Difference between revisions of "Albay News August 2014"

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==NEW LICENSE PLATES==
*Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/luzon-newsbits-for-august-31-2014/
*Sunday, August 31, 2014
:By Niño N. Luces (Luzon Newsbits for August 31, 2014 #3)
Legazpi City, Albay — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) Bicol conducted a meeting with manufacturers, assemblers, importers, rebuilders and dealers of motor vehicles last Thursday here to clarify the new policies regarding motor vehicle registration and the distribution of new plates. Attorney Noreen Bernadette San Luis-Lutey, regional director said registration of new vehicles must be done at the regional office, where releasing of the new plate number is done. She said the releasing is fast with the shortened procedure being implemented.
==(Feature) Going to Bicol’s poor a tough, challenging job for DSWD validation staff==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=10&rid=678459
*Saturday, August 30, 2014
: By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/RSM]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 30 (PNA) -- They sailed rough seas, traveled through barrios on colorum public utility vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers, crossed flood-prone rivers, walked on muddy paths over rugged terrains and rolling hills and scared by some close encounters with armed anti-government forces in guerrilla zones.
That was how difficult and tedious the works recently completed by career workers fielded by the regional office for Bicol here of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) were to reach out to the poor in the 3, 471 barangays within 107 municipalities and seven cities of the region’s six provinces.
Their tasks were to find the 10,643 senior citizens listed as beneficiaries of the government’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program as well as the 472 families covered by the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Families in Need of Special Protection (MCCT-FNSP) and validate their life status and social condition.
Both programs fall under the poverty alleviation thrust of the administration of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III being carried out by the DSWD.
“We have to locate these beneficiaries to determine through first-hand information their status. Our more than 300 field workers specially hired for this job were sent out to interview them right where they reside, wherever these are, and notwithstanding the distance and terrain,” DSWD Regional director Arnel Garcia on Saturday said.
“This special validation process involved hundreds of enumerators hired by the DSWD who were fielded in all barangays—up to the farthest-- of the region where the beneficiaries reside and it took us three months to complete it with the delay caused by the distance and unstable weather conditions,” Joy Belen III, the validation regional field coordinator, said.
Some areas took one whole day for validation teams to reach and another day to conduct the interview on target beneficiaries who were scattered in barangays and had to be reached by way of trekking rolling hills and muddy paths, she explained.
The purpose of this special validation is to verify the poverty status of the pensioners who are not registered in the database and once verified according to the requirements of the social pension program, they will continue receiving their monthly pensions.
The social pension program is under Republic Act 9994, otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which provides additional government assistance in the amount of Php 500 monthly stipend to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of an indigent senior citizen.
As defined in Section 3 of the same Act, indigent senior citizens refer to any elderly who is frail, sickly or with disability; without pension; and no permanent source of income, compensation or financial assistance from relatives to support his/her basic needs.
The MCCT-FNSP, on the other hand, is composed of beneficiaries who are temporarily enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer subsidy scheme and being processed to advance to the regular CCT under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Those who will qualify based on the same test would be guaranteed advancement to the regular CCT subsidy under the 4Ps, she added.
The 4Ps now covers nearly 400,000 households in Bicol who identified using the 2009 National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
Bicol’s poverty rate, according to the latest report of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), is at 36 percent. The 4Ps is a poverty-reduction and social-development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education -- particularly of children aged 0-14.
Garcia said the 10,643 social pensioners and 472 MCCY-FNSP beneficiaries validated are now being subjected to Proxy Means Test (PMT) run to finally confirm their social classifications under the NHTS-PR.
PMT is a statistical model which determines whether the individuals and households validated through interviews are poor or not, while NHTS-PR -- also called the Listahanan -- is the country’s database of poor households serving as an information system that identifies who and where the poor are.
Earlier, a World Bank (WB) study showed that about 90 percent of the beneficiaries of the 4Ps nationwide indeed came from the bottom 40 percent of the population.
However, according to the WB, Philippines has a history of well-meaning but poorly-targeted programs to assist the poor, resulting in huge sums of government resources channeled to the non-poor.
To address this WB perception, Garcia said, the DSWD, apart from this recently completed validation process and the ongoing PMT run, is also conducting before the end of this year the second round of the NHTS-PR that will be less in error in the inclusion and exclusion process.
In so doing, DSWD will apply new features in the conduct of identifying the poor under the implementation to minimize, if not totally prevent, errors in the process.
The new features will include the application in the PMT of two sub-models -- one for the National Capital Region and one for all other regions -- that will make community variables the determinants of poverty status.
“We are using a total of 46 variables in identifying poor families in this second round of household assessment as against the 34 variables used during the first round in 2009,” Garcia said.
A second stage screener to flag possible inclusion errors or non-poor being included in the list of poor will also be applied, he added.
With these enhancements, Garcia said, the combined inclusion and exclusion error rates would decline from 22-35 percent in the old model to 6-19 percent in the new model.
“We are now in the process of recruiting workers for this new round of Listahanan who surely will hit the field to encounter the same experiences that our validation staff went through. Those, anyway, are the challenges of going to the barrios and seeing and serving the poor,” Garcia added.
==National language is key to unity, understanding and freedom -- Salceda==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=678144
*Friday, August 29, 2014
: By Nancy I. Mediavillo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/NIM/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 29 (PNA) -- "The Filipino language, our national language, is our key to unity, understanding and freedom, according to Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda.
In a speech in Filipino read for him by Vice Governor Harold Imperial on the celebration of the National Language Month held at the People’s Hall of the Albay Capitol on Thursday afternoon, Salceda said the national language aims to make the Filipino understand and express what is in his mind, heart, spirit and soul.
He said the “tuwid na daan” (right path) of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino was expressed in the Filipino language, like his recent State-of-the-Nation Address.
The provincial chief executive said the “Linggo ng Wika” became “Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa” and is being celebrated every Aug. 1-31 by virtue of Proclamation No. 1041 on July 15, 1987 of former president Fidel V. Ramos.
Former president Manuel L. Quezon is the “Ama ng Wikang Pambansa” or the Father of the National Language, he said.
On March 26, 1946, then president Sergio Osmeña issued Proclamation No. 25 “Designating the Period from March 27 to April 2 of Each Year as ‘National Language Week’.”
Proclamation No. 25 designated March 27 to April 2 every year “Linggo ng Wika” in line with Commonwealth Act No. 570 mandating the government to implement necessary measures towards the development of a national language.
The National Language Week is a way to stress the significance, advance and develop the national language.
The proclamation wanted the entire machinery of the government and the people to actively participate in making the objectives of the 1935 Constitution and Commnonwealth Act No. 570 succeed.
The culmination of the celebration of National Language Week was made to coincide with the birthday of Francisco Balagtas Baltazar and the government asked all public and private schools – up to colleges and universities -- to conduct the necessary activities during the week, aside from implementing effective measures to promote the national language of the Filipinos.
The celebration of the National Language Week was moved to March 29-April 4 by Proclamation No. 12 of former president Ramon Magsaysay on March 26, 1954.
The proclamation was written in Filipino.
But Magsaysay again transferred the celebration to Aug. 13-19 of every year for the reason that the previous period of celebration was outside the schoolyear.
The present period of celebration is inside the schoolyear and, therefore, more will be able to participate in the celebration, Salceda said.
Raffy Banzuela, a journalist and professor who was the guest speaker, said the national language is the key to freedom and nationalism of an Albayano, Bikolnon and Filipino.
Banzuela stressed that the ability of Filipinos to speak well in English shows their being world-class.
Abdon Balde Jr., National Language commissioner, said the Flipino language was established during the National Convention on Aug. 16, 1934.
Balde advised veteran writers or budding writers to write in the dialect or language they have grown with for easy expression or development of ideas.
He said 70 percent of Nobel Prize-winning articles are written in the native dialect or language.
Senior Board Member Glenda Ong-Bonggao said the national language is the tool to give the public certain information on economic development and expresses the feeling and thinking of a person.
Board Member Richard Benjamin (RB) C. Imperial said the national language represents the culture, history and the personality of the Filipinos.
He said the Filipinos excel because they are multilingual.
==Mayon, Misibis Bay captivate NBA superstar==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=677763
*Thursday, August 28, 2014
: (PNA), FPV/FGS/RBB/CBD/UTB
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 28 (PNA) -- Mount Mayon’s mesmerizing beauty, the rich green scenery along the way and the powdery white beach of Misibis Bay in Cagraray Island captured NBA superstar Shawn Marion of the Dallas Mavericks during his first visit to Albay province.
Marion, a four-time NBA All-Star player, flew in Albay on Wednesday along with rapper-singer Julius “Doc” Evans of BluPrint Entertainment and elder brother of Tyreke Evans, former NBA Rookie of the Year.
Tyreke is currently under contract with the New Orleans Pelicans to spearhead a goodwill mission in the country, specifically in typhoon-hit areas of Albay province and in Tacloban City.
Doc represented his younger brother who could not come here due to an injury.
Marion and company arrived here along with AKO Bicol Representatives Christopher Co and Rodel Batocabe for a humanitarian mission.
He taught and played basketball with the students from various schools of Legazpi at the Ibalong Centrum for Recreation on Wednesday afternoon, jampacked with fans -- mostly high school and college students.
Marion spent about two hours with the children as he held basketball clinics for the students before proceeding to Misibis Bay Resort and Casino via a boat for him to see the coastline of Albay Gulf, with the imposing Mt. Mayon at the background.
As he toured Legazpi and the island of Cagraray, Marion was profuse with admiration for the unmatched loveliness of Mount Mayon, the icon of Bicol, as well as the panoramic view of the Albay Gulf down to Misibis Bay Resort and Casino, where the NBA delegation will be temporarily housed while in Albay.
In the resort, they were treated to sea foods and the region’s delicacies.
The Misibis Bay Resort and Casino is a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach along the southern tip of Cagraray island in Bacacay, Albay, which is considered a luxury island playground in the Philippines which the famous and rich frequently visit.
“Legazpi City and Misibis Bay are fantastic places in the world with mouth-watering food. I love it here, very beautiful!” Marion said in an interview with the PNA.
Rapper-singer Doc Evans said he will come out with a composition to promote the wonders of Cagraray Island, specifically the Misibis Bay, and the beauty of Manila.
“I will compose a song citing Misibis Bay and Manila as these places are very beautiful, specifically Mayon volcano -- without equal!” Evans said.
Marion and his company will be toured by local officials to different tourist attractions in Albay before heading back to Manila, then to Tacloban City to bring with them the fully built, pre-fabricated houses for the typhoon "Yolanda" victims from the Hoops Care Village in the United States.
Operation Hoops Care is a US-based, non-profit organization which will extend help to the victims of Yolanda and share their own experience with Hurricane “Katarina,” which caused destruction in New Orleans in 2005.
==Legazpi City nutrition program 1st runner-up in NNC tilt==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=7&rid=677257
*Wednesday, August 27, 2014
: (PNA), LAP/FGS/EPS/CBD/UTB
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 27 (PNA) -- The Legazpi City Nutrition Office was named by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) as 1st runner-up in the City Level Category in the search for 2013 Outstanding City of the Region during the Regional Nutrition awarding ceremony Wednesday at the La Piazza Hotel Convention Center.
Mayor Noel E. Rosal, City Administrator Wilfredo “Pecos” Intia, City Health Officer Dr. Fulbert Gillego, City Nutrition Officer Natividad Cardel and the members of the City Nutrition Committee received the award from Department of Health (DOH) Bicol Regional Director Gloria Balboa and Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Arlene R. Reario.
The cities of Iriga and Tabaco were named by the NCC as the Green Banner Awardee and 2nd runner-up, respectively.
Naga City got the merit award for sustained, efficient and effective implementation of 2013 Nutrition Program.
In Barangay Category, Napoleon Cardel, barangay captain of Binanuahan East of this city and his 10 other members of the Barangay Nutrition Committee also received an award from the NNC as one of the 2013 top performing barangays in the Bicol Region.
Merly B. Lopez of the same village also received cash award as one of the Outstanding Barangay Nutrition Scholars (OBNS).
The recognition was based on the study conducted by the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team on the implementation of the city’s nutrition program such as Sagip Kalusugan, Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle, and Good Nutrition where Legazpi City Nutrition Office got an average rating of 90.15 percent -- the highest average of this city since 2006.
The activity aims to recognize outstanding local nutrition committees of the province, cities, municipalities, barangays and outstanding barangay nutrition scholars, who continue to effectively and efficiently manage their nutrition programs at their own respective localities.
Natividad Cardel said that based on her record, in 2011, Legazpi City posted 2,190 or 8.41 percent identified malnourished children in 2012,
It improved the record down to 1,975 or 7.71 percent and in 2013, the identified malnourished children were reduced to only 1,754 or 6.93 percent.
This satisfactory rating was the result of the aggressive implementation of the city’s Sagip Kalusugan Program, creation of the breast feeding support group and intensification of mothers class in the 70 villages of this city.
The 6.93-percent malnourished prevalence record of the City’s Nutrition Office is lower than the 19.2 percent recorded malnourished prevalence rate by the National Nutrition Survey.
Cardel explained that her office through Sagip Kalusugan program has regularly conducted medical and dental check-up to all the children in the entire city, laboratory examinations, chest X-rays, de-worming and vitamins supplementation.
In the implementation of the breast-feeding support, the city nutrition officer said her office has encouraged all the mothers to exclusively breast feed the infants and children from zero to six months.
Under the Intensify Mothers Class, Cardel revealed that her office has conducted a regular nutrition education program among all the mothers in the 70 villages of this city as part of the promotion of the nutrition guidelines by way of informing and educating them on how to apply the proper way of breast feeding, responsible parenthood, and maternal and child health care.
She disclosed that she regularly holds “Operation Timbang” among pre-school children to monitor their weights.
==DOST- Bicol trains 10 jail officers, 30 inmates in vinegar, nata de coco making==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=676801
*Tuesday, August 26, 2014
:By Emmanuel P. Solis [(PNA), LAM/FGS/EPS/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 26 (PNA) -- Ten regional and provincial officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and 30 resident inmates are now ready to make vinegar and nata de coco either for their families' use or for business purposes.
This, after they learned the processes of making the products in a recent Skills Training on Vinegar and Nata de Coco Making jointly sponsored by the BJMP and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Bicol region office.
The training was conducted by Cristopher G. Millena, science research specialist II, and product specialists Vanessa SM. Caluza and Aubrey Rosebud R. Balonzo, who discussed the formulations and procedures in vinegar and nata de coco making.
The three lecturers also stressed the use of other indigenous sources as well as food safety and good manufacturing processes that will result in quality products.
BJMP Regional Director Ignacio S. Panti said the conduct of this activity is in line with BJMP’s therapeutic community services.
Meanwhile, in support of the programs and services of the Cathedral Parish Credit Cooperative (CPCC), one of the top performing credit cooperatives in the region, the DOST Bicol also conducted earlier a training on food processing and preservation for 20 senior citizens and retirees in the CPCC office at the Albay Cathedral Compound, Legazpi City.
The activity also formed part of the Nutrition Month Celebration in the region.
Fae B. Bajamundi, DOST science research specialist II, lectured and demonstrated on the following technologies: 1) tomato processing (jam and preserve), 2) squash processing (puree and catsup) and 3) onion preserve.
CPCC has Aurora V. N. Lucena as board chair and Nerisa Dolot as coop manager.
Dolot said they envision more members to engage themselves in productive endeavors through technology adoption/enterprise development.
Moreover, CPCC also encourages that loan applications be intended for the establishment/expansion of micro and small enterprises of cooperative members in the City of Legazpi and Province of Albay.
DOST V Director Tomas B. Briñas said their agency is committed to deliver S&T services that will benefit and improve the lives of Bicolanos -- especially the poor, displaced and low-income group -- to attain regional development.
==OCD-5, MGB-5 hold training on geo-hazard awareness, disaster preparedness==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=8&rid=676506
*Monday, August 25, 2014
:(PNA), LAP/FGS/EMC/CBD/UTB
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 25 (PNA) -- The Office of Civil Defense Regional Office 5 (OCD-5) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Regional Office 5 (MGB-5) have formed a partnership for the holding of one-day training on geo-hazard awareness and disaster preparedness for 11 local government units (LGUs) in the provinces of Masbate and Camarines Sur.
OCD-5 Director Bernardo R. Alejandro IV said the training aims at further enhancing people’s awareness on the urgency of disaster preparedness and reducing disaster risks by providing science-based knowledge on the different geo-hazards existing in these LGUs.
The training has already been conducted for the LGUs of Placer, Cawayan and Balud in the province of Masbate on August 19, 20 and 22, respectively.
It will be conducted at the LGUs of Balatan, Del Gallego, Ragay, Lupi, Sipocot, Pasacao, Pamplona in the province of Camarines Sur on September 1-9 and at the LGU of Jovellar, also in Albay, on September 11.
Participants in the training are punong barangay (village chieftains), members of the barangay council and members of the different municipal disaster risk reduction and management councils.
MGB-5 OIC-regional director Theodore Rommel E. Pestaño said the training is highlighted by distribution of geo-hazard maps with orientation on geo-hazard map reading and presentation of the duties and functions of local disaster risk reduction and management councils/committees.
This, he said, is meant to ensure that every barangay is disaster prepared towards the implementation of the Regional DRRMC5 policy on “zero casualty.”
==XTERRA triathlon picks Albay as venue for next 3 years==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=676222
*Sunday, August 24, 2014
:By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), CTB/JCN/PJN]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 24 (PNA) -- The sponsor of the upcoming largest off-road triathlon in the Philippines, XTERRA, has chosen Albay as venue of the event for the next three years, starting February 8 next year, with some 1,500 participants and about 2,500 guests.
The three-year Albay XTERRA Triathlon event is expected to further boost the province’s growing tourism — with more visitors coming to witness it, since triathlon is a popular world sports that is widely covered by media.
The arrangements for the staging of the triathlon here was completed in a recent meeting at the Manila Peninsula Hotel between Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and Alaska Milk Corp. CEO Wilfed Uytengsu, Jr., XTERRA franchise holder for the Philippines. Himself a triathlete, Uytengsu also owns the multi-titled basketball team, Alaska Aces and was responsible for bringing to the country the Iron Man Challenge in 2010.
Triathlon includes a series of swimming, mountain biking and trail running competitions within a predetermined distance and time.The XTERRA race series is the best-known series of off-road triathlons, and is considered as the de facto world championship of the sport.
Salceda said the XTERRA event in Albay could be as big, or even bigger than the Ironman challenge in Cebu, with some 2,500 participants and guests. It will kick off February 8, 2015, as one among the opening events of the month-long Cagsawa Festival in Daraga town, with the world-famous Cagsawa belfry and Mayon Volcano at the backdrop.
The governor said Albay’s sports tourism had a significant push during the Daragang Magayon Festival in April last year, with Mayon 360 50-mile Ultra Marathon, which brought about 1,200 sports enthusiasts and more guests to the province.
“We are thankful to the people behind XTERRA, most particularly its franchise owner, Wilfred,for considering Albay as venue for the world popular sports event. We are sure this will give the province one big push to maintain and cement its position as the fastest growing tourist destination in the country,” said Salceda.
Albay is the fastest growing tourist destination in the country. In 2013, it posted a whopping 66% growth rate. For this reason, the Department of Tourism has continuously promoted the province abroad, the latest of which was the September 2 to 5 Guangzhou Travel Mart.
The Albay Triathlon XTERRA will be the largest off-road triathlon event of the Philippines, and will certainly bring more tourists than expected, both because of the sports and the province’s world class tourism sites, Salceda predicts.
The races will mostly use routes which are tourist favorites, and guests will be treated to the thrill of the sports and the breath-taking views of Albay, he concluded.
==Blind since 3, Albayana about to see the light of becoming teacher to other sight-deprived provincemates (Feature)==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=11&rid=675682
*Saturday, August 23, 2014
:By Therese Isabelle S. Vega [(PNA), CTB/FGS/CBD/TSV-PNA ON THE JOB TRINEE/RSM]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 23 (PNA) -- Life was not good to Eleanor Junio even just before her birth.
His father abandoned her mother before she was born and when she was about one year old, her mother abandoned her, too -- making her believe that she was her grandmother’s daughter.
This was the kind of life Eleanor was brought into; but even though her life was like that, she had sight.
