The poll survey showed
incumbent Catbalogan City vice-mayor Van Torrevillas only 64 votes
(10%) and incumbent Basey mayor Wilfredo Estorninos 58 (9%). Outgoing
Samar governor Mila Tan nested on a poor fourth berth with only 43
(7%) to her credit, while new names Urbano Alli and Alvin Abejuela
took the poorer and the poorest slots, respectively, with 19 and 16
(both with a 3% percentage equivalence) votes to their credits.
Cata’s votes even went
much higher by 94 votes than that polled for the leading gubernatorial
candidate, incumbent vice-governor and once 90-day governor Jesus B.
Redaja. Jess got only 234 (37%) but still he is the top choice among
six hopefuls for the position of governor. He is followed by
non-government organization leader Pilar Bolok who seized 68 votes
(11% and incumbent sangguniang panlalawigan member Casilda Lim who got
59 (9%). Sharee Ann, incumbent 2nd Dist. Congresswoman and daughter
of Mila Tan, snatched the poor fourth place with 49 (8%) to her
credit. Pedro Labid, a lawyer with a religious group’s backing,
collected 24 votes (4%), while political new-face Darwin Tan kept his
miserable tail-end of 3 votes only (0%).
In the
vice-gubernatorial informal polls, ex-San Jorge mayor Joseph Grey
managed to lead with 135 votes (21%). Rosenaida Rosales reaped 104
(16%) to keep her self on second place. The third and last place
belongs to Stephen James Tan who scored 37 (6%) only.
In the congressional
rivalry for the First District of Samar, Mario Roño (who had a poor
showing in the gubernatorial race to which he was catapulted for a
first try at politics by a mammoth gathering of town and barrio
officials) coveted the top berth with 80 votes (13%). Incumbent
Calbayog City mayor Mel Sarmiento came in closest with 73 votes (11%)
while ex-congressman, lawyer Rodolfo Tuazon kept his third place with
63 (10%). New faces Rodrigo and Alex, both surnamed Tuazon, are
miserable tail-enders with 4 and 3 votes (1% and 0%) respectively.
Those who want to cast
their votes may just go to Piniliay 2010 of this website and click the
join the poll survey tab.
Based on these latest
results, some of those who participated in the survey remarked that
the Tans may not probably be aware of their unconvincing performance
in the survey, but even if they were so, they are probably still
comfortable with the current show of support for them.
However, that show of
support is fast being eaten up by the groundswell of favouring votes
for Cata and if it is erosive, Mila may lose a big chunk in the actual
cast. Yet, Mila’s supporters may not have anything to worry if they
are keeping up their sleeves aces that can overturn the current
indications.
Mila has since January
this year been known to be supporting the presidential candidacy of
senator Manny Villar, and Manny is believed to be providing campaign
funds for Mila. To some of her supporters, that is enough for her to
gain an edge come balloting day.
Didi, who is believed
to have the full backing of the Noynoy-Mar banner of the Liberal
Party, may yet prove he could get the lead. Electoral pulsation in
Samar showed lately that Manny’s Nacionalista Party is also ahead in
“pamulso” as in other parts of the country, that after playing second
fiddle to Noynoy in the early surveys. Yet, Didi has yet to outrank
Van first. Van is fast getting ahead past Didi. Some electors
believe the youth group in Catbalogan could be behind this lead of Van
who openly supported the youth's undertakings since he ran for his
reelection in 2004 to the post of vice-mayor.
This late, though,
other sectors are awaiting for surprise gambits and brilliancy moves
from all those who are lagging behind. Perhaps next week’s results
will not yet proclaim a reversal of performance.
Pinay In Action All-Women’s Run 2010
1,000 women to run for
empowerment, rights
Press Release
By Office of Sen. Pia S. Cayetano
March 9, 2010
PASAY CITY – At
least 1,000 women from Metro Manila and neighboring provinces are
expected to run at this year’s staging of Pinay In Action, an
all-women’s run to be held on March 13, Sunday, at the SM Mall of Asia
Grounds in Pasay City.
The first and only
all-women’s running competition in the country, Pinay In Action
promotes women’s rights, health, and empowerment in observance of the
International Women’s Month of March. This year’s event will benefit
indigent patients with ovarian, cervical and breast cancer.
Spearheaded by Senator
Pia S. Cayetano, this year’s staging will feature 10-kilometer and
5-kilometer open individual run events, and a 1.6-kilometer team run,
which will pit adult-and-child tandems.
The three events will
start in sequence at
6:00 am for 10K,
6:05 am for 5K and
6:10 am for the 1.6K team run. Awards and special prizes will be given
to the top ten finishers in each event.
