Philippines

Difference between revisions of "Cebu Province News March 2014"

→ → Go back HOME to Zamboanga: the Portal to the Philippines.

Cebu Province News March 2014 (view source)

Revision as of 11:17, 20 March 2014

19,293 bytes added ,  11:17, 20 March 2014
no edit summary
m (Protected "Cebu Province News March 2014" (‎[edit=autoconfirmed] (indefinite) ‎[move=autoconfirmed] (indefinite)))
Line 12: Line 12:
</table></div>
</table></div>
<!--- DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE --->
<!--- DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE --->
==Carcar City seeks Cebuanos’ support for advocacy video, photo==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=623989
*Monday, March 10, 2014
:(PNA), FFC/EB
CEBU CITY, March 10 (PNA) -- The Carcar City Government is seeking the support of the Cebuanos after their entry for advocacy video and photo was chosen as a candidate for the third Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) by a national award-giving body.
"We need everyone's support for the online voting," Carcar City information officer Candice Acuña said.
Acuña said the city government was one of the first cities in Cebu to adopt CBMS.
The CBMS is a collaboration by the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) and the Department of Interior and Local Government with the Carcar City Government.
It is aimed at institutionalizing a community-based monitoring system to generate poverty baseline data for poverty diagnosis and planning and target monitoring.
In order to vote online, one must join the Facebook account of CBMS International Network Group, then like the entries of LGU Carcar City for Best CBMS Advocacy Video and Best CBMS Photo.
The online voting period is from February 25 until March 25 at 10 p.m.
There are three entries for the Best CBMS Advocacy Video by LGUs and 22 entries for the Best CBMS Advocacy Photo.
CBMS is one of the tools developed in the early 1990s to provide policymakers and program implementers with a good information base for tracking the impact of macroeconomic reforms and various policy shocks.
It is an organized way of collecting information at the local level for use of local government units, national government agencies, non-government organizations, civil society and development partner agencies for planning, program implementation and monitoring.
==Cebu developer pioneers in solar-powered homes==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=13&rid=623519
*Sunday, March 9, 2014
:By Eddie O. Barrita [(PNA), CTB/EB/]
CEBU CITY, March 9 (PNA) -- Cebu-based real estate developer AboitizLand Inc. is pioneering the development of solar-powered homes, an official said.
Audi G. Villa, AboitizLand assistant vice president for sales, said the system will be implemented for the first time at Almiya, one of its residential projects in Cebu.
Villa said the company has partnered with leading solar panel developer Enfinity to install solar panels in its Almiya community in Canduman, Mandaue City.
Almiya, dubbed as a “complete community of the north,” offers 150 houses for its Phase 2.
Villa said 30 percent has been sold.
Almiya’s Phase 1 was reportedly sold out four months after it was launched in June 2013.
Villa said two solar panels that can provide 250 watts each will be installed per residential unit.
Enfinity business development manager Marcus Andre C. Ong said 500 watts of solar power will translate into savings of as much as P600 per month in the homeowner’s electricity bill.
“With the rising price of electricity, having a solar panel will also increase the homeowner’s savings,” Ong said.
Ong said the system is synchronized with the Visayan Electric Co.’s (Veco) line, with the incorporation of a metering system.
Homeowners will only pay for the electricity consumed from Veco’s regular power line.
In cases where the electricity generated by the solar panel exceeds the homeowner’s consumption, the homeowners can opt to sell excess electricity to Veco.
Villa said the implementation of solar panels in Almiya will have “no additional cost” during the promo period.
Former buyers of Almiya, however, will have to purchase the solar panel.
A one-kilowatt (kW) solar panel will cost around P150,000.
==Cebu Province to buy P1.96M satphones for 51 LGUs==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=13&rid=623519
*Saturday, March 8, 2014
:(PNA), CTB/EB/
CEBU CITY, March 8 (PNA) -- Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said the provincial government will buy some P1.96 million worth of satellite phones and distribute them to Cebu’s 51 towns and cities for easy reach during disasters.
Davide said telecommunications provider Smart Communications is offering a SmartSAT package at P38,500 each.
Davide said the province will subscribe to the SmartSAT package which is inclusive of a special satellite SIM with an initial airtime credit load of USD225 or around P10,000, valid for one year.