"Sight is one of the most important senses in our body and we use it every day and we may never be able to live without our sense of sight," she said, adding “We need it in almost everything we do. Imagine being born to a world of light and beauty, and lose your sight just when you already saw what you would be missing without it?"
This is exactly what happened to Eleanor -- at the age of three, she got sick of measles.
Her grandmother brought her to an “albularyo” or quack doctor, who instructed her grandmother to heat “buyo” leaves, pulverize it, and squeeze the juice into the little girl’s eyes.
Her grandmother did what she was told -- and this caused Eleanor her total blindness.
She has been blind from that moment on without being able to open her eyes anymore.
Losing her sense of sight, her sense of hearing improved and because of this, she would always turn on the radio.
Eleanor loves listening to music on the radio.
In the year 2005, when she was about 21 years old, she heard a broadcast about a free Shiatzu Massage training for the blind sponsored by the Bicol Small Business Institute Foundation, Inc. (BSBI).
Believing that this was her passport to a better life, she immediately informed her grandmother about it and begged for her to be sent to the training.
Her grandmother refused – and Eleanor felt devastated.
She didn’t want to keep on making abaca braids to supply handicraft makers for the rest of her life.
Seeing that there was no hope for her in this life, she got a rope, put it around her neck, and went to their roof.
Eleanor threatened her grandmother that if she would not permit her to go to the training, she would jump and commit suicide.
Her grandmother, seeing that there was no other way to talk her out of it, agreed and gave her permission to go.
This signaled the great change in Eleanor’s life -- and for her, this was the start of her better life.
When she applied for the training, she found out that BSBI was sponsoring not only the training but also the food, and transportation for the blind participants and their guides.
She was accommodated in the training through the help of the couple, Chris and Glenda Newhall.
The couple became her sponsor.
While still in training, however, her grandmother fell and hit her head on a big rock, causing her instantaneous death.
This devastated Eleanor and she wanted to quit the massage training but her dream of a better life made her decide that continuing the massage training was the right thing to do.
Right after her grandmother’s funeral, she went back to BSBI to continue her training.
She practically got adopted by Dr. Ofelia S. Vega, president of the BSBI.
Eleanor begged Vega to send her to school because, although she would be able to make her living through being a masseuse, she wanted to be able to finish an education.
The BSBI Foundation head agreed to send her to school.
At age 23, she started Grade 1.
Eleanor learned to read and write using the Braille system and because of this, she was able to read a lot of different books, mostly textbooks, translated to braille.
Reading became her favorite past time and because of being a wide reader, she got accelerated to Grade 4.
When she took her yearly exams, she again got accelerated to Grade 6.
It only took her three years to finish elementary, unlike many students -- who have all of their senses -- who finish elementary in the normal pace of six years, sometimes even longer.
After her graduation from elementary, she entered high school at the age of 26.
She was told her performance was so great that she would be accelerated to Fourth Year.
The blind achiever, however, begged not to be accelerated because she wanted to experience the high school activities like the junior and senior promenade and ultimately, high school graduation.
She spent four years in high school only because she wanted to.
After her high school graduation, she again begged to be sent to college. He promised to sponsor a portion of Eleanor’s yearly tuition in Divine Word College of Legazpi.
Owing to the efforts of Slade, Vega and BSBI, Eleanor was able to go to college and also became a Commission of Higher Education (CHED) scholar, so her expenses were subsidized by the government.
Eleanor is now 32, and is in her Second Year in college taking up Education.
Her greatest ambition, even as a child, was to be a teacher.
Now, she is only a few steps from reaching her dream and she now dreams to be a teacher, but a teacher to other blind people like her.
Looking back, Eleanor said she can’t believe how wonderful her life turned out to be.
For her, everything fell into the right place -- her love for radio music led her to the most life-changing moment.
She has no regrets and she is happy.
People who know Eleanor get inspiration from her hard work as she has proved that being blind is not a hindrance unless you choose to let blindness stop you.
But for her, she took advantage of her disability and has gone past it.
Everyone can do the same.
==DA embarks on enhancing pili production in Bicol==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=11&rid=675682
*Friday, August 22, 2014
:(PNA), LAP/FGS/DOC/CBD/
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 22 (PNA) –- The Department of Agriculture (DA) Bicol regional office is embarking on the enhancement of production of pili nut, the region’s source of prime and indigenous delicacy that has been winning a competitive niche in the world market.
“We have been distributing thousands of pili seedlings for free to farmers all over the region as we embark on the expansion of local pili nut production, which has a great potential for development as a major export crop,” DA Regional Director Abelardo Bragas said in a statement reaching the PNA here Friday.
DA Secretary Proceso Alcala would even participate in the distribution process every time he holds sorties in the region—the latest of which were for the “Bicol Rehabilitation Assistance for Glenda—Agriculture Sector,” DA’s quick response to provide immediate assistance to farmers and fisherfolk in provinces hardly hit by the typhoon last July 15, Bragas said.
For Camarines Sur alone, the recent distribution spearheaded by Alcala involved 18,500 pieces of pili seedlings given to farmers affected by the typhoon.
Almost the same number has also been distributed earlier to each of Sorsogon and Albay, also in occasions attended by the DA secretary, he said.
Apart from pili seedlings millions of pesos worth of farming inputs, implements, farm animals and facilities have also been distributed under this rehabilitation response, Bragas said.
There have been over 80,400 farmers across the region affected by typhoon "Glenda" that left around Php 3.9 billion-worth of damages to crops in Bicol.
“We in the DA Regional Field Unit (RFU) want these farmers and all the rest, including landowners in the region, to plant and grow more pili trees as another source of good income and Sec. Alcala have been doing his share in promoting it by way of talking with them as well as local pili nut processors on how to improve the industry,” Bragas said.
Apart from the attractiveness of pili nut’s products to the world market, he said, pili is another tree of life in Bicol -- next to coconut -- with all its parts being useful.
The resin (elemi), which is extracted from its bark, is a known export product of the country for many years.
It has both pharmaceutical and industrial uses -- being ingredient in the manufacture of plasters, ointments, paints, varnish, sealants, lacquers, asphalt, water and fire proofing, linoleum, plastics and printing inks.
DA records shows that for many years, the Philippines has been exporting resin or Brea (Manila elimi) to the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Cuba, China, Hongkong and Japan.
The kernel, when roasted and ground, is used as ingredients here and abroad for ice cream, salads, puddings, toppings for cakes, bread, pastries, confectioneries and other delicacies like marzipan, fruit-cereal bar and fruit and nut mixed chocolate.
Rich in micronutrients -- such as magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, zinc, copper, iron, sodium, thiamine and niacin -- it can be eaten raw or processed as roasted, fixated or sugar-coated and is served in the same way as cashew or almond, or peanuts.
Scientific studies conducted by the country’s top institutions dedicated to pili research, and replicated by studies abroad, according to Bragas, have confirmed the nut’s impressive nutritional content, being high in thiamin, magnesium and phosphorus.
As Bicol’s top product next to coconut, the pili nut has rightfully became a luxury food item -- one of the finest gifts of the Philippine tropics to the world.
It is a versatile gourmet treat, lending a distinct flavor and taste to many culinary fares.
At present, Sorsogon is the largest pili producer in Bicol, followed by Albay and Camarines Sur.
“We want all the other three provinces of the region—Catanduanes, Masbate and Camarines Norte -- to get involved in this enhancement program,” Bragas stressed.
==Albay launches web portal for youth to help teenagers confront problems==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=7&rid=675238
*Thursday, August 21, 2014
:By Nancy I. Mediavillo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/NIM/CBD/UTB]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 21 (PNA) – The Provincial Government of Albay and the Commission on Population-Bicol on Wednesday launched the U4U project, a web portal for the youth, at Albay Astrodome, highlightIng the closing of the National Nutrition Month, Disaster Consciousness Month and World Population Day.
The activity was scheduled last month but due to typhoon “Glenda” it was moved for the month of August.
Popcom-Bicol Planning Officer IV Jocelyn Chua thanked the Provincial Government of Albay headed by Governor Joey Sarte Salceda for its positive response to the launch of the project.
Chua said the province is the first local government unit to launch the U4U.
The regional launch will be done on Aug. 29.
Chua said the U4U, a youth hub initiative, is an interactive website for the youth aged 15-24 years old and has for its website www.U4U.ph.
She explained that a participating teenager will answer questions online and after the Q&A, the website will give its assessment of the subject based on his or her answers.
Chua said their office will also coordinate with schools down to the barangay level for a massive awareness campaign through the assistance of the provincial government.
She stressed that the web portal will answer problems confronting the youth.
The Popcom official expressed alarm over rising cases of premarital sex, early pregnancy, smoking, drinking liquor and illegal drugs among the youth.
Chua said the Bicol region registered an 8.8-percent teenage pregnancy last year based on the Young Adult Fertility Survey or YAFS, meaning, she said, nine out of 100 teenagers were pregnant during the survey period.
The region, however, has the lowest record in the entire nation, she clarified.
Meanwhile, 86.6 percent of the youth in the region did not use any protective measure in their sexual experience or premarital sex.
Aside from this, 38 percent read pornographic reading materials and 52.7 percent view X-rated films.
Chua said the results of the YAFS are alarming.
She said the youth must learn to say “no.”
The PopCom executive said their office’s campaign is “Toga Bago Traje de Doda,” meaning the youth should strive to have a college degree first before marriage.
Dr Arnulfo Carandang of the Department of Health-Bicol advised the youth to concentrate first on their studies and be busy on productive endeavors.
Carandang stressed the need to finish one’s studies first.
Dr. Ma. Theresa Belarma, officer-in-charge Albay provincial health officer, shared the experience of the province in strengthening its program of healthy lifestyle with the cooperation of its different departments and more than 1,000 employees.
Eden Gonzales, Albay population officer IV, informed the public that the healthy lifestyle program of the province is called 3G or “Gumalaw, Gumanda at Gumuwapo.”
Gonzales said the officials and employees of the province will do the “hataw” or exercise three times a week, at 4:30 p.m. every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The hataw will be led by the 3G team of the provincial capitol.
Aside from this, there will be a diet counseling and nutritional assessment for the participants, according to Bliss Bermas, provincial nutritionist.
==DOST sets Aug. 22 deadline of applications for undergraduate scholarships==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=674980
*Wednesday, August 20, 2014
:By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 20 (PNA) -- Graduating high school students who would like to avail of scholarships for priority science and technology (S&T) courses have until Friday, Aug. 22, to submit their applications for the 2015 Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute’s (DOST-SEI) Undergraduate Scholarships Examination.
This was announced Wednesday by the regional office for Bicol here of the DOST which said the nationwide examination shall be held on Sept. 21 with results to be announced in March 2015.
Tomas Briñas, the DOST regional director, said priority S&T courses for the scholarship grants include agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, biochemistry, computer science, environmental science, fisheries, food technology, forestry, geology, information technology, science/mathematics teaching, statistics, and engineering courses.
Interested parties may download the application form at www.sei.dost.gov.ph or www.science-scholarships.ph.
Application forms are also available at the Science Education Institute office at the DOST Compound in Taguig City and in all DOST regional offices, Provincial Science and Technology Centers, and offices of congressmen and senators, Briñas said.
Scholarship qualifiers may enroll in any of the state universities, colleges, and tertiary institutions identified as Centers of Excellence or Centers of Development by the Commission on Higher Education and in DOST-SEI identified network institutions all over the country.
Among these are the University of the Philippines, University of the East, Ateneo de Manila, Ateneo de Davao, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, Mapua Institute of Technology, Don Bosco Technical College, Siliman University, Mariano Marcos State University and St. Louis University.
Meanwhile, the DOST-SEI, citing excellence and overall contribution in nation-building, has paid tribute to its honor scholar-graduates and current scholars in two different occasions, a statement reaching here Wednesday from the DOST’s S&T Media Service said.
A total of 253 scholars who graduated with honors and 525 who finished graduate degrees for the school year 2013-2014 were awarded during the “In Touch with Excellence” ceremonies held as part of the 2014 National Science and Technology Week celebration, it said.
Around 400 scholar-graduates and ongoing scholars were also honored in a gathering dubbed as “Scholars’ Night.”
Overall, the statement said there were 12 summa cum laude, 55 magna cum laude, 187 cum laude, seven honorable mention, one with academic merit, and one with academic distinction scholar-graduates who were awarded both in the undergraduate and graduate levels during the ceremony.
Four scholar-graduates were also given incentives for completing their degrees earlier than the prescribed period of studies.
The S&T Media Service said 64 honor graduates under the DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship—the agency’s pioneer scholarship program for undergraduates—were recognized which listed seven summa cum laude, 21 magna cum laude, 34 cum laude and two honorable mention graduates.
On the other hand, Republic Act 7687 or the Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1994 produced 189 scholar graduates with honors headlined by five summa cum laude, 31 magna cum laude, 145 cum laude, one with academic distinction, one with academic merit, five honorable mention and three early graduates.
As for the graduate scholarships, a total of 351 MS and 36 PhD students graduated under the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program (ASTHRDP).
It produced three magna cum laude and eight cum laude graduates.
The program is a unified and innovative human resource development strategy aimed at hastening the production of highly trained scientists by awarding MS and PhD scholarship grants to eligible individuals who will fill in the gaps of identified areas of science and technology.
Under the program, nine scholars finished cum laude, and one as an academic excellence awardee.
On the other hand, the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) program—a graduate scholarship program in priority engineering courses and related field—recorded 136 MS and two PhD graduates.
DOST Secretary Mario Montejo has congratulated the scholar-graduates for maximizing the opportunity of being entrusted as “science scholars of the people.”
We are proud that you put in the hard work to not only finish you studies, but pursue excellence in the S&T fields you choose to be in,” Montejo said in his statement.
He said DOST is further intensifying its scholarship program as he believes in the capacity of science scholars as change-makers in the future.
==Albay board OKs ordinance limiting use of ambulances==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=674418
*Tuesday, August 19, 2014
:(PNA), LAP/FGS/EMC/CBD/
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 19 (PNA) -- The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Albay approved Monday an ordinance aimed at curbing blatant and frequent misuse of government ambulances, intended to be utilized for sick constituents.
Entitled “Regulating the Use of All Government Ambulances in the Province of Albay, and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof,” the ordinance is authored by 3rd District Board Member Rhederick N. Riva from Oas, and co-authored by 3rd District Board Member Herbert S. Borja from Polangui.
It aims to make government ambulances readily available to transport the seriously sick and injured patients requiring immediate medical treatment to or from a facility to another that is sufficiently equipped to handle the matter and save lives.
The legislation states that it has been observed that in many instances, government ambulances have been gravely misused, to the detriment of the public, whereas said vehicles have been seen in recreational areas where they have no business being there.
"There were cases where fees have been collected for their use, defeating the very purpose they were purchased for," Riva said.
According to the ordinance, it is unlawful for public officials or employees to use government ambulances for personal use or as an office service vehicle and it shall also be unlawful to use these vehicles for transporting patients deemed not in a medical emergency situation.
Whether with fees or not, government ambulances cannot be used for private purposes but government officials or employees shall not refuse the use of any government ambulance by patients who cannot pay fees, nor should there be any deprivation of use to any individual due to their gender, religious beliefs, economic status, or political affiliations; and government ambulances cannot be used to transport cadavers.
"There are exceptions though given to the use of government ambulances in non-emergency situations and these include the use of the vehicles in official and authorized medical outreach missions and other hospital services and operations related to medical missions, delivery of medicines and other medical supplies," Riva explained.
Public officials or employees caught violating this ordinance shall be penalized, after due process, with a P1,000 fine, and or imprisonment of one month for the first offense.
Second offense entails a fine of P2,500 and or six months of imprisonment; and being caught for a third time will result in a fine of P5,000 and or imprisonment of one year, without any prejudice to the filing of appropriate administrative charges.
==Albay reconstruction gets P37M from DepEd for school repairs==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=673970
*Monday, August 18, 2014
:(PNA), LAM/JCN/UTB
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 18 (PNA) -- Albay gets an added boost for its energized reconstruction and economic rehabilitation initiatives with the recent release by the Department of Education (DepEd) of P37 million for the repair of 98 schools devastated by Typhoon "Glenda" last month. DepEd comes as the second government agency so far to have subscribed to the reconstruction program of the province.
Albay Governor Joey Salceda said DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro, FSC, readily responded to their call for rehabilitation assistance under their Plan for Albay Glenda Early Recovery and Reconstruction (PAGERR), which was formulated immediately following the July 16 devastation.
Salceda said PAGERR has started to get vital support because it has a clear and defined plan and direction. Albay is the United Nation’s global model in disaster risk reduction and management.
“We thank Secretary Luistro for his speedy response, as the second biggest contributor to PAGERR less than a month after Glenda,” Salceda said.
Albay posted a Zero Casualty score against Glenda’s onslaught, which was widely praised, but it sustained more than P9.3 billion in damages, particularly in agriculture, housing, educational facilities and other infrastructures. The howler claimed over a hundred elsewhere in the country.
PAGERR is a well defined reconstruction plan with standing requests to various government agencies and non-government institutions for assistance. Salceda noted that having no casualty — even if it’s a great achievement — tends to get lesser appeal to donors unless there is a clear rehabilitation plan.
The Department of Agriculture was the first state agency to respond to PAGERR’s call for assistance with a P6- million commitment under its quick response scheme designated as Bicol Rehabilitation Assistance for Glenda – Agricultural Sector. It was aimed at propping up the badly hit areas of the region.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala personally delivered the contribution to Albay along with 1,000 bags of certified rice seeds, five units of hand tractors, 9,000 packets of assorted vegetable seeds, 9,000 pieces of pili seedlings, 185 bags of hybrid corn seeds, 15 bags of open-pollenated variety corn seeds, 54 sets of garden tools and 1,000 pieces of laminated sacks or canvass pieces.
Salceda organized PAGERR immediately after Albay was placed under a state of calamity. Its assigned taskes include assessment of needs, identification of intervention options in specific sites and their beneficiaries, implementation of responsive projects, and submission of formative and summative reports to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
==Salceda orders inventory of evacuation shelters as Mt. Mayon’s restiveness intensifies==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=673827
*Sunday, August 17, 2014
:By Rhaydz B. Barcia [(PNA), CTB/FGS/RBB/CBD/RSM]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 17 (PNA) -- As the restiveness of Mt. Mayon continues to intensify due to magma buildup, Albay Governor Joey Salceda has ordered an inventory of school classrooms that could be used as evacuation camps of tens of thousands of Albayanos should the volcano explode.
Salceda's directive to local government units came two days after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert warning status of Mt. Mayon from Level 1 to Level 2 due to the abnormal activities of the volcano.
The governor wants local officials across the province to assess the classrooms, water, toilet facilities -- including solid and liquid waste disposal system, communal kitchen, medical station with provision for normal spontaneous delivery, breast-feeding corner and recreational space to ensure the comfortable condition of the evacuees in times of natural calamity.
He also reactivated the health emergency teams (HETs) to be dispatched to the different local government units to be affected by the Mayon volcano eruption.
The HETs are composed of rapid health assessment team, medical team, SPEED team, mental health and psychosocialteam, nutrition team, and health promotion team and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team.
He also alerted the ALbay HEMS emergency officers on duty at the Albay Operation Center at this early so that all disaster responders will be in place before the possible hazardous explosion of Mayon volcano.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, reported increasing volcanic gas emissions and slight but persistent swelling due to the intrusion of magma beneath the volcano while sulfur dioxide emission posts an average of 850 tons per day, higher than the normal 500 tons per day, for the past two months now.
==Albay promotes healthy lifestyle for employees==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=7&rid=673605
*Saturday, August 16, 2014
:By Connie B. Destura [(PNA), CTB/FGS/EMC/CBD/RSM]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 16 (PNA) -- The Provincial Government of Albay -- in partnership with the Department of Health-Commission on Population Regional Office 5, National Nutrition Council-Region 5, and Team Albay/OCD 5 -- has developed a series of activities which will promote the general welfare of its employees and several other concerned stakeholders in Albay.
The move is in line with the celebration of the National Nutrition Month, National Disaster Consciousness Month and World Population Day.
Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, in a memorandum, enjoined all officials and employees of the PGA to support and participate in one of the culminating activities lined up in the calendar of events scheduled for the celebration, the Healthy Lifestyle Promotion or HATAW, to be led by the Provincial Health Office HATAW team.
