Philippines

Batanes News February 2012

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Batanes Province

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

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

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

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

WHY??

There are only two kinds of people who teach tolerance:
  1. The Bullies. They want you to tolerate them so they can continue to maliciously deprive you. Do not believe these bullies teaching tolerance, saying that it’s the path to prevent hatred and prejudice.
  2. The victims who are waiting for the right moment to retaliate. They can’t win yet, so they tolerate.
Oldest House in Ivana.jpg
Oldest house in Ivana, Batanes

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

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


Provincial tourism council starts local tourism dev’t plan

BASCO, Batanes- The provincial tourism council chaired by Gov. Vicente S. Gato has started working on the province’s tourism development plan with the assistance of all tourism frontliners and tour operators in the province.

An ad hoc committee has been formed to consolidate all tourism programs proposals from the council members and from the grassroots to complete the 3-year (short term) and the 10-year (long term) tourism development plan.

The committee is composed of Genes Galarion of the Pacita Fundacion as chairman; Dennis Lim of Tawsen Agri-ventures for transportation, hostel and restaurant operators/proprietors; tour guide Roger Doplito for transportation also; Tour guide association president Eduardo Delfin for tour guiding; tour guide Juliet Cataluña, for travel and tour operation and Non-government organization representative Byron Peralta for community affairs.

The identified tourism operators are the caterers, hostel owners, restaurant operators, transportation sector, souvenir item producers, the tour guides, the homestay owners and artisans.

The committee agreed to reach out the grassroots in the municipal and barangay levels to obtain their views on tourism, their proposals and support for tourism.

Juliet Cataluña, former manager of the Batanes Eco-tourism cooperative, said the committee believes that through focus group discussion with the grassroots, they would be able to generate more cooperation for the tourism industry of the province.

Regional evaluators to assess nutrition program in Batanes

BASCO, Batanes- The Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team (RNET) from Tuguegarao is in this island province from March 12 to 16 to evaluate nutrition program implementation for the year 2011.

The team is set to visit all municipalities, review records and results of provincial evaluation on nutrition program implementation through ocular inspection of municipal and barangay nutrition offices and projects, conduct interview with municipal nutrition action officer before the team evaluates.

The results of the evaluation, which include the good points, weak points, problems, or situationers encountered by the team, recommendations and challenges for the improvement of performance will be tackled in the feedback meeting with the presence of the PNC headed by the Governor Vicente Gato and the provincial nutrition action officers.

The RNET also requested a separate schedule of meeting with the governor as chairman of the provincial nutrition program, and the provincial nutrition council (PNC) headed by the provincial nutrition action officer.

Per results of nutrition program implementation in 2010 Batanes was able to maintain its rank as Consistent Regional Outstanding winner in Nutrition (CROWN) award for three years now. Batanes received P100,000 cash as a CROWN awardee.

From the cash award, the 29 barangay nutrition scholars province-wide received incentive of P2,000 each for being the frontliners in the provincial nutrition program implementation. The 135 barangay health workers were given P500 each.

It was the consensus of the provincial nutrition council to give incentives to them for working closely with the PNC and for their dedicated services in the nutrition program.

Batanes Tremor

A 4.5-magnitude tremor hit some areas in Batanes province early Monday morning but no casualties or damage to property was reported, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) satellite office based here.

Local Phivolcs Researcher Porferio Peralta said the 4.5 magnitude earthquake happened at 5:31 a.m. with the epicenter located at 41 kilometers southeast of Basco, Batanes.

It had a depth of 148 kilometers and, as such, did not register a strong intensity.

Peralta said that the quake was tectonic in origin but no intensity recorded in the affected areas as well as no aftershock to be expected.

Batanes lawmaker hit for not acting on oil price control bills

Militant fishermen has accused Batanes Representative Henedina Abad, chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy, of sitting on nine bills that push for the control of prices of oil.

Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said Abad failed to act on legislations seeking to repeal the 13-year-old Oil Deregulation Law, which was blamed by militants for the unabated price hikes on petroleum products.