He cited the importance of communication, recalling that a day after typhoon Yolanda hit northern Cebu on Nov. 8 last year, he inspected Bantayan Island and other northern towns.
Davide thanked Smart public affairs manager Jane Paredes for lending him a Smart satellite phone at that time.
He said the satellite phones allowed him to contact town officials even when communication lines were down.
Davide said he is having second thoughts about including the cities of Talisay and Mandaue in the distribution of satellite phones, because these cities are close enough to reach even if telecommunication lines fail.
Both cities are adjacent to Cebu City, the seat of the provincial capitol.
==Mactan airport body open to improvement of Bantayan, Camotes airports==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=3&rid=622915
*Friday, March 7, 2014
:By Eddie O. Barrita [(PNA), CTB/EB/]
CEBU CITY, March 6 (PNA) -- An official of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) has expressed willingness to discuss the improvement of the airports in Sta. Fe town in Bantayan Island and San Francisco town in Camotes Island.
MCIAA General manager Nigel Paul Villarete said the airports are owned by the provincial government and were operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) under a memorandum of agreement.
However, he said, CAAP stopped operating the two airports after the MOA expired last January 2013.
The airport in Sta. Fe accommodates small private airplanes for chartered flights while the airport in San Francisco is unused.
President Benigno S. Aquino III, who visited Bantayan Island recently, pledged to help the development of the airport in Bantayan Island to make it a tourism center.
Sta. Fe Mayor Jose Esgana said he told President Aquino that the Sta. Fe airport was a legacy of the president’s mother, the late president Corazon Aquino and former Sta. Fe mayor Rizalino Esgana Sr., Mayor Esgana’s father.
Esgana has been hoping that the one-kilometer runway of the Sta. Fe airport will be fully developed.
He said only 400 meters of the runway is cemented.
Earlier, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said he wants the airports of the two islands developed.
”If the Province will decide to pursue it, then we will certainly entertain that and we will discuss that,” Villarete said.
Villarete said there has to be a discussion on the ownership, operation and control of these airports.
He said the navigation and air traffic will still be controlled by CAAP regardless of who operates the airport.
“As far as the law is concerned, we are supposed to operate all the airports of the Province of Cebu, but that does not discount the fact that anybody, any private sector or even the Province of Cebu may opt to operate an airport, but with our consent,” he said.
Villarete said a public-private partnership might be a good idea.
==PDRRM to have new chief==
*Source:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2014/03/06/pdrrm-have-new-chief-331625
*Thursday, March 6, 2014
:By Flornisa M. Gitgano
CEBU Gov. Hilario Davide III announced he will appoint Task Force Paglig-on Chief Baltazar Tribunalo Jr. as head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (PDRRM) office starting May.
He said PDRRM Officer Neil Angelo Sanchez’s contract will end in May.
“Tribunalo’s forte is disaster preparedness,” Davide said.
Meanwhile, the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) gave the Provincial Government P1 million as financial assistance to typhoon Yolanda survivors in northern Cebu.
Davide said he wants the Task Force Paglig-on to be merged with PDRRM.
The multi-sectoral task force servers as coordinating body for post-Yolanda rehabilitation and recovery activities in northern Cebu.
:No complaints
The governor said he has no complaints against Sanchez’s performance, but he did not tell reporters if he has other plans for the incumbent PDRRM officer.
Davide said Tribunalo ran for Balamban municipal councilor in 2013 and lost so he cannot be appointed to a government position. But this ban, he said, will be lifted in May.
Sanchez said in a separate interview that Davide informed him about Tribunalo’s future appointment last Monday yet.
“I respect his plan, his decision... (His) move is for the betterment of the Province,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said he is willing to work under Tribunalo, become a consultant on peace and order or be assigned to the Provincial Health Office. He added that if he would be appointed in a department where he feels ineffective, he would resign.
Tribunalo said he is willing to work with Sanchez.
Before joining the Capitol, Tribunalo was advisor on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation program of the nongovernment organization Plan International.
Yesterday, MCIAA General Manager Nigel Paul Villarete turned over a check for P1 million to Davide. He said MCIAA extended the same assistance to Leyte.