The activity is on Aug. 20 at the Peñaranda Park in Legazpi City starting at 7:00 am.
HATAW, a popular short physical program launched by the DOH in 1994, is a mix of exercise and dance which can be done almost anywhere and anytime.
Its popularity stems from the enjoyable physical training which involves fast body movements that result in the production of several progressive health benefits.
Due to the reduced physical activity that many office workers experience on a daily basis, PGA employees or any other office worker subjected to limited bodily movement are exposed to dangers that produce grave consequences to their health.
Studies have shown that the lack of adequate physical activity has been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and obesity.
It also increases the risks of colon and breast cancer, high blood pressure, lipid disorder, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety.
With healthy employees and officers, the PGA and all other offices will be able to provide more than adequate service to their clients and their constituents.
==‘Move heaven and earth’ to fast track power restoration in Albay, priests ask Salceda==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=673302
*Friday, August 15, 2014
:By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA),CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 15 (PNA) – Local parish priests have asked Albay Governor Joey Salceda, considered as among the authors of the privatization of Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) into the hands of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), to “move heaven and earth” to hasten the restoration of power in the province.
“We appeal to Governor Salceda, considered among the authors and avid supporters of privatization, to do more than what he is presently doing and move heaven and earth to hasten power restoration in Albay for the sake of our suffering people,” the priests said in an open letter circulated in the province over the week.
The letter was signed by 45 Albay-based priests headed by Msgr. Ramon Tronqued, St. Raphael de Archangel Parish priest and vicar general of the Diocese of Legazpi.
Apart from Salceda, the letter was also addressed to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jericho Petilla, the management of Albay Power and Energy Corp. (APEC) and to “the Big Bosses of San Miguel Corp. (SMC).”
APEC is a fully-owned and -controlled subsidiary of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., created to run the affairs of the cooperative after the giant firm took control of the business and operations of Aleco early this year.
“We, the undersigned Priests of the different cities and municipalities of the Province of Albay make this urgent appeal for the immediate restoration of electric power in the whole province, and by immediate, we do not mean a period of one month or so,” the letter said.
Power supply in the entire province was cut off at the height of the devastation wrought by typhoon "Glenda" last July 15.
After Glenda, the people of Albay thought that APEC could have power at the soonest time possible only to be told that it would take a month or so for power in the province to normalize. APEC, being backed by a blue chip corporation—SMC -- could easily restore power if it wants, the priests said in the letter.
“We are sure that before APEC/SMC signed the privatization contract, its corporate geniuses must have factored in the pact that Albay is always ravaged by typhoons; why the seeming inefficiency? The old Aleco, even with its inefficiency, did not take long to reenergize the province after typhoon Reming which was even more destructive than Glenda,” they said.
Reming struck Albay in November 2006 and by Christmas time that same year, power was restored in almost all parts of Albay, the priests recalled in the letter.
As of Friday, reports gathered by PNA have it that only about 30 percent of the province has been reenergized -- mostly town centers and city propers.
Here, Mayor Noel Rosal said power has been restored in about 80 percent of the city with only those outskirt barangays whose distribution lines suffered heavy damages left, but already being attended to.
==DENR-EMB Bicol to put up MRFs in selected towns, cities==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=8&rid=672810
*Thursday, August 14, 2014
:By Samuel M. Toledo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/SMT/CBD]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 14 (PNA) – The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) has identified four municipalities in the region to be the beneficiaries of the materials recovery facility (MRF) this year in order to increase the waste diversion rate and strengthen the local government units' (LGUs) practice of waste management.
The Environmental Management Bureau V of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-EMB V) through its Solid Waste Management Section (SWMS), conducted a dialogue with concerned local officials last Aug. 8 in Legazpi City to discuss the putting up of MRF.
“Despite the passage of Republic Act 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, solid waste and its proper management remain one of the major environmental problems of the country,” EMB Bicol Director Roberto Sheen, said.
Sheen explained that less than half of the LGUs in the country have completed and implemented ecological solid waste management programs even as the amount of solid waste to be managed increases each year as growing population and economic growth becomes highly imminent.
The MRF is an area where collected waste materials are stored until they are sold to recyclers or processed for composting.
“Based on Section 32 of RA 9003, every barangay or cluster of barangays should establish a MRF that will receive household-generated wastes to segregate and recyclable materials from residual waste,” Sheen said.
The MRF recipients are Bacacay town and Tabaco City in Albay; San Pascual in Masbate; San Vicente in Camarines Norte; and Milaor in Camarines Sur.
The LGUs will be the one to determine which barangays in the recipient towns and city would be serviced by the MRFs, and where these will be installed.
The EMB V, through the Ecological Solid Waste Management Commission (ESWMC), will be the agency to monitor the MRFs.
“This is one of the measures we are conducting so that LGUs will be further encouraged to practice proper waste segregation and increase their awareness and compliance to RA 9003. We are looking forward for the positive effects of this project,” Sheen added.
The beneficiaries were identified through the following criteria: willingness of the LGU to support the program, cluster of at least three barangays or a minimum total waste volume of one ton a day.
The LGU should also have existing practice of segregation at source and segregated collection, available area for MRF, area is big enough for the two MRF components (composting and segregated storage), availability of Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) data, ability to divert at least 50 percent from the total waste volume, can tie-up with buyers/recyclers and percentage of waste diversion rate, Sheen said.
==Resilient Tourism: Foreign tourists surge anew in Albay==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=672370
*Wednesday, August 13, 2014
:By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), CTB/JCN/UTB]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 13 (PNA) -- Albay’s resilient tourism program has speedily and effectively put the province back on track shortly after Typhoon Glenda’s recent devastations, with foreign tourists flocking back in droves to the country’s fastest growing destination.
Less than a month after Glenda pummeled the province, the newly opened Albay International Gateway (AIG) rolled out the red carpet last August 8 to welcome 154 Chinese tourists who flew direct from Xiamen on board a Cebu Pacific Airlines’ flight.
The batch kicks off Cebu Pacific’s initial 18-cycle, three-month running contract flights from August 8 to October 10 this year.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said the province’s strong disaster resilient program made the project possible, with the entire machinery of the local government focussed on getting back on track immediately after the disaster, particularly in tourism.
Glenda mauled Albay for over seven hours last July 16. Personally led by Salceda, the provincial government machinery immediately started clearing the debris evening of the same day so that residents woke up the next morning with almost all the roads already passable.
Salceda said water and power supplies were heavily derailed, but the local government resorted to alternative sources particularly in critical areas. Team Albay’s Water and Sanitation unit provided continuous supply of potable water while commercial and industrial outfits made available their power generators.
Telecommunication systems were likewise heavily damaged but were back in service in five days, while public offices have reopened immediately the following day. Airplane flights were also restored the following day using back up facilities, he added.
The first batch of about 300 Chinese tourists flew in here early this year on board the Philippine Airlines flights, also from Xiamen, in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Albay.
Salceda said the AIG was established under Executive Order 29, designating Legazpi City as an international gateway for direct flights from foreign tourism markets. It marks a local government breakthrough in tourism, one that opens doors to and from various parts of the world through non-traditional routes, the links to which were worked out. China, Korea and Taiwan are initial targets.
The Bicol International Airport in Daraga town, which is now under construction, is set to open in 2016 but Salceda said tourists “don’t have to wait that long to enjoy Albay’s wondrous experience.”
The Department of Tourism has declared Albay as the fastest growing tourism destination in the Philippines with a 66% growth rate in 2013. With the AIG, Salceda said they hope to make that record consistent.
“We put in place our CIQS or customs, immigration, quarantine and security systems. We made necessary adjustments to standards of international airports and institutionalized the operating mechanisms under our Albay International Gateway Committee (AIGC) which now supervises the international flights,” said Salceda, who chairs the AIGC.
A noted economist, Salceda said the new Albay gateway could bring in about P6.5 billion in revenues to Albay a year, five times its annual budget. A Chinese tourist can spend around US$ 1,000 per day during his 5-day stay in the province. This will also help create jobs for Albayanos at a rate of one job opportunity per tourist.
“Many more direct flights to Albay are expected to follow and bring to the heart of Bicolandia thousands of tourists and holiday-seekers who will help boost our Albay BOOM economic battlecry,” Salceda enthused.
The governor said the gateway also opens up Albay for global engagements, particularly the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in 2015, which kicks off in December this year.
==Chinese tourists swarm Legazpi as Ibalong Festival takes off==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=671958
*Tuesday, August 12, 2014
:By Danny O. Calleja (PNA), FPV/FGS/DOC/CBD/
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 12 (PNA) – A throng of Chinese tourists arrived at the airport here Monday afternoon via a chartered Cebu Pacific flight that flew them in directly from Xiamen City of Fujian province in China as the city celebrates this month the Ibalong Festival.
They were welcomed to the city by Mayor Noel Rosal, Department of Tourism Bicol Regional Director Maria Ong-Ravanilla and Elizalde Co, owner of the Misibis Bay Resort in the nearby Sto. Domingo town where all of them will be billeted during their four days and three nights stay.
Misibis Bay is a posh resort hotel considered as a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach serving as a luxury island playground along Cagraray Island where Albay’s hospitality abounds.
This group, composed of 154 individuals, represents the first batch of a series of arrivals arranged by Misibis Bay management and the city government as part of the direct international flight tourism program, which opened early this year the Legazpi airport as the country’s newest gateway.
Interviewed by local newsmen at the airport while waiting for the arrival, Rosal said this series of chartered flights from Xiamen will go on until October this year with four flights a week but “we are working on an arrangement with Cebu Pacific and the China International Travel Service to extend it up to the end of this year.”
The coming of the initial batches is timed with the city’s holding this month of Ibalong Festival whose events will be an added entertainment to the Chinese tourists who are very much attracted to Mt. Mayon and going around lava fronts around its foot on board all-terrain vehicles, Rosal said.
“During their stay, these Chinese tourists will enjoy the overflowing of celebrations in this prime tourist destination known in the whole travel industry world as the City of Fun and Adventure,” he said.
Ibalong Festival is a yearly non-religious fiesta here depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.
This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol Region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños.
“And hopefully, next year and onward, we would be able to arrange a year-round direct flights program with the Legazpi Domestic Airport as the gateway while we are awaiting for the completion of the Southern Luzon International Airport now ongoing construction in the nearby Daraga town,” Rosal added.
This new airport, which has been placed by the Department of Transportation and Communications as a priority project intended to boost Bicol’s booming tourism industry, is scheduled to be completed and put into operations before the end of the term of President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2016.
The opening of the Legazpi Airport as gateway for direct international flights came last January with the coming in of the maiden chartered flight of Philippine Airlines with 156 Chinese tourists on board from Xiamen.
Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.
The city is one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s.
The direct flight program was first arranged with local and China-based travel agencies as an undertaking in line with the Aquino administration’s policy to achieve inclusive growth through tourism that will have direct impact on the community.
Rosal said having Legazpi as the newest direct destination for the Chinese travel market means getting them into a yearly cycle wherein they will be coming via chartered flights in a frequency of at least twice a week.
Each of these tourists spends between USD 500 and USD 1,000 a day and with the coming of 230 weekly would mean as much as USD 230,000 weekly tourism receipts for the city and some parts of Albay where they would be buying souvenir items and food, among other expenditures, he said.
Tourism will definitely take a crucial role in the city, the province of Albay, the Bicol Region and the country’s pursuit for inclusive and horizontal growth that will benefit not only big investors such as hotel operators but also the people in the countryside, where most of the tourist destinations are located, by providing more opportunities for employment and business ventures, the city mayor said.
“The opening of the city as gateway for direct international flights takes advantage of the foreign market trend showing that international tourists do not tend to stick to one local destination as they follow a cycle leading them from one place to another,” he said.
Parallel with these developments, what the city government is doing is to improve its capacity to accommodate more tourists, taking into consideration that the city is also fast emerging as one of the country’s convention capitals.
“We are now hosting an average of 20 big conventions and similar occasions yearly, bringing in to the city around 60,000 visitors each year. So far, we only have 2,009 hotel rooms that can accommodate in one occasion some 5,000 people,” Rosal said.
More accommodation facilities are needed, that is why the city government has been encouraging and attracting more investors to venture into this endeavor and the response is very encouraging, he added.
==Albay to nominate Mayon Volcano as UNESCO Biosphere Reserve==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=671627
*Monday, August 11, 2014
:By Connie B. Destura (PNA), LAM/FGS/CBD/
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 11 (PNA) -- The provincial government of Albay will nominate Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Governor Joey Sarte Salceda disclosed Monday.
In a letter to Regional Executive Director Gilbert Gonzales of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Bicol, Salceda said the Philippines National Commission for UNESCO has provided the province with information for its guidance on the nomination of Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
A Biosphere Reserve, he said, is an internationally designated protected area meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature, hence, promoting values such as sustainable development.
“The status is conferred by UNESCO, particularly by its Man and the Biosphere Program and currently, there are only two UNESCO biosphere reserves in the Philippines – namely, Palawan and Puerto Galera,” Salceda said.
He invited Gonzales to join a meeting on the nomination of Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Aug. 13 at the UNESCO office in Pasay City.
He also invited Edelberto Matusalem, Protected Area supervisor for the Province of Albay, to join the meeting.
==DA to pilot Bicol for ‘supercrops’==
*Source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/business/agri-commodities/36902-da-to-pilot-bicol-for-supercrops
*Sunday, August 10, 2014
:By Alladin S. Diega
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Sunday that the Bicol region, specifically Albay province, would be the pilot area for climate change-resistant or -adapting crops.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala was quoted in a statement as saying the move is “in line with government’s climate-change resiliency program.”
“The region will also serve as the laboratory for the DA’s quick-turnaround-planting-and-production-after-a-typhoon initiative,” Alcala said,  adding that the regional share of Bicol in the proposed DA budget of P48.4 billion will be P1.9 billion.
The secretary said the region “deserves” the additional funds considering its share in agricultural production last year was worth P57 billion.  “That is why even if the land area of Region 5 is small and it is often visited by typhoons, the  Oragons [an endearment for local residents of the region] ranked sixth in rice production, eighth in hog production and seventh in coconut and corn production,” Alcala said.
Latest DA estimates on the damage wrought by Typhoon Glenda on the agricultural sector in Bicol is valued at P3.98 billion, the aggregate total for crops, livestock, agri-infrastructure, abaca and fisheries.
Meanwhile, the DA’s Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. recently distributed indemnity checks worth nearly P285,000 to 22 farmers from Naga City, Canaman, Pili and Baao, the statement said.
On Friday Alcala and Albay Gov. Joey Salceda spearheaded the distribution of a similar assistance, valued at P5.9 million, to farmers and fishermen in Albay in turnover rites in Legazpi City.
Last week  the DA has launched the government’s rehabilitation plan for the agricultural-fishery sector in the region.  “Starting with the distribution of initial assistance valued at nearly P6 million to affected farmers and [fishermen] in Sorsogon,” Alcala said.
He added that the first batch of livelihood and production support to beneficiaries in Bicol aims for the swift and timely delivery of aid to the devastated farmers and fishers.
The Bicol Rehabilitation Plan, Alcala said, is a rebuilding plan that entails the provision of production support, which include various machineries, fishing boats and gears, replacement seeds of rice and corn and other planting materials, and new stocks of animals.
==Top California-based Fil-Am triathlete model promotes sports tourism in Legazpi==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=671159
*Saturday, August 9, 2014
: (PNA), CTB/FGS/RBB/CBD/PJN
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 9 (PNA) -- A top Filipino-American triathlete model is now in this tourist-destination city to promote sports tourism.
Kim Kilgroe will swim, bike and run in the rigorous rolling terrains of Legazpi City on Sunday morning.
Kilgroe, whose grandmother is a native of Tabaco City, flew in this city for the first time to lead and grace the first-ever Mt. Mayon Triathlon—a kickoff event of the monthlong Ibalong Festival of Legazpi.
“I came here to bring and promote sports tourism. Legazpi City is a great location for triathlon where one swims, bikes and runs, with the beautiful icon of Mayon volcano at the background,” she said.
Kilgroe, 24, and 200 participants in the professional, elite and relay team categories will be showing their prowess in the triathlon where in just an hour the competing teams will go for a 1.5-kilometer swim in the water off Legazpi then take a 40-kilometer bike ride from this city going to Sto. Domingo town and vice versa, then make a 10-kilometer run along the rolling topography of this city.
But before the official competition set on Sunday by the city government, Kilgroe conducted a free swimming and sports clinic on Friday and Saturday among the youth, including children, with proficiency in swimming to help them develop their own potentials.
“My Lola is from Tabaco, Albay. It's nice to be here for the first time. I'm motivated by the desire to be the best version of myself in every aspect, and to help others reach their own potentials and live unlimited. I enjoy helping new athletes on their form and progression, so I'm planning a series of Train-Unlimited Tri-Camps in various provinces of the Philippines,” she said.
The tri-clinic is focusing on swimming and running techniques.
“We are having pool and open water swimming clinics to improve everyone's swimming techniques. I especially love working with youth and inspiring them to pursue sports and healthful activities, so my events are open to all ages and levels. I'm doing an initial event in Legazpi before the inaugural Mt. Mayon Triathlon this weekend. We are inviting young athletes to come, participate and learn how to become better triathletes,” the lady triathlete added.
Kilgroe also expressed gratitude to Mayor Noel Rosal for hosting the first-ever Mt. Mayon Triathlon despite the effect of typhoon "Glenda."
“Thanks to the City of Legazpi and the Ibalong Festival organizers for hosting us and bringing the Mt. Mayon Triathlon together in a short period of time, even with the typhoon that recently passed. We are so excited for the first triathlon in this province on Sunday. What a great location to swim, bike and run.This is one of my favorite areas in the Philippines now,” the Filipino-American triathlete said.
Kilgroe said that after Bicol, she will also go to Davao, Cebu, Bohol and Ilocos Norte for multi-day camps.
“On my radar for potential multi-day camps are Davao, Cebu, Bohol and Illocos Norte. With so many people gaining interest in the multi-sport community, I'd love to help bring more resources to those outside of the Metro Manila area,” she said.
Fr. Jay Jacinto of Naga City, race director, said Legazpi City is the most scenic place and fantastic area for a one-hour triathlon owing to its best location, with Mt. Mayon at the backdrop.
Rosal said the 1st Mayon Triathlon will be similar to the “Tour of Luzon” wherein 200 foreign and Filipino veteran or elite riders will be competing on Sunday.
He said there are politicians like Rep. Datu Arroyo of Camarines Sur and former AKB Rep. Pido Garbin who will be joining the triathlon.
“Next year, it will never be the same again. It will be a bigger event next year as part of the Ibalong Festival. The participants of this event are not after the prize because they’re well-off and whose bikes cost about Php 0.5 million or so. They’re not after the money but the trophy and prestige,” Rosal said.
The winners will receive Php 20,000 for first prize, Php 15,000 for 2nd prize and Php 10,000 for the third prize.
==DA Sec lauds increasing food production in Albay despite frequent calamities==
*Source: http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=2571407461558
*Friday, August 8, 2014
:By Sally Atento-Altea (MAL/SAA-PIA5/Albay)
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 8 (PIA) –Department of Agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala lauded the province of Albay for sustaining its increasing food production over the years despite calamities frequently visiting the province.
“I congratulate the good leadership and resiliency of the people of Albay for continued increase in production despite being hit by calamities,” Alcala said during the press conference for turn-over of rehabilitation assistance Wednesday to farmers and agri-stakeholders affected by typhoon Glenda in Albay.
“Eventhough constantly devastated by typhoons, the province has sustained its increasing yield,” he added.
Albay governor Joey Salceda noted in the same event that the rice sufficiency percentage of the province has increased in six years from 73% in 2008 to 94% in 2013.
He attributed such increase to the farmers in the province citing them as the”backbone of economic development in the province.”
