Ilocos Norte News September 2011

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Ilocos Norte Province

Wars of ancient history were about possessions, territory, power, control, family, betrayal, lover's quarrel, politics and sometimes religion.

But we are in the Modern era and supposedly more educated and enlightened .

Think about this. Don't just brush off these questions.

  • Why is RELIGION still involved in WARS? Isn't religion supposed to be about PEACE?
  • Ask yourself; What religion always campaign to have its religious laws be accepted as government laws, always involved in wars and consistently causing WARS, yet insists that it's a religion of peace?

WHY??

There are only two kinds of people who teach tolerance:
  1. The Bullies. They want you to tolerate them so they can continue to maliciously deprive you. Do not believe these bullies teaching tolerance, saying that it’s the path to prevent hatred and prejudice.
  2. The victims who are waiting for the right moment to retaliate. They can’t win yet, so they tolerate.
Ilocos norte capitol 01.jpgIlocos Norte Provincial Capitol

Dietary supplement is a product that contains vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, enzymes, and/or other ingredients intended to supplement the diet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has special labeling requirements for dietary supplements and treats them as foods, not drugs.

Manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and dietary ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded. That means that these firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products before marketing to ensure that they meet all the requirements of DSHEA and FDA regulations.

PDEA boosts campaign against illegal drugs

LAOAG CITY- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) enhances their campaign on Anti-Illegal Drugs in Region 1.

This is according to Agent Charlton John Carame during the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) meeting held at the Ilocos Norte provincial capitol recently.

Based on their record, shabu is still the most used illegal drugs in the region, followed by marijuana.

On his report, Agent Carame enumerates the provinces that are identified to have engaged into drug activities to include buying and selling of illegal drugs.

Out of 558 barangays, Pangasinan tops the list in region 1 with 114 affected barangays engaging into drug activities. Next is Ilocos Norte with 51 barangays, La Union with 44 barangays and 42 in Ilocos Sur.

Carame emphasizes that the identified rank of provinces engaging into drug activities is based on the operations and confiscations they have conducted.

“Prices of illegal drugs in provinces follow the law of demand and supply. When the supply is low, the demand is high,” he also added.

Apparently, Ilocos Norte has the highest demand for illegal drugs, followed by Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan, with La Union as the least.

PDEA, on their continuous campaign asks the force of police officers in the local government for faster eradication of illegal drugs in the region.

They even recommended that the local police officers shall conduct a regular barangay clearing operations in every barangay, especially those identified hotspot in the provinces.

With this, pushers as well users can be apprehended and submitted to the proper authorities for possible legal sanctions.

DOST mosquito trap in demand in Laoag City

With the rising number of dengue cases in Laoag City, the mosquito trap of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is in very high demand.

In Laoag City, there are already 395 dengue cases with 9 deaths since the start of the year. Residents have been asking the DOST to provide them with the mosquito trap to protect them from the dengue outbreak.

The device, the ovicidal-larvicial mosquito trap, or OL trap was launched in Batac City last May by provincial director Engr Felander Madriaga and Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta.

Director Madriaga said they are working on the release of more OL traps since what is available now are intended for pre-identified beneficiaries.

“We initially have 4,000 OL trap kits that would benefit 1,000 households. The local government unit (LGU) will be in charge of distributing these to households in different barangays,” he said

Aside from Laoag City, Batac City, San Nicolas and Dingras are the pilot areas to receive OL traps for free.

According to Engr Madriaga, the Department of Health identified these LGUs as having the most number of dengue cases in the province.

The mosquito trap, developed by the Industrial Technology Development Institute of the DOST, is composed of an ordinary black or dark-colored container or tumbler, a piece of wood or lawanit that resembles an ice cream bar stick and pellets.

“The pellets are mixed with about 250ml of water. The stick, drenched with the solution, is placed upright in the container with one end deep in the solution to continuously sip it. The pellets, containing an attractant, attract the Aedes aegypti mosquito to lay its eggs into the rough part of the solution-saturated strip. The solution then kills the eggs and larvae. The public may wipe away the eggs and larvae from the strip and use again the strip,” Engr Madriaga explained on how the trap works.