Davide said the financial assistance given will be used to buy more construction materials so survivors can rebuild and improve their houses.
==Mandaue, Tudela ink sisterhood ties==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/metro-cebu/2014/03/05/1297299/mandaue-tudela-ink-sisterhood-ties
*Wednesday, March 5, 2014 12:00 am
:By Flor Z. Perolina (The Freeman)
CEBU, Philippines - The Mandaue City government and the municipality of Tudela in Camotes Island yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding for a sisterhood relationship.
Tudela Mayor Erwin Yu, Vice Mayor Greman Solante and their municipal councilors were in Mandaue City yesterday afternoon for the MOU signing with Mayor Jonas Cortes in the session hall of the City Hall.
The idea of a sisterhood pact came from Solante after the Mandaue City officials visited Camotes last Jan. 28  to extend financial assistance to the four towns of the said island which were totally devastated by last year's super typhoon.
Solante informed Cortes that most of their constituents are presently working in Mandaue City.
After both government units agreed for the forging of the sisterhood pact, the municipal council of  Tudela then took the initiative and passed a resolution expressing their intention to establish sisterhood relationship with Mandaue City.
In return, the Mandaue City Council approved last Feb. 24 a resolution authored by City Councilor Diosdado Suico expressing the pleasure and acceptance in good faith  the intention of the town of Tudela to establish the sisterhood.
The areas where both government units will be closely working on include economics, tourism and education.
Earlier, the town of  Tudela received a P300,000 financial aid from the Mandaue City government.  Officials from the town said they will use the amount to tend their one-hectare cacao nursery. They said as a manufacturing city, Mandaue can benefit from the products of this cacao nursery.
Other towns in Camotes which received financial aid from the city were Poro, P300,000; Pilar, P300,000; and San Francisco, P400,000.
==Cebu attracts another oil exploration firm==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=3&rid=622061
*Tuesday, March 4, 2014
:By Eddie O. Barrita [(PNA), CTB/EB/]
CEBU CITY, March 4 (PNA) -- Cebu has attracted another oil firm, China International Mining Petroleum Company Ltd. (CIMPCL), which will start drilling for oil in the southwestern town of Alegria, Cebu next month.
Vladimir Gerchikov, CIMPCL manager in the Philippines, said they are working with Polyard Petroleum Company Ltd.
He said they already have a contractor willing to conduct the drilling in the mountain barangay of Montpeller, Alegria, some 120 kilometers south of Cebu City.
Gerchikov said the local government supports the oil exploration activity.
“Our project is one of the major projects for Cebu and the people of Cebu will highly benefit in case we will have commercial quantity of oil,” he said.
Earlier, Australian firm Gas2Grid announced plans to conduct oil flow tests in the southern town of Aloguinsan in the next few months.
Dennis Morton, Gas2Grid managing director, said if there’s a commercial quantity of oil, the firm will file an application with the DOE to operate and develop the field for 25 years.
Gas2Grid had announced that the DOE approved its application to declare Malolos 1 an oil discovery.
Department of Energy (DOE) Visayas Director Antonio Labios said the test flow will determine the commercial viability of the discovered oil.
==City to mark day for health workers==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/metro-cebu/2014/03/02/1296248/city-mark-day-health-workers
*Monday, March 3, 2014 12:00 am
:By Garry B. Lao (The Freeman)
CEBU, Philippines - The Talisay City government has adopted Republic Act 10069 or an Act Declaring May 7 of each year as Health Workers' Day.
To better celebrate the occasion, the city council approved a resolution asking the Cebu provincial government for financial assistance in the amount of P225,000.
City Councilor Francis Richard Aznar, chairman of the committee on health, said the community health workers are dedicated individuals "who function along a continuum ranging from individual and communal development to service delivery promoting community improvement and social justice."
"They link people to health care information and services," Aznar said.
"In upholding the legacy of service, community health workers as basic health service providers to the grassroots level will be recognized for their immense accomplishments," read the resolution approved recently by the council.
Aznar said the one-day celebration is the city government's initiative to give recognition to health workers' "utmost care and dedication" to Talisaynons in providing basic health services.
Specifically, the city government is asking for financial assistance from Governor Hilario Davide III in the amount of P75,000 and P50,000 each from Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, Provincial District Board Members Raul Alcoseba and Julian "Teban" Daan for the celebration.