The AlbayProvincial Agriculture Services earlier reported that based on official records, production in 2013 rose to 215 metric tons or 215,000 kilos in harvest from 52,000 hectares planted.
In 2012 160 metric tons or 160,000 kilos is in production from 43,000 hectares planted.
The Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) likewise posted increasing volume of production for coconut from 149,594.96 metric tons in 2008 to 180,333.07 metric tons in 3013 and pili nut from 1,528.71 metric tons in 2008 to 2, 132.45 metric tons in 2013.
The same is true with abaca from 1,404.64 metric tons in 2008 to 1,617.26 metric tons in 2013.
Salceda added forested areas in the province have also increased to 88% of which most of the trees planted are Pili trees provided by the DA.
Moreover, the governor cites climate change as a factor that hinders poverty alleviation among farmers in the province despite the programs implemented and assistance given by the DA.
He mentioned for instance coconut planters who lost their investment as typhoon Glenda severely damaged coconut trees with its fruits supposedly to be harvested this year.
“Six years ago after Reming, our farmers planted coconut trees which take about six years to bear fruit. Now we are on the sixth year, supposedly a time for harvest, but we are hit by typhoon Glenda damaging our coconut plantations,” he said.
“Basically our farmers lost the capital they invested so what returns will they get?” Salceda added.
In response to the impact of climate change to agriculture, DA secretary said the present administration has been implementing long-term intervention through construction of concrete farm to market roads and provision of climate resistant rice varieties.
One of these varieties is the drought resistant, submarine type and salt water tolerant green super rice currently studied in Camarines Sur.
==Chinese tourists coming during Legazpi’s Ibalong Festival==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=670463
*Thursday, August 7, 2014
:By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 7 (PNA) – A series of Cebu Pacific chartered direct flights will be flying in here hundreds of Chinese tourists from Xiamen City, China, as the city celebrates the Ibalong Festival.
The first flight is scheduled to arrive Friday, Aug. 8, carrying 165 passengers who will stay for four days and three nights.
All of them will be billeted at the Misibis Bay Resort and Casino in the nearby Sto. Domingo, Albay.
Misibis Bay is a posh resort hotel considered as a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach serving as a luxury island playground along Cagraray Island where Albay’s hospitality abounds.
At least two other flights, which will arrive on Aug. 11 and 16, are also scheduled -- each carrying the same number of passengers, city Mayor Noel Rosal announced in a press conference here Thursday.
These Chinese tourists will be in the city in time for the celebration of the Ibalong Festival, a yearly non-religious fiesta depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.
“This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños,” Rosal said.
The festival’s formal opening will be on Aug. 16 but preliminary activities -- like the screening of candidates for the Mutya ng Ibalong beauty pageant, which was held last Aug. 3, the kick-off of the Mt. Mayon Triathlon on Aug. 10 and opening of the 2nd Ibalong National Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship on Aug. 15-17 – will serve as advance activities.
The festivities -- loaded with events that will offer fun, exciting adventures and lot of surprises -- will run until Aug, 3.
These events will be an added entertainment to the Chinese tourists who are very much attracted to Mt. Mayon and going around lava fronts around its foot on board all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Stephen Chen of the China International Travel Service (CITS) said during the same press conference.
“During their stays, these Chinese tourists will enjoy the overflowing of celebrations in this prime tourist destination known in the whole travel industry world as the City of Fun and Adventure,” Rosal said.
This Xiamen-Legazpi direct chartered flight project was arranged with Cebu Pacific and CITS by the city government under Rosal in partnership with the management of Misibis Bay headed by business tycoon Elizalde Co.
Initially, these series of chartered flights from Xiamen will go on until October this year with four flights a week but “we are working on an arrangement with Cebu Pacific and the CITS to extend it up to the end of this year,” Misisbis Bay general manager Ian Mayer Varona said.
“Hopefully, next year and onward, we would be able to arrange a year-round direct flights program with the Legazpi Domestic Airport as the gateway while we are awaiting for the completion of the Southern Luzon International Airport (SLIA) now ongoing construction in the nearby Daraga town,” Rosal said.
This new airport, which has been placed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as a priority project intended to boost Bicol’s booming tourism industry, is scheduled to be completed and put into operations before the end of the term of Pres. Benigno Aquino III on 2016.
The opening of the Legazpi Airport as gateway for direct international flights came last January with the coming in of the maiden chartered flight of Philippine Airlines with 156 Chinese tourists on board from Xiamen.
It was first arranged by the provincial government of Albay under Gov. Joey Salceda with local and China-based travel agencies as a program in line with the Aquino administration’s policy to achieve inclusive growth through tourism that will have direct impact to the community.
Rosal said having Legazpi as the newest direct destination for the Chinese travel market means getting them into a yearly cycle wherein they will be coming via chartered flights in a frequency of twice a week.
Each of these tourists spends between US$ 500 and US$ 1,000 a day and with the coming of 230 weekly would mean as much as US$ 230,000 weekly tourism receipts for the city and some parts of Albay where they would be buying souvenir items and buy foods, among other expenditures, he said.
Tourism will definitely take a crucial role in the city, the province of Albay, the Bicol region and the country’s pursuit for inclusive and horizontal growth that will benefit not only big investors such as hotel operators but also the people in the countryside, where most of the tourist destinations are located, by providing more opportunities for employment and business ventures, the city mayor said.
“The opening of the city as gateway for direct international flights takes advantage of the foreign market trend showing that international tourists do not tend to a local destination as they follow a cycle leading them from one place to another,” he added.
Parallel with these developments, what the city government is doing is improve its capacity to accommodate more tourists taking into consideration that the city is also fast emerging as one of the country’s convention capitals.
“We are now hosting an average of 20 big conventions and similar occasions yearly, bringing in to the city around 60,000 visitors each year. So far, we only have 2,009 hotel rooms that can accommodate in one occasion some 5,000 people,” Rosal said.
More accommodation facilities are needed, that is why the city government has been encouraging and attracting more investors to venture into this endeavor and the responds are very encouraging, he added.
==Legazpi’s Ibalong Festival comes with more fun, adventure this August==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=670032
*Wednesday, August 6, 2014
:By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 6 (PNA) – The city government here has issued a guarantee that the 2014 holding of Ibalong Festival, which comes this month, will be loaded with more fun, adventure and surprises.
“I assure you of more fun, exciting adventures and big surprises as we go along with this month-long celebration—the 23rd Ibalong Festival,” City Mayor Noel Rosal, who is also chair of the festival executive committee, told a press conference at the city mayor’s office Wednesday.
The festival’s formal opening will be on Aug. 16 but preliminary activities like the screening of candidates for the Mutya ng Ibalong beauty pageant, which was held last Aug. 3, the kick-off of the Mt. Mayon Triathlon on Aug. 10 and opening of the 2nd Ibalong National Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship on Aug. 15-17 will serve as advance activities.
The triathlon event is one of the big surprises offered this year as it will be participated in by about 200 celebrated international players, Rosal said, describing the event as a grueling physical fitness competition that will pass through varied routes along the Legazpi Boulevard to the town of Sto. Domingo, Albay, near the foot of Mt. Mayon.
The women’s beach volleyball games expected to be played among teams coming from big universities and colleges around the country will be held also along the Legazpi Boulevard.
To highlight the formal opening program of the festival on Aug. 16 will be the rolling out of the Ibalong Festival Weekend Market that will open up business opportunities to small and medium enterprise operators in the locality and those coming from far as Metro Manila and Cebu, City councilor Lilian Ramirez, the event’s committee chairperson, said in the press conference.
In support to the festivities, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will be holding its 2014 Southern Luzon Cluster Science and Technology Fair at the city’s Ibalong Centrum for Recreation from Aug. 17 to 20, according to Tomas Briñas, the DOST regional director for Bicol.
The event will also mark the launch in the city of Juan Time that will make Legazpi the first local government unit in Bicol to have the giant Juan Time clock to be mounted by the DOST at the heart of the city’s business center, Briñas said.
He said the S&T fair -- which will be focused on regional development thrust, tourism and disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), will be attended by delegations headed by DOST regional directors from 16 regions of the country.
In this affair, Legazpi will showcase its tremendous gains in tourism development that has made the city achieve remarkable growth in the travel industry and in DRRM that won for it the national championship in the Gawad Kalasag Awards of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council last year, Briñas said.
“Legazpi recognizes DRRM not only as a program but also as a culture—a trait that other LGUs should replicate,” he added.
One more big surprise that Ibalong Festival 2014 will be pulling, according to Rosal, is the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Legends Exhibition Game to be held at the ICR on Aug. 22.
The game will feature veteran Bicolano PBA players like William “Bogs” Adornado who hails from this city, Fortunato “Atoy” Co of Daet, Camrines Norte, and Rommel Daep of Manito, Albay.
They will be joined by Vince Hizon, Paul Alvarez, Noli Locsin, Nelson Asaytono, EJ Feihl, Bong Hawkins, Gerome Ejercito and Gerry Codiñera in playing against the Ibalong Team.
Other events include the Ibalong Zumba Party at the ICR and Otaku Summit at the Pacific Mall on Aug. 23; 1st Ibalong Color Run at the Legazpi Boulevard on Aug 24; the Ibalong Enduro Pilipinas Mountain Bike Race along the foot of Mt. Mayon; the Operation Hoops Care Goodwill Mission to the Philippines at the ICR on Aug. 26-27; and the Siram na Sana: A Legazpeño Food Festival at the Casablanca Convention Hall.
The traditional Ibalong Street Presentation, which will feature six contingents to portray in different styles the epical heroes of Bicolandia -- Handyong, Baltog, Bantong and Oryol -- and the Ibalong epic through dances and colorful attires, will be held at the city downtown on Aug. 30.
During the street presentations, the competing contingents will parade in the streets wearing masks and costumes to imitate the appearances of the heroes and the villains, portraying the classic battles that made their way into the history of Bicol.
At night of the same day will be the coronation of the Mutya ng Ibalong at the ICR.
Ibalong Festival, now on its 23rd year, is a month-long non-religious fiesta depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.
“This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños,” Rosal said.
==Albay International Gateway welcomes more flights with China==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=669601
*Tuesday, August 5, 2014
:By Connie B. Destura [(PNA), LAM/FGS/CBD/]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 5 (PNA) -- The Albay International Gateway (AIG) is ready to welcome more chartered flights from mainland China as the initial 18-cycle, 3-month run will start on Aug. 8 until Oct. 10, with each cycle scheduled on Mondays (arrival) through Fridays (departure) and vice-versa.
This initial 3-month run—made possible through a 1-year contract of Cebu Pacific with their Chinese partners—may be extended depending on the success of its implementation.
The first batch of tourists for this run will arrive on Aug. 8 from Xiamen, China, bringing in a full load of 179 passengers to Albay.
Earlier this year, 285 Chinese tourists from Xiamen flew in to the province to celebrate the Chinese New Year, coming in two batches -- the first arriving on Jan. 30, while the second came in on Feb. 6.
The AIG committee chaired by Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, along with representatives from different government agencies and other stakeholders, is now again readying all the provisions needed to accommodate the coming tourists.
Like the previous batches of Xiamen tourists, the incoming visitors will be billeted at the Misibis Bay Resort and Casino, with occasional tours to be made to the different landmarks and attractions in Albay.
Funds have been allocated for the Legazpi airport for its expansion to accommodate the different government offices that are required to service direct international flights arriving to the airport, as well as add wider areas and more chairs for the convenience of the passengers.
As committee chair, Salceda has pledged the full support of the provincial government in this endeavor to further boost the image of Albay in the international market as a tourist destination and fully coordinate with the different agencies to achieve this goal.
==Roxas orders BFP to help contain Albay bush fire==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=1&rid=669272
*Monday, August 4, 2014
:(PNA), LAM/CLTC
MANILA, Aug. 4 (PNA) -- Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II on Monday directed the regional office of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Bicol to mobilize all resources necessary to help contain an ongoing bush fire that has already razed some 6,000 hectares of forest and grasslands in two islands of Rapu-Rapu, Albay.
In a statement, Roxas specifically instructed the BFP-Regional Office in Bicol to coordinate with their counterparts from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ensure that the bush fire would not spread to residential areas nearby.
“I expect our BFP Regional Office to mobilize all possible resources. All our fire-fighters and fire trucks in the region must be ready to help the DENR contain the bush fire,” the DILG chief said.
“Kailangang hindi makatawid ang sunog sa mga bahayan (Hope this will not cross to the houses. We must ensure zero-casualty in this tragedy,” he added.
According to a report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the bush fire started around 8 a.m. on Sunday with kaingin as the possible cause of the incident.
The NDRRMC said the fire has initially affected six of Rapu-Rapu’s 34 barangays, namely: Poblacion, Morocborocan, Sitio Acal, Mananao, Guadalupe, and Buenavista, which were occupied by about 5,000 households.
Other fire incidents were reported in Sitio Minto, San Ramon and Batan Island.
In his initial report to the DILG Secretary, SC/Supt. Carlito Romero, BFP Chief, said 14 Forest Fire Protection Officers had already been deployed from Albay to comply with Roxas’ directive.
Romero said two Forest Fire Specialists who had been tasked to assume lead command at Rapu-Rapu Island had also boarded an Air Force plane with personnel from the Office of Civil Defense to conduct aerial assessment of the affected area.
The team, he said, had recommended the deployment of bucket bomb or choppers with water buckets to help contain the bush fire.
The Initial Assessment/Operations Team likewise recommended that the following actions be taken immediately:
·Rapu-Rapu to declare State of Calamity;
·Municipality of Rapu-Rapu and threatened barangays to activate Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Councils on a 24-hour operation in order to intensify monitoring and preparedness actions required;
·Prepare evacuation sites and request Philippine Air Force for the availability of Huey 2 with Bumby Bucket.
==Power co-ops in other provinces help Albay==
*Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/625858/power-co-ops-in-other-provinces-help-albay
*Sunday, August 3, 2014 8:07 am
:By Ma. April Mier (Inquirer Southern Luzon)
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Albay Power and Energy Corp. (Apec) has restored power supply in nearly 50 percent of its “backbone lines” in Albay province, 18 days since Typhoon “Glenda” hit the province on July 15.
“Only 13 percent of households have been energized but we have reached almost half of the commercial or backbone areas,” Russell James Serrano, chief of the technical operations and maintenance division of Apec, said in an interview on Saturday.
The backbone lines are the electric poles or posts, which are connected to the main roads where hospitals, schools, the central business district and other major institutions are located, he explained.
In Legazpi City, the business center of Albay, more than 50 percent, or 43 of its 70 barangays, had their backbone lines energized while supply was restored in 13 lines in Tabaco City and 10 in Ligao City.
In the municipality of Malinao, power had been restored in the backbone lines of seven villages.
Jane Rogando, head of Apec’s customer service division, said that with the help of the National Electrification Administration, volunteers from electric cooperatives across the country came to help in the power restoration work in Albay.
Seven teams with 42 personnel from six electric cooperatives in Luzon arrived in Albay on July 30. They were from Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative, Pampanga Electric Cooperative, Nueva Ecija Electric Cooperative, Pampanga Rural Electric Cooperative, Tarlac Electric Cooperative (Tarelco) 1 and Tarelco 2 to augment restoration efforts.
On Aug. 4, Rogando said they expected three more teams to come from Zamboanga Electric Cooperative (Zamelco) 1, Zamelco 2 and Peninsula Electric Cooperative in Bataan.
She said they had earlier projected that it would take three months before power could be completely restored in Albay but that they could shorten the period with the formation of Task Force Glenda, which is composed of electric cooperatives outside Albay.
Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, in a text message, said the city expected full power restoration before the end of August.
Albay has 15 municipalities and three cities— Legazpi, Ligao and Tabaco.
==PNoy commends Albay’s zero casualty in Sona==
*Source: http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/08/02/pnoy-commends-albay-s-zero-casualty-in-sona/
*Saturday, August 2, 2014 12:01 am
:(Manila Standard Today)
LEGAZPI CITY—President Benigno Aquino III has lauded Albay for its ‘zero casualty’ record during the recent onslaught of Typhoon Glenda as a most noteworthy feat of a local government unit in disaster risk reduction, during his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona).
Halfway through his Sona, Aquino thanked Albay Gov. Joey Salceda for prompt action during Glenda’s onslaught. The typhoon mauled Albay for eight hours on July 16. It claimed over a hundred lives  elsewhere in the country.
Salceda attributes their zero casualty score to their “preemptive evacuation” strategy which required the evacuation of about 101,000 families to safe evacuation centers hours before Glenda’s forecasted landfall in the province. Packing over 180 kph center winds, Glenda wrought extensive damage in Albay worth about P9.1 billion, with some 98,000 families rendered homeless.
In his Sona, the President reported that the national government is implementing some technology-driven DRR programs, under it is Project Noah, for effective and fast disaster warning system and monitoring of heavy rains and flash floods.
These DRR programs, coupled with prompt action by LGU officials like Gov. Salceda, can save more lives and prevent deaths, Aquino stressed.
If a province that is considered a highway for strong typhoons can achieve this (zero casualty) feat, there’s no reason why other LGUs cannot achieve the same, Aquino said, which drew cheers from the crowd at the Sandiganbayan where the President delivered his address.
Salceda, who was present during the Sona, said it was a pleasant surprise to have been included in the President’s Sona, but added that “Albay rightly and richly deserves to be mentioned,” for working hard to achieve its ‘zero casualty’ goal during disasters.
The governor had pioneered “preemptive evacuation towards zero casualty’ that is now a byword in Albay and which the national and many local government units have already adopted. The strategy is complemented by investments in safe comfortable evacuation centers which also serve a classroom during normal days.
For its feats the United Nations has declared Salceda s its DRR champion and Albay as its global model in DRR and Climate Change Adaptation. The governor now sits as co-chair of the UN Green Climate Fund, the first Asian to have held the position of the prestigious international body tasked to fund global climate change programs.
==Tourism propels Bicol as Phl fastest growing region==
*Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=6&rid=668422
*Friday, August 1, 2014
:By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), LAM/JCN/JSD]
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 1 (PNA) -- Driven by tourism, Bicol (Region V) has now emerged as the country’s fastest growing region with an impressive 9.4 % growth last year, according to Albay Governor Joey Salceda, citing the latest report of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).
The recent NSCB report said Bicol’s 9.4% growth in 2013 outpaced those of the other 17 regions of the country, including Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) which registered a 9.1 percent growth rate.
Salceda, who chairs the Bicol Regional Development Council (RDC), said Bicol has now risen from the ruins of disasters that had stunted it for decades. He added that tourism has been the principal driver of the region’s impressive economic growth, led by Albay, now the Philippines’ fastest growing tourist destination, which posted a truly staggering 66% tourism growth last year.
The Almasor (Albay - Masbate-Sorsogon) Tourism Alliance, which Salceda organized as RDC chair, also posted a 42 percent growth in arrivals in 2013, contributing to the over all regional economic growth.
Salceda, a respected economist and 3-term Bicol RDC chairman, said Bicol’s growth was also pushed by better yields in energy production of the Tiwi and Bacman geothermal plants, higher public investments in infrastructure and acceleration retail trade, further supported by the full infusion of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps into the countryside.
Reacting to the NSCB report, Salceda said Bicol’s growth rate is indeed phenomenal, having occupied the lowest rung in the country’s economic ladder for decades. It has often been listed as third or second, if not the poorest region of the country. This was blamed to the regular onslaught by strong typhoons.
Knowledgeable authorities credit Bicol’s economic breakthrough to Salceda’s leadership of the region’s RDC. The Albay governor was a former economic adviser to Philippine presidents.
“What can you expect but a fast growing economy in Bicol since Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda is the head honcho in planning for the region,” former NSCB director-general Jose Ramon Gatmaitan Albert noted.
Quoting the NSCB report, Salceda said “Bicol picked its momentum from 2012 with 6.9% recorded growth to top the other 17 regions of the country last year, including NCR with its 9.1%, powered by a strong service sector and Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF) with 57% and 23.4%, respectively.”
The governor said the formula for Bicol’s phenomenal growth lies in its hidden strengths, which the RDC capitalized on in planning and executing its banner programs, particularly, tourism.
As RDC chair, Salceda charted Bicol’s economic direction, with special emphasis on tourism, of which the region has great potentials. He organized the Almasor, which had immediately gained significant international recognition at the ITB Berlin in Germany, the London WTM last year, and the Guangzhou Travel-mart, early this year.
The NSCB report said the Service sector’s growth in Albay accelerated from 6.2% in 2012 to 11% in 2013. Except for Transport, Storage and Communications (TSC), all its sub-sectors recorded higher growths, as follows: Trade and Repair, 9.7% to 10.8%; Finance, 10.9% to 14.4%; Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities (RERBA), 2.8% to 17.1%; Public Administration, 4.2% to 8.2%; Other Services, 2.2% to 11.4%.
The NSCB report likewise show the following 2012-2013 growth trends: AHFF, 2.9% to 4.5%; Agriculture and Forestry, 3.1% to 5.4%; Fishing, 2.5% to 2%; Industry, 14.6% to 10.8%; Construction, 14.2% to 22.4%; EGWS, 9.3% to 13.4%; Manufacturing, 5% to 9.6%; Mining and Quarrying, 11.8% to 4.2%.