Experiments made by the DOST showed a high efficiency of the OL trap solution with a 70 percent attraction rate and 100 percent mortality rate. A female mosquito can lay as many as 400 eggs four times in its life, 80 percent of which will turn out to be female. But through the OL trap, the next generation of mosquitoes in an area will be wiped out, so with the deadly dengue virus.

The solution may last for a week.

Director Madriaga said their office cannot provide more kits but only the pellets. He advised the public to make their own plastic containers and just purchase the pellets.

The pellets will be available commercially once manufactured by a private company. The entire kit costs P50 and a sachet of pellet, P2.

Suspected abortionist falls in Ilocos Norte

Police have arrested a suspected abortionist in an entrapment operation in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

The suspect was identified as Gloria Ragonjan, 54, a resident of Barangay 8, Laoag City, who was arrested inside a boarding house where she was about to perform an abortion on a female police asset.

Recovered by the police were abortion paraphernalia including syringes, surgical gloves and marked money amounting to P1,000.

The police asset reported that the suspect demanded P4,000 as payment for aborting her pregnancy. The suspect is now under police custody but denied she is conducting abortion activities.

Lawmen disclosed, however, that the suspect was already under surveillance for a long time due to numerous complaints from local residents that she is performing abortion activities.

Police said that appropriate charges are now being prepared against the suspect.

Tagalog news: ‘Business Service Guides’ pabibilisin ang transaksyon sa Laoag City

LAOAG CITY- Mas pinabilis ang business transactions sa Laoag City Hall sa pagkakaroon ng ‘Service Guide’ na pinaskel para sa publiko upang turuan sila kung ng tamang pamamaraan sa kanilang mga transaksyon, paliwanag ni Diomedes Gayban, Assistant City Treasurer for Operations.

“Dati-rati, hindi alam ng mga tao kung ano ang gagawin at kung saan-saan na lamang sila pumupunta at nagtatanong. Hindi din nila alam kung saan opisina o ‘window’ magbabayad, kung kaya’t natatagalan sila” sabi ni Gayban.

Laman ng mga ‘Service Guide’ sa Land Tax Division at Business and Licensing Division kung saan opisina pupunta, ano ang kakailanganin na papeles, sino ang taong kakausapin at gaano katagal matatapos ang bawat transaksyon.

Halimbawa, hindi lalagpas sa 15 minuto ang pagbabayad ng Real Property Taxes kung susundin ng publiko ang step-by-step guide. Sa ganitong paraan din ay maeenganyo na magbayad at makipag-transact sa opisina ang publiko dahil hindi na mahirap kagaya ng dati.

Subalit ipinaliwanag ni Gayban, ang itatagal ng transaksyon ay depende pa din sa dami ng transaksyon ng publiko. Ayon pa sa kanya, binawasan nila ang dami ng pumipirma sa mga papeles upang mapabilis ang transaksyon.

“We eliminated some signatories to trim down the process to make it easier for the public.”

“Ito ay bahagi ng mas mahusay at mabilis na serbisyo ng Laoag City Government sa pamumuno ni Mayor Michael Farinas,” dagdag pa ni Gayban.

DOLE-IN grants livelihood to TESDA graduates in Badoc

LAOAG CITY- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Ilocos Norte recently awarded livelihood grants to unemployed graduates of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Badoc.

Leonavella Dadiz, DOLE-Ilocos Norte information officer said P100,000 was given to 18 tech-voc graduates to start a business on welding, vulcanizing and repair of tricycles.

“The grant comes from the Kabuhayan Program of the DOLE to provide livelihood to those with acquired skills yet remain unemployed,” Dadiz said.

DOLE regional director Henry John Jalbuena said the intervention is aligned with the department’s goal of inclusive growth through decent and gainful employment.

Dadiz explained that the municipality of Badoc will provide counterpart funding of not lower than twenty-percent.

The recipients can apply their skills to earn through the fabrication and repair of tricycles, which are primary means of transportation in the town of Badoc.

In return, the recipients vowed to properly manage the project.