Early last year, Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño and Anakpawis Representative Rafael Mariano filed House Bill (HB) 4335 and HB 4317 respectively, that call for the repeal of the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 for supposedly giving oil companies leeway in “manipulating” the local pump prices.

Also in 2011, Mariano filed House Resolution 1779, urging the energy committee to review the impact of the series of oil price increases to the livelihood of over one million small fisherfolk in the country.

"The weekly and unbearable increases in the prices of petroleum products have pushed small fishermen operating small motorized boats to reduce fishing hours from the normal eight to 12 hours, to four to eight hours because of the high prices of gasoline and other oil products,” Pamalakaya chair Fernado Hicap said.

Aside from the bills filed by Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, the following measures are pending action before Abad’s committee: HB 2569 of Reps. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro and Maximo Rodriguez Jr. of ABANTE – Mindanao; HB 5259 of Quezon City Representative Winston Castelo that also calls for the repeal of the oil deregulation law; and HB 00347, authored by Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez, which calls for the reestablishment of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund.

Strong winds push plane off runway in Batanes

One of the Sky Pasada planes servicing Batanes was almost pushed off the island’s unpaved runway by unusually strong winds on Thursday, a company press statement said on Friday.

Ramon Guico III, president of WCC Aviation Co., which operates the Sky Pasada, said no one was hurt when the twin-engine, short-range LET 410 was dragged by strong winds toward the end of the runway, moments after it landed at Itbayat island.

“The landing gear was destroyed and we do not know yet what other damages there could be. But we are thankful that not one of the passengers was hurt,” Guico said in a telephone interview.

The plane flew from Basco, Batanes capital town, to Itbayat. Guico would not say how many passengers were on the plane but the LET 410 could accommodate 19 people.

Guico said the plane was one of the two aircraft approved by the manufacturer to fly the Batanes route.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has certified that the two Sky Pasada planes are outfitted for the peculiar slopes of the Basco runway, he said.

Guico said the company would continue servicing the route because it would be difficult for Batanes residents to move from Basco to Itbayat without the Sky Pasada.

“But I do not know yet when we could resume operations. It all depends on how long the aircraft will be repaired. We will also try to have a cost-benefit analysis, whether it would still be feasible to have it repaired,” he said.

In July 2010, Sky Pasada planes were grounded when the CAAP required airline companies to introduce additional safety features on their fleet to comply with European Aviation Security Agency standards.

FICTAP Congress At Manila Hotel

The country’s largest group of cable television operators covering the Philippine archipelago from Batanes to Jolo will hold its 13th annual international congress on March 8-9 at the historic landmark Manila Hotel.

From Federation of International Cable TV Associations of the Philippines (FICAP), the organization changed its name to FICTAP (Federation of International Cable TV and Telecommunications Association of the Philippines(FICTAP)) as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission dated January 4, 2012 to emphasize its expansion from cable TV to Internet and related value-added services (VAS).

From a handful of countryside cable TV pioneers who got together in 1999 to work for their common aspirations and interests, FICTAP now counts about a thousand micro, small and medium cable enterprises who continuously meet in a yearly international congress and exhibit, the venue being the Manila Hotel since 2008.

Cotabato City cable operator Estrellita “Neng” Juliano Tamano, who heads FICTAP as national chairperson since its inception, assured that this year’s convention will bring the biggest benefits for delegates in terms of new businesses and technologies, improved relations with government regulatory agencies, promotional offers from suppliers and entertainment highlights.

Congress chairperson Dr. Cecilia M. Dy disclosed that with the theme, “Exploring the Wonders of Digitization” the convention will tackle technological innovations like digitalization, the proposed National Broadband Network and high-definition TV, strategic marketing in the face of increasing territorial competition and decreasing market share and effective program planning and implementation.

Dy added that the conference will also focus on the enlistment of government support and coordination to address relevant issues with the Commission on Information Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission.

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