“Pinay In Action gives
women a venue to express themselves, keep healthy and fit, and simply
have fun. Running is a symbol of empowerment and freedom. Thus, a
running woman is a symbol of an empowered and independent woman,”
explained Cayetano, a running enthusiast and principal author of the
recently passed Magna Carta of Women (RA 9710).
“The event is not
exclusive for female runners,” she clarified. “Men may also join on
the condition that they register with a female participant and run
behind the women at the starting line. It is also understood they will
not be eligible for the prizes in the individual running events. In
fact, men are encouraged to participate to express their support to
women’s causes.”
Race details and
registration forms are available online on www.pinayinaction.com.
Pre-registration fee is at P350, while race day registration fee is at
P450. The race packet includes the participant’s race number, race
shirt, route map and PIA fact sheet. Race day registration starts at
5:00 AM at the venue.
As in its previous
stagings, Pinay In Action 2010 will feature a Women’s Expo which will
be put up at the Seaside Boulevard facing Manila Bay. The Expo will
showcase wellness products and host information booths on women’s
concerns such as breast, cervical and ovarian cancer, and violence
against women and children. Entrance to the Women’s Expo is free to
the public.
Part of the proceeds
of this year’s event will go to the full radiation treatment of 20
indigent cervical cancer patients and the screening for cervical
cancer of 1,000 indigent patients at the Dr. Jose Reyes Memorial
Medical Center, in cooperation with Carewell Foundation. One full
radiation treatment is P20,000, while screening is at P130 per
patient.
The event will also
benefit breast cancer patients. Pinay In Action will donate funds to
the I Can Serve Foundation for the purchase of
DVD players and instructional videos, which will be
distributed to different barangays all over the country to raise
awareness on breast cancer. Each P1,000 donation by race participants
to I Can Serve will be matched with the same amount of donation by
Pinay In Action.
Women occupy only 19 percent of world’s parliament seats
PIA: “Men still make
the laws of the world”
By Office of Senator Pia S. Cayetano
March 7, 2010
PASAY CITY – Men
continue to dominate membership in national parliaments all over the
world despite significant gains in women’s empowerment and
participation in governance in recent years.
This was the finding
of the latest study on women membership in national parliaments by the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), according to Senator Pia S. Cayetano
of the Philippines.
Cayetano, President of
the IPU committee of women parliamentarians, said that barely just one
out of every five lawmakers (18.8 percent) in the world today is a
woman.
“Even in these modern
times where women have become more politically aware and socially
empowered, the hard and sad fact is that men continue to write the
laws of our world,” Cayetano stressed.
The Filipino senator
chaired the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women, an annual conference of parliamentarians jointly
organized by the IPU and United Nations Division for the Advancement
of Women.
More than 140
representatives from 150 countries attended the main conference and
side meetings held at the UN Headquarters in
New York
from March 2-4.
Cayetano noted that as
of January 31, the IPU found out that men made up 36,330 (81.2
percent) while women occupied only 8,767 (18.8 percent) of the 44,767
seats of parliaments (combined upper and lower houses) all over the
world.
This figure represents
a marginal improvement from 18.3 percent in 2009, and still a far cry
from the target set by the UN Economic and Social Council of having a
minimum of 30 percent women lawmakers in all parliaments. In 1995,
women occupied only 11.3 percent of the world’s combined parliamentary
seats.
She added that the IPU
has been at the forefront of promoting the election of female
legislators among its member-parliaments. Among the schemes the world
body has introduced is the setting of “gender quotas” to encourage
more women to enter politics.
Compared by regional
averages, Nordic countries and the
Americas
registered the highest ratio of women parliamentarians at 42.1 percent
and 22.2 percent, respectively. They are followed by Europe (19.9 to
21.8 percent), Asia (18.9 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (18.4
percent). The regions with the lowest ratio of women parliamentarians
are the Pacific (13.2 percent) and Arab countries (10.1 percent).
In the Philippines,
she noted that women comprise only four of the current 23 members of
the Senate (17.4 percent) and occupy 51 out of 240 seats in the House
of Representatives (21.3 percent).
Cayetano concluded:
“The active participation of women and the integration of their
perspective in all levels of governance are crucial in pursing social
equity, genuine development and peace in any country.”
“True democracy
presupposes that men and women are able to work as partners and as
equals, and able to learn from each other’s differences."
Aquino pushes for
expansion of geothermal production
Press Release
March
6, 2010
TACLOBAN CITY –
Liberal Party standard bearer Noynoy Aquino on Tuesday pushed for the
expansion of renewable energy sources, saying that the country should
aim to become the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy.
He also decried the
failure of the Arroyo administration to properly manage the country’s
existing power generation capacities resulting in the current power
shortages.
