Aris to seek add’l funding for brgy multipurpose bldgs in 2nd

by admin | Nov 18, 2018 | Local News / Bohol Balita

By JUNE S. BLANCO

ALL barangays in Bohol’s 2nd District will soon have a multi-purpose building each –courtesy of Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado.

The solon said some barangays have completed theirs through this counter-parting project. However, some “poorer” barangays could not come up with their respective counterparts, leaving the project unfinished until now.

Aumentado continues to make the rounds of his district for ocular inspections to assess the ongoing multipurpose building projects to determine which are not yet complete.

For these, he said, he will request for additional funding at P1 million next year. Current funding, he said, is P750,000 from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The multi-purpose buildings can serve as the barangay’s meeting or assembly area, or evacuation center in times of calamities. The buildings have rain water collectors. The water can then be used by the community for the building’s toilet, for their respective laundry and other water needs.

Aumentado said the amount may not be that much, but he gave all the barangays in his district such funds equally for the multi-purpose buildings not considering if he won or lost in that barangay in the last elections.

He emphasized that he does not want to give just a few barangays from two to three million pesos if this means sacrificing the needs ofd the other barangays. He wants all barangays to receive equal amounts.

The solon said after the election results are out, he always puts politics behind. This is most effective, he said, to heal “election wounds”.

His unprecedented zero dissatisfaction rating in the latest round of Bohol Polls conducted by the Holy Name University’s Research Center, proves such effective “healing method.”

TAKING SHAPE, BUT NOT YET DONE.Built with P750,000 from the Department of Public Works and Highways as requested by Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District, some multi-purpose buildings remain to be completed, mostly because of the failure of barangay local government units to raise funds as counterpart. As a result, Aumentado is assessing the status of these buildingsacross his district, including that of Basiao (above) in the island town of President Carlos P, Garcia, for him to request additional funding from DPWH next year. Photo: ArisAumentado’s Facebook Account.

Aris bullish with corporate farming

by admin | Nov 11, 2018 | Local News / Bohol Balita

By JUNE S. BLANCO

REP. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) is set to meet with agriculture bigwigs to push for the mechanics of House Bill No. 8076 promoting corporate farming and providing incentives therefor.

In his explanatory note, Aumentado said the bill aims to strengthen private participation in the agricultural sector to boost production by establishing a national program that will promote corporate farming.

Corporations and partnerships can subsidize the cost of planting materials, particularly the country’s staples of rice and corn.

When the Filipino farmers can have these corporations and partnerships to turn to for their farm inputs, the process can eliminate loan sharks who are only in the business to earn profit but not look after the welfare of this sector.

Under the corporate farming concept, the management’s support to increase production will enable the farmers to produce rice that is competitive with the imported kind.

The process, Aumentado said, will bring down the cost of production and at the same time, wean the farmers from loan sharks and the state of indebtedness.

The concept calls for the corporations to also provide fertilizers and other inputs. The farmers can also run to them to avail of loans without the tedious process of going to the banks in the city for formal loans. This eliminates the attendant expenses for fare and food.

The corporations can offer farmers with “friendly loans” and not the usurious rates of the loan sharks.

Aumentado observed that small and fragmented landholdings, lack of capital, loose financial control and ineffective business management cause low production, hence the corporate farming idea.

He expressed confidence that corporate farming will address problems in production and deal with the entire chain of agricultural-related business – from seed supply to retail sales. All this would be more efficient and effective, the solon noted, if management is done by the participating corporations or partnerships.

As incentive, these partnerships and corporations, Aumentado said, will enjoy exemptions from paying some taxes. Should they avail of loans from banks, these will be treated as compliance with R.A. No.10000 or The Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009.

PIA conducts photojourn skills training for troops

by admin | Oct 27, 2018 | Local News / Bohol Balita

Becoming soldiers in a different kind of war, troops of the 302nd Infantry Brigade adopts a new kind of shooting skills.
At least 28 officers and men of the 302ndInfBde joined the skills enhancement in shooting, not with their rifles to neutralize the enemy, but with the camera, to put in more good news in these times when most you see in the newspapers are the trivial and non-inspiring.
Since Bohol was declared insurgency free in 2010, the soldiers left her in Bohol shifted to a new kind of battle: that of helping communities rise from the cowering fear with the trauma of war and the government services that came but only in trickles.
Instead of wielding rifles, the soldiers picked on shovels and spades to repair impassable barangay roads, dangerous sections of trails and put up culverts to address flooding and the eventual rutting of the roads making them tough to maneuver by vehicles.
In some areas, along with the Army Engineering Battalion, soldiers wield saws and hammer, buildings schools but putting up the labor counterpart to stretch government budget for school buildings.
Then, they also fix school fences, barangay halls, waiting sheds, put up tap water stands with their trowels and masonry skills, or they use no hunting knives but paintbrushes for painting jobs in government and public infrastructures needing these services.
Reeling from a past when soldiers were accused of being abusive and had indiscretions that are publicly known, the radical change has to happen in time, according to Captain KhadaffyTawantawan, Civil Military Officer of the 302ndIBde.
And yet just as the army has transformed its image into community workers as an avenue for peace work, their activities remain unknown and is filed only in military lockers.
With this, the brigade, which performs the administrative supervision of the army and citizens armed forces for geographical units in Bohol intends to bring these community empowerment accomplishments to the mainstream, and this time, becoming photojournalists would be a good start.
Along this, the brigade requested the Philippine Information Agency for the training, which the PIA also obliged.
Other than PIA basic media skills, which includes photojournalism which are offered for free, the PIA in Bohol also trains communities in literary, arts, sports and disseminates information on key government programs and projects. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Jagna egg-noodles, now Hatch into ‘nutri-pancit’

