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

Many BPOs are looking at the provinces at this time that these companies are aiming for expansion. Real properties here are also being readied as most of these companies want to come and start the business thus their required of "plug and play".  Big malls had allocated spaces for these investors and in fact these two US-run BPOs already picked an area that would satisfy their requirements.  These are some of the new developments here even as many are excited of their coming as it would mean job opportunities, economic growth and vibrant business climate. Here's a story of Davao City opening doors to new investors ...

Two US-run BPOs locating in Davao City‏

DAVAO CITY, Aug. 14 (PNA) -- Two U.S.-run Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) companies are locating in Davao City, according to an Ayala Land executive.

Rowena Tomeldan, Ayala Land head of Operations and Support Services Commercial Business Group, confirmed that the two BPOs are locating at Abreeza Mall along J.P. Laurel Avenue, Bajada, this city.

But Tomeldan did not give details and the identities of the companies but said the investors are locating either end of 2012 or first quarter of 2013.

Abreeza Mall has available BPO office space of 9,000 square meters, she said.

Tomeldan said the nature of their development is mix use that is why Abreeza goes with a Mall, BPO, a condominium, a hotel and a lot more.

She said Ayala Land's objective of locating here is to "bring the best in Davao and give the best to Dabawenyos".

"We are misinterpreted as high-end market," she said but clarified that they offer a good mix of affordable and premium products to consumers.

Tomeldan said they use research and study to achieve their goal and know their market even as they provide opportunities to Manila-based investors and make available the property to local home-grown entrepreneurs as well.

"And we want them to grow with us," she said.

She said these home-grown traders could be anchors for tourists or foreign shoppers in promoting the products of Davao and the crafts, culture and tradition of the locals.

Alongside with the BPO, she announced the opening of their 180-room hotel, the Kukon, on the first quarter of 2013.

She said they want Abreeza to be a landmark in Davao and the second home to Dabawenyos.

Meanwhile, she said their Centrio in Cagayan de Oro City will open in October, another project in partnership with Anflocor.

Tomeldan said the Mindanao market continues to grow and there is always room for growth and possible expansion in the future.

To date, she said Ayala Land has a total of 22 new development projects across the country. (PNA) LAM/DDB/ldp/utb

This article I write focuses on the involvement of indigenous peoples on coffee production. It's interesting to know their participation and the industry sector's interests and plans of propagating the production of coffee. I am a coffee addict and drinks coffee be it brewed, latte, cappuccino ... it's a happy feeling when sipping a hot cup while writing.  Take a look at this article about Davao's coffee farm expansion project under private and public partnership. 

Davao Lumads to benefit from DA’s coffee farm expansion

The Department of Agriculture (DA) Davao’s target of some 1,200-hectare expansion of coffee farms will benefit mostly indigenous peoples (IPs) or Lumads in the region to be planted for both the Robusta and Arabica varieties.

Melanie Provido, head of DA Davao high value crops development program, said DA has a three-year program for Robusta coffee variety where the expansion program covers about 700 hectares.

On the other hand, Provido said the Arabica variety will be propagated to some 500 hectares in Davao City by Rocky Mountain Arabica Coffee Company. The identified areas are in barangays Carmen, Calinan, Cebulan, Toril and in Salaysay, Tamayong and Marilog.

She said these are convergence areas of DA, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the provincial government headed by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario and the local government units (LGUs).

The area, she said is also in support to the program of the provincial LGUs to develop areas of indigenous people's (IPs) as well as support them (IPs) on their livelihood. Todate, about 500 hectares are now planted into this variety in Talaingod town in Davao del Norte.

Provido said included in the three-year program is also the setting up of common service area (CSA) where it provides post harvest facilities like dryer, coffee roaster and dehaulers which can serve areas of about 10 hectares. The CSA is facilitated through people's organization or farmers' association so that each farmer can have access the facilities.

The Robusta program is also in collaboration with Nestle Philippines as the company aside from marketing support where they put up a buying station in Tagum City also provides training to farmers on new technologies and other related concerns.