Latest revision as of 10:53, 13 September 2014

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Albay - Archived News
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Seal of the Province of Albay
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Provincial Capitol Building of Albay, in Legazpi City

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.

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Mayon volcano albay province.jpg

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.

NEW LICENSE PLATES

By Niño N. Luces (Luzon Newsbits for August 31, 2014 #3)

Legazpi City, Albay — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) Bicol conducted a meeting with manufacturers, assemblers, importers, rebuilders and dealers of motor vehicles last Thursday here to clarify the new policies regarding motor vehicle registration and the distribution of new plates. Attorney Noreen Bernadette San Luis-Lutey, regional director said registration of new vehicles must be done at the regional office, where releasing of the new plate number is done. She said the releasing is fast with the shortened procedure being implemented.

(Feature) Going to Bicol’s poor a tough, challenging job for DSWD validation staff

By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/RSM]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 30 (PNA) -- They sailed rough seas, traveled through barrios on colorum public utility vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers, crossed flood-prone rivers, walked on muddy paths over rugged terrains and rolling hills and scared by some close encounters with armed anti-government forces in guerrilla zones.

That was how difficult and tedious the works recently completed by career workers fielded by the regional office for Bicol here of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) were to reach out to the poor in the 3, 471 barangays within 107 municipalities and seven cities of the region’s six provinces.

Their tasks were to find the 10,643 senior citizens listed as beneficiaries of the government’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program as well as the 472 families covered by the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Families in Need of Special Protection (MCCT-FNSP) and validate their life status and social condition.

Both programs fall under the poverty alleviation thrust of the administration of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III being carried out by the DSWD.

“We have to locate these beneficiaries to determine through first-hand information their status. Our more than 300 field workers specially hired for this job were sent out to interview them right where they reside, wherever these are, and notwithstanding the distance and terrain,” DSWD Regional director Arnel Garcia on Saturday said.

“This special validation process involved hundreds of enumerators hired by the DSWD who were fielded in all barangays—up to the farthest-- of the region where the beneficiaries reside and it took us three months to complete it with the delay caused by the distance and unstable weather conditions,” Joy Belen III, the validation regional field coordinator, said.

Some areas took one whole day for validation teams to reach and another day to conduct the interview on target beneficiaries who were scattered in barangays and had to be reached by way of trekking rolling hills and muddy paths, she explained.

The purpose of this special validation is to verify the poverty status of the pensioners who are not registered in the database and once verified according to the requirements of the social pension program, they will continue receiving their monthly pensions.

The social pension program is under Republic Act 9994, otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which provides additional government assistance in the amount of Php 500 monthly stipend to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of an indigent senior citizen.

As defined in Section 3 of the same Act, indigent senior citizens refer to any elderly who is frail, sickly or with disability; without pension; and no permanent source of income, compensation or financial assistance from relatives to support his/her basic needs.

The MCCT-FNSP, on the other hand, is composed of beneficiaries who are temporarily enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer subsidy scheme and being processed to advance to the regular CCT under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Those who will qualify based on the same test would be guaranteed advancement to the regular CCT subsidy under the 4Ps, she added.

The 4Ps now covers nearly 400,000 households in Bicol who identified using the 2009 National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

Bicol’s poverty rate, according to the latest report of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), is at 36 percent. The 4Ps is a poverty-reduction and social-development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education -- particularly of children aged 0-14.

Garcia said the 10,643 social pensioners and 472 MCCY-FNSP beneficiaries validated are now being subjected to Proxy Means Test (PMT) run to finally confirm their social classifications under the NHTS-PR.

PMT is a statistical model which determines whether the individuals and households validated through interviews are poor or not, while NHTS-PR -- also called the Listahanan -- is the country’s database of poor households serving as an information system that identifies who and where the poor are.

Earlier, a World Bank (WB) study showed that about 90 percent of the beneficiaries of the 4Ps nationwide indeed came from the bottom 40 percent of the population.

However, according to the WB, Philippines has a history of well-meaning but poorly-targeted programs to assist the poor, resulting in huge sums of government resources channeled to the non-poor.

To address this WB perception, Garcia said, the DSWD, apart from this recently completed validation process and the ongoing PMT run, is also conducting before the end of this year the second round of the NHTS-PR that will be less in error in the inclusion and exclusion process.

In so doing, DSWD will apply new features in the conduct of identifying the poor under the implementation to minimize, if not totally prevent, errors in the process.

The new features will include the application in the PMT of two sub-models -- one for the National Capital Region and one for all other regions -- that will make community variables the determinants of poverty status.

“We are using a total of 46 variables in identifying poor families in this second round of household assessment as against the 34 variables used during the first round in 2009,” Garcia said.

A second stage screener to flag possible inclusion errors or non-poor being included in the list of poor will also be applied, he added.

With these enhancements, Garcia said, the combined inclusion and exclusion error rates would decline from 22-35 percent in the old model to 6-19 percent in the new model.

“We are now in the process of recruiting workers for this new round of Listahanan who surely will hit the field to encounter the same experiences that our validation staff went through. Those, anyway, are the challenges of going to the barrios and seeing and serving the poor,” Garcia added.

National language is key to unity, understanding and freedom -- Salceda

By Nancy I. Mediavillo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/NIM/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 29 (PNA) -- "The Filipino language, our national language, is our key to unity, understanding and freedom, according to Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda.

In a speech in Filipino read for him by Vice Governor Harold Imperial on the celebration of the National Language Month held at the People’s Hall of the Albay Capitol on Thursday afternoon, Salceda said the national language aims to make the Filipino understand and express what is in his mind, heart, spirit and soul.

He said the “tuwid na daan” (right path) of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino was expressed in the Filipino language, like his recent State-of-the-Nation Address.

The provincial chief executive said the “Linggo ng Wika” became “Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa” and is being celebrated every Aug. 1-31 by virtue of Proclamation No. 1041 on July 15, 1987 of former president Fidel V. Ramos.

Former president Manuel L. Quezon is the “Ama ng Wikang Pambansa” or the Father of the National Language, he said.

On March 26, 1946, then president Sergio Osmeña issued Proclamation No. 25 “Designating the Period from March 27 to April 2 of Each Year as ‘National Language Week’.”

Proclamation No. 25 designated March 27 to April 2 every year “Linggo ng Wika” in line with Commonwealth Act No. 570 mandating the government to implement necessary measures towards the development of a national language.

The National Language Week is a way to stress the significance, advance and develop the national language.

The proclamation wanted the entire machinery of the government and the people to actively participate in making the objectives of the 1935 Constitution and Commnonwealth Act No. 570 succeed.

The culmination of the celebration of National Language Week was made to coincide with the birthday of Francisco Balagtas Baltazar and the government asked all public and private schools – up to colleges and universities -- to conduct the necessary activities during the week, aside from implementing effective measures to promote the national language of the Filipinos.

The celebration of the National Language Week was moved to March 29-April 4 by Proclamation No. 12 of former president Ramon Magsaysay on March 26, 1954.

The proclamation was written in Filipino.

But Magsaysay again transferred the celebration to Aug. 13-19 of every year for the reason that the previous period of celebration was outside the schoolyear.

The present period of celebration is inside the schoolyear and, therefore, more will be able to participate in the celebration, Salceda said.

Raffy Banzuela, a journalist and professor who was the guest speaker, said the national language is the key to freedom and nationalism of an Albayano, Bikolnon and Filipino.

Banzuela stressed that the ability of Filipinos to speak well in English shows their being world-class.

Abdon Balde Jr., National Language commissioner, said the Flipino language was established during the National Convention on Aug. 16, 1934.

Balde advised veteran writers or budding writers to write in the dialect or language they have grown with for easy expression or development of ideas.

He said 70 percent of Nobel Prize-winning articles are written in the native dialect or language.

Senior Board Member Glenda Ong-Bonggao said the national language is the tool to give the public certain information on economic development and expresses the feeling and thinking of a person.

Board Member Richard Benjamin (RB) C. Imperial said the national language represents the culture, history and the personality of the Filipinos.

He said the Filipinos excel because they are multilingual.

Mayon, Misibis Bay captivate NBA superstar

(PNA), FPV/FGS/RBB/CBD/UTB

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 28 (PNA) -- Mount Mayon’s mesmerizing beauty, the rich green scenery along the way and the powdery white beach of Misibis Bay in Cagraray Island captured NBA superstar Shawn Marion of the Dallas Mavericks during his first visit to Albay province.

Marion, a four-time NBA All-Star player, flew in Albay on Wednesday along with rapper-singer Julius “Doc” Evans of BluPrint Entertainment and elder brother of Tyreke Evans, former NBA Rookie of the Year.

Tyreke is currently under contract with the New Orleans Pelicans to spearhead a goodwill mission in the country, specifically in typhoon-hit areas of Albay province and in Tacloban City.

Doc represented his younger brother who could not come here due to an injury.

Marion and company arrived here along with AKO Bicol Representatives Christopher Co and Rodel Batocabe for a humanitarian mission.

He taught and played basketball with the students from various schools of Legazpi at the Ibalong Centrum for Recreation on Wednesday afternoon, jampacked with fans -- mostly high school and college students.

Marion spent about two hours with the children as he held basketball clinics for the students before proceeding to Misibis Bay Resort and Casino via a boat for him to see the coastline of Albay Gulf, with the imposing Mt. Mayon at the background.

As he toured Legazpi and the island of Cagraray, Marion was profuse with admiration for the unmatched loveliness of Mount Mayon, the icon of Bicol, as well as the panoramic view of the Albay Gulf down to Misibis Bay Resort and Casino, where the NBA delegation will be temporarily housed while in Albay.

In the resort, they were treated to sea foods and the region’s delicacies.

The Misibis Bay Resort and Casino is a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach along the southern tip of Cagraray island in Bacacay, Albay, which is considered a luxury island playground in the Philippines which the famous and rich frequently visit.

“Legazpi City and Misibis Bay are fantastic places in the world with mouth-watering food. I love it here, very beautiful!” Marion said in an interview with the PNA.

Rapper-singer Doc Evans said he will come out with a composition to promote the wonders of Cagraray Island, specifically the Misibis Bay, and the beauty of Manila.

“I will compose a song citing Misibis Bay and Manila as these places are very beautiful, specifically Mayon volcano -- without equal!” Evans said.

Marion and his company will be toured by local officials to different tourist attractions in Albay before heading back to Manila, then to Tacloban City to bring with them the fully built, pre-fabricated houses for the typhoon "Yolanda" victims from the Hoops Care Village in the United States.

Operation Hoops Care is a US-based, non-profit organization which will extend help to the victims of Yolanda and share their own experience with Hurricane “Katarina,” which caused destruction in New Orleans in 2005.

Legazpi City nutrition program 1st runner-up in NNC tilt

(PNA), LAP/FGS/EPS/CBD/UTB

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 27 (PNA) -- The Legazpi City Nutrition Office was named by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) as 1st runner-up in the City Level Category in the search for 2013 Outstanding City of the Region during the Regional Nutrition awarding ceremony Wednesday at the La Piazza Hotel Convention Center.

Mayor Noel E. Rosal, City Administrator Wilfredo “Pecos” Intia, City Health Officer Dr. Fulbert Gillego, City Nutrition Officer Natividad Cardel and the members of the City Nutrition Committee received the award from Department of Health (DOH) Bicol Regional Director Gloria Balboa and Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Arlene R. Reario.

The cities of Iriga and Tabaco were named by the NCC as the Green Banner Awardee and 2nd runner-up, respectively.

Naga City got the merit award for sustained, efficient and effective implementation of 2013 Nutrition Program.

In Barangay Category, Napoleon Cardel, barangay captain of Binanuahan East of this city and his 10 other members of the Barangay Nutrition Committee also received an award from the NNC as one of the 2013 top performing barangays in the Bicol Region.

Merly B. Lopez of the same village also received cash award as one of the Outstanding Barangay Nutrition Scholars (OBNS).

The recognition was based on the study conducted by the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team on the implementation of the city’s nutrition program such as Sagip Kalusugan, Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle, and Good Nutrition where Legazpi City Nutrition Office got an average rating of 90.15 percent -- the highest average of this city since 2006.

The activity aims to recognize outstanding local nutrition committees of the province, cities, municipalities, barangays and outstanding barangay nutrition scholars, who continue to effectively and efficiently manage their nutrition programs at their own respective localities.

Natividad Cardel said that based on her record, in 2011, Legazpi City posted 2,190 or 8.41 percent identified malnourished children in 2012,

It improved the record down to 1,975 or 7.71 percent and in 2013, the identified malnourished children were reduced to only 1,754 or 6.93 percent.

This satisfactory rating was the result of the aggressive implementation of the city’s Sagip Kalusugan Program, creation of the breast feeding support group and intensification of mothers class in the 70 villages of this city.

The 6.93-percent malnourished prevalence record of the City’s Nutrition Office is lower than the 19.2 percent recorded malnourished prevalence rate by the National Nutrition Survey.

Cardel explained that her office through Sagip Kalusugan program has regularly conducted medical and dental check-up to all the children in the entire city, laboratory examinations, chest X-rays, de-worming and vitamins supplementation.

In the implementation of the breast-feeding support, the city nutrition officer said her office has encouraged all the mothers to exclusively breast feed the infants and children from zero to six months.

Under the Intensify Mothers Class, Cardel revealed that her office has conducted a regular nutrition education program among all the mothers in the 70 villages of this city as part of the promotion of the nutrition guidelines by way of informing and educating them on how to apply the proper way of breast feeding, responsible parenthood, and maternal and child health care.

She disclosed that she regularly holds “Operation Timbang” among pre-school children to monitor their weights.

DOST- Bicol trains 10 jail officers, 30 inmates in vinegar, nata de coco making

By Emmanuel P. Solis [(PNA), LAM/FGS/EPS/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 26 (PNA) -- Ten regional and provincial officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and 30 resident inmates are now ready to make vinegar and nata de coco either for their families' use or for business purposes.

This, after they learned the processes of making the products in a recent Skills Training on Vinegar and Nata de Coco Making jointly sponsored by the BJMP and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Bicol region office.

The training was conducted by Cristopher G. Millena, science research specialist II, and product specialists Vanessa SM. Caluza and Aubrey Rosebud R. Balonzo, who discussed the formulations and procedures in vinegar and nata de coco making.

The three lecturers also stressed the use of other indigenous sources as well as food safety and good manufacturing processes that will result in quality products.

BJMP Regional Director Ignacio S. Panti said the conduct of this activity is in line with BJMP’s therapeutic community services.

Meanwhile, in support of the programs and services of the Cathedral Parish Credit Cooperative (CPCC), one of the top performing credit cooperatives in the region, the DOST Bicol also conducted earlier a training on food processing and preservation for 20 senior citizens and retirees in the CPCC office at the Albay Cathedral Compound, Legazpi City.

The activity also formed part of the Nutrition Month Celebration in the region.

Fae B. Bajamundi, DOST science research specialist II, lectured and demonstrated on the following technologies: 1) tomato processing (jam and preserve), 2) squash processing (puree and catsup) and 3) onion preserve.

CPCC has Aurora V. N. Lucena as board chair and Nerisa Dolot as coop manager.

Dolot said they envision more members to engage themselves in productive endeavors through technology adoption/enterprise development.

Moreover, CPCC also encourages that loan applications be intended for the establishment/expansion of micro and small enterprises of cooperative members in the City of Legazpi and Province of Albay.

DOST V Director Tomas B. Briñas said their agency is committed to deliver S&T services that will benefit and improve the lives of Bicolanos -- especially the poor, displaced and low-income group -- to attain regional development.

OCD-5, MGB-5 hold training on geo-hazard awareness, disaster preparedness

(PNA), LAP/FGS/EMC/CBD/UTB

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 25 (PNA) -- The Office of Civil Defense Regional Office 5 (OCD-5) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Regional Office 5 (MGB-5) have formed a partnership for the holding of one-day training on geo-hazard awareness and disaster preparedness for 11 local government units (LGUs) in the provinces of Masbate and Camarines Sur.

OCD-5 Director Bernardo R. Alejandro IV said the training aims at further enhancing people’s awareness on the urgency of disaster preparedness and reducing disaster risks by providing science-based knowledge on the different geo-hazards existing in these LGUs.

The training has already been conducted for the LGUs of Placer, Cawayan and Balud in the province of Masbate on August 19, 20 and 22, respectively.

It will be conducted at the LGUs of Balatan, Del Gallego, Ragay, Lupi, Sipocot, Pasacao, Pamplona in the province of Camarines Sur on September 1-9 and at the LGU of Jovellar, also in Albay, on September 11.

Participants in the training are punong barangay (village chieftains), members of the barangay council and members of the different municipal disaster risk reduction and management councils.

MGB-5 OIC-regional director Theodore Rommel E. Pestaño said the training is highlighted by distribution of geo-hazard maps with orientation on geo-hazard map reading and presentation of the duties and functions of local disaster risk reduction and management councils/committees.

This, he said, is meant to ensure that every barangay is disaster prepared towards the implementation of the Regional DRRMC5 policy on “zero casualty.”

XTERRA triathlon picks Albay as venue for next 3 years

By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), CTB/JCN/PJN]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 24 (PNA) -- The sponsor of the upcoming largest off-road triathlon in the Philippines, XTERRA, has chosen Albay as venue of the event for the next three years, starting February 8 next year, with some 1,500 participants and about 2,500 guests.

The three-year Albay XTERRA Triathlon event is expected to further boost the province’s growing tourism — with more visitors coming to witness it, since triathlon is a popular world sports that is widely covered by media.

The arrangements for the staging of the triathlon here was completed in a recent meeting at the Manila Peninsula Hotel between Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and Alaska Milk Corp. CEO Wilfed Uytengsu, Jr., XTERRA franchise holder for the Philippines. Himself a triathlete, Uytengsu also owns the multi-titled basketball team, Alaska Aces and was responsible for bringing to the country the Iron Man Challenge in 2010.

Triathlon includes a series of swimming, mountain biking and trail running competitions within a predetermined distance and time.The XTERRA race series is the best-known series of off-road triathlons, and is considered as the de facto world championship of the sport.

Salceda said the XTERRA event in Albay could be as big, or even bigger than the Ironman challenge in Cebu, with some 2,500 participants and guests. It will kick off February 8, 2015, as one among the opening events of the month-long Cagsawa Festival in Daraga town, with the world-famous Cagsawa belfry and Mayon Volcano at the backdrop.

The governor said Albay’s sports tourism had a significant push during the Daragang Magayon Festival in April last year, with Mayon 360 50-mile Ultra Marathon, which brought about 1,200 sports enthusiasts and more guests to the province.

“We are thankful to the people behind XTERRA, most particularly its franchise owner, Wilfred,for considering Albay as venue for the world popular sports event. We are sure this will give the province one big push to maintain and cement its position as the fastest growing tourist destination in the country,” said Salceda.

Albay is the fastest growing tourist destination in the country. In 2013, it posted a whopping 66% growth rate. For this reason, the Department of Tourism has continuously promoted the province abroad, the latest of which was the September 2 to 5 Guangzhou Travel Mart.

The Albay Triathlon XTERRA will be the largest off-road triathlon event of the Philippines, and will certainly bring more tourists than expected, both because of the sports and the province’s world class tourism sites, Salceda predicts.

The races will mostly use routes which are tourist favorites, and guests will be treated to the thrill of the sports and the breath-taking views of Albay, he concluded.

Blind since 3, Albayana about to see the light of becoming teacher to other sight-deprived provincemates (Feature)

By Therese Isabelle S. Vega [(PNA), CTB/FGS/CBD/TSV-PNA ON THE JOB TRINEE/RSM]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 23 (PNA) -- Life was not good to Eleanor Junio even just before her birth.

