Surfing is becoming popular in Davao and an emerging sports that many enthusiasts explore the waters here.  International sports stores, Roxy and Quicksilver, started organizing events here to activate surfing. With Davao as very strong in adventure tourism, the sports tourism is also growing.  


Int'l sports brand manager promotes surfing in Davao (Sports)‏

DAVAO CITY (PNA) -- An international sports store brand manager here is promoting surfing as growing sports in the Davao Region.

Dino Gilladoga, brand manager for Roxy, Quicksilver and Delsey, said there are many surfing enthusiasts here and it is high time this was developed.

The internationally known stores are under the PRIMER Group of Companies

.

Primer is a consortium mainly engaged in the retail and distribution of the world's top consumer brands and products where its retail authority has grown to over 80 premium brands, 100 free-standing concept stores and over 600 consignment doors in the Asian region.

Gilladoga said with Davao as very strong in adventure tourism, they also wanted to be part of the growing sports tourism industry here.

“They want to activate surfing which is our main goal," he said.

He said there is growth for expansion as well because the Davao market is big.

There are already groups which had been doings sports event like this he said but not that wide and they wanted Davao on top of their list.

He said they are coordinating with the Philippine Surfing Federation and part of their long term planning is to make the sports big in areas like Davao, Luzon, Siargao, La Union and Samar and in other areas that have potentials for surfing.

"We are looking at the waters of Davao Oriental for this project and in other potential areas here," he said. (PNA) hbc/PrixDignaDBanzon/ldp/utb

Growing plants and loving them ...

At home I grow flowers, palms and other ornamental plants. I just love growing these plants.  If there is such a green thumb, then you can count me in.

Anything that I plant, the next day it is "up and about". I know this is a gift. I thank God for giving me such because in my small way I could help the environment by continuously growing plants and keeping the surroundings green.

Right in my home I could enjoy the beauty of nature and because of the plants and the trees here, birds come and visit us every day. Butterflies also come. And my mornings include among others, listening to chirping birds that rest on branches of trees and bushes around the house. 

At home while I'm writing birds keep me company just like this birdie that dropped by as if checking on me what I was busy with. Resting in a branch I took this photo upclose. This birdie so smart as if the birdie was ready for the pictorial !

Nature really is something different that one has to sincerely appreciate and it must come from the heart. My place is not that big but I just planted different plants.

I also appreciate the new technology and with my camera, my tablet and sometimes my mobile phone I see to it that I took photos of the flowers that show up from time to time in my garden and many others which caught my attention and interest, those which I can view from my bedroom window or in the veranda perhaps the rainbow, the clouds, rain, the sun, the moon. Oh so beautiful , I tell you.

Sharing you some photos so you'll have an idea what's in my garden ...

What a wonderful world we have and I'm so endlessly grateful !

Thanks for the visit  ...

D Farm is a blessing to us ...

After the Sunday morning Mass today, we did a quick visit to D Farm and talk to Nong Iko, our farm man, and his wife, Manang.

The couple help us in the farm, they tend the plants and watch over hired workers during harvest time.

Life in the farm is simple and they are happy.

D Farm is very near our residence in downtown Davao City. It can be reached by car in 30 minutes.

We got to know of the property when I was preggy with our first born.  And it was love at first sight that we decided to acquire the land.

However, we were busy that time with our respective jobs and had not given it full attention.

We just leave it that way and good that we have Nong Iko and Manang to help us in D Farm.

Hubby talking to Nong Iko

I was talking to Manang here. 

But there is something in D Farm that we are happy about.

We are blessed to have acquired this.

We are blessed to have found this.

Why ? because we are able to share this blessing to others.

D Farm is in a community in Mahayahay in Tugbok, Davao City.

There are water pumping stations in this sitio and the neighboring areas that the Davao City Water District had established.  The water that is brought down to residences, business establishments, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, in downtown areas.

But the community was left waterless despite the source of the water in their place. There were negotiations with the city water district that the residents of this community tap water connections with DCWD.

The nego took some time.  It went for years. It was difficult for them because they fetch water in pails when the source is within their area and yet could not be provided connections.

If I'm not mistaken it was after 20 years that the DCWD opened a project and they considered the barangay to put up another pumping station.

The water district was scouting for an area but none of the residents agreed to have in their property a pumping station. The price was too low and yes it was too low indeed ... with a 100 pesos rate per sq. meter, as if it was just a runaway price ... it was a giveaway price.