Provido said of the 100 percent requirement of the company, it only gets 27 to 30 percent from here and the 70 percent is imported from countries including Vietnam.

She said the company realized that instead of supporting farmers abroad as they buy their beans from them, they have partnered with DA and LGU for the propagation and developing of more coffee farms in the region.

Buying price of Robusta coffee is at P90 to P120 per kilo of the Class A type.

However, Provido said the reason coffee farms here cannot meet the demand is because of low production yield where on the average a hectare is supposed to yield at one ton, farmers' produce per hectare is only pegged at 600 kilos per hectare per year.

She said 70 percent of the coffee trees need rejuvenation as majority of these are about 35 to 40 years old. Poor production management and adaptation of new technologies are reasons that contribute to low production.

Meanwhile, the Arabica project is now being finalized with Rocky Mountain as they intend to develop some 100 hectares of coffee farms.

The DA, she said will match the coverage of the company by also targeting also the number of hectares that Rocky Mountain will develop.

Provido said Rocky Mountain will put in investments as well as processing facilities even as she said aside from providing the market with supply of raw materials, they also have plans of exporting the beans.

She said the company specified that it wants to invest in areas covered by IPs as they also would want to support the livelihood of farmers. (PNA)

LAP/Digna D. Banzon/ldp

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]

Mothers turned entrepreneurs thru veggie farming

(Feature)
Mothers turned entrepreneurs thru veggie farming

PANABO CITY, Davao del Norte, July 19 (PNA) -- It started with a backyard vegetable garden but with the aid of Davao City-based non-government-organization, they became regular suppliers of vegetables in the market.

These mothers of Sitio Tagurot, Barangay Nicolas, this city decided to bond together when Baba's Foundation, Inc. (BFI) reached out to them so they could improve their farming, provided they have to organize themselves, undergo seminars on basic business operations and maintain sound financial procedures.

BFI executive director Cristera Racosalem-Epal said that although they avail of loans at minimal amount, what is important is for them to know the basics in terms of lending and repayment.

She said they need to build their credit standing as well as build trust among themselves for continuity of the project.

One mother, Anita A. Monsanto, said kinahanglan gyud ang disiplina dili lang sa pamaagi sa pagtanom ug gulay apan sa imong loan para ma mintinar ang maayong relasyon namo sa BFI nga maoy nagtabang sa amo ug sa among pagbayad sa loan. (Discipline is the key not only in vegetable planting but also with our relation to BFI that help us and with our loan repayment).

"We found these mothers going to the right direction insofar as their vegetable farming operation is concerned because of their good credit standing," she said.

She said marginalized as they are, they were able to follow the techniques that brought mark improvement in their living.

Monsanto said there was a big difference between their lives in the 90s compared now when they followed the correct farming techniques and some basic business operations.

She said that before, aside from the lack of capital to support their operation, they had difficulty in the marketing as they had to pass through layers of middle men and not getting a good price of their products.

She also said there was an improvement in their income and they were able to send their children to school and build a house and acquire some appliances and other farm implements.

With each mother occupying about a hectare lot, they maximized their production by covering all areas of planting vegetables and with the loan they sourced out from BFI, they can now employ workers of at least two during planting and harvesting. The maintenance of the farm is left to the members of the family.

These mothers also formed the Tagurot Center 1 as their bagsakan center, where they deliver their proceeds and the BFI consolidates their produce for delivery to the market.

Both the BFI and the group check the prevailing price in the market.

Emily S. Comaling, BFI technical support staff, said there was check and balance as to the prices in the market.

She said there was a minimal mark up and this would go to the group's association.

Epal said these mothers were just among their beneficiaries of Sustainable Marketing with Information Link Enterprise (SMILE) Project, a project extended to poor communities.

The SMILE kicked off in March 2008 where it organized the ASTIG (Asosasyon sa mga Tiggama). It also organized membership and identified the leaders for the market matching and linking agri products among the target beneficiaries.