“She has been in power
for almost nine years, and yet here we are facing brownouts during a
crucial election season,” the 50-year old senator from Tarlac said in
press conference here.
“This is criminal
negligence. We know that El Niño was going to visit the country. They
knew that Mindanao was going to have a power supply problem. They
should have mapped out a plan earlier on,” Aquino said.
He pointed out it
would take two to three years to build a power plant. But he
acknowledged that there are large-capacity generators which government
can buy to address the lack of supply.
“Mahal patakbuhin,
mahal bilhin (generators). At sa last 2 minutes, masyadong midnight
deal na di natin matiyak ano ang pakay,” Aquino said.
He also said that
while he is open to a special session of Congress to discuss a
possible grant of emergency powers to President Arroyo, Malacañang
must first answer questions on the current power crisis.
The LP bet said he
prefers developing clean, renewable energy because it is less
polluting than fossil fuels.
With more than 1,900
MW of installed geothermal capacity, the Philippines is the
second-largest producer of geothermal energy.
The government has set
a goal of increasing this figure to 3,100 MW within a decade, which
would make the Philippines the largest geothermal energy producer,
surpassing the United States.
NICUA Mining Corp.
insists on misleading destructive effects of mining in Brgy. Pongon,
MacArthur, Leyte
Press Release
By SAGUPA-SB
March 5, 2010
TACLOBAN CITY –
Through their Safety Manager, Mr. Ver Abrugar, NICUA Mining
Corporation is trying to deceive the people, particularly the farmers
of Brgy. Pongon, MacArthur, Leyte by saying that mining 4 meters deep
of soil will not destroy the environment especially on the quality of
the land.
With mining, they will
dig out some minerals like iron but will also include the vegetation,
bacteria, worms and other micro organisms living on the earth, which
have the big role of maintaining the fertility of the soil. Such is
contrary to Mr. Abrugar's statement that mining will not affect the
quality of the land since they will return the soil from where they
excavated it.
“Any million worth of
money would never replace the damage brought by mining the 523
hectares of land” said Jose Tico, Spokesperson of SAGUPA-SB
40 million tons of
magnetite ore is estimated to be extracted from the said land within
almost more than 30 years. This will allegedly amount millions to the
social progress of the affected community.
“NICUA Mining's
declaration that there will be rehabilitation of the land, is
impossible, especially because they will apply chemical fertilizer on
the land. Also, they are mistaken to say that this place is not
productive to farmers considering that for decades, they have been
living in MacArthur,
Leyte,” Tico clarifies.
“There is no
responsible mining and social progress when, you deprive bounty from
the people, you destroy the environment and drive away farmers from
their fields. Rather, those are irresponsible steps for the interests
of foreign capitalists,” added Tico.
In retrospect, on
February 15, farmers of Brgy. Pongon held a protest led by Fr. Arnold
Aurelio, parish priest of MacArthur, Leyte. And on March 3, they had a
meeting on mining in MacArthur, with Archbishop Jose Palma of the
Archdioceses of Palo.
Print Edition of Samar News.com is born
By NINFA B. QUIRANTE
March
4, 2010
CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar
– The Samar News.com Print Edition will soon be out in circulation.
In its launch
yesterday, attended by government officials, NGOs and fellow media
personalities at the Cocina de Cabral in Catbalogan City,
Samarnews.com the printed edition took center stage along with
‘publisher parents’ Engr. Ray Gaspay and local media personality
Imelda Bonifacio.
In her speech,
Bonifacio vowed to perpetuate the paper as most community papers have
not sustained the test of time.
Samar News.com is an
on-line publication maintained by Engr. Ray Gaspay.
“The hard copy of
Samar News.com is an offering to barangay folks who do not have access
to the internet,” added Bonifacio in her speech.
The maiden printed
issue is an 8-page tabloid size with a red background color in its
front page.
The newcomer community
newspaper has also some Waray news intended for the masses, the
publisher said.
This newspaper will
now join the ranks of weekly community papers circulating in Samar
province like Samar Weekly Express, The Samar Monitor and the Samar
Sunday Star.
Like all other press
entities, Samar News.com vows to furnish Samarnons with the truth!
(PIA-Samar)
Maza dismayed at SC
ruling on VFA, challenges next administration to abrogate VFA
Press Release
By MAKABAYAN
March 3, 2010
MANILA – Nacionalista-Makabayan senatorial candidate Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela
expressed dismay over the latest decision of the Supreme Court
affirming the constitutionality of the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement
(VFA).
"The Supreme Court
decision shows the Philippine government’s continued subservience to
the interests of the
United States
government,” Maza said.
Maza is a
co-petitioner in the joint motion with former senator Jovito Salonga,
together with Evalyn Ursua, the lawyer of alleged rape victim Suzette
Nicolas, and lawyer Neri Colmenares representing militant groups
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).