by admin | Oct 21, 2018 | Local News / Bohol Balita

CANJULAO, Jagna, Bohol, October 18 (PIA)—It comes out in rather weird colors: malunggay (horseradish) green, squash yellow, camote top purple, but for all these, it is basically dried pancit (noodle) similar to your regular canton.
From there, all the similarities end. And then comes the big difference.
Yaning’s Pancit used to be your ordinary neighborhood egg noodles.
Produced from a kitchen backroom in this bustling town, the egg noodles industry now has its own common service facility, but that is getting ahead of the story.
Its manufacturers: a family toiled through years to earn and send their kids through college. And to make both ends meet. When the going gets tough, they produce a little bit more to get enough for the spending needs after the matriculation.
For extra hands, this family hires their jobless neighbors.
And as quickly did the neighbors learn egg-noodling the hard way, the faster they were also dipped into the groove in the food production job.
That started a little livelihood that would soon grow and attract more and more Jagna residents who see the healthy promise getting money for food and other needs.
All of that, thanks to a lady named Yaning.
Living from making egg-noodles, Yaning and her husband got into the business, as loyal as clockwork. The neighbors, then two or three, pitched in for the extra hands. Through the years.
With all Yaning’s kids finishing college, all from the egg-noodles that they are selling, it was not hard for the neighbors to get into the production.
Before Yaning died, she left the business to the neighbors.
Not any longer, from the basic egg noodles hatched to greatness of the new nutri-pancit, through the introduction of innovation.
“You know pancit has a certain come-on to the kids. We see that, as an opportunity to put in the blend some nutritious ingredients. These are usually the ones parents would find it hard to make their kids eat,” says Dominiciana Jamora, the animated operations manager as she is in her high stool perch, hands gesturing loosely, details the hardships they have to surmount to get where they are now.
“It is more of providing alternatives to parents who have a hard time convincing their kids to eat nutritious food,” Jamora added, information spilling from her in a steady stream of words and hand gestures.
Data from the Provincial Nutrition Council showed that Bohol kids are still threatened by malnutrition.
“The witty blending of naturally nutritious ingredients to the noodles could be a good start in solving some problems,” although slowly, PNC members admit.
“They are eating, not really caring about what they are getting as long as it is pancit,” Jamora said triumph in her voice.
A resident of Tubod Monte, Jamora, 57 manages the noodle production from their Common Service Facility (CSF) built by Jagna for the use of the association of local noodle makers.
She, along with women leaders of small, micro and medium enterprises under the Jagna Sustainable Micro Enterprises Development (JaSMED) met at a newly constructed Common Service Facility (CSF) for tableya, the native chocolates which the town also produces after their world renowned calamay, here in a hilltop plant overlooking the barangay and the town center with the blue Mindanao Sea in the distance.
“Among the JaSMED-assisted products is Yaning’s Pancit,” discloses JaSMED Unit head Marilou Naldoza, who has kept close tabs on the 16 micro, small and medium enterprises that the local government unit of Jagna and with the assistance of government agencies, have been producing mostly food products.
Two members of the JaSMED however chose to be in candle and in rags products development.
As to the nutria-pancit, Jamora, who has since led the egg-noodle-now-nutri-pancit business is on to more innovations to make their product a channel for income to her 76 members.
We are now tryiong to help solve at least three problems: malnutrition, family incomes and sending our members to school.
One of their members, Jamora shared, used to work on the calamay industry, as a cardboard box to keep her clothes.
Now, she said she has a good cabinet for her to keep her clothes in her room.
“Most of our members are out of school youth and students by day, noodle factory workers at night, she pointed out,” as she squirms and twists on the high stool she was perched during the causal talk.
Her excitement betrayed her as much as her animated responses to the questions showed.
“We have to continue with the noodles [factory], this has become livelihood for our people and in turn serves the town,” she shared.
The business has also helped not just for making sure people have money, it has also helped their young members finish their studies.
“From this, four of our members have finished college: a seaman, a police man and two teachers,” Jamora, grinning from ear to ear, revealed.
“We thought there’s more to just being egg-noodles, so with the help of the Department of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Agrarian Reform, Trade and Industry and the LGU, we blended squash, malunggay, camote tops and just anything nutritious that can be put in, anything that mothers can use to give their kids the proper nutrition they would need at their ages,” she said in Cebuano.
The green noodles are malunggay, the golden yellow is squash and the purple-violet is camote tops, Jamora illustrated.
And since egg-noodling has become a livelihood to some community members, the LGU and several government agencies pooled resources to put up a CSF, to make sure that there is an established standard for the way things have to be made to keep the Jagna brand, Naldoza explained.
Of all Bohol towns, not many have set up their MSMEs like Jagna, Naldoza added.
For the nutri-pancit, the coop manager said they are now producing 144 packs of 250 grams daily, this would be sold at P45.00, and the sales is starting to increase.
The increase is even noted despite the fact that Jamora’s group is still processing their Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) registration.
We are getting many orders, some as far as Davao, but until we can get the FDA certification, we might just keep the production, she said.
Jagna nutri-noodles rank among the leading products of the town; the biggest being calamay, tablea, cookies, and noodles. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Jagnanutri-noodles are among the products on display by members of Jagna Sustainable Micro Enterprises Development (JaSMED). The noodles, which uses nutritious food as among its additives are either from malunggay, squash, carrots and camote tops.