Eight ASTIG units were organized in the communities of Kiotoy, San Nicolas, Malabog, Fatima, Indangan, Panunlungan and Mudiang. The ASTIG units at present are engaged in corn trading, rice trading in bulk, and buy and sell of vegetables and fruits.

She said their repayment rate was at 97 percent and borrowers payment were done weekly even as she attributed the high rate with their unique "sitdown" approach, where technical support staff engage in a one-on-one monitoring and support to those borrowers on default, come up with a doable scheme until such time that the payment becomes active.

Epal said they started with this program in 2002 with only P250,000 as initial fund window. Now they have 4,000 beneficiaries around the island of Mindanao with total fund exposure of P20 million.

Epal said the P20 million fall under their program on DREAMS (Development Resources Thru Entrepreneurship Alternative Management System). Sixty percent of the fund is dedicated to Alalayan or Alalay Sa Kabuhayan, a program for low income families.

The BFI, she said, was being supported by the Foundation for a Sustainable Society, Inc. (FSSI).

Miriam Azurin, advocacy officer of FSSI, said the foundation was supported by the Swiss government through fund allocation of US$ 14 million in 1995 that financed projects geared towards sustainable economic development of marginalized communities in the Philippines. In 2008 total fund accounted to US$ 81.1 million.

She said the projects that they supported through loans or grants must focus on eco-enterprise resource that carries the triple bottom lines on economic viability, social equity and ecological soundness.

As of 2008, Azurin said it had a total beneficiaries of 183 eco-enterprises both for loans and grants with total portfolio of P443 million.

She said FSSI was the recipient of the proceeds of a debt reduction agreement between the governments of the Philippines and Switzerland in 1996.

The agreement was a result of a joint lobby effort between Swiss and Philippine NGOs. (PNA) PDB

Davao City to celebrate Universal Children Day on November 20

The city government of Davao is spearheading the celebration of the Universal Children's Day on Nov. 20 in recognition of promoting the best interest of children.

City councilor Angela Librado, action officer of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for children's concern, said the celebration was meaningful because it would be the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

She said more programs had been pushed by the Davao City government and with that, the city was named as most child-friendly city. No other city throughout the nation has been doing it, she said.

Librado said many child related projects had been implemented in the city, although she said more push would needed if only to make a balance between advocacy and issues related to children.

"What is worth knowing is that the level of awareness on the Rights of Children is high among the children themselves and the adults," she said.

She said they were focusing their programs on the rights of children so that advocacies would be sustained.

She admitted, however, that the institutionalization of programs included ordinances and laws for protection of children, but the implementation had remained low.

Meanwhile, Librado said the Children's Month and the City Council for the Welfare of Children, with the active support and participation of the Davao City Sangguniang Kabataan Federation, made possible the three-day Citywide Children's Congress with 100 children representatives elected their representatives to the Executive Committee of the Davao City Council for the Welfare of Children (DCCWC).

She said this was a clear manifestation of the growing children's participation in the city's governance even as she said that the city government had been showing its commitment to the goals of survival, protection, development and participation of the children.
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Davao City beefs up monitoring of tourism related establishments

An all out monitoring and inspections of tourism related establishments is being conducted by a team composed of different departments of the Davao City government to ensure that safety and sanitation is being thoroughly implemented.

City tourism department head Rizal Giovanni Aportadera said they conduct unannounced inspections to check whether these establishments adopt what was stipulated in their business registration.

"We pay particular attention on restrooms and the cleanliness of the area and non compliance means their renewal for tourism accreditation be denied," he said.

He said these establishments need to renew their tourism accreditation and they will not hesitate to cancel or deny renewal if they found them violating the rules.

So far he said for those found with deficiencies readily comply with the recommendations given them by the team.

And with the coming Kadayawan Festival he said they warned the establishments that actions against violators will be toughed once tourists and other visitors would complain about the condition of their establishments including poor service.

He said they had been projecting the city as tourist destination and this should be maintained by everybody more especially with the tourism related establishments.