His father abandoned her mother before she was born and when she was about one year old, her mother abandoned her, too -- making her believe that she was her grandmother’s daughter.

This was the kind of life Eleanor was brought into; but even though her life was like that, she had sight.

"Sight is one of the most important senses in our body and we use it every day and we may never be able to live without our sense of sight," she said, adding “We need it in almost everything we do. Imagine being born to a world of light and beauty, and lose your sight just when you already saw what you would be missing without it?"

This is exactly what happened to Eleanor -- at the age of three, she got sick of measles.

Her grandmother brought her to an “albularyo” or quack doctor, who instructed her grandmother to heat “buyo” leaves, pulverize it, and squeeze the juice into the little girl’s eyes.

Her grandmother did what she was told -- and this caused Eleanor her total blindness.

She has been blind from that moment on without being able to open her eyes anymore.

Losing her sense of sight, her sense of hearing improved and because of this, she would always turn on the radio.

Eleanor loves listening to music on the radio.

In the year 2005, when she was about 21 years old, she heard a broadcast about a free Shiatzu Massage training for the blind sponsored by the Bicol Small Business Institute Foundation, Inc. (BSBI).

Believing that this was her passport to a better life, she immediately informed her grandmother about it and begged for her to be sent to the training.

Her grandmother refused – and Eleanor felt devastated.

She didn’t want to keep on making abaca braids to supply handicraft makers for the rest of her life.

Seeing that there was no hope for her in this life, she got a rope, put it around her neck, and went to their roof.

Eleanor threatened her grandmother that if she would not permit her to go to the training, she would jump and commit suicide.

Her grandmother, seeing that there was no other way to talk her out of it, agreed and gave her permission to go.

This signaled the great change in Eleanor’s life -- and for her, this was the start of her better life.

When she applied for the training, she found out that BSBI was sponsoring not only the training but also the food, and transportation for the blind participants and their guides.

She was accommodated in the training through the help of the couple, Chris and Glenda Newhall.

The couple became her sponsor.

While still in training, however, her grandmother fell and hit her head on a big rock, causing her instantaneous death.

This devastated Eleanor and she wanted to quit the massage training but her dream of a better life made her decide that continuing the massage training was the right thing to do.

Right after her grandmother’s funeral, she went back to BSBI to continue her training.

She practically got adopted by Dr. Ofelia S. Vega, president of the BSBI.

Eleanor begged Vega to send her to school because, although she would be able to make her living through being a masseuse, she wanted to be able to finish an education.

The BSBI Foundation head agreed to send her to school.

At age 23, she started Grade 1.

Eleanor learned to read and write using the Braille system and because of this, she was able to read a lot of different books, mostly textbooks, translated to braille.

Reading became her favorite past time and because of being a wide reader, she got accelerated to Grade 4.

When she took her yearly exams, she again got accelerated to Grade 6.

It only took her three years to finish elementary, unlike many students -- who have all of their senses -- who finish elementary in the normal pace of six years, sometimes even longer.

After her graduation from elementary, she entered high school at the age of 26.

She was told her performance was so great that she would be accelerated to Fourth Year.

The blind achiever, however, begged not to be accelerated because she wanted to experience the high school activities like the junior and senior promenade and ultimately, high school graduation.

She spent four years in high school only because she wanted to.

After her high school graduation, she again begged to be sent to college. He promised to sponsor a portion of Eleanor’s yearly tuition in Divine Word College of Legazpi.

Owing to the efforts of Slade, Vega and BSBI, Eleanor was able to go to college and also became a Commission of Higher Education (CHED) scholar, so her expenses were subsidized by the government.

Eleanor is now 32, and is in her Second Year in college taking up Education.

Her greatest ambition, even as a child, was to be a teacher.

Now, she is only a few steps from reaching her dream and she now dreams to be a teacher, but a teacher to other blind people like her.

Looking back, Eleanor said she can’t believe how wonderful her life turned out to be.

For her, everything fell into the right place -- her love for radio music led her to the most life-changing moment.

She has no regrets and she is happy.

People who know Eleanor get inspiration from her hard work as she has proved that being blind is not a hindrance unless you choose to let blindness stop you.

But for her, she took advantage of her disability and has gone past it.

Everyone can do the same.

DA embarks on enhancing pili production in Bicol

(PNA), LAP/FGS/DOC/CBD/

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 22 (PNA) –- The Department of Agriculture (DA) Bicol regional office is embarking on the enhancement of production of pili nut, the region’s source of prime and indigenous delicacy that has been winning a competitive niche in the world market.

“We have been distributing thousands of pili seedlings for free to farmers all over the region as we embark on the expansion of local pili nut production, which has a great potential for development as a major export crop,” DA Regional Director Abelardo Bragas said in a statement reaching the PNA here Friday.

DA Secretary Proceso Alcala would even participate in the distribution process every time he holds sorties in the region—the latest of which were for the “Bicol Rehabilitation Assistance for Glenda—Agriculture Sector,” DA’s quick response to provide immediate assistance to farmers and fisherfolk in provinces hardly hit by the typhoon last July 15, Bragas said.

For Camarines Sur alone, the recent distribution spearheaded by Alcala involved 18,500 pieces of pili seedlings given to farmers affected by the typhoon.

Almost the same number has also been distributed earlier to each of Sorsogon and Albay, also in occasions attended by the DA secretary, he said.

Apart from pili seedlings millions of pesos worth of farming inputs, implements, farm animals and facilities have also been distributed under this rehabilitation response, Bragas said.

There have been over 80,400 farmers across the region affected by typhoon "Glenda" that left around Php 3.9 billion-worth of damages to crops in Bicol.

“We in the DA Regional Field Unit (RFU) want these farmers and all the rest, including landowners in the region, to plant and grow more pili trees as another source of good income and Sec. Alcala have been doing his share in promoting it by way of talking with them as well as local pili nut processors on how to improve the industry,” Bragas said.

Apart from the attractiveness of pili nut’s products to the world market, he said, pili is another tree of life in Bicol -- next to coconut -- with all its parts being useful.

The resin (elemi), which is extracted from its bark, is a known export product of the country for many years.

It has both pharmaceutical and industrial uses -- being ingredient in the manufacture of plasters, ointments, paints, varnish, sealants, lacquers, asphalt, water and fire proofing, linoleum, plastics and printing inks.

DA records shows that for many years, the Philippines has been exporting resin or Brea (Manila elimi) to the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Cuba, China, Hongkong and Japan.

The kernel, when roasted and ground, is used as ingredients here and abroad for ice cream, salads, puddings, toppings for cakes, bread, pastries, confectioneries and other delicacies like marzipan, fruit-cereal bar and fruit and nut mixed chocolate.

Rich in micronutrients -- such as magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, zinc, copper, iron, sodium, thiamine and niacin -- it can be eaten raw or processed as roasted, fixated or sugar-coated and is served in the same way as cashew or almond, or peanuts.

Scientific studies conducted by the country’s top institutions dedicated to pili research, and replicated by studies abroad, according to Bragas, have confirmed the nut’s impressive nutritional content, being high in thiamin, magnesium and phosphorus.

As Bicol’s top product next to coconut, the pili nut has rightfully became a luxury food item -- one of the finest gifts of the Philippine tropics to the world.

It is a versatile gourmet treat, lending a distinct flavor and taste to many culinary fares.

At present, Sorsogon is the largest pili producer in Bicol, followed by Albay and Camarines Sur.

“We want all the other three provinces of the region—Catanduanes, Masbate and Camarines Norte -- to get involved in this enhancement program,” Bragas stressed.

Albay launches web portal for youth to help teenagers confront problems

By Nancy I. Mediavillo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/NIM/CBD/UTB]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 21 (PNA) – The Provincial Government of Albay and the Commission on Population-Bicol on Wednesday launched the U4U project, a web portal for the youth, at Albay Astrodome, highlightIng the closing of the National Nutrition Month, Disaster Consciousness Month and World Population Day.

The activity was scheduled last month but due to typhoon “Glenda” it was moved for the month of August.

Popcom-Bicol Planning Officer IV Jocelyn Chua thanked the Provincial Government of Albay headed by Governor Joey Sarte Salceda for its positive response to the launch of the project.

Chua said the province is the first local government unit to launch the U4U.

The regional launch will be done on Aug. 29.

Chua said the U4U, a youth hub initiative, is an interactive website for the youth aged 15-24 years old and has for its website www.U4U.ph.

She explained that a participating teenager will answer questions online and after the Q&A, the website will give its assessment of the subject based on his or her answers.

Chua said their office will also coordinate with schools down to the barangay level for a massive awareness campaign through the assistance of the provincial government.

She stressed that the web portal will answer problems confronting the youth.

The Popcom official expressed alarm over rising cases of premarital sex, early pregnancy, smoking, drinking liquor and illegal drugs among the youth.

Chua said the Bicol region registered an 8.8-percent teenage pregnancy last year based on the Young Adult Fertility Survey or YAFS, meaning, she said, nine out of 100 teenagers were pregnant during the survey period.

The region, however, has the lowest record in the entire nation, she clarified.

Meanwhile, 86.6 percent of the youth in the region did not use any protective measure in their sexual experience or premarital sex.

Aside from this, 38 percent read pornographic reading materials and 52.7 percent view X-rated films.

Chua said the results of the YAFS are alarming.

She said the youth must learn to say “no.”

The PopCom executive said their office’s campaign is “Toga Bago Traje de Doda,” meaning the youth should strive to have a college degree first before marriage.

Dr Arnulfo Carandang of the Department of Health-Bicol advised the youth to concentrate first on their studies and be busy on productive endeavors.

Carandang stressed the need to finish one’s studies first.

Dr. Ma. Theresa Belarma, officer-in-charge Albay provincial health officer, shared the experience of the province in strengthening its program of healthy lifestyle with the cooperation of its different departments and more than 1,000 employees.

Eden Gonzales, Albay population officer IV, informed the public that the healthy lifestyle program of the province is called 3G or “Gumalaw, Gumanda at Gumuwapo.”

Gonzales said the officials and employees of the province will do the “hataw” or exercise three times a week, at 4:30 p.m. every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The hataw will be led by the 3G team of the provincial capitol.

Aside from this, there will be a diet counseling and nutritional assessment for the participants, according to Bliss Bermas, provincial nutritionist.

DOST sets Aug. 22 deadline of applications for undergraduate scholarships

By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 20 (PNA) -- Graduating high school students who would like to avail of scholarships for priority science and technology (S&T) courses have until Friday, Aug. 22, to submit their applications for the 2015 Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute’s (DOST-SEI) Undergraduate Scholarships Examination.

This was announced Wednesday by the regional office for Bicol here of the DOST which said the nationwide examination shall be held on Sept. 21 with results to be announced in March 2015.

Tomas Briñas, the DOST regional director, said priority S&T courses for the scholarship grants include agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, biochemistry, computer science, environmental science, fisheries, food technology, forestry, geology, information technology, science/mathematics teaching, statistics, and engineering courses.

Interested parties may download the application form at www.sei.dost.gov.ph or www.science-scholarships.ph.

Application forms are also available at the Science Education Institute office at the DOST Compound in Taguig City and in all DOST regional offices, Provincial Science and Technology Centers, and offices of congressmen and senators, Briñas said.

Scholarship qualifiers may enroll in any of the state universities, colleges, and tertiary institutions identified as Centers of Excellence or Centers of Development by the Commission on Higher Education and in DOST-SEI identified network institutions all over the country.

Among these are the University of the Philippines, University of the East, Ateneo de Manila, Ateneo de Davao, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, Mapua Institute of Technology, Don Bosco Technical College, Siliman University, Mariano Marcos State University and St. Louis University.

Meanwhile, the DOST-SEI, citing excellence and overall contribution in nation-building, has paid tribute to its honor scholar-graduates and current scholars in two different occasions, a statement reaching here Wednesday from the DOST’s S&T Media Service said.

A total of 253 scholars who graduated with honors and 525 who finished graduate degrees for the school year 2013-2014 were awarded during the “In Touch with Excellence” ceremonies held as part of the 2014 National Science and Technology Week celebration, it said.

Around 400 scholar-graduates and ongoing scholars were also honored in a gathering dubbed as “Scholars’ Night.”

Overall, the statement said there were 12 summa cum laude, 55 magna cum laude, 187 cum laude, seven honorable mention, one with academic merit, and one with academic distinction scholar-graduates who were awarded both in the undergraduate and graduate levels during the ceremony.

Four scholar-graduates were also given incentives for completing their degrees earlier than the prescribed period of studies.

The S&T Media Service said 64 honor graduates under the DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship—the agency’s pioneer scholarship program for undergraduates—were recognized which listed seven summa cum laude, 21 magna cum laude, 34 cum laude and two honorable mention graduates.

On the other hand, Republic Act 7687 or the Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1994 produced 189 scholar graduates with honors headlined by five summa cum laude, 31 magna cum laude, 145 cum laude, one with academic distinction, one with academic merit, five honorable mention and three early graduates.

As for the graduate scholarships, a total of 351 MS and 36 PhD students graduated under the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program (ASTHRDP).

It produced three magna cum laude and eight cum laude graduates.

The program is a unified and innovative human resource development strategy aimed at hastening the production of highly trained scientists by awarding MS and PhD scholarship grants to eligible individuals who will fill in the gaps of identified areas of science and technology.

Under the program, nine scholars finished cum laude, and one as an academic excellence awardee.

On the other hand, the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) program—a graduate scholarship program in priority engineering courses and related field—recorded 136 MS and two PhD graduates.

DOST Secretary Mario Montejo has congratulated the scholar-graduates for maximizing the opportunity of being entrusted as “science scholars of the people.”

We are proud that you put in the hard work to not only finish you studies, but pursue excellence in the S&T fields you choose to be in,” Montejo said in his statement.

He said DOST is further intensifying its scholarship program as he believes in the capacity of science scholars as change-makers in the future.

Albay board OKs ordinance limiting use of ambulances

(PNA), LAP/FGS/EMC/CBD/

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 19 (PNA) -- The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Albay approved Monday an ordinance aimed at curbing blatant and frequent misuse of government ambulances, intended to be utilized for sick constituents.

Entitled “Regulating the Use of All Government Ambulances in the Province of Albay, and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof,” the ordinance is authored by 3rd District Board Member Rhederick N. Riva from Oas, and co-authored by 3rd District Board Member Herbert S. Borja from Polangui.

It aims to make government ambulances readily available to transport the seriously sick and injured patients requiring immediate medical treatment to or from a facility to another that is sufficiently equipped to handle the matter and save lives.

The legislation states that it has been observed that in many instances, government ambulances have been gravely misused, to the detriment of the public, whereas said vehicles have been seen in recreational areas where they have no business being there.

"There were cases where fees have been collected for their use, defeating the very purpose they were purchased for," Riva said.

According to the ordinance, it is unlawful for public officials or employees to use government ambulances for personal use or as an office service vehicle and it shall also be unlawful to use these vehicles for transporting patients deemed not in a medical emergency situation.

Whether with fees or not, government ambulances cannot be used for private purposes but government officials or employees shall not refuse the use of any government ambulance by patients who cannot pay fees, nor should there be any deprivation of use to any individual due to their gender, religious beliefs, economic status, or political affiliations; and government ambulances cannot be used to transport cadavers.

"There are exceptions though given to the use of government ambulances in non-emergency situations and these include the use of the vehicles in official and authorized medical outreach missions and other hospital services and operations related to medical missions, delivery of medicines and other medical supplies," Riva explained.

Public officials or employees caught violating this ordinance shall be penalized, after due process, with a P1,000 fine, and or imprisonment of one month for the first offense.

Second offense entails a fine of P2,500 and or six months of imprisonment; and being caught for a third time will result in a fine of P5,000 and or imprisonment of one year, without any prejudice to the filing of appropriate administrative charges.

Albay reconstruction gets P37M from DepEd for school repairs

(PNA), LAM/JCN/UTB

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 18 (PNA) -- Albay gets an added boost for its energized reconstruction and economic rehabilitation initiatives with the recent release by the Department of Education (DepEd) of P37 million for the repair of 98 schools devastated by Typhoon "Glenda" last month. DepEd comes as the second government agency so far to have subscribed to the reconstruction program of the province.

Albay Governor Joey Salceda said DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro, FSC, readily responded to their call for rehabilitation assistance under their Plan for Albay Glenda Early Recovery and Reconstruction (PAGERR), which was formulated immediately following the July 16 devastation.

Salceda said PAGERR has started to get vital support because it has a clear and defined plan and direction. Albay is the United Nation’s global model in disaster risk reduction and management.

“We thank Secretary Luistro for his speedy response, as the second biggest contributor to PAGERR less than a month after Glenda,” Salceda said.

Albay posted a Zero Casualty score against Glenda’s onslaught, which was widely praised, but it sustained more than P9.3 billion in damages, particularly in agriculture, housing, educational facilities and other infrastructures. The howler claimed over a hundred elsewhere in the country.

PAGERR is a well defined reconstruction plan with standing requests to various government agencies and non-government institutions for assistance. Salceda noted that having no casualty — even if it’s a great achievement — tends to get lesser appeal to donors unless there is a clear rehabilitation plan.

The Department of Agriculture was the first state agency to respond to PAGERR’s call for assistance with a P6- million commitment under its quick response scheme designated as Bicol Rehabilitation Assistance for Glenda – Agricultural Sector. It was aimed at propping up the badly hit areas of the region.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala personally delivered the contribution to Albay along with 1,000 bags of certified rice seeds, five units of hand tractors, 9,000 packets of assorted vegetable seeds, 9,000 pieces of pili seedlings, 185 bags of hybrid corn seeds, 15 bags of open-pollenated variety corn seeds, 54 sets of garden tools and 1,000 pieces of laminated sacks or canvass pieces.

Salceda organized PAGERR immediately after Albay was placed under a state of calamity. Its assigned taskes include assessment of needs, identification of intervention options in specific sites and their beneficiaries, implementation of responsive projects, and submission of formative and summative reports to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Salceda orders inventory of evacuation shelters as Mt. Mayon’s restiveness intensifies

By Rhaydz B. Barcia [(PNA), CTB/FGS/RBB/CBD/RSM]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 17 (PNA) -- As the restiveness of Mt. Mayon continues to intensify due to magma buildup, Albay Governor Joey Salceda has ordered an inventory of school classrooms that could be used as evacuation camps of tens of thousands of Albayanos should the volcano explode.

Salceda's directive to local government units came two days after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert warning status of Mt. Mayon from Level 1 to Level 2 due to the abnormal activities of the volcano.

The governor wants local officials across the province to assess the classrooms, water, toilet facilities -- including solid and liquid waste disposal system, communal kitchen, medical station with provision for normal spontaneous delivery, breast-feeding corner and recreational space to ensure the comfortable condition of the evacuees in times of natural calamity.

He also reactivated the health emergency teams (HETs) to be dispatched to the different local government units to be affected by the Mayon volcano eruption.

The HETs are composed of rapid health assessment team, medical team, SPEED team, mental health and psychosocialteam, nutrition team, and health promotion team and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team.

He also alerted the ALbay HEMS emergency officers on duty at the Albay Operation Center at this early so that all disaster responders will be in place before the possible hazardous explosion of Mayon volcano.

Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, reported increasing volcanic gas emissions and slight but persistent swelling due to the intrusion of magma beneath the volcano while sulfur dioxide emission posts an average of 850 tons per day, higher than the normal 500 tons per day, for the past two months now.

Albay promotes healthy lifestyle for employees

By Connie B. Destura [(PNA), CTB/FGS/EMC/CBD/RSM]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 16 (PNA) -- The Provincial Government of Albay -- in partnership with the Department of Health-Commission on Population Regional Office 5, National Nutrition Council-Region 5, and Team Albay/OCD 5 -- has developed a series of activities which will promote the general welfare of its employees and several other concerned stakeholders in Albay.

The move is in line with the celebration of the National Nutrition Month, National Disaster Consciousness Month and World Population Day.

Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, in a memorandum, enjoined all officials and employees of the PGA to support and participate in one of the culminating activities lined up in the calendar of events scheduled for the celebration, the Healthy Lifestyle Promotion or HATAW, to be led by the Provincial Health Office HATAW team.

