The company led by Lt.
Col. Larry Mojica gave dental and medical services to some 500 folks.
According to Civilian Military Operations (CMO) In-Charge Jelynne
Unabia, the soldiers also circumcised 20 children.
According to
statements by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, medical and dental
missions conducted by the Philippine Army such as the one conducted in
Calbiga, are part of the soldiers role as 21st century soldiers.
Further, Arroyo said
that soldiers “are not just combatants but also partners in
development.”
The Arroyo government
aims to win the war against insurgency through investing in the people
and making them feel that the government is working for them.
Distance from the
Calbiga town proper and the lack of access roads make it hard for
basic services to reach folks residing in uphill barangays.
Yet, rather than
encouraging folks to travel to the center of the town, the Philippine
Army instead travels to reach the barangays and deliver basic health
services to the folks.
Major Tito Vicario and
Capt. Rizalino Anasarias attended to the 104 dental patients while Dr.
Carlito Viojan and Dr. Rosemarie Rodriguez attended to the 337 medical
patients.
The Philippine Charity
Sweepstakes (PCSO) through Ms. Zenaida Delantar provided some of the
medicines.
In addition, the
provincial government of Samar through Gov. Mila Tan also provided
some medicines.
Barangay folks from
the upland hills led by Borong Barangay Captain Joel Ocasla and Minata
Brgy. Captain Tiburcio Ocasla were ever so grateful.
Brgy. Captain Ocasla
said that the gathering of several rural folks made the barangay look
like having their annual fiesta.
“It is only during
fiestas that big crowds are drawn,” added Ocasla.
Meanwhile, two
youngsters named Rexon Caspi, 9 years old, and Darel Nardo, 11, are
grateful that the soldiers have been instrumental in the Filipino
ritual of circumcision – their passage to manhood.
Chiz says with tariff,
imported rice to land a dangerous price
Press Release
By Office of Senator Chiz Escudero
April
10, 2008
PASAY CITY,
Philippines – At 50 percent tariff, imported rice will land here at
P50 per kilo that is if rice can still be found abroad after rice
exporting countries curbed foreign sales to put a lid on inflation and
the political turbulence that high food prices can cause.
Sen. Chiz Escudero
based his computation on a $795 per metric ton price of rice, which
was how much the widely-traded Thai grade B rice fetched last week,
and yesterday's 41.75 to 1 close of the peso-dollar exchange.
Using these
assumptions, rice will already cost P31.19 a kilo at source, and a 50
percent tariff will bring up its price to about P49.80 a kilo,
Escudero said.
A metric ton of rice
is 1,000 kilos.
"Wala pang handling
fee, hauling and storage charges. And zero profit, which means
traders, will be bringing in rice out of sheer patriotism," he said.
"If all of the above
will be factored into the retail price, plus a little mark-up for the
tindera, then we are looking at P52 per kilo. Ito yung amount na hindi
lang moderated greed pero zero greed na," he said.
Even if the tariff is
reduced to 30 percent, the end price of P43.15 would still be
beyond the reach of ordinary Filipinos.
A P50-kilo rice,
Escudero warns will "overnight create a nation of Katipuneros, with
one rallying cry: Dapat ng kalusin ang gobyernong gumugutom sa atin."
Escudero was referring
to a Filipino phrase, popularized by the movie line – Kapag puno na
ang salop, dapat ng kalusin – uttered by the late Fernando Poe, which
literally means removing by one swift sideway motion excess rice from
an old rice measuring box.
P50-kilo rice
would also mean that a minimum wage earner will have to work three
hours a day to meet his family of six's s daily rice needs.
To augment rice
stocks, government has decided to import as much as 2.4 million metric
tons this year, which it now wants private traders to undertake,
breaking a state stranglehold on rice imports.
But that is, if
surplus rice can be found from traditional net rice producers like
Vietnam and Thailand, Escudero said.
Citing wire reports,
Escudero said Egypt, China, Vietnam and India, which make up more than
a third of world rice exports, restricted sales this year.
The Vietnam Food
Association has asked members to stop signing export contracts through
June. China, whose 19.4 million hectares of land had been hit by
drought, slapped a 5% tax on exports in the beginning of the year.
Egypt
imposed a rice export moratorium through October.
In Thailand, Prime
Minister Samak Sundaravej has sought to calm panic buying, as people
stockpile rice amid soaring global prices, which have sparked fears of
shortages.
Local rice has
risen 52 percent in a month to $US930 a ton, according to the Thai
Rice Exporters Association says.
DILG orders LGUs to
reactivate local price coordinating councils
By Philippine Information Agency (PIA
Samar)
April 10, 2008
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte
– In view of the recent price increases of prime commodities, the
Department of Interior and Local Government Region 8 Director William
Paler, reminded the local government units to reactivate their
respective Local Price Coordinating Councils.
In a memo dated March
26, 2008, addressed to all Provincial Governors, City and Municipal
Mayors, DILG Provincial Directors, City and Municipal Local Government
Operations Officers and others concerned, Director Paler said that an
active Local Price Coordinating Council helps ensure the availability
of basic goods to consumers and prevent unreasonable price increases,
particularly in times of crisis, calamities, emergencies, widespread
illegal manipulation and similar situations.
The formulation of
LPCCs at the provincial, city and municipal levels is in line with
Section 5 Rule VI of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7581
"An Act Providing Protection to Consumers by Stabilizing the Prices of
Basic Commodities" and DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2001-121.
DILG Secretary Ronaldo
V. Puno also issued Memo Circular 2007-56 on May 24, 2007 enjoining
among others, the reactivation of LPCCs to prevent unwarranted price
hikes in school supplies.
Director Paler said
that the LPCC is headed by the Local Chief Executive as Chairman; the
DTI Provincial Director or his or her authorized representative as
Vice Chairman; one representative each from the Department of
Agriculture, Health, Environment and Natural Resources, Transportation
and Communication, Justice, National Economic Development Authority,
consumers, agricultural producers, trading, manufacturing and retail
sectors. The local DILG officer may also be tapped as member.
The Sectoral
representatives shall be appointed by the LPCC Chairman upon
nomination by their respective local chambers of commerce or similar
trade organizations, Director Paler added.
The LPCCs will have
powers and functions which include coordination and rationalization of
programs of member agencies to stabilize prices; and to recommend to
the National Price Coordinating Council or to implementing agencies,
suggested retail prices and or price ceilings for prime commodities in
their areas.
The LPCCs may also
conduct in-depth analysis on cause of price fluctuations and recommend
steps to correct unwarranted price increases and supply shortages.
Director Paler called
on the Local Government Executives to take the necessary proactive
steps in order to advance the welfare of their constituents.
NFA 8 assures
sufficiency of rice supply at P18.50/kilo in East Visayas
By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
April
8, 2008
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte
– There is sufficient supply of NFA rice in the Region, Mr. Eduardo
Penaflorida of the National Food Authority informed the members the
Regional Disaster Coordinating Council in Eastern Visayas, during its
meeting on April 8 at the Ritz Tower de Leyte.
The NFA 8 also assured
that NFA rice is sold at P18.50 per kilo, still the same price. In
other words, there is no increase in the price of NFA rice and so any
NFA authorized Bigasan ng Bayan selling more than that should be
reported to the nearest NFA office.
Mr. Penaflorida
disclosed that as of April 8, the National Food Authority has 280,007
bags of rice available in the six provinces of
Eastern Visayas. The average daily requirement of the Region is 6,108 bags
only which means that the available stock of rice at NFA 8 is good for
46 days, more than enough before the arrival of additional stocks, Mr.
Penaflorida said.
The stocks in the six
provinces of the Region is such that Leyte has 86,159 bags; Southern
Leyte has 16,144 bags; Biliran has 38,364 bags; Samar has 63,477 bags;
Northern Samar has 53,234 bags while Eastern Samar has 22, 629.
The average daily
requirement of Leyte is 1,008; Southern Leyte, 800 bags; Biliran, 700
bags; Samar, 1,200 bags; Northern Samar, 1,100 bags and Eastern Samar,
1,300 bags making a total Regionwide Daily Requirement of 6,108 bags.
The targeted rice
allocation for NFA Region 8 is 2,270,000 bags. Right now, there are
rice bags which are being unloaded at the various disports in the
Region. Including the bags which are now being unloaded, the balance
to be released to NFA 8 is still expecting for the delivery of about
1,779,800 bags.
In Tacloban, about
45,000 bags have arrived on April 6 and unloading is still in
progress, Mr. Penaflorida bared. In the
port of
Maasin,
30,000 bags arrived on April 6 and are now being unloaded. In Guiuan,
20,000 bags arrived on April 7 and unloading is still in progress;
while in Baybay, 20 bags arrived on April 4 and are now being
unloaded.
Moreover, Mr. Alfeo L.
Selpa, Regional Operations officer reported that the January shipment
of 70,000 bags, is supposed to be part of the Region’s 2007 Dispersal
balance from Cebu. Hence, NFA 8 is negotiating that this should not be
deducted from the 2,270,000 bags allocated for the Region for 2008.
There is no reason
for the public to panic, Mr. Penaflorida said. The reason why every
buyer is allowed to buy only two kilos at a time is because the public
has the tendency to hoard because of panic, Mr. Penaflorida added. If
there is panic buying of NFA rice, then no matter how great the supply
is, it will still not be sufficient, he concluded.
Chiz asks who hogged
swine funds
Press Release
By Office of Senator Chiz Escudero
April 4, 2008
PASAY CITY,
Philippines – Senator Chiz Escudero today urged Quedancor, the
agency that lent out billions of pesos in swine-raising funds to
farmers, to publish – Bar exam results-style – borrowers who have been
remiss in repaying their loan.
"Publication is the
only way to know if the funds were indeed received by farmers as
claimed by Quedancor. The proof of the lending is in the listing", he
said.
"The list will tell us
who hogged the swine funds, and if the money was indeed used to fatten
some pigs or fatten someone's bank account or campaign war chest", he
said, referring to reports that implementation of the Quedan and Rural
Credit Corp.'s P2.2 billion pig-dispersal program coincided with the
2004 presidential elections.
The senator said the
search for the list of those who likely partook of the swine fund
could be likened to the palace's deliberate manipulation of funds to
select political minions. "Only that was a figurative pork. Now we are
looking for the literal pork, to whom did these porks go"?
Escudero said
Quedancor officers cannot give the "limp excuse" that the list of
beneficiaries was lost "because as a financial institution they are
supposed to be as fastidious about records as bankers."
"If the distribution
(of pigs) did happen, then there should be a paper trail like receipts
and vouchers, "he said.
"The only excuse they
can probably think of as to why no records were kept was that the pigs
were so numerous that they had to be parachuted into farms, in a
massive bombardment of the countryside of airborne swine," he said.
If the "pigs did land
or if they arrived by other means," then a publication of the names of
delinquent borrowers will trigger a "shame campaign" that will force
them into settling their account, Escudero said.
If Quedancor has a
record of them, Escudero said publishing the names of borrowers should
not be hard "considering the fact that we regularly publish nursing
board result which contains as much as 35,000 names".
To win the people against insurgency
34th IB conducts
medical-dental mission to 500 barangay folks in Calbiga
By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA
Samar)
April 7, 2008
CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar
– The Philippine Army through the 34th Infantry Batallion based in
Calbiga, Samar will be trooping to remote Barangay Borong to conduct a
medical-dental mission expected to serve some 500 rural folks.
In a text message by
Lt. Jelynne Unabia of 34th IB, she said that they will be serving
residents five barangays of Borong, Panayuran, Macaalan, Otoc and San
Mauricio, all of Calbiga. The patients will be reporting to Barangay
Borong on April 8, 2008.
She added that the
drugs and medicines that would be dispensed come from the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes (PCSO), Provincial Government headed by Gov. Mila
Tan and LGU Calbiga headed by Mayor Melchor Nacario. Military dentists
are coming with civilian doctors from Calbiga Health Unit.
Barangay Borong can be
reached from Calbiga town through a habal habal to travel bumpy
roads for three kilometers, then, upon reaching Barangay Panayuran,
one has to walk for thirty minutes to behold the remote barangay
Borong.
Presently, the Bravo
Company of 34th IB headed by Battalion Commander Larry Mojica has been
in Barangay Borong to conduct reach out activities intended to make
the barangay residents feel that the government is working for them.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, in addressing then the latest batch of PMA graduates
said that the “way to win (war against the insurgents) isn’t just
through the barrel of a gun”.
PGMA added that
“rather it begins with providing a person a job, food on the table and
human dignity. Central to that success is to invest in the people – in
education, health care, roads and bridges, not only by the departments
primarily in charge of them but also by you, the soldiers, as you
serve them in the field,” she said.
In her PMA
commencement address, the President reminded the new graduates of the
“multi-faceted roles of a 21st century soldier: not just as a
combatant but a military professional, a manager, a partner in
development.”
PGMA then announced
a P1-billion allocation in the 2008 budget of the Department of
National Defense (DND) for the Kalayaan Barangay Project to help win
the hearts and minds of the people in the war against insurgency.
South Leyte assessor
is one of country’s top ten
By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern
Leyte)
April 7, 2008
MAASIN CITY, Southern
Leyte – The provincial Assessor, a head of office in the
province of
Southern Leyte,
received an award last week from the nationwide organization of
assessors and treasurers for outstanding work performance.
Norman Ordiz, the
province’s incumbent Assessor for the past three years, was chosen as
one of the Top Ten Outstanding Assessors of the Philippines from a
national field of over 5000 assessors and treasurers.
On March 27, Ordiz
accepted the plaque of recognition for the award at the Mall of Asia
in Manila during a country-wide assembly of the Philippine Association
of Local Assessors and Treasurers (PHALTRA).
Ordiz told PIA he did
not know – and he was never informed – that he was nominated for the
prestigious award.
This year, 2008,
PHALTRA observes its diamond anniversary, and one of the activities
initiated to highlight the celebration was the Search for Top Ten
Outstanding Assessors and Treasurers.
Consequently, the
Regional Director of the Bureau Local Government Finance (BLGF) was
tasked to submit the names of nominees per region from the month of
December, 2007, up to February, 2008.
Throughout the
screening and nominating process, the BLGF Director in Region 8 did
not inform Ordiz that he was one of those considered, said Ordiz.
The criteria for
selection has a different set for Assessors and Treasurers, it was
learned. For the Assessors, the first criterion on “Average increase
in taxable assessed value of Real Property for the last three years
(2004-2007)” was rated 50% for those having 50% or more average
increase in assessed value.
Ordiz said he got 100%
here, since the province had 54% average increase in taxable assessed
value of real properties.
On the criterion for
the submission of required reports, which was rated 30%, the province
also got a perfect score here since it has been timely in passing
reports and in fact has been cited as number one in doing so for
Region 8.
The Unit Performance
Evaluation was 20%, and Ordiz said he had no idea of his grade on this
criterion since this has been handled by the Central Office.
Ordiz assumed as
the provincial Assessor of Southern Leyte in the year 2005.
