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Difference between revisions of "General Santos City News November 2011"
General Santos City News November 2011 (view source)
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==Raid in General Santos yields 2,000 geckos== | |||
*Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/103251/raid-in-general-santos-yields-2000-geckos | |||
*9:15 pm | Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | |||
:by Aquiles Z. Zonio, Inquirer | |||
GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Government agents on Tuesday seized 2,000 geckos from a trading company here and are now preparing charges against the company owners and others believed involved in collecting and trading the protected species. | |||
Senior Supt. Albert Fierro, director of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Central Mindanao, on Wednesday said the raid on Mindanao Development Venture and Trade in Barangay Lagao was carried out by agents of the CIDG, the National Bureau of Investigation and other police units after the company was found to be engaged in the buy and sell of geckos. | |||
The capture and trade of geckos had been outlawed. | |||
Fierro quoted Mario Librada Legazpi, owner of the trading company, as saying his company was collecting the geckos for use in organic farming. | |||
Fierro, however, said representatives from the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are not buying Legazpi’s story. | |||
Fierro said PAWB representatives believe that the geckos were being sold to collectors who crush the animals into powder in the belief that these have medicinal value. | |||
In other countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, geckos are being passed off as cure for cancer and even the human immunodeficiency virus. | |||
A 300-gram gecko could fetch P45,000 in the black market. Openly trading in geckos, a protected species, is prohibited in the Philippines. | |||
“The payoff for the 2,000 geckos was supposed to take place on Wednesday but we were able to prevent it,” said Fierro. | |||
He said charges of violation of the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act were now being prepared against Legazpi and his companions. | |||
The seized reptiles, meanwhile, would be released back into the wild, he said. | |||
==DSWD to reform subsidy program for poor families== | |||
*Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/11/29/dswd-to-reform-subsidy-program-for-poor-families/ | |||
*Tuesday| November 29, 2011 | |||
:by Allen V. Estabillo | |||
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 November) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is eyeing some policy and systems changes in the national government’s conditional cash transfer program in a bid to enhance its planned expansion next year to more impoverished areas of the country, especially in Mindanao. | |||
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said they are currently studying various strategies to further improve the delivery and monitoring systems of the anti-poverty initiative, which is also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps. | |||
“We’re currently undertaking a review of the policies and operational guidelines of the program so we can further enhance and improve its delivery. We want to know what were those that we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong and set the specific areas or program components that needed to be strengthened,” she said in a consultation-dialogue with the media on 4Ps implementation. | |||
The media consultation was part of a series of engagements launched by the DSWD with 4Ps stakeholders in the country’s 17 regions. | |||
Soliman, who is also 4Ps national project director, said they have so far consulted the program’s beneficiaries, barangay health workers, day care workers, teachers, provincial governors, city and town mayors, civil society organizations, members of the House of Representatives and officials of the departments of Health, Education and the Interior and Local Government. | |||
4Ps is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to “poorest of the poor” households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14 years. | |||
The program provides beneficiaries cash grants of P500 a month for health and nutrition expenses and P300 a month per child for educational expenses. A household with three qualified children could get P1,400 monthly. | |||
The release of the benefits are subject to compliance with the 4Ps conditions such as availing of pre and postnatal care services among pregnant women; preventive check-ups, vaccines and deworming pills among children; sustenance of at least 85 percent school attendance among 3-14 year-old children and attendance to family development sessions of parents and guardians. | |||
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Parisya Taradji, 4Ps deputy national project director, said among the changes they are considering for next year is the strengthening and improvement of the program’s monitoring mechanisms. | |||
She said they specifically intend to speed up the delisting of “verified” unqualified beneficiaries of the program, which presently stands at 162,401 households. | |||
“On the average, our beneficiaries receive P1,200 of the maximum P1,400 that they can get because of their failure to comply with some of the program’s conditions. We’re aiming to improve on this aspect next year,” Taradji said. | |||
Meantime, from this year’s target of 2.34 million households, the DSWD has set the expansion of 4Ps to 3.04 million households in 2012, which is the fifth phase of its implementation. | |||
The national government earlier increased the program’s budget from P21.19 billion this year to P39.5 billion next year to cope with its planned expansion. | |||
Soliman said they intend to complete the enrollment by next year of the identified “poorest of the poor” households in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the neighboring regions based on the results of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or NHTS-PR survey earlier conducted by the agency. | |||