We didn't know about this.  It took awhile but when we learned about it, without hesitation we agreed ... because what was in our mind was the opportunity that we could share to others ... this source ... that nature continue to give us. We wanted to help ... we cannot afford to leave our neighbors and the people not sharing what we have ... so this pumping station in our property.

Water pumping station

It was a happy feeling talking to people in the community and they still remember our gesture of letting DCWD put up a pumping station in the property that we own.

I forgot about it already, but this morning, an old lady brought back to us that time that they were all happy having water right in their homes, in the kitchen, in the bathrooms.

Our next step is to maximize the production of D Farm.  Projects are being planned and for implementation within the next four months.  We wanted to give jobs to people, so also we can help them. And with God's grace, we are grateful as we count our blessings each day !

Road to D Farm

Three-day Cyber Expo, a success; to link world cyber events

The conduct of the three-day Davao Cyber Expo turned out successful with five events held simultaneously in one exposition held from July 23 to 25 at the Event Center of SM City Davao.

Kitsi Avila, of E-Squared Events and organizer of the exposition, said it was not just a mere show of gadgets and push their advocacy to make Davao City as the leading Cyber City in the Philippines but keep the youth be responsible while in the cyber space.

Avila said they are strongly advocating on anti-pornography and piracy saying that these two concerns need to be controlled and avoided.

"Our campaign is continuing and we make sure that our members follow and observe our policy and position," he said.

Avila said the Cyber Expo featured five events namely, the Cyber Games where a sports Olympics was held on DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) with top eight teams competing during the expo after they went through a pre-elimination among 45 competing teams.

The players were mostly college students and out-of-school youths; the E Games where this group also held their own tournament. The exhibitors where from Manila; the LPX or LAN Party Extreme where 80 members displayed their customize PCs costing over P100,000.

In this PC show the units were given awards as to performance levels and speed in terms of high-end games; and the Costume Players who were inspired by Anime; and Forum on Responsible Gaming.

He also said part of the expo was the Tech Extreme Exhibits where 15 companies joined.

Meanwhile, Avila said Cyber Games like DOTA is not just about playing the game. It's about sports where players develop quick decisions, reflexes and competitiveness.

"One could be able to develop the mind and reflexes and those over 22 years old are too old for the game," he said.

On the other hand, Avila said DOTA is a customer scenario for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft.

He said the objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map.

Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps".

As in role-playing games, players level up their hero and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.

He said playing DOTA will also develop their relation as a team.

The Davao Cyber Expo was able to also change the perception of adults and their hosting an exposition gave them mileage where people would understand and know better the cyber space.

He said their next move is to link with World Cyber Events and they will continue to hold more events on cyber games. (PNA) LOR DDB/lvp

Davao City hosts to foreign retirees

The Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) regional office here registered retirees from other countries that considered Davao City not only as a second home but also as investment area.

PRA-Davao chief Jaime Llanes said they also received inquiries from prospective foreign retirees wanting to locate here not only for residential purposes but for business prospects as well.

Right now there are about 300 registered retirees at PRA-Davao, mostly from South Korea, Europe and the United States.

Llanes said they remain optimistic of the prospects of the industry and together with the other sectors here particularly on tourism Davao is aggressively being pushed also in the international market of its nature sites very ideal for island-to-highland destinations.

He also said foreign retirees here contribute to the economy.

Data reported by PRA indicated that the Philippines has 20,000 foreign retirees enrolled at PRA and the government retirement authority is campaigning for more because their stay here could spur economic activities.

PRA chief Retired Gen. Edgar B. Aglipay earlier said that every foreign retiree coming to the country could create at least four jobs.

He cited for instance that if Davao would have 1,000 retirees, each of them would spend $ 1,000 monthly and that would translate to $ 1 million injected in the economy of the city within a month.

Davao has advantage over other areas in the country because of its weather and the abundance of agricultural products like fruits and vegetables as well as the availability of unspoiled resorts like beaches and the presence of good sports facilities like golf courses.

It may be recalled that Davao City was named Most Competitive City compared to the other cities in the Philippines. It ranked No. 1 in the survey of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center in 2008 in terms of the cost of doing business, infrastructure, dynamism of local economy, quality of life, human resource and training conducted by local government unit.

In the overall ranking of 10 Metro Cities in the Philippines, Davao City placed first followed by Quezon City, then Makati City, Manila City, Marikina City, 6th Lapu-lapu City, Paranaque City, Muntinlupa City, Cebu City and 10th, Pasay City. (PNA) LAP/PDB/lvp

Mayor Sara leads storytelling for Davao kids at SM City

posted @ http://www.pia.gov.ph/

by Prix D. Banzon

Davao City (23 July) -- City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio led the storytelling for Davao school children at SM City Davao Entertainment Center in time for the National Children's Book Day celebrated nationwide on July 20, 2010.