The activity is on Aug. 20 at the Peñaranda Park in Legazpi City starting at 7:00 am.

HATAW, a popular short physical program launched by the DOH in 1994, is a mix of exercise and dance which can be done almost anywhere and anytime.

Its popularity stems from the enjoyable physical training which involves fast body movements that result in the production of several progressive health benefits.

Due to the reduced physical activity that many office workers experience on a daily basis, PGA employees or any other office worker subjected to limited bodily movement are exposed to dangers that produce grave consequences to their health.

Studies have shown that the lack of adequate physical activity has been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and obesity.

It also increases the risks of colon and breast cancer, high blood pressure, lipid disorder, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety.

With healthy employees and officers, the PGA and all other offices will be able to provide more than adequate service to their clients and their constituents.

‘Move heaven and earth’ to fast track power restoration in Albay, priests ask Salceda

By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA),CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 15 (PNA) – Local parish priests have asked Albay Governor Joey Salceda, considered as among the authors of the privatization of Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) into the hands of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), to “move heaven and earth” to hasten the restoration of power in the province.

“We appeal to Governor Salceda, considered among the authors and avid supporters of privatization, to do more than what he is presently doing and move heaven and earth to hasten power restoration in Albay for the sake of our suffering people,” the priests said in an open letter circulated in the province over the week.

The letter was signed by 45 Albay-based priests headed by Msgr. Ramon Tronqued, St. Raphael de Archangel Parish priest and vicar general of the Diocese of Legazpi.

Apart from Salceda, the letter was also addressed to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jericho Petilla, the management of Albay Power and Energy Corp. (APEC) and to “the Big Bosses of San Miguel Corp. (SMC).”

APEC is a fully-owned and -controlled subsidiary of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., created to run the affairs of the cooperative after the giant firm took control of the business and operations of Aleco early this year.

“We, the undersigned Priests of the different cities and municipalities of the Province of Albay make this urgent appeal for the immediate restoration of electric power in the whole province, and by immediate, we do not mean a period of one month or so,” the letter said.

Power supply in the entire province was cut off at the height of the devastation wrought by typhoon "Glenda" last July 15.

After Glenda, the people of Albay thought that APEC could have power at the soonest time possible only to be told that it would take a month or so for power in the province to normalize. APEC, being backed by a blue chip corporation—SMC -- could easily restore power if it wants, the priests said in the letter.

“We are sure that before APEC/SMC signed the privatization contract, its corporate geniuses must have factored in the pact that Albay is always ravaged by typhoons; why the seeming inefficiency? The old Aleco, even with its inefficiency, did not take long to reenergize the province after typhoon Reming which was even more destructive than Glenda,” they said.

Reming struck Albay in November 2006 and by Christmas time that same year, power was restored in almost all parts of Albay, the priests recalled in the letter.

As of Friday, reports gathered by PNA have it that only about 30 percent of the province has been reenergized -- mostly town centers and city propers.

Here, Mayor Noel Rosal said power has been restored in about 80 percent of the city with only those outskirt barangays whose distribution lines suffered heavy damages left, but already being attended to.

DENR-EMB Bicol to put up MRFs in selected towns, cities

By Samuel M. Toledo [(PNA), CTB/FGS/SMT/CBD]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 14 (PNA) – The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) has identified four municipalities in the region to be the beneficiaries of the materials recovery facility (MRF) this year in order to increase the waste diversion rate and strengthen the local government units' (LGUs) practice of waste management.

The Environmental Management Bureau V of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-EMB V) through its Solid Waste Management Section (SWMS), conducted a dialogue with concerned local officials last Aug. 8 in Legazpi City to discuss the putting up of MRF.

“Despite the passage of Republic Act 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, solid waste and its proper management remain one of the major environmental problems of the country,” EMB Bicol Director Roberto Sheen, said.

Sheen explained that less than half of the LGUs in the country have completed and implemented ecological solid waste management programs even as the amount of solid waste to be managed increases each year as growing population and economic growth becomes highly imminent.

The MRF is an area where collected waste materials are stored until they are sold to recyclers or processed for composting.

“Based on Section 32 of RA 9003, every barangay or cluster of barangays should establish a MRF that will receive household-generated wastes to segregate and recyclable materials from residual waste,” Sheen said.

The MRF recipients are Bacacay town and Tabaco City in Albay; San Pascual in Masbate; San Vicente in Camarines Norte; and Milaor in Camarines Sur.

The LGUs will be the one to determine which barangays in the recipient towns and city would be serviced by the MRFs, and where these will be installed.

The EMB V, through the Ecological Solid Waste Management Commission (ESWMC), will be the agency to monitor the MRFs.

“This is one of the measures we are conducting so that LGUs will be further encouraged to practice proper waste segregation and increase their awareness and compliance to RA 9003. We are looking forward for the positive effects of this project,” Sheen added.

The beneficiaries were identified through the following criteria: willingness of the LGU to support the program, cluster of at least three barangays or a minimum total waste volume of one ton a day.

The LGU should also have existing practice of segregation at source and segregated collection, available area for MRF, area is big enough for the two MRF components (composting and segregated storage), availability of Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) data, ability to divert at least 50 percent from the total waste volume, can tie-up with buyers/recyclers and percentage of waste diversion rate, Sheen said.

Resilient Tourism: Foreign tourists surge anew in Albay

By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), CTB/JCN/UTB]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 13 (PNA) -- Albay’s resilient tourism program has speedily and effectively put the province back on track shortly after Typhoon Glenda’s recent devastations, with foreign tourists flocking back in droves to the country’s fastest growing destination.

Less than a month after Glenda pummeled the province, the newly opened Albay International Gateway (AIG) rolled out the red carpet last August 8 to welcome 154 Chinese tourists who flew direct from Xiamen on board a Cebu Pacific Airlines’ flight.

The batch kicks off Cebu Pacific’s initial 18-cycle, three-month running contract flights from August 8 to October 10 this year.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said the province’s strong disaster resilient program made the project possible, with the entire machinery of the local government focussed on getting back on track immediately after the disaster, particularly in tourism.

Glenda mauled Albay for over seven hours last July 16. Personally led by Salceda, the provincial government machinery immediately started clearing the debris evening of the same day so that residents woke up the next morning with almost all the roads already passable.

Salceda said water and power supplies were heavily derailed, but the local government resorted to alternative sources particularly in critical areas. Team Albay’s Water and Sanitation unit provided continuous supply of potable water while commercial and industrial outfits made available their power generators.

Telecommunication systems were likewise heavily damaged but were back in service in five days, while public offices have reopened immediately the following day. Airplane flights were also restored the following day using back up facilities, he added.

The first batch of about 300 Chinese tourists flew in here early this year on board the Philippine Airlines flights, also from Xiamen, in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Albay.

Salceda said the AIG was established under Executive Order 29, designating Legazpi City as an international gateway for direct flights from foreign tourism markets. It marks a local government breakthrough in tourism, one that opens doors to and from various parts of the world through non-traditional routes, the links to which were worked out. China, Korea and Taiwan are initial targets.

The Bicol International Airport in Daraga town, which is now under construction, is set to open in 2016 but Salceda said tourists “don’t have to wait that long to enjoy Albay’s wondrous experience.”

The Department of Tourism has declared Albay as the fastest growing tourism destination in the Philippines with a 66% growth rate in 2013. With the AIG, Salceda said they hope to make that record consistent.

“We put in place our CIQS or customs, immigration, quarantine and security systems. We made necessary adjustments to standards of international airports and institutionalized the operating mechanisms under our Albay International Gateway Committee (AIGC) which now supervises the international flights,” said Salceda, who chairs the AIGC.

A noted economist, Salceda said the new Albay gateway could bring in about P6.5 billion in revenues to Albay a year, five times its annual budget. A Chinese tourist can spend around US$ 1,000 per day during his 5-day stay in the province. This will also help create jobs for Albayanos at a rate of one job opportunity per tourist.

“Many more direct flights to Albay are expected to follow and bring to the heart of Bicolandia thousands of tourists and holiday-seekers who will help boost our Albay BOOM economic battlecry,” Salceda enthused.

The governor said the gateway also opens up Albay for global engagements, particularly the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) in 2015, which kicks off in December this year.

Chinese tourists swarm Legazpi as Ibalong Festival takes off

By Danny O. Calleja (PNA), FPV/FGS/DOC/CBD/

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 12 (PNA) – A throng of Chinese tourists arrived at the airport here Monday afternoon via a chartered Cebu Pacific flight that flew them in directly from Xiamen City of Fujian province in China as the city celebrates this month the Ibalong Festival.

They were welcomed to the city by Mayor Noel Rosal, Department of Tourism Bicol Regional Director Maria Ong-Ravanilla and Elizalde Co, owner of the Misibis Bay Resort in the nearby Sto. Domingo town where all of them will be billeted during their four days and three nights stay.

Misibis Bay is a posh resort hotel considered as a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach serving as a luxury island playground along Cagraray Island where Albay’s hospitality abounds.

This group, composed of 154 individuals, represents the first batch of a series of arrivals arranged by Misibis Bay management and the city government as part of the direct international flight tourism program, which opened early this year the Legazpi airport as the country’s newest gateway.

Interviewed by local newsmen at the airport while waiting for the arrival, Rosal said this series of chartered flights from Xiamen will go on until October this year with four flights a week but “we are working on an arrangement with Cebu Pacific and the China International Travel Service to extend it up to the end of this year.”

The coming of the initial batches is timed with the city’s holding this month of Ibalong Festival whose events will be an added entertainment to the Chinese tourists who are very much attracted to Mt. Mayon and going around lava fronts around its foot on board all-terrain vehicles, Rosal said.

“During their stay, these Chinese tourists will enjoy the overflowing of celebrations in this prime tourist destination known in the whole travel industry world as the City of Fun and Adventure,” he said.

Ibalong Festival is a yearly non-religious fiesta here depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.

This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol Region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños.

“And hopefully, next year and onward, we would be able to arrange a year-round direct flights program with the Legazpi Domestic Airport as the gateway while we are awaiting for the completion of the Southern Luzon International Airport now ongoing construction in the nearby Daraga town,” Rosal added.

This new airport, which has been placed by the Department of Transportation and Communications as a priority project intended to boost Bicol’s booming tourism industry, is scheduled to be completed and put into operations before the end of the term of President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2016.

The opening of the Legazpi Airport as gateway for direct international flights came last January with the coming in of the maiden chartered flight of Philippine Airlines with 156 Chinese tourists on board from Xiamen.

Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.

The city is one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s.

The direct flight program was first arranged with local and China-based travel agencies as an undertaking in line with the Aquino administration’s policy to achieve inclusive growth through tourism that will have direct impact on the community.

Rosal said having Legazpi as the newest direct destination for the Chinese travel market means getting them into a yearly cycle wherein they will be coming via chartered flights in a frequency of at least twice a week.

Each of these tourists spends between USD 500 and USD 1,000 a day and with the coming of 230 weekly would mean as much as USD 230,000 weekly tourism receipts for the city and some parts of Albay where they would be buying souvenir items and food, among other expenditures, he said.

Tourism will definitely take a crucial role in the city, the province of Albay, the Bicol Region and the country’s pursuit for inclusive and horizontal growth that will benefit not only big investors such as hotel operators but also the people in the countryside, where most of the tourist destinations are located, by providing more opportunities for employment and business ventures, the city mayor said.

“The opening of the city as gateway for direct international flights takes advantage of the foreign market trend showing that international tourists do not tend to stick to one local destination as they follow a cycle leading them from one place to another,” he said.

Parallel with these developments, what the city government is doing is to improve its capacity to accommodate more tourists, taking into consideration that the city is also fast emerging as one of the country’s convention capitals.

“We are now hosting an average of 20 big conventions and similar occasions yearly, bringing in to the city around 60,000 visitors each year. So far, we only have 2,009 hotel rooms that can accommodate in one occasion some 5,000 people,” Rosal said.

More accommodation facilities are needed, that is why the city government has been encouraging and attracting more investors to venture into this endeavor and the response is very encouraging, he added.

Albay to nominate Mayon Volcano as UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

By Connie B. Destura (PNA), LAM/FGS/CBD/

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 11 (PNA) -- The provincial government of Albay will nominate Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Governor Joey Sarte Salceda disclosed Monday.

In a letter to Regional Executive Director Gilbert Gonzales of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Bicol, Salceda said the Philippines National Commission for UNESCO has provided the province with information for its guidance on the nomination of Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

A Biosphere Reserve, he said, is an internationally designated protected area meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature, hence, promoting values such as sustainable development.

“The status is conferred by UNESCO, particularly by its Man and the Biosphere Program and currently, there are only two UNESCO biosphere reserves in the Philippines – namely, Palawan and Puerto Galera,” Salceda said.

He invited Gonzales to join a meeting on the nomination of Mayon Volcano as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Aug. 13 at the UNESCO office in Pasay City.

He also invited Edelberto Matusalem, Protected Area supervisor for the Province of Albay, to join the meeting.


DA to pilot Bicol for ‘supercrops’

By Alladin S. Diega

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Sunday that the Bicol region, specifically Albay province, would be the pilot area for climate change-resistant or -adapting crops.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala was quoted in a statement as saying the move is “in line with government’s climate-change resiliency program.”

“The region will also serve as the laboratory for the DA’s quick-turnaround-planting-and-production-after-a-typhoon initiative,” Alcala said, adding that the regional share of Bicol in the proposed DA budget of P48.4 billion will be P1.9 billion.

The secretary said the region “deserves” the additional funds considering its share in agricultural production last year was worth P57 billion. “That is why even if the land area of Region 5 is small and it is often visited by typhoons, the Oragons [an endearment for local residents of the region] ranked sixth in rice production, eighth in hog production and seventh in coconut and corn production,” Alcala said.

Latest DA estimates on the damage wrought by Typhoon Glenda on the agricultural sector in Bicol is valued at P3.98 billion, the aggregate total for crops, livestock, agri-infrastructure, abaca and fisheries.

Meanwhile, the DA’s Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. recently distributed indemnity checks worth nearly P285,000 to 22 farmers from Naga City, Canaman, Pili and Baao, the statement said.

On Friday Alcala and Albay Gov. Joey Salceda spearheaded the distribution of a similar assistance, valued at P5.9 million, to farmers and fishermen in Albay in turnover rites in Legazpi City.

Last week the DA has launched the government’s rehabilitation plan for the agricultural-fishery sector in the region. “Starting with the distribution of initial assistance valued at nearly P6 million to affected farmers and [fishermen] in Sorsogon,” Alcala said.

He added that the first batch of livelihood and production support to beneficiaries in Bicol aims for the swift and timely delivery of aid to the devastated farmers and fishers.

The Bicol Rehabilitation Plan, Alcala said, is a rebuilding plan that entails the provision of production support, which include various machineries, fishing boats and gears, replacement seeds of rice and corn and other planting materials, and new stocks of animals.

Top California-based Fil-Am triathlete model promotes sports tourism in Legazpi

(PNA), CTB/FGS/RBB/CBD/PJN

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 9 (PNA) -- A top Filipino-American triathlete model is now in this tourist-destination city to promote sports tourism.

Kim Kilgroe will swim, bike and run in the rigorous rolling terrains of Legazpi City on Sunday morning.

Kilgroe, whose grandmother is a native of Tabaco City, flew in this city for the first time to lead and grace the first-ever Mt. Mayon Triathlon—a kickoff event of the monthlong Ibalong Festival of Legazpi.

“I came here to bring and promote sports tourism. Legazpi City is a great location for triathlon where one swims, bikes and runs, with the beautiful icon of Mayon volcano at the background,” she said.

Kilgroe, 24, and 200 participants in the professional, elite and relay team categories will be showing their prowess in the triathlon where in just an hour the competing teams will go for a 1.5-kilometer swim in the water off Legazpi then take a 40-kilometer bike ride from this city going to Sto. Domingo town and vice versa, then make a 10-kilometer run along the rolling topography of this city.

But before the official competition set on Sunday by the city government, Kilgroe conducted a free swimming and sports clinic on Friday and Saturday among the youth, including children, with proficiency in swimming to help them develop their own potentials.

“My Lola is from Tabaco, Albay. It's nice to be here for the first time. I'm motivated by the desire to be the best version of myself in every aspect, and to help others reach their own potentials and live unlimited. I enjoy helping new athletes on their form and progression, so I'm planning a series of Train-Unlimited Tri-Camps in various provinces of the Philippines,” she said.

The tri-clinic is focusing on swimming and running techniques.

“We are having pool and open water swimming clinics to improve everyone's swimming techniques. I especially love working with youth and inspiring them to pursue sports and healthful activities, so my events are open to all ages and levels. I'm doing an initial event in Legazpi before the inaugural Mt. Mayon Triathlon this weekend. We are inviting young athletes to come, participate and learn how to become better triathletes,” the lady triathlete added.

Kilgroe also expressed gratitude to Mayor Noel Rosal for hosting the first-ever Mt. Mayon Triathlon despite the effect of typhoon "Glenda."

“Thanks to the City of Legazpi and the Ibalong Festival organizers for hosting us and bringing the Mt. Mayon Triathlon together in a short period of time, even with the typhoon that recently passed. We are so excited for the first triathlon in this province on Sunday. What a great location to swim, bike and run.This is one of my favorite areas in the Philippines now,” the Filipino-American triathlete said.

Kilgroe said that after Bicol, she will also go to Davao, Cebu, Bohol and Ilocos Norte for multi-day camps.

“On my radar for potential multi-day camps are Davao, Cebu, Bohol and Illocos Norte. With so many people gaining interest in the multi-sport community, I'd love to help bring more resources to those outside of the Metro Manila area,” she said.

Fr. Jay Jacinto of Naga City, race director, said Legazpi City is the most scenic place and fantastic area for a one-hour triathlon owing to its best location, with Mt. Mayon at the backdrop.

Rosal said the 1st Mayon Triathlon will be similar to the “Tour of Luzon” wherein 200 foreign and Filipino veteran or elite riders will be competing on Sunday.

He said there are politicians like Rep. Datu Arroyo of Camarines Sur and former AKB Rep. Pido Garbin who will be joining the triathlon.

“Next year, it will never be the same again. It will be a bigger event next year as part of the Ibalong Festival. The participants of this event are not after the prize because they’re well-off and whose bikes cost about Php 0.5 million or so. They’re not after the money but the trophy and prestige,” Rosal said.

The winners will receive Php 20,000 for first prize, Php 15,000 for 2nd prize and Php 10,000 for the third prize.

DA Sec lauds increasing food production in Albay despite frequent calamities

By Sally Atento-Altea (MAL/SAA-PIA5/Albay)

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 8 (PIA) –Department of Agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala lauded the province of Albay for sustaining its increasing food production over the years despite calamities frequently visiting the province.

“I congratulate the good leadership and resiliency of the people of Albay for continued increase in production despite being hit by calamities,” Alcala said during the press conference for turn-over of rehabilitation assistance Wednesday to farmers and agri-stakeholders affected by typhoon Glenda in Albay.

“Eventhough constantly devastated by typhoons, the province has sustained its increasing yield,” he added.

Albay governor Joey Salceda noted in the same event that the rice sufficiency percentage of the province has increased in six years from 73% in 2008 to 94% in 2013.

He attributed such increase to the farmers in the province citing them as the”backbone of economic development in the province.”

The AlbayProvincial Agriculture Services earlier reported that based on official records, production in 2013 rose to 215 metric tons or 215,000 kilos in harvest from 52,000 hectares planted.

In 2012 160 metric tons or 160,000 kilos is in production from 43,000 hectares planted.

The Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) likewise posted increasing volume of production for coconut from 149,594.96 metric tons in 2008 to 180,333.07 metric tons in 3013 and pili nut from 1,528.71 metric tons in 2008 to 2, 132.45 metric tons in 2013.

The same is true with abaca from 1,404.64 metric tons in 2008 to 1,617.26 metric tons in 2013.

Salceda added forested areas in the province have also increased to 88% of which most of the trees planted are Pili trees provided by the DA.

Moreover, the governor cites climate change as a factor that hinders poverty alleviation among farmers in the province despite the programs implemented and assistance given by the DA.

