals like potassium, magnessium and phosphorus which is great for building bone and bofy strength, Libres added to highlight its nutritional prowess.
“Experiments showed that carabao milk has very good stretching and melting characteristics that make it ideal for mozzarella,” PCC claimed.
“The native carabao however could only produce about 6 liters in two milking sessions a day compared to 12 liters from foreign breeds, but with a calf to add to the profit, it should be just okay,” a PCC carabao loan porgram beneficiary posed in comparison.
A farmer with a milking carabao however has to wean the calf early and induce the milking to harvest enough to feed the calf and process more milk.
With the provision of carabao milk as alternative, the PCC nears in its mission to make available locally produced affordable and high quality fresh dairy products while uplifting the socioeconomic status of dairy farmers as well ad improve nutrition and lives of Boholanos.
Along this line, the PCC has been tending a carabao ranch, a milking shed and has produced 200 liters of milk a day to prove milking can be viable for farmers.
“We do not do this for profit. We are doing this for farmers to imbibe as livelihood,” Dr. Bahinting claimed as he explained to tourists at the PCC farm tour.
From its processed milk, PCC and its supervised Bohol Dairy Cooperative makes pasteurized fresh milk, chocomilk, mango flavored milk, yoghurt, banana loaves, milk cakes, torta, pastillas de leche, vinegar-based white cheese, caramilk ice cream and its nutri packaged milk bars. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)
Good health keeps
body off from “TB”TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, August 12 (PIA)–Always get a good rest, eat the right food and exercise, that in itself can be a great defense against tuberculosis.
A nurse at the Provincial Health Office and the Provincial Coordinator for the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) dished out this advice amidst the reality that there are still a good number of undetected cases of microbacterium tuberculosis (TB) in Bohol.
While the PHO noted a high curing rate for people treated with TB, the case detection rate in Bohol is still a low 62%, Rances reported at Kapihan sa PIA for Lung Month in August.
The NTP pegs a target of 90% TB case detection rate but PHO cited problems with finding these people afflicted with the contagious bacteria.
Communities are supposed to help us seek these people who may have cough for the past three weeks, have unintentionally lost weight, has fevers, chest and back pains, said PHO nurse and NTP Bohol coordinator Polizena Rances.
Once reported, these people vould undergo confirmatory tests through gathering of sputum samples and when found positive, be placed under the free Directly Observed Treatment System for TB (TB DOTS).
Unreported, these people put their family members at high risk of infection, Rances added.
TB bacteria is spread with the air as the TB positive coughs or sneezes and the air is inhaled.
Although most healthy people have antibodies that naturally fight off the infection, those with low immunity tend to contract the disease.
About 95% of healthy people with strong resistance can self-cure TB, Rances revealed.
In fact she added that the usual habit of detaining patients in a closed room exacerbates the possibility of infection.
You close the room, you contain the bacteria which can degrade when exposed to sun and thins into insignificant numbers in open air, she explained.
In addition, as soon as the patient has been placed under TB treatment regimen, the possibility of him spreading the bacteria stops.
She however cautions.
A patient ho has started medication has to religiously obey the fixed dose or he could develop a Multi Drug Resistant TB, a much tougher bacteria to beat, PHO said. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)
DoE works for “LNG”
powerbarge to BoholTAGBILARAN CITY, August 9 (PIA)–Consistent with Bohols green development agenda, the Department of Energy (DOE) unwittingly leaked its plan to bring to Bohol a cleaner source of power in a barge.
During a press conference at the BE Grand Hotel in Panglao, no less than DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi timidly confirmed the plan after a slip of the tongue when he exposed the plan to send in a liquified natural gas (LNG) floating power plant to Bohol.
The press conference of the First East Asia Energy Forum which also had Japanese professor president of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia Hidetoshi Nishimura, Shigeru Kimura of ERIA, Energy Research Institute Network Chair and associate professor Romeo Pacudan, Sec. Alfonso G. Cusi tackled the directions East Asia and the Philippines is taking in its energy development in response to the pressing industrialization needs of the times.
While the DOE admitted its direction towards an establishment of an energy source that is attainable in the shortest term to keep up to the countrys development pace, the Philippine direction towards clean coal became apparent.
“The Philippine direction is building up more coal fired plants, which should comprise 50% of the 80% energy supplied by conventional energy,” he said.
The rest of the 20% should be from renewables.
The downside for renewables however is that these are dependent on the times.
When the sun is out for example, less energy is gathered or hydropower is dependent on the water supply, energy sources said.
The move for coal considers that the Philippines has coal while it is also available from Indonesia, Australia and Russia, its import price affected by economics of supply and demand, Sec. Cusi who led the host nation in the Asian Cooperation Dialog in Panglao.
As to the environmental concerns of coal, the energy bigwig was quick to the follow-through: 50% is from green-coal technology, he stressed.
“Technology has done great lengths to reduce coal carbon emissions,” the secretary said even as he assured that the government is also looking at socio economic as well as the ecological impacts of coal.
But with Malampaya in the Philippines producing natural gas, the DOE is eyeing these as source of back up power for Bohol.
This is also considering that the only time Bohol could have a redundant power supply system is when the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines completes its Cebu-Bohol interconnection by 2020.
An earthquake that shut down the geothermal plants in Leyte last July disrupted Bohols power supply blanketing the island in darkness for a few nights.
A few landbased plants later supplied 20 megawatts of the 69 megawatts the entire island needed.
Weeks later, NGCP tapped Bohol to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid which supplied some of its power requirements.
Bohol officials who have yet to accept bids for more landbased power, has arranged for a diesel power barge to complement the supply, but none has arrived yet.
The DOE did not also say when the clean barge is coming and from where would this come from. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)