The mayor who came with her daughter Sharky took time out of her busy schedule of reading a story to children coming from 8 public elementary schools of mixed grades level from 1 to 6.

The story entitled "Emang Engkantada at ang Tatlong Haragan" is about how kids could also help protect the environment. The storytelling was accompanied by live performance adopted from the story portrayed by selected school children depicting a healthy environment and later destroyed by people.

In her brief message, Mayor Sara said she is pursuing her advocacy on school children learning not only to read but of reading and comprehension. The stories we read to our children are good source of information where they could pick some lessons.

"It is important that at a young age kids already know how to read with comprehension because I would like to share to them my experience that at age 3, I already know how to read and I want them to be taught early," she said.

She said part of her advocacy is for the teachers in the preschool under the supervision of the city government where to undergo seminar on how to teach reading to the kids.

In partnership with some private schools here our preschool teachers underwent seminar on this and I would expect them to teach what they learned to their respective students.

She said considering that the Davao City School Board is under her supervision they make sure that education for the kids will be given focus and this will be part of her priorities.

SM Davao mall manager Lynette Lopez said the storytelling is part of SM Cares project which was done simultaneously in 34 malls nationwide. The event was held in coordination with the National Book Development Board, Vibal Publishing, Inc., Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

She said corporate-wide SMs tenants numbered to 12,000 with 25,000 employees plus 3 million shoppers nationwide, they will continue to embark on projects inline with their corporate social responsibility and this includes among others activities that would encourage children to read.

"Every third Tuesday of July they will hold regular storytelling for the Davao kids. "This is our way of encouraging kids to love reading and welcome them to the wonderful world of books," she said.

Meanwhile teachers from the Magallanes Elementary School also joined the event to support their students who rendered a number on smart reading. They were trained following a specialized reading program.

Teacher Alona Tomboy who handles storytelling and Readers Theater said their school has organized the Communication Arts where this program is offered by the school during summer. It is a workshop open to students for both private and public schools of Davao City. "And we had a good number of enrollees last summer," she said.

In their school alone, she said are 400 pupils trained under ComArts mostly belonging to the honors class. These pupils are taught the right pronunciation, intonation, accent, phonetics and others.

She said it really needs discipline and focus and these kids learn fast as they too are excited to join in competition. And because of their ability, talent and performance they won in contests either on team reading, theater reading and readers reading.

"Exposing children this early is of their advantage and it gives them better opportunity especially that they had developed their self-confidence," she said.

She also said that the school reinforced the reading habit of their pupils by allocating more time on reading. Every Wednesdays pupils for both the morning and afternoon sections are given 30 minutes more for reading session. The Magallanes Elementary School has 6,000 pupils enrolled this school year.

The other teachers that hold specialized reading are Rosalina Caballero for Team Reading, Ma. Teresa Nacion for Readers Theater and Francis Tarsog for Smart Talking/Team Reading. (PIA) [top]

President Arroyo meets displaced OFWs in Davao City

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo awarded P50,000 individual checks to 25 displaced Overseas Filipino Workers coming from the different parts of Mindanao. The President was assisted by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque in a ceremony held recently at the Apo View Hotel in Davao City.

The 25 displaced OFWs came from Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Hong Kong, Laos, Thailand, Qatar who opted to avail of the livelihood assistance to start or expand existing businesses of their families.

Most of the enrolled businesses are on piggery expansion, food distribution, bakery enhancement, frozen fish trading, sari-sari store, boarding house completion, and banana production.

The initial livelihood assistance given by the President to displaced OFWs on Thursday in Davao City amounted to P1.5 million which was on top of the 35 scholarship certificates to OFWs from Mindanao who were retrenched due to the current global economic crisis.

The event is in recognition of the OFWs contribution to the economy where the Arroyo administraton mapped out this "pay back package" program.

The distribution of checks was witnessed by 600 OFWs and their families who prior to their meeting with the President were extended a techno demo on beadworks and novelty item making, ice cream making, trendy balloon making and Christmas decor making and fresh flower arrangement.

Displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) must first complete a training on livelihood of their choice before they become eligible to a loan under the Filipino Expatriates Livelihood Support Fund (FELSF).

