by anyajulia | Oct 30, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
AT least four bodies would have their hands full in conducting separate probes in aid of legislation over the recent resurfacing maltreatment of tarsier incident in Loboc.
Bohol’s adorable wildlife showcase, the nocturnal insectivores called tarsiers have been listed as threatened species and tourist establishments with tarsiers need a Department of Environment and Natural Resources permit to display tarsiers to tourists.
Board member Alfonso Damalerio argued earlier that protecting the threatened tarsiers should mean banning their display in areas outside the conservation site in Corella town.
Damalerio has authored a Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) ordinance to the effect, which, sources said, has awaited the governor’s concurrence before it could be implemented.
Over the reported animal abuse, the Bohol SP has tasked its Tourism, Environment and Public Accountability Committees to conduct separate investigations.
The probes’ outputs should be basis for recommendations and future action against the owners and operators of tarsier establishments as well as the foreign Asian tourists and their tour guide Jacinto Tan, says a legislator who asked not to be named.
Meanwhile, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Nestor Canda said his agency would probe the incident, clarifying further that his office has not issued any more wildlife permits to the tarsier establishments in Loboc.
He clarified that present permits obtained were issued by the DENR Regional Office and were processed here but he did not issue its renewal as yet.
Tourism Committee Chair Corazon Galbreath in a radio admitted that she is alarmed by the incident and added that she has foreseen the problem with the perception that even the local government is adverse to the SP ordinance.
It may be recalled that a certain Rachel Moralla took and amateur video of the incident she reported to authorities.
The Moralla video uploaded at youtube, dated October 25 showed Asian foreign guests force-feeding the tarsiers at SuperCarp.
The video also showed tourists using midribs with pierced crickets and poking at the animals, which DENR listed as threatened species.
Moralla, who personally explained to tourists about the no-touching, no flash policy was allegedly threatened by Tan, a Cebuano tour guide.
The complainant filed her suit at the Loboc Tourism Office and the reportedly at the Police Station.
Bohol Tourism Officer Josephine Cabarrus, in a radio interview admitted that the tarsier display in Loboc has long been a tourism concern in Bohol.
A concerned citizen also opined that the DENR should have done something as soon as the issue on protection and conservation cropped up. It has done exactly nothing, she bemoaned. (PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 20, 2009 | Headlines, National News
“World Food Day is actually’No Food Day’ for almost one out of every six people around the world this year,” said United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran. He adds, “we can change this – so our challenge is to turn ‘No Food Day’ back into’World Food Day’”.
Last year, governments responded with record donations to WFP, contributing more than US$5 billion to support us at a time when high global food prices were spreading misery, and threatening instability as hungry communities took to the streets in protest.
Sheeran added that for decades, WFP has been able to feed around ten per cent of the world’s hungriest men, women and children. As an agency that responds to emergency needs, WFP has also had to meet many unforeseen demands in 2009, such as the response to the recent floods in the Philippines.
The organization has established a number of programmes, including school meals, food-for-work and food-for training activities, maternal and child nutrition and food assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs). At the same time, WFP is always ready to support national disaster response efforts, as demonstrated by our ongoing emergency operations to assist the victims of tropical storms in Greater Manila and Luzon. (WFP)
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by anyajulia | Oct 14, 2009 | Headlines, National News
The Government of Japan’s US$4.5 million donation was welcomed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This aid aims to feed hundreds of thousands of flood victims in the Philippines as well as providing much-needed financial support for WFP’s newly-arrived helicopters.
The contribution, the largest to date in support of WFP’s flood relief efforts, will be used to buy 6,700 metric tons of rice—enough to assist the efforts to provide food assistance to 670,000 people for one month.
It will also help to ensure that WFP’s three emergency relief helicopters remain airborne over the course of the next month to facilitate a swift and coordinated response by the Government of the Philippines and other humanitarian agencies.
Besides Japan, other donors who have so far contributed to WFP’s flood relief effort in the Philippines include UN CERF (US$ 3 million); Spain (US$ 2 million); Australia (US$ 1.7 million) and ECHO (US$ 600,000). (WFP)
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by anyajulia | Oct 8, 2009 | Headlines, National News
P2 million is spent each day to feed typhoon victims in 2000 evacuation centers for the past 9 days. This is according to Deprtment of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Esperanza Cabral. The money was on top of the donations in cash and in kind from private organizations.
She said the evacuees normally enjoy six meals a day—including snacks being given them by the numerous NGOs and business and civic clubs that distribute their goods directly to the evacuation centers.
“We now have to wait for the signal from the proposed resettlements or relocation camps before we can let go of these evacuees,” Cabral said.
Regular medical and dental teams are also making the rounds of the evacuation centers to protect them from disease outbreaks caused by the garbage piles, improper sanitation and hygiene and even the places which are still under water as these are good breeding grounds for mosquitoes that can carry diseases like dengue, Cabral said. (PIA)
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by anyajulia | Sep 22, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
Barangay Councilor Eustaquio Amolat of Juagdan in Ubay town and fellow fishermen were suprised at around 2:00 AM last Thursday (September 17), they noticed found a 22-ft long whale-shark on their gill net.
Upon arriving in Guintaboan, the fishermen radioed the local coastal resource management (CRM) coordinator of the town to report the incident.
Ubay Mayor Eutiquio Bernales personally led the responding team composed of the CRM coordinator Alpios Delima and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources representative Roselle Hilot came to the whale-shark’s rescue.
After the team documented the incident, they released the whale shark out to sea at around 11 AM of the same day.
According to wikipedia, a whale shark is the largest fish and is called so because it is a shark as big as a whale. Whale sharks can grow up to 60 feet in length and could weigh as much as 15 tons. Mostly found in tropical and warm oceans, the whale shark, or butanding, like a shark has an unusually large mouth but feeds on mostly planktons, microscopic plants and organisms by filtering the water it siphons.
Usually seen in Bohol during the peak months of summer marine migration, these pelagic whale sharks usually swim with a pod of whales passing at the seas south of Bohol, lingering near Pamilacan Island to feed before continuing on their journey to the Tubbataha reefs. (PIA)
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