Last 2010, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed R.A. 100691 that declares May 7 of each year as Health Workers' Day.
The act enjoins all the heads of government health facilities, offices and instrumentalities, including government-owned and controlled hospitals and local government health units, and employers in the private sector to give employees sufficient time to celebrate Health Workers' Day.
The law refers to health workers as persons engaged in health and health-related work regardless of their employment status, including medical, allied health professional, administrative and support services personnel, and those employed in hospitals, sanitaria, health infirmaries, health centers, rural health units, barangay health stations and clinics and such other health-related establishments owned and operated by the government or its political subdivisions with original charters or by the private sector.
==Nearly 3.3 million tourists visited Central Visayas last year despite quake, ‘Yolanda’==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=620969
*Sunday, March 2, 2014
:(PNA)
CEBU CITY—A total of 3,292,606 foreign and domestic tourists visited Central Visayas last year, despite the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Bohol and Cebu provinces last October 15 and Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) that devastated Eastern Visayas last November 8, according to a Department of Tourism in Region 7 (DOT 7) report.
The figure represents a 12.45-percent increase from the 2.9 million visitors recorded in 2012 and surpassed the original target of 3.03 million tourists for 2013.
DOT 7 Regional Director Rowena Montecillo said domestic tourism fueled the growth in arrivals, specifically in the fourth quarter, when the temblor and super typhoon hit the region.
Total domestic-tourist arrivals in Central Visayas grew by 13.13 percent to 1,980,155 in 2013 from 1,750,385 the year before, while foreign-tourist arrivals increased by 12.28 percent to 1,304,233 last year from the 2012 figure.
Cebu had the biggest number of tourist arrivals with 2,462,794, followed by Bohol (338,763), Negros Oriental province (457,618) and Siquijor (33,431).
Arrivals from South Korea, still the region’s top tourist market, grew by 17.13 percent from 449,856 in 2012 to 526,920 last year, while arrivals from the United States grew by 10.46 percent to 115,093 last year from the 2012 figure.
Arrivals from China slightly grew by 0.96 percent to 54,421, while arrivals from Australia rose by 19.69 percent to 40,692.
Arrivals from Taiwan grew by 27.57 percent to 25,734, while arrivals from Canada grew by 55.63 percent from 16,535 in 2012 to 25,734 in 2013.
Germany logged 25,435 arrivals; the United Kingdom, 25,021; and France, 20,462.
Arrivals from Russia, considered an “opportunity market,” grew by 25.48 percent to 15,227.
Montecillo said the growth of these top markets stemmed from the aggressive tourism campaigns both in the local and international travel markets.
DOT 7 is targeting 3.6 million arrivals this year, 4.4 million for 2015 and 5.8 million for 2016.
==US envoy turns over 1,500MT of rice to DSWD-7, WFP==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=620969
*Saturday, March 1, 2014
:(PNA), LAP/EB/
CEBU CITY, Feb. 28 (PNA) -- United States Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg turned over 1,500 metric tons of rice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Region 7 and the World Food Programme (WFP) Thursday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, in his visit to typhoon-devastated Tacloban City last December, announced that the US Government would deliver 5,000 metric tons of rice for survivors of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which pummeled central Philippines last November 8.
Another 3,500 metric tons are expected to arrive in March.
The donation can feed 500,000 people for a month, according to a press release of the US Embassy in Manila.
“This assistance signifies once again the commitment of the American people to be a partner in rebuilding the lives of so many affected by Typhoon Yolanda,” Goldberg said.
When the rest of the rice assistance arrives, the US Government will have donated a total of 8,400 tons of high-quality rice to typhoon survivors.
“We are hopeful that this contribution will help put food on the table, and help prevent acute malnutrition especially among children,” said Gloria Steele, mission director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
DSWD 7 Director Mercedita Jabagat and WFP Deputy Country Director Asaka Nyangara were present during the turnover ceremony at the J. King Warehouse Complex on A.C. Cortes Ave., Mandaue City.
Jabagat said the DSWD has so far spent P2 billion for the food packs distributed to typhoon survivors.
Prdims
325,636

edits

Retrieved from "https://zamboanga.com/z/index.php?title=Special:MobileDiff/709830"