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Region XI director Ronleonil M. Bartolome said the government has earmarked P1 billion for OFWs assistance under the FELSF. The fund he said will come from OWWA with P100 million, National Livelihood Support Fund, P100 million, Land Bank of the Philippines, P400 million and Development Bank of the Philippines, P400 million.

He said they would expect more OFWs to register with them and in Davao Region alone they already listed about 72 as of February 19.

Bartolome stressed that these OFWs must first undergo training on their desired livelihood projects which OWWA will facilitate in coordination with Department of Labor and Employment and the Technical Education Skils and Development Authority. They must also be able to come up with a business plan, he said.

He also said that they will be taught how to manage and operate the business and OWWA will strictly monitor the implementation of the livelihood project.

"This is a loan extended to OFWs with five percent interest payable in two years with two months grace period," he said.

Bartolome meanwhile said that the livelihood assistance is their regular fund assistance to OFWs which started in 1998 even as he said they would be employing a stricter monitoring system to improve on repayment rates which before in Davao Region was only at 40 percent.

Bartolome on the other hand said that they still receive request from OFWs who prefer overseas employment while the younger ones opted for the scholarship program to augment further their skills which they need for seeking jobs abroad.

Mindanao posted positive growth in social security

Mindanao posted 16 percentgrowth for SSS benefit paymentsThe island of Mindanao posted double digit growth on benefit disbursements for Social Security System (SSS) members.SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Romulo L. Neri reported that it marked a 16 percent growth in 2008 on payment for all types of benefits.

Neri said from January to September 2008, SSS paid a total of P5.92 billion in benefits, 74 percent or P4.39 billion of which is for regular pensions. Their pension disbursements for the period were actually 20 percent more than the P3.67 billion they paid for the same nine-month period in 2007. Maternity benefits rose from P105.81 million to P176.36 million, or an increase of 12 percent Seven percent more or P853.49 million were paid for lump sum payments for retirement, death, disability, and P306.09 million or five percent more for funeral claims combined payments for sickness benefits and medical services increased by two percent to P188.97 million.

Neri meanwhile encourage members to pay their monthly premiums without fail so they would be eligible for SSS salary loans when they encounter financial emergencies.

He also urged members with delinquent loan accounts to avail of the amnesty program that ends on April 30 in which the SSS condoned the penalties.

In Davao City he said the total contribution collections in Southern Mindanao for 2008 amounted to P3.54 billion. This surpassed the P3.31 billion collection in 2007 by P227.45 million for a seven percent growth.

Meanwhile Davao branch head Manolito Tagalog attributed the increase to options they offer to both employers and employees.He said aside from loan condonation and amnesty program for workers, the employers with delinquent accounts were allowed to pay on installment or through "dacion en pago" where they pay in kind of real property for non payment of workers premium but subject for assessment of the SSS. He said the property among others must be accessible for easy disposal.

He said their delinquency rate from 80 percent had been decreased and in Davao City their delinquency account is only about P70 million.Tagalog also said they now have a good ratio of benefit disbursement against their collection where few years back their disbursement was more than their collection.

Davao City has 800 ,000 active members that covers more than half of Davao Region's combined active and inactive members of 1.5 million. SSS members for both active and inactive accounted to about 24 million.

Eco stimulus fund safe area to invest, says SSS

Eco stimulus fund is safearea to invest says Neri President and Chief Executive Officer Romulo L. Neri of the Social Security System explains to the Davao media on Thursday that SSS will only engage in safe investment like the proposed P300-billion economic stimulus fund.

Neri said they are looking at this scheme because they will be lending under sovereign guarantee even as he said that it would be purely an investment which is expected to earn reasonable yield based on benchmark rates.

SSS he said eyes an investment of about P12 billion or one-fourth of the government financial institutions' share of infrastructure projects or less than five percent of the total assets of SSS. Under the Social Security Law, the SSS can finance domestic infrastructure projects provided that the investment shall be guaranteed by the Philippine government.

SSS will invest 30 percent of their funds to infrastructure and 40 percent on government securities. And all are invested in the Philippines and nothing on foreign exposure. SSS also maintains a solid balance sheet, he said.

The proposed investment still has to be finalized he said and the other financial institutions namely the Government Insurance System, Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines will come in for as long as the investment is sound.He said participating on this investment would create jobs which could probably help those would be affected SSS members because of the financial crisis.