Laurels at all cost

Come Sept. 21, it will be 39 years since Ferdinand Marcos clamped on rule-by-bayonets. Martial law would save the Republic from collapse, he perorated without blinking. A 14-year dictatorship followed.

Filipinos will get a voice in shaping policies, asserted Presidential Decree 557 of 1974. How? Barrios were renamed barangays. Filipinos should mark every Sept. 21 thereafter as “National Thanksgiving Day.”

People Power shredded this “thanksgiving” charade in February 1986. But Imelda, and cronies, insist, for over four decades now, that we fall on our knees for “the most democratic period in our history.”

Marcoses and allies badger President Beningo Aquino III to authorize the burial of Marcos’ corpse in Libingan ng mga Bayani. S ub-rosa work on a Libingan masoleum had been aborted. Protests erupted that it fractured a pledge, given to then President Fidel Ramos, that Marcos remains would be buried, days after arrival of the coffin from Hawaii.

The resistance of families, many with kin in Libingan graves, hasn’t subsided. The Marcoses now accept the “Jejomar” formula, for an Ilocos Norte tomb, Vice President Binay told media in an August visit to Laoag City.

What Binay calls, without blushing, his “Solomonic” formula stipulates laurels at all cost. Whether in Libingan or Ilocos, there must be military honors. Bogus war medals, extrajudicial murders and massive human rights infractions to governance rot will be smudged over.

Marcos’ children “want to foist their father on us as a hero,” Inquirer’s Conrad de Quiros groused. “It is not a matter of geography, it is a matter of principle…. Ilocos Norte has not yet become a ‘sub-state’ of the Republic, free to make its own rules, its own laws, its own interpretation of history.”

There is, however, the more pernicious “sub-state” of the subservient mind-set. It would not recognize truth anywhere. Under Marcos what was theft in Manila morphed into a financial bonanza in Batac. Suppression of dissent, on college campuses, was seen, by folk in Sarat, as trouncing communists. “The will is deaf and hears no heedful friends,” Shakespeare rued.

Today’s squabble for preburial laurels is best summarized in these two concise paragraphs: “There may be some who… consider it necessary that we should praise to one another the dead… (We see ) the kind of posthumous deification, sometimes accorded to those who die in the possession of public power….

“This is the tawdry privilege of the despot, to be given at burial, as a pure formality, with tongue in cheek, ‘the honors of a god.’ It cannot bring anything but shame… to (those) devoted to the democratic way of life.”

These lines were, in fact, written 41 years before Marcos’ demise in 1989. These paragraphs come from the April 24, 1948, homily, delivered by Filipino historian Horacio de la Costa, SJ, in Washington DC. .Fr. De La Costa concelebrated a requiem Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, for the late President Manuel Roxas.

Unplanned, Fr. De La Costa’s discourse provides criteria for today’s Ilocos controversy. “He stands now, this man to whom a sovereign people entrusted the high exercise of sovereignty,” he wrote then. “He stands alone. No one avails to speak for him or against him. He is beyond our praise or blame. He is alone with God.

“(His ) record stands for every citizen to scrutinize, to weigh, and as he deems it good, to approve or to condemn. Let it stand, then, without embellishment or diminution. Let it stand as he had left it, the record of a man who had served them well or ill.

“There let us leave him, bathed in the serene and shadowless light of Truth. The final reckoning of what he was and did belongs to keener eyes than ours; far keener eyes, yet also beyond measure kindlier, for they are the eyes of Him in whom justice and mercy are not only inseparable, but one.”

Will the principles that De La Costa sketched, in broad strokes, be equally relevant for future interments? Like all of us, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will one day return to the dust from which we all came. Open Libingan’s gates, from heroes to include, without exception, former presidents, suggests former Rene Saguisag. That’d head off future quarrels.

F.r De La Costa died in 1977. He didn’t see how Corazon Aquino would ensure peaceful transfer of power. His 1948 homily provides an apt preview.

“Civil authority is not personal but public. It belongs to no one, either by right of birth, or in virtue of some real or imagined excellence, over other men, whether it be wealth, intelligence or power .