Earlier he said that since last year to this date Davao City ranks third tourist destinations in the country following Cebu and Boracay. Arrivals remain positive and hotels and restaurants continue to be fully booked.

Davao ICT master plan for discussion at Summit

The results of the ongoing consultations of key players in the ICT sector will be inputed to a master plan that will set a clear direction with regards business process outsourcing (BPO) businesses in Davao City.

Andrei Fournier, member of the board of advisers of ICT Davao said there has to be clear direction both for the local government unit and the business sector addressing some concens that need to be acted immeditely. And this has to form part of the master plan that will be discussed thoroughly during the Davao ICT Summit on August 6 to 7, 2009.

Among the immediate concern he said is on broadband connection where it is more expensive say for a T1 of 1.5 mbps that would cost about P50,000 to P100,000 monthly which is more than Manila corporate, the cost includes the bringing of the bandwidth from Manila to Davao. The service also has to be improved, he said.

"Putting up the structure here with Davao City considered as the IT hub in the island would save on cost. We need to bring in the Telcos and for them to come up with a disaster recovery plan citing what happened when the line was cut in Bukidnon a month ago causing tremendous damage to the industry," he said.

He said they want broadband networks build newer infrastructures and to also bring down the cost here.

Davao City ranking 4th among the cities in the country as IT destination is an opportunity that should be considered seriously by addressing some problems he said because once not acted might put us down as preferred area.

Power outages that are occasionally experienced here Fourneir noted is an area that has to be studied as this would also affect connectivity.

Davao City right now has five big call centers namely Concentrix, Sutherland, Cybercity, Western Wats and Call Box plus other medium size bringing to 13 the more active ones, he said.

These five big call centers he said are biggest employers of call center agents but these companies also face the problem of lack of middle managers saying that this is also the concern of other prospective investors. Training workers for middle manager positions is one concern that the ICT sector here need to address, he said.

He said for a big size BPO it would need about 20 to 30 middle managers and this estimates include supervisors and team leaders.

Space is also another area to look at as landowners still have to understand the business. This is an area that the city could attract locators because BPOs are looking at better price for space rentals.

He said in Manila cost of rental is about P400 to P600 per sq. m. but here some is offering at P350 to P500 per sq. m., he said.

He said the demand is big and looking at last year's revenues, 2008 registered an earning of 4.8 billion US dollars in the Philippines employing some 650,000 workers. Davao IT call centers agents and support personnel accounted to 60,000 which he said they aim to bring the figure up to 100,000 in 2010. (Digna D. Banzon)

Davao prepares for Earth Hour

Stakeholders of Davao City bond together and discussed the campaign as it will join in the global event of Earth Hour on March 28, 2009 between 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

During the media launch of Earth Hour on Thursday, March 12 at Marco Polo Davao, Margie Moran-Floirendo, chairperson of Southern Philippines Foundation for Arts, Culture and Ecology and president emeritus of Save Davao Gulf Foundation said the event is just symbolic encouraging the people to join the campaign of saving the environment.

She said the activity is beyond Earth Hour even as she said that change of lifestyle start with everyones home.

Davao City Councilor Leo Avila III, council chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources said that they already passed a resolution where the Davao City government supports the conduct of the Earth Hour here.

Avila likewise said that several ordinancdes and resolutions are crafted to strengthen the campaign on environmental protection.

The campaign for more participants to this year's Earth Hour is massive as Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said that they aim to reach 10 million supporters this year as against the 2008 Earth Hour that only had one million.

He said they had been going to places around the country to seek the support of both government and the private sector.

He said in 2008, the Philippines ranked nine among the countries that carried the Earth Hour around the world.

"We want to come big this year and in fact there will be four cities in the country where the Earth Hour will be carried live on television," he said.

He said in Davao City there will be two sites for the holding of the event, one at SM City Davao and the other at the People's Park.

He said if Dabawenyos could mobilize big and interesting event as this could be shown worldwide as part of documentation.

Narzalina Z. Lim, president of Asia Pacific Projects, Inc. encouraged stakeholders to tell the people about Earth Hour.