Dabawenyos bring recyclables @ SM

With SM City Davao initiating the waste market or the "Trash to Cash" project, the people of Davao City have a place to bring unused but recyclable materials and earn some cash from it each month. SM City Davao's bid of increasing environmental awareness and Earth campaigns has inspired a lot of individuals and supported the campaign. SM City Davao responded to the planet’s cry for help and made conscious efforts of reducing the company’s carbon footprint and also encourage employees and costumers alike to be more discerning in their actions and choices with partiality to the planet’s welfare. The Trash to Cash promotes recycling as a way of fighting global warming. It corrects the common misconception that recycling is expensive as mall goers are able to sell their recycleables (paper, cartons, plastics, metals, batteries, etc.) to DENR-accredited scrap buyers during the fair ensuring them of proper disposal and earning them cash at the same time! In less than 2 years, the SM City Davao has organized 22 waste market fairs. The paper collection alone, reaching to almost 63,000 kilograms is estimated to have saved 1,258 trees, 188.75 cubic yards of landfill space, 125.83 barrels of oil- enough to fuel an average car for 79,274.88 miles, 257,957.93 kilowatts of energy- enough to power an average household for 31 years, and 3,774.99 lbs less air pollution! The next Trash to Cash is scheduled on February 6 and 7 at SM City Davao’s Parking C. So start collecting your trash and turn them into cash only at SM!

Davao sees more demand for fresh bananas this year

Many investors are looking for farm lands around Mindanao with the increasing demand of fresh bananas especially in Japan.

Gil Dureza, Board of Investment (BOI) head for Regions IX, XI and XII said the demand of foreigners on (Cavendish) bananas is a great advantage to us.

He cited for instance that with the "morning banana diet" that is popular in Japan, there is an indication that demand for the bananas would increase even as he said that many people now are getting conscious of their health and shifted to eating more bananas.

"Investors for banana production continue to come and this has been going on for years now," he said.In fact he said a new investor for banana production is the biggest among this year's investment leads.

The investor would need some 3,400 hectares either in Davao Oriental or Davao del Sur.

Meanwhile Dureza said that In 2007 banana production was also among the registered investments as Upland Banana Corporation opened new areas in Davao, Cotabato and South Cotabato and was able to employ 10,000 workers.

Data from the Department of Agricultre showed that in 2007 the production area was at 436,783 hectares with volume of production of 7,484,074 MT. The Davao Region attained the highest production area and volume of the same year of 78,647 hectares and 3,180,331 MT.

Other top producing regions include SOCCKSARGEN with 935,565 MT, Northern Mindanao 933,114 MT, Cagayan Valley 386,929 MT and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 372,676 MT.

On the other hand, banana remained as the leading export commidity where in 2008 it showed an increase of 13.49 percent as against 2007 figure.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics comparative data for the last three years from 2006 to 2008 on production volume for the period January to September showed that banana export in 2006 accounted to only 2,197,894 MT, 2007 had 2,377,424 while in 2008 it registered some 2,698,255 MT.

Melamine scare

Something good happen when the melamine issue broke out because in a far away barangay of Davao del Sur the Lao Farm that has several heads of goat as part of its integrated farm is now the source of goats milk that many consumers and even food producers sourced their supply.

There is an increase in orders that the farm produces immediately after the milk scare laden with melamine came out.

But the ten gallons of goat milk that it produces everyday is not enough to the current demand.

Cash Action for Sustainable and Healthy (CASH) Lifestyle Network president Cesar Ledesma viewed this as a positive developement for consumers already becoming conscious of safe food.

People he said would rather go for locally produce products this time.

"The scare really made an impact in the sense that people are now conscious on food safety," he said.

I think it is high time that people choose the food they eat or is it late to notice that Chinese products that flood the market around the world must be subjected first to thorough screening. What about the kids that cry out loud asking from Mom when in the supermarket to buy a bag of candies. I remember that candies of different label and packaging are displayed prominently at the entrance to get the buyers attention. I've tasted some of them (and they are chocolate) but I don't know whether those have melamine.

I bought those candies only once and did not attempt to buy again after I got an email also about Chinese produced food.

The controversy is a wake up call for consumers to be conscious on food safety.

Meanwhile i found this article on the net about goat's milk at http// www.whfoods.org which I posted below for more information about the milk

Delicious with a slightly sweet and sometimes salty undertone, goat's milk is the milk of choice in most of the world. Although not popular in the United States, it can be found in markets and health foods stores throughout the year.

Unlike cow's milk there is no need to homogenize goat's milk. While the fat globules in cow's milk tend to separate to the surface, the globules in goat's milk are much smaller and will remain suspended in solution. When individuals have sensitivity to cow's milk, goat's milk can sometimes be used as an alternative.