by magnolia_eic | Aug 7, 2010 | Features, Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
The magically lit Abatan river and the equally spectacular performance by the Teatro Abatan conspired to assert Bohol’s hold as Asia’s Cultural Capital in July.
At a place where time flows with the ebb of tides, Abatan was all the while, different last July 22.
There, time paused from its flow and momentarily sat along the banks of the river; a spectator of the rare meeting of the classical East and the ethnic and indigenous Bohol cultures which later exploded in a myriad of colors in the light of the celebration.
July 22 this is year is 156th Bohol Day, an event marked by the official declaration of the island province as independent from Cebu.
That day also brings the Asian spotlight to the province as Asia’s Cultural Capital for the month.
Brandishing nothing but a track record as one of the country’s most successful engagements of culture as tool for community mobilization against poverty, Bohol’s cultural renaissance program has earned international admiration.
No less than NCCA Executive Director Cecille Guidote-Alvarez who used to described culture as “an engine for economic growth, a building block of social creation, an asset of national pride and a force for education and social transformation, as well as an effective tool for cultural diplomacy” heaped praises for Bohol that day.
The declaration of Asian Cultural Capital in July for Bohol allows the people to build audiences and unleash the creative power of people by art and persuasion and not by force.
The over-all goal is to be one with the Asean region in overcoming the war against poverty and environmental degradation to assure the survival and dignified life on earth of our children and coming generations,” Alvarez was quoted.
In the light of helping attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to eradicate poverty by 2015, Bohol, along with its partnerships with NCCA and UNESCO, would make art and culture performances affordable and accessible by all, explains Gardy Labad, Bohol based artistic consultant to the newly organized Teatro Abatan.
Under the program, communities are given free training in the visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, comics, media arts to discover their abilities, Labad said.
And like big events in Bohol, tradition dictates that milestone go with a hearty banquet of religious, political, artistic and cultural servings for everyone to feast on.
The day started with a celebration of a holy mass at the historic St. Joseph Cathedral. A wreath laying ceremony at Carlos P. Garcia Monument followed at Plaza Rizal.
Then the attention shuffled off to the nearby Escuela de Ninas, now the National Museum Bohol branch for the opening of exhibits.
Moments later, at the beat of the drums, higantes (giants) led by effigies of Boholano heroes Sikatuna, Tamblot, Dagohoy, Capt. Francisco Salazar and Carlos P. Garcia (giants) walked 15-feet high to banner Bohol’s claim to cultural greatness on their way to the Cultural Center.
Following the local higantes were giant puppets representing the Asean member nations and their representatives on a flag parade. Even with the loose traffic on a holiday, the larger than life higantes in their national costumes share the streets with bright tricycles in asserting its claim on local traditions.
The parade sauntered off to the refurbished Bohol Cultural Center where the biggest event in the morning unfolded.
UNESCO ASEAN Head Dr. Hubert Guizen together with NCCA Chairperson Vilma Labrador and UNESCO Commissioner Cecile Guidote Alvarez declared Bohol as the July site of the PHILIPPINES AS ASEAN CULTURAL CAPITAL.
The Provincial Government of Bohol led by Governor Edgar Chatto accepted the honor and welcomed the UNESCO guests by presenting to them the symbolic key to the province. DOT Secretary Lim praised Bohol’s emergence as a major ecological and cultural destination of the nation.
Later that night, Bohol’s claim to be the month’s Asian Cultural Capital was pushed to the limits. (racPIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 7, 2010 | Local News / Bohol Balita
FOLLOW the lead provided by Maribojoc, and Tagbilaran City, urge Bohol Police Commander Pssupt. Rodolfo Llorca, during the recent Kapihan sa PIA on disaster awareness.
Bohol Maribojoc and Jagna have just institutionalized their municipal emergency medical service (EMS) teams to respond to disaster and accident victim recovery.
On the other hand, Tagbilaran has its Tagbilaran City Emergency Medical and Rescue Operations Team, which does the same function as the EMS.
Llorca raised the issue upon seeing that most towns here have not put up properly trained EMS responders that many motor vehicle accident survivors have died instead for improper handling by untrained rescue personnel.
He also added that the EMS team, which Maribojoc has, is given appropriate training and equipment support.