He mentioned for instance coconut planters who lost their investment as typhoon Glenda severely damaged coconut trees with its fruits supposedly to be harvested this year.

“Six years ago after Reming, our farmers planted coconut trees which take about six years to bear fruit. Now we are on the sixth year, supposedly a time for harvest, but we are hit by typhoon Glenda damaging our coconut plantations,” he said.

“Basically our farmers lost the capital they invested so what returns will they get?” Salceda added.

In response to the impact of climate change to agriculture, DA secretary said the present administration has been implementing long-term intervention through construction of concrete farm to market roads and provision of climate resistant rice varieties.

One of these varieties is the drought resistant, submarine type and salt water tolerant green super rice currently studied in Camarines Sur.

Chinese tourists coming during Legazpi’s Ibalong Festival

By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 7 (PNA) – A series of Cebu Pacific chartered direct flights will be flying in here hundreds of Chinese tourists from Xiamen City, China, as the city celebrates the Ibalong Festival.

The first flight is scheduled to arrive Friday, Aug. 8, carrying 165 passengers who will stay for four days and three nights.

All of them will be billeted at the Misibis Bay Resort and Casino in the nearby Sto. Domingo, Albay.

Misibis Bay is a posh resort hotel considered as a private tropical hideaway built on a pristine stretch of beach serving as a luxury island playground along Cagraray Island where Albay’s hospitality abounds.

At least two other flights, which will arrive on Aug. 11 and 16, are also scheduled -- each carrying the same number of passengers, city Mayor Noel Rosal announced in a press conference here Thursday.

These Chinese tourists will be in the city in time for the celebration of the Ibalong Festival, a yearly non-religious fiesta depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.

“This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños,” Rosal said.

The festival’s formal opening will be on Aug. 16 but preliminary activities -- like the screening of candidates for the Mutya ng Ibalong beauty pageant, which was held last Aug. 3, the kick-off of the Mt. Mayon Triathlon on Aug. 10 and opening of the 2nd Ibalong National Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship on Aug. 15-17 – will serve as advance activities.

The festivities -- loaded with events that will offer fun, exciting adventures and lot of surprises -- will run until Aug, 3.

These events will be an added entertainment to the Chinese tourists who are very much attracted to Mt. Mayon and going around lava fronts around its foot on board all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Stephen Chen of the China International Travel Service (CITS) said during the same press conference.

“During their stays, these Chinese tourists will enjoy the overflowing of celebrations in this prime tourist destination known in the whole travel industry world as the City of Fun and Adventure,” Rosal said.

This Xiamen-Legazpi direct chartered flight project was arranged with Cebu Pacific and CITS by the city government under Rosal in partnership with the management of Misibis Bay headed by business tycoon Elizalde Co.

Initially, these series of chartered flights from Xiamen will go on until October this year with four flights a week but “we are working on an arrangement with Cebu Pacific and the CITS to extend it up to the end of this year,” Misisbis Bay general manager Ian Mayer Varona said.

“Hopefully, next year and onward, we would be able to arrange a year-round direct flights program with the Legazpi Domestic Airport as the gateway while we are awaiting for the completion of the Southern Luzon International Airport (SLIA) now ongoing construction in the nearby Daraga town,” Rosal said.

This new airport, which has been placed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as a priority project intended to boost Bicol’s booming tourism industry, is scheduled to be completed and put into operations before the end of the term of Pres. Benigno Aquino III on 2016.

The opening of the Legazpi Airport as gateway for direct international flights came last January with the coming in of the maiden chartered flight of Philippine Airlines with 156 Chinese tourists on board from Xiamen.

It was first arranged by the provincial government of Albay under Gov. Joey Salceda with local and China-based travel agencies as a program in line with the Aquino administration’s policy to achieve inclusive growth through tourism that will have direct impact to the community.

Rosal said having Legazpi as the newest direct destination for the Chinese travel market means getting them into a yearly cycle wherein they will be coming via chartered flights in a frequency of twice a week.

Each of these tourists spends between US$ 500 and US$ 1,000 a day and with the coming of 230 weekly would mean as much as US$ 230,000 weekly tourism receipts for the city and some parts of Albay where they would be buying souvenir items and buy foods, among other expenditures, he said.

Tourism will definitely take a crucial role in the city, the province of Albay, the Bicol region and the country’s pursuit for inclusive and horizontal growth that will benefit not only big investors such as hotel operators but also the people in the countryside, where most of the tourist destinations are located, by providing more opportunities for employment and business ventures, the city mayor said.

“The opening of the city as gateway for direct international flights takes advantage of the foreign market trend showing that international tourists do not tend to a local destination as they follow a cycle leading them from one place to another,” he added.

Parallel with these developments, what the city government is doing is improve its capacity to accommodate more tourists taking into consideration that the city is also fast emerging as one of the country’s convention capitals.

“We are now hosting an average of 20 big conventions and similar occasions yearly, bringing in to the city around 60,000 visitors each year. So far, we only have 2,009 hotel rooms that can accommodate in one occasion some 5,000 people,” Rosal said.

More accommodation facilities are needed, that is why the city government has been encouraging and attracting more investors to venture into this endeavor and the responds are very encouraging, he added.

Legazpi’s Ibalong Festival comes with more fun, adventure this August

By Danny O. Calleja [(PNA), CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 6 (PNA) – The city government here has issued a guarantee that the 2014 holding of Ibalong Festival, which comes this month, will be loaded with more fun, adventure and surprises.

“I assure you of more fun, exciting adventures and big surprises as we go along with this month-long celebration—the 23rd Ibalong Festival,” City Mayor Noel Rosal, who is also chair of the festival executive committee, told a press conference at the city mayor’s office Wednesday.

The festival’s formal opening will be on Aug. 16 but preliminary activities like the screening of candidates for the Mutya ng Ibalong beauty pageant, which was held last Aug. 3, the kick-off of the Mt. Mayon Triathlon on Aug. 10 and opening of the 2nd Ibalong National Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship on Aug. 15-17 will serve as advance activities.

The triathlon event is one of the big surprises offered this year as it will be participated in by about 200 celebrated international players, Rosal said, describing the event as a grueling physical fitness competition that will pass through varied routes along the Legazpi Boulevard to the town of Sto. Domingo, Albay, near the foot of Mt. Mayon.

The women’s beach volleyball games expected to be played among teams coming from big universities and colleges around the country will be held also along the Legazpi Boulevard.

To highlight the formal opening program of the festival on Aug. 16 will be the rolling out of the Ibalong Festival Weekend Market that will open up business opportunities to small and medium enterprise operators in the locality and those coming from far as Metro Manila and Cebu, City councilor Lilian Ramirez, the event’s committee chairperson, said in the press conference.

In support to the festivities, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will be holding its 2014 Southern Luzon Cluster Science and Technology Fair at the city’s Ibalong Centrum for Recreation from Aug. 17 to 20, according to Tomas Briñas, the DOST regional director for Bicol.

The event will also mark the launch in the city of Juan Time that will make Legazpi the first local government unit in Bicol to have the giant Juan Time clock to be mounted by the DOST at the heart of the city’s business center, Briñas said.

He said the S&T fair -- which will be focused on regional development thrust, tourism and disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), will be attended by delegations headed by DOST regional directors from 16 regions of the country.

In this affair, Legazpi will showcase its tremendous gains in tourism development that has made the city achieve remarkable growth in the travel industry and in DRRM that won for it the national championship in the Gawad Kalasag Awards of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council last year, Briñas said.

“Legazpi recognizes DRRM not only as a program but also as a culture—a trait that other LGUs should replicate,” he added.

One more big surprise that Ibalong Festival 2014 will be pulling, according to Rosal, is the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Legends Exhibition Game to be held at the ICR on Aug. 22.

The game will feature veteran Bicolano PBA players like William “Bogs” Adornado who hails from this city, Fortunato “Atoy” Co of Daet, Camrines Norte, and Rommel Daep of Manito, Albay.

They will be joined by Vince Hizon, Paul Alvarez, Noli Locsin, Nelson Asaytono, EJ Feihl, Bong Hawkins, Gerome Ejercito and Gerry Codiñera in playing against the Ibalong Team.

Other events include the Ibalong Zumba Party at the ICR and Otaku Summit at the Pacific Mall on Aug. 23; 1st Ibalong Color Run at the Legazpi Boulevard on Aug 24; the Ibalong Enduro Pilipinas Mountain Bike Race along the foot of Mt. Mayon; the Operation Hoops Care Goodwill Mission to the Philippines at the ICR on Aug. 26-27; and the Siram na Sana: A Legazpeño Food Festival at the Casablanca Convention Hall.

The traditional Ibalong Street Presentation, which will feature six contingents to portray in different styles the epical heroes of Bicolandia -- Handyong, Baltog, Bantong and Oryol -- and the Ibalong epic through dances and colorful attires, will be held at the city downtown on Aug. 30.

During the street presentations, the competing contingents will parade in the streets wearing masks and costumes to imitate the appearances of the heroes and the villains, portraying the classic battles that made their way into the history of Bicol.

At night of the same day will be the coronation of the Mutya ng Ibalong at the ICR.

Ibalong Festival, now on its 23rd year, is a month-long non-religious fiesta depicting Bicol’s early beginnings based on the Ibalong Epic written by the late Prof. Merito Espinas that tells of mythical super heroes, villains, monsters and wild animals in the ancient times.

“This is the longest running tourism promotion-related festival in the Bicol region that expresses warmth and goodwill to all people and encourages visitors and tourists to celebrate with the Legazpeños,” Rosal said.

Albay International Gateway welcomes more flights with China

By Connie B. Destura [(PNA), LAM/FGS/CBD/]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 5 (PNA) -- The Albay International Gateway (AIG) is ready to welcome more chartered flights from mainland China as the initial 18-cycle, 3-month run will start on Aug. 8 until Oct. 10, with each cycle scheduled on Mondays (arrival) through Fridays (departure) and vice-versa.

This initial 3-month run—made possible through a 1-year contract of Cebu Pacific with their Chinese partners—may be extended depending on the success of its implementation.

The first batch of tourists for this run will arrive on Aug. 8 from Xiamen, China, bringing in a full load of 179 passengers to Albay.

Earlier this year, 285 Chinese tourists from Xiamen flew in to the province to celebrate the Chinese New Year, coming in two batches -- the first arriving on Jan. 30, while the second came in on Feb. 6.

The AIG committee chaired by Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, along with representatives from different government agencies and other stakeholders, is now again readying all the provisions needed to accommodate the coming tourists.

Like the previous batches of Xiamen tourists, the incoming visitors will be billeted at the Misibis Bay Resort and Casino, with occasional tours to be made to the different landmarks and attractions in Albay.

Funds have been allocated for the Legazpi airport for its expansion to accommodate the different government offices that are required to service direct international flights arriving to the airport, as well as add wider areas and more chairs for the convenience of the passengers.

As committee chair, Salceda has pledged the full support of the provincial government in this endeavor to further boost the image of Albay in the international market as a tourist destination and fully coordinate with the different agencies to achieve this goal.

Roxas orders BFP to help contain Albay bush fire

(PNA), LAM/CLTC

MANILA, Aug. 4 (PNA) -- Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II on Monday directed the regional office of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Bicol to mobilize all resources necessary to help contain an ongoing bush fire that has already razed some 6,000 hectares of forest and grasslands in two islands of Rapu-Rapu, Albay.

In a statement, Roxas specifically instructed the BFP-Regional Office in Bicol to coordinate with their counterparts from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ensure that the bush fire would not spread to residential areas nearby.

“I expect our BFP Regional Office to mobilize all possible resources. All our fire-fighters and fire trucks in the region must be ready to help the DENR contain the bush fire,” the DILG chief said.

“Kailangang hindi makatawid ang sunog sa mga bahayan (Hope this will not cross to the houses. We must ensure zero-casualty in this tragedy,” he added.

According to a report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the bush fire started around 8 a.m. on Sunday with kaingin as the possible cause of the incident.

The NDRRMC said the fire has initially affected six of Rapu-Rapu’s 34 barangays, namely: Poblacion, Morocborocan, Sitio Acal, Mananao, Guadalupe, and Buenavista, which were occupied by about 5,000 households.

Other fire incidents were reported in Sitio Minto, San Ramon and Batan Island.

In his initial report to the DILG Secretary, SC/Supt. Carlito Romero, BFP Chief, said 14 Forest Fire Protection Officers had already been deployed from Albay to comply with Roxas’ directive.

Romero said two Forest Fire Specialists who had been tasked to assume lead command at Rapu-Rapu Island had also boarded an Air Force plane with personnel from the Office of Civil Defense to conduct aerial assessment of the affected area.

The team, he said, had recommended the deployment of bucket bomb or choppers with water buckets to help contain the bush fire.

The Initial Assessment/Operations Team likewise recommended that the following actions be taken immediately:

·Rapu-Rapu to declare State of Calamity;

·Municipality of Rapu-Rapu and threatened barangays to activate Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Councils on a 24-hour operation in order to intensify monitoring and preparedness actions required;

·Prepare evacuation sites and request Philippine Air Force for the availability of Huey 2 with Bumby Bucket.

Power co-ops in other provinces help Albay

By Ma. April Mier (Inquirer Southern Luzon)

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Albay Power and Energy Corp. (Apec) has restored power supply in nearly 50 percent of its “backbone lines” in Albay province, 18 days since Typhoon “Glenda” hit the province on July 15.

“Only 13 percent of households have been energized but we have reached almost half of the commercial or backbone areas,” Russell James Serrano, chief of the technical operations and maintenance division of Apec, said in an interview on Saturday.

The backbone lines are the electric poles or posts, which are connected to the main roads where hospitals, schools, the central business district and other major institutions are located, he explained.

In Legazpi City, the business center of Albay, more than 50 percent, or 43 of its 70 barangays, had their backbone lines energized while supply was restored in 13 lines in Tabaco City and 10 in Ligao City.

In the municipality of Malinao, power had been restored in the backbone lines of seven villages.

Jane Rogando, head of Apec’s customer service division, said that with the help of the National Electrification Administration, volunteers from electric cooperatives across the country came to help in the power restoration work in Albay.

Seven teams with 42 personnel from six electric cooperatives in Luzon arrived in Albay on July 30. They were from Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative, Pampanga Electric Cooperative, Nueva Ecija Electric Cooperative, Pampanga Rural Electric Cooperative, Tarlac Electric Cooperative (Tarelco) 1 and Tarelco 2 to augment restoration efforts.

On Aug. 4, Rogando said they expected three more teams to come from Zamboanga Electric Cooperative (Zamelco) 1, Zamelco 2 and Peninsula Electric Cooperative in Bataan.

She said they had earlier projected that it would take three months before power could be completely restored in Albay but that they could shorten the period with the formation of Task Force Glenda, which is composed of electric cooperatives outside Albay.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, in a text message, said the city expected full power restoration before the end of August.

Albay has 15 municipalities and three cities— Legazpi, Ligao and Tabaco.

PNoy commends Albay’s zero casualty in Sona

(Manila Standard Today)

LEGAZPI CITY—President Benigno Aquino III has lauded Albay for its ‘zero casualty’ record during the recent onslaught of Typhoon Glenda as a most noteworthy feat of a local government unit in disaster risk reduction, during his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona).

Halfway through his Sona, Aquino thanked Albay Gov. Joey Salceda for prompt action during Glenda’s onslaught. The typhoon mauled Albay for eight hours on July 16. It claimed over a hundred lives elsewhere in the country.

Salceda attributes their zero casualty score to their “preemptive evacuation” strategy which required the evacuation of about 101,000 families to safe evacuation centers hours before Glenda’s forecasted landfall in the province. Packing over 180 kph center winds, Glenda wrought extensive damage in Albay worth about P9.1 billion, with some 98,000 families rendered homeless.

In his Sona, the President reported that the national government is implementing some technology-driven DRR programs, under it is Project Noah, for effective and fast disaster warning system and monitoring of heavy rains and flash floods.

These DRR programs, coupled with prompt action by LGU officials like Gov. Salceda, can save more lives and prevent deaths, Aquino stressed.

If a province that is considered a highway for strong typhoons can achieve this (zero casualty) feat, there’s no reason why other LGUs cannot achieve the same, Aquino said, which drew cheers from the crowd at the Sandiganbayan where the President delivered his address.

Salceda, who was present during the Sona, said it was a pleasant surprise to have been included in the President’s Sona, but added that “Albay rightly and richly deserves to be mentioned,” for working hard to achieve its ‘zero casualty’ goal during disasters.

The governor had pioneered “preemptive evacuation towards zero casualty’ that is now a byword in Albay and which the national and many local government units have already adopted. The strategy is complemented by investments in safe comfortable evacuation centers which also serve a classroom during normal days.

For its feats the United Nations has declared Salceda s its DRR champion and Albay as its global model in DRR and Climate Change Adaptation. The governor now sits as co-chair of the UN Green Climate Fund, the first Asian to have held the position of the prestigious international body tasked to fund global climate change programs.

Tourism propels Bicol as Phl fastest growing region

By Johnny C. Nunez [(PNA), LAM/JCN/JSD]

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 1 (PNA) -- Driven by tourism, Bicol (Region V) has now emerged as the country’s fastest growing region with an impressive 9.4 % growth last year, according to Albay Governor Joey Salceda, citing the latest report of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).

The recent NSCB report said Bicol’s 9.4% growth in 2013 outpaced those of the other 17 regions of the country, including Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) which registered a 9.1 percent growth rate.

Salceda, who chairs the Bicol Regional Development Council (RDC), said Bicol has now risen from the ruins of disasters that had stunted it for decades. He added that tourism has been the principal driver of the region’s impressive economic growth, led by Albay, now the Philippines’ fastest growing tourist destination, which posted a truly staggering 66% tourism growth last year.

The Almasor (Albay - Masbate-Sorsogon) Tourism Alliance, which Salceda organized as RDC chair, also posted a 42 percent growth in arrivals in 2013, contributing to the over all regional economic growth.

Salceda, a respected economist and 3-term Bicol RDC chairman, said Bicol’s growth was also pushed by better yields in energy production of the Tiwi and Bacman geothermal plants, higher public investments in infrastructure and acceleration retail trade, further supported by the full infusion of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps into the countryside.

Reacting to the NSCB report, Salceda said Bicol’s growth rate is indeed phenomenal, having occupied the lowest rung in the country’s economic ladder for decades. It has often been listed as third or second, if not the poorest region of the country. This was blamed to the regular onslaught by strong typhoons.

Knowledgeable authorities credit Bicol’s economic breakthrough to Salceda’s leadership of the region’s RDC. The Albay governor was a former economic adviser to Philippine presidents.

“What can you expect but a fast growing economy in Bicol since Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda is the head honcho in planning for the region,” former NSCB director-general Jose Ramon Gatmaitan Albert noted.

Quoting the NSCB report, Salceda said “Bicol picked its momentum from 2012 with 6.9% recorded growth to top the other 17 regions of the country last year, including NCR with its 9.1%, powered by a strong service sector and Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF) with 57% and 23.4%, respectively.”

The governor said the formula for Bicol’s phenomenal growth lies in its hidden strengths, which the RDC capitalized on in planning and executing its banner programs, particularly, tourism.

As RDC chair, Salceda charted Bicol’s economic direction, with special emphasis on tourism, of which the region has great potentials. He organized the Almasor, which had immediately gained significant international recognition at the ITB Berlin in Germany, the London WTM last year, and the Guangzhou Travel-mart, early this year.

The NSCB report said the Service sector’s growth in Albay accelerated from 6.2% in 2012 to 11% in 2013. Except for Transport, Storage and Communications (TSC), all its sub-sectors recorded higher growths, as follows: Trade and Repair, 9.7% to 10.8%; Finance, 10.9% to 14.4%; Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities (RERBA), 2.8% to 17.1%; Public Administration, 4.2% to 8.2%; Other Services, 2.2% to 11.4%.

The NSCB report likewise show the following 2012-2013 growth trends: AHFF, 2.9% to 4.5%; Agriculture and Forestry, 3.1% to 5.4%; Fishing, 2.5% to 2%; Industry, 14.6% to 10.8%; Construction, 14.2% to 22.4%; EGWS, 9.3% to 13.4%; Manufacturing, 5% to 9.6%; Mining and Quarrying, 11.8% to 4.2%.

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