“It belongs to the people, who may entrust it to whomsoever they freely choose. Neither does it endow the man, to whom it is entrusted, with any special gift of impeccability or infallibility. He may not claim thereby ‘the divinity that doth hedge a king.’

“His is a burden, not a privilege. He must spend himself in the public interests as though they were his own. Yet he may not derive any personal profit from his position. He is held accountable always for the authority he holds in trust.

“When his mandate is revoked, he must be willing to relinquish that authority and return, a private citizen, to the ranks from which he came. Let him not expect any reward but the consciousness of having done his duty and served his people and his God.

“Often he will get no reward but this. Nay, he may find in the end his name vilified, his motive misrepresented, his deeds misjudged. Austere are the laurels of the republic.”

Healthy, yummy meals for Laoag day care kids

LAOAG CITY- More than 2,000 pupils from the 89 day care centers in Laoag City will soon be served with super nutritious yet yummy meals from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

According to City Social Welfare and Development Officer Aurora Corpuz, this is through the Healthy Start Supplementary Feeding Program in Day Care Center which is the agency’s contribution to the realization of the Early Childhood Care and Development and the Millenium Development Goal of combating malnutrition.

“The Feeding Program aims to improve the nutritional status of the pupils to make them more healthy, active and perform better in school,” Corpuz said.

The food supplementation will be in the form of hot, nutritious and delicious meals to be served during break time in the morning and afternoon sessions for five days a week. This will continue for six months.

Samples of the meals include squash-sitaw guisado with ground pork, chicken noodles with eggs, fresh vegetables with lumpia, sweet corn, fish bola-bola, misua with egg, adobong kangkong with boiled eggs, among others.

The menu was prepared by nutritionists to suit the nutritional and palate requirements of the 3-4 year old kids.

Corpuz explained day care parents will manage the feeding program as they will do the preparation, cooking and feeding from the funds provided by the agency. “This is in consonance with the thrust of the Aquino administration to strengthen and maximize Public-Private Partnership,” she said, “in developing and implementing measures to abate the problem of malnutrition.“

This is the first time day care center pupils in Laoag City will benefit from this program after the DSWD has widen its coverage to ensure the full development of young children. The children will be weighed at the start of the program, and monthly thereafter to determine if there is an improvement in the child’s nutritional status.

The program will begin on September 19, 2011.

Tagalog news: Mga balik-mag-aaral, patuloy ang pagdagsa sa Ilocos Norte

LAOAG CITY- Daan-daang mga mag-aaral ang muling nagbabalik sa lalawigan ng Ilocos Norte upang pag-aralan ang mayaman na kultura at magagandang tanawin nito.

Sinabi ni Department of Tourism Ilocos Norte Officer Milagros Gonzales na matapos mahinto ang pagpunta ng mga mag-aaral ng ilang buwan dahil sa paguulan at takot sa dengue, ay muling nagbalik ang mga mag-aaral simula ng huling linggo ng Agosto.

“Hundreds of students of Hotel & Restaurant Management, Architecture, Tourism come in as part of their curriculum to study the culture, heritage, architecture, physical landscape and sites of Ilocos Norte,” sabi ni Gonzales.

Malaking tulong ito, ani Gonzales, sa turismo ng lalawigan dahil kadalasan ay tatlong araw at dalawang gabi ang pagtira ng mga magaaral sa mga hotels at pagiikot sa lalawigan.

Bukod pa dito ay nakakatulong ng malaki sa pag-promote ng turismo dahil sa “word of mouth” ng mga bata sa kanilang mga pamilya, kaibigan, at iba pa na kakilala o pagsusulat sa mga blogs at social networking sites.

Sa tuwing dumarating ang mga mag-aaral ay naiimbitahan si Gonzales na magtalumpati at sumagot sa iba’t-ibang isyu tungkol sa turismo sa lalawigan.

Tourism zone authority holds roadshow on tourism enterprise incentives

LAOAG CITY- The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), formerly known as the Philippine Tourism Authority, will hold a roadshow on the ‘Guidelines for the Designation and Supervision of Tourism Enterprise Zones and the Administration of Incentives under Republic Act 9593 or the Tourism Act” in Ilocos Norte.