We may be able to save lives and avert more disaster casualties if we prepare, Llorca stressed. (PIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 4, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
A physicist-research-educator couple from Jagna, Bohol, Dr. Christopher C. Bernido and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido president and principal, respectively, of the Research Center for Theoretical Physics in Bohol, are among 7 individuals from Bangladesh, China, Japan and Philippines who will receive the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
An announcement from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation website said the Bernido couple are being recognized for “their purposeful commitment to both science and nation, ensuring innovative, low-cost, and effective basic education even under Philippine conditions of great scarcity and daunting poverty.”
Other awardees are Tadatoshi Akiba from Hiroshima, Japan who led a campaign for nuclear disarmament; environmentalists Huo Daishan, Pan Yue and Fu Qiping from China; and AHM Noman Khan from Bangladesh.
They will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President, and a cash prize. They will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award on August 31, 2010 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The Filipino winners, the Bernido couple, won the Gawad Haydee Yorac last year: “Their partnership to build a stronger nation through science, research and a new method of teaching founded on excellence and values won the judges’ approval over nominations received from different parts of the country.”
Established in 1957 as a tribute to the Philippines’ third president, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is given every year to individuals or organizations in Asia who manifest the same sense of selfless service that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 2, 2010 | Local News / Bohol Balita
CASH SALES, including booked and under negotiation purchases surpassed the P31.1M target for this year.
The Sandugo Regional Products Showcase 2010, which started as small provincial products fair in Bohol graduated to one of the region’s most awaited annual fairs. It proved anew the promise available for cottage industries as the materials fusion this year brings a million more in target sales, data from the trade department revealed.
From the department’s unofficial and yet reliable source, cash sales generated from the five-day showcase reached P2.81 million, booked sales racked up P17 million and another under negotiations reached P12.62 million to sum a gross sales of P32, 466, 836.00 a few minutes before the official closing of the fair last Sunday.
Now into its 21st year of showcasing raw materials form Visayas’ diverse environmental resource, the new lines produced our of its research and development initiatives lay out the agency’s efforts to be environmentally conscious about the finite resources, explains DTI information Officer Jojie Villamor during the fair pre-opening press conference last week at the Prawn farm of the Island City Mall.
Working with climate change and its mitigation, the new trend is to fuse recyclables with the indigenous raw materials and showcase the artistic capacity of Visayans to produce stunning designs for the international market, added DTI Provincial Director Ma. Elena Arbon.
We are presented here with a 50% cut in raw materials and another 50% cut in garbage as these [products] end up as hand-woven patterns in bags and fashion accessories, said DTI Regional Director Asteria Caberte at the media forum.
According to Arbon, the showcase marks the culmination of the product development initiatives geared towards providing importers with the raw materials that would make it big in the international markets.
The biggest winners however are the Visayan craftsmen who would ultimately get an increase in income to further boost their economic spending.
Raffia and pandanus, Bohol’s most hopeful raw materials are now slowly engaging rural families who see the promise of providing the designs for the next century’s world fashion. (rac/PIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Jul 29, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
TO appraise tourists about the kind of service he would get in an establishment in Bohol, a tourism classification board would possibly help.
Governor Edgar Chatto, who took the lead in crafting the country’s tourism code shared this during the recent Provincial Tourism Council (PTC) meeting held at Panda Tea Garden in Dao a few weeks ago.
Chatto clarified that the Board’s task would be to put up a unified classification of accredited tourism service providers and establishment using the star rating system, so tourists would know what to expect when they are there.
Building on Bohol tourism’s successes, several local government units and private entrepreneurs have funded for establishments and service and splurge on promotional activities without being fully familiar with the industry, PTC members said.
Not a few tourists have already shared their dismay about getting into an establishment selling itself through the internet, only to find that its accommodations are minimal.
That can happen because there is no way tourists know ahead about the kind of facilities and services the establishments offer.
As everyone wants to hitch in the tourism bandwagon, it is expected that things like this happen, agree council members.
Governor Chatto said the Tourism Code of 2009 provides for a classification board that issues a uniform standard to grade tourism products and service facilities.
Putting up the classification board should breathe life into the Code in as much as to be rated are not just the infrastructure and the accessibility and the preparedness of the facility to accept guests, Chatto added.
That way, even if establishments sell services on their own, a rating system puts them in a certain rank that tourists can easily refer, said PTC Chairman Atty Lucas Nunag. (rac/PIABohol)