The DSWD is presently processing the enrollment of around 65,000 additional households in the ARMM that were covered by its expansion target of 1.3 million households for this year. | |||
Mindanao’s six regions comprise the bulk of the enrolled 4Ps beneficiaries as of last October 31 with 1,086,280 households or 48.65 percent followed by Luzon with 669,575 households or 29.99 percent and Visayas with 476,984 or 21.36 percent. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews) | |||
==MIND DA NEWS: Lessons still unlearned== | |||
*Source: http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2011/11/28/mind-da-news-lessons-still-unlearned/ | |||
*Monday| November 28, 2011 | |||
:by Mindanews | |||
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 Nov) — For the last two weeks, reports in the media about what happened in Al-barka, Basilan on October 18 have been crowded out by the Arroyo super sensational events. | |||
The International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the government and MILF ceasefire mechanisms have yet to begin their investigation on Al-barka. | |||
But on November 9, philstar.com (The Philippine Star) reported, “CIDG files multiple murder charges vs 13 MILF commanders.” The 13 included “fugitive Dan Laksaw Ansawi”. Also charged were “300 other John Does” involved “in the killing … of 19 soldiers and wounding of 15 others.” | |||
On November 17, Luwaran, the MILF official online publication, headlined: “All males in Albarka village, Basilan charged with murder” – clarifying that in Cambug the village or barangay referred to. there are only 604 registered voters more than half of the number comprised of women. The males charged must have been aged 18 and above. | |||
According to the Luwaran report, the complaint was filed on November 4 by the Western Mindanao Command legal division before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Basilan which “issued a subpoena to 8 MILF members and 300 other John Does”. The 308 were led by Commander Laksaw Dan Ansawi. Obviously, these were the same people charged by CIDG of the Philippine National Police. | |||
What do these reports show? Government agencies cannot get their acts together and they don’t follow agreed procedures. And, worse, they have not learned lessons from similar missteps in the past. | |||
Why did the military and the police file separate murder charges against the same respondents — except in the number of MILF commanders involved? | |||
Why did they preempt the investigation to be conducted by the International Monitoring Team and the Joint Coordinating Committees on Cessation of Hostilities? Both the MILF and the military have filed against each other complaints of violations of the Ceasefire Agreement through their respective CCCHs. The outcome of the probe will determine what to charge and who to be charged. | |||
Was the October 18 military-MILF encounter in violation of the ceasefire agreement? If so, the determination will be strictly according to the provisions of the 1997 Ceasefire Agreement reaffirmed in 2001. Under No. 5 of the “Ground Rules” (Article III), “The GRP and the MILF will make appropriate actions on their respective forces who violate these Implementing Guidelines and Ground Rules.” | |||
Were non-MILF members involved? If there were, they are the only ones to be charged before the regular criminal courts according to Philippine criminal laws. | |||
If the October 18 incident was not in violation of the ceasefire agreement, what was it? The IMT-JCCCH probe will determine this. | |||
The military and the police should have kept in mind the July 10, 2007 similar encounter in Guinanta also in Al-Barka where eleven of the Marines killed were beheaded. In the ensuing investigation by the JCCCH and Bantay Ceasefire, the Abu Sayyaf – not the MILF rebels – were found responsible for the beheading of the Marines. | |||
However, by the time the probe team report came out, the MILF commanders including Asnawi and also hundreds of John Does had already been charged in court with warrants of arrest issued against them. Despite the probe team’s report, the charges against Asnawi and the other MILF commanders and men were not withdrawn. | |||
Later Asnawi was arrested while boarding a plane in Zambanga City en route to Mecca for pilgrimage. He and others jailed in Basilan escaped. For that, Asnawi is a “fugitive” and “rogue MILF”. Asnawi’s being such to the military and the police and the staunch defense of Asnawi’s innocence by the MILF have triggered and complicated the last October 18 Basilan incident. MILF will not surrender Asnawi despite AFP’s vehement demand. | |||
AFP and PNP should have not preempted the joint IMT-JCCCH probe of the October18 Basilan incident. Ignoring the lessons from the July 10, 2007 incident will only fuel more military-MILF rebel confrontations in Basilan in violation of the Ceasefire Agreement. (Patricio P. Diaz, General Santos City. patpdiazgsc@yahoo.com) | |||
==Socoteco II power rates up== | ==Socoteco II power rates up== | ||
*Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/11/26/socoteco-ii-power-rates-up/ | *Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/11/26/socoteco-ii-power-rates-up/ | ||
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Representatives from both Socoteco II and SEC said they expect power supply to stabilize and power rates to go down once the new power plant begins commercial operation. | Representatives from both Socoteco II and SEC said they expect power supply to stabilize and power rates to go down once the new power plant begins commercial operation. | ||
Investors and stockholders of SEC were in Maasim Friday to lead the groundbreaking ceremonies of the power plant project which is estimated to cost a total of US$450 million or P19.4 billion. (Edwin G. Espejo/MindaNews) | Investors and stockholders of SEC were in Maasim Friday to lead the groundbreaking ceremonies of the power plant project which is estimated to cost a total of US$450 million or P19.4 billion. (Edwin G. Espejo/MindaNews) | ||
==Groundbreaking set for Conal’s $450M coal-fired power plant== | ==Groundbreaking set for Conal’s $450M coal-fired power plant== | ||