"Unlike in the global financial crisis, the global warming has not bailout that is why we have to work now to effect mitigation so we can see complete results before the end of the century," she said.

Atty. Armi Jane Borje, liaison officer for Earth Hour Mindanao, Office of Secretary, Department of Energy calls on the people to support Earth Hour by simply Switching Off lights as a way of joining the world in sending global message of hope and action to everyone.

She said this is a step address the signs of climate change even as she urge the public to support SWITCH, a social mobilization movement that seeks to demonstrate how ordinary Filipinos and specific sectors of Philippine society contribute sustantively through fundamental changes in lifestyle, behavior or standard practices needed to address the dire consequences of unstable oil prices and climate change.

She said it is also a call to switch from wasteful to efficient energy practices beginning with lighting in workplaces, buildings, homes and public places.

She also said that individuals are encouraged to switch from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamp s (CFLs) and other energy-efficient lighting technologies.

In line with the Earth Hour activity, the public is enjoined to sign-up at the Earth Hour official website at www.earthhour.org.

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.

PGMA visits Davao hydro power project; meets beneficiaries in Davao del Sur

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Barangay Sibulan Thursday morning where she was briefed on the Hedcor, Inc.'s P5.1-billion Sibulan Hydropower Project (SHP) that is expected to generate 42.5 megawatts (MW) of power.

During the visit, President Arroyo was given the briefing by Hedcor president and chief operations officer Rene Ronquillo.

Ronquillo told the President that the hydro project is expected to be finished in October 2009. With 60 percent of the works completed, they were able to employ 1,100 workers mostly coming from Barangay Sibulan and neighboring areas, he added.

The project entails the construction of two cascading run-of-river hydropower plants that will harness the Sibulan and Baroring Rivers in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

Once operational, the SHP will generate carbon neutral electricity that will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more that 95,000 tCO2e. It is the largest investment of the Aboitiz Power in the hydropower generation business.

Hearing this, the President took note of the efforts of the private sector like Hedcor in helping the government in its "green" programs and job generation.

She said the government's job is to make sure that it (goverment) is hospitable to investors.

She was also pleased to hear of Hedcor's other power projects already in the pipeline like the Tamugan Hydropower Project in Davao City.

The President, while at the SHP Plant B, interacted with some beneficiaries of the hydro project such as Ariel Aninipot, who told her about the development brought by the project to their community including the lighting of some areas in the barangay. He is employed as liaison officer of the project.

George Concepcion, a farmer, told the President that with Hedcor's rehabilitated road, it is easier for him to bring his produce to the market.

Rogelio Manapol, tribal leader, said their sector, the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), will now be able to enjoy their royalty share from the project. The IPs get a share of one centavo per kilowatt hour of energy produced.

After her 30-minute visit to the hydropower project site, President Arroyo proceeded to Cagayan de Oro City for the 18th Convention of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines at Pryce Hotel and the Bridging and Skills Re-training Program at SM City Cagayan.

Meanwhile, Hedcor, Inc. chairman and chief executive officer Erramon Aboitiz said they are just awaiting the water rights they applied with the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) for their Tamugan hydro power project located in the Davao City area.

He said that they are hopeful to pursue the project this year.

The Tamugan River is the same river the Davao City Water District is developing as another source of potable water for Davao City residents. (Photos by Mae Gevera)

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.

To pump prime the economy, funds are ready to fund Mindanao rural infra

There is budget for implementation of rural infrastructure project in Mindanao.

Director Helena B. Habulan of the Municipal Development Finance Office of the Department of Finance said there is budget and this is more than the $10 million funding under the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) for the first set of projects for implementation within the first six months this year.

"We have the budget that can cover more than the $10 million fund and there is about P1.3 billion to be spent this year in Mindanao rural projects," she said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) as what Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras said the rural infrastructure is upon instruction of President Arroyo for their department to focus more on infrastructrure development in Mindanao and with the MRDP phase 2 some $10 million is programmed for implementation of infrastructure projects for the first semester this year.

The implementation will take within next two months and