The Tourism Act specifically mandates the TIEZA to be the development and investment arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT).

TIEZA General Manager Mark Lapid will be the guest speaker.

According to Milagros Gonzales, DOT provincial officer Ilocos Norte, as one of the top tourist destinations, is a haven for tourists and investors alike and is being promoted as a Tourism Enterprise Zone.

“Tourism is an engine of investment, employment, growth and development for Ilocos Norte. This TIEZA Roadshow will provide possible investors and entrepreneurs the knowledge on what, where and how to invest and what incentives to get,” Ms Gonzales said.

The provincial government has been building facilities to service local and foreign tourists such as food and retail outlets and improving existing tourism facilities like the Plaza del Norte and Malacanang of the North. A tourism master plan is now in the works at the world heritage Paoay Church.

Tourism stakeholders are expected to attend the event at the Fort Ilocandia Resort Hotel on September 9, 2011.

New Ombudsman Morales holds testimonial bash in Ilocos

LAOAG CITY- Newly appointed Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales held yesterday her Testimonial party at the Ilocos Norte Convention Center here.

Morales, dressed in Filipiniana, arrived at the Convention Center with her family and greeted her co-Ilocanos with a smile and a thankful gesture.

Conchita Carpio Morales who comes from a family of lawyers, her father was a former judge, hails from the historic town of Paoay in Ilocos Norte.

She spent her childhood and grade school in Paoay Elementary School. She finished her Bachelor of Science in Economics and bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines.

In her testimony, Morales reiterated President Aquino campaign on eliminating corruption in the government.

Morales said she will uphold the dignity of good governance and eliminate corruption in the country.

Morales is previously an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 2002 under the administration of former President and now Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Traditionally, it is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines who administers the oath of office to the incoming President and the Vice President.

However, President Aquino formally requested Associate Justice Carpio-Morales to swear him into office together with VP Binay.

Present during the testimonial party are municipal officials of Paoay, Provincial Administrator Windell Chua and Sangguniang Panlalawigan members of Ilocos Norte.

Conchita Carpio Morales was born on June 19, 1941 in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. She is the daughter of Lucas D. Carpio, a judge, and Maria Claudio Carpio.

Damages in Ilocos Norte due to Mina reaches P312.9 million

Damages caused by typhoon Mina have climbed to P312.9 million including lost crops and destroyed roads, bridges and public buildings, the Provincial Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council said on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, agricultural crops such as rice, corn, high value commercial crops and fishery amounted to more than P40.2 million. Damages to infrastructure consisting of roads, bridges, irrigation facilities and school buildings have reached more than P270.2 million.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos presented the latest damage assessment during a press briefing this afternoon. Also present during the briefing were Congressman Rodolfo Fariñas, Laoag Mayor Michael Fariñas, Batac Mayor Jeffrey Nalupta and other provincial officials.

Marcos said the provincial government continues to deliver relief goods to affected families and works on rehabilitating damaged public facilities using the province’s calamity funds.

The province has been under a state of calamity since Sunday due to widespread flooding and several are areas still submerged due to heavy and continuous rains caused by typhoon Mina.

Marcos said the effect of storm Mina should serve as a wake up call to the public. “We have to admit that the environment has been overly burdened and abused by our acts. We need to rebuild not just damaged materials but rehabilitate the environment as well,” she said.

In Laoag, Mayor Farinas said damaged crops reached more than P10 million while roads and bridges including school buildings were pegged at more than P61.3 million.

He said flooding in villages near the Laoag river was aggravated by the absence of irrigation canal which should have slowed down rain waters that overflowed from the Sabo Dam.

For his part, Mayor Nalupta said Batac suffered minimal flooding in downtown Batac but damages to crops amounted to P10.7 million while public roads and bridges incurred some P5.6 million in damages.

Congressman Fariñas said he would work on the immediate release of rehabilitation funds for Ilocos Norte, on top of soliciting support from his colleagues in the House of Representatives.

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