The three-term
representative of Gabriela challenged the next administration to
uphold Philippine sovereignty by working for the abrogation of the
US-RP VFA.
In its motion for
reconsideration, the group argued that "the US soldiers are
circumventing the Constitution as well as the sovereignty of the
Philippines by visiting the country under the pretext of conducting
training exercises, but are actually setting up military positions
under long-term plans."
Named respondents in
the suit were US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Foreign Affairs
Secretary Alberto Romulo, then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez,
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, and then Chief Presidential Legal
Counsel Sergio Apostol.
Assistant Solicitor
General Luis Simon said that the constitutionality of the VFA has been
deemed "final and valid" when the Court of Appeals in April 2009
acquitted Smith of raping Nicolas in November 2005.
Smith flew out of the
Philippines less than 24 hours after the CA ruling was announced.
Leyte guv assures rice
farmers province ready against El Niño effects
By
Provincial
Media Relations Center
March 1, 2010
TACLOBAN CITY – Even
as their farmlands remain unaffected by the El Niño phenomenon, farmer
in Julita, Leyte has already requested for water pumps for their rice
fields as mitigation measure and to brace for the long dry spell this
year.
In a meeting with
Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, farmers from Brgy. Dita, Julita,
Leyte expressed alarm over the longer dry days over the past weeks
would affect their production during this cropping season.
However, Gov. Petilla
said he is confident that Leyte’s irrigation system can well sustain
the effects of El Niño and still provide adequate yield for rice
farmers in the province.
According to the
Department of Agriculture, Leyte is more or less 97% irrigated and has
other water sources that can be tapped to bring water to the rice
fields.
The governor assured
the rice farmers that the provincial government can provide for the
necessary equipment to supply the needed amount of water for rice
fields not to dry out.
The province through
the Provincial Agriculturist Office has already readied mitigation
plans to aid farmers in bracing against El Niño.
Gov. Petilla otherwise
informed the farmers that aside from the El Nino, the agriculture
sector has also to contend with the changing climate, effect of which
is already being felt all over the world.
He said that the
expected long dry season is part of the effects of climate change that
there is a need to adapt to the new environmental condition.
It was learned that
through the agriculture department varieties of rice have been
developed in such a way that they could adapt to different kinds of
climate condition
Earlier, the DA-8e
urged farmers to be prepared for the worst as some 14 provinces have
been adversely affected by the El Niño phenomenon.
Although the region as
a whole is considered to be moderately affected, the Philippine
Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)
warns farmers that El Niño is a real occurrence expected to last until
the month of July and that serious mitigation measures must be
implemented.
Pinoy sailors’
remittances up $366M
Press Release
By TUCP
February 27, 2010
MANILA – Filipino
sailors aboard foreign ocean-going vessels wired home a total of $3.4
billion in 2009, up $366 million or 12.06 percent from $3.034 billion
in 2008, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) reported
over the weekend.
TUCP secretary-general
and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said Filipino sailors based in
Europe remitted $1.156 billion last year, up $509.594 million or 78.82
percent from $646.406 million in 2008.
Herrera said the cash
sent home by Filipino sailors based in
Asia also increased $180.343 million or 55.07 percent
year-on-year, to $507.801 million from $327.458 million.
The hefty increases
outweighed the $325-million or 16 percent year-on-year drop in
remittances from Filipino sailors based in
America,
to $1.706 billion from $2.031 billion, said Herrera, former chairman
of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources
development.
TUCP's revelation came
shortly after the Philippine government bared a plan to sell $500
million of dollar- and euro-denominated bonds to overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs), to partly bridge the projected P293 billion budget
deficit this year.
Last year's 12.06
percent growth in remittances from sea-based OFWs was three times
faster than the 4.15 percent or $555 million year-on-year increase in
the cash sent home by land-based OFWs.
Aggregate remittances
coursed through banks by all land- and sea-based OFWs increased
$921-million or 5.61 percent, to $17.348 billion in 2009 from $16.427
billion in 2008, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Of the $921-million
increase, land-based OFWs contributed 60 percent, while those at sea
covered the rest.
Sailors now contribute
20 cents out of every dollar sent home by all OFWs, according to
Herrera, whose labor center includes the Philippine Seafarers'
Union.
Herrera said
remittances from Filipino sailors should continue to grow at a
double-digit rate this year, especially once the American economy
regains strength.
Last week, a group of
44 Filipino crewmembers ended their lockdown over unpaid wages aboard
the bankrupt casino cruise ship Palm Beach Princess at Florida's
Riviera Beach City.
One out of four
workers aboard international cruise ships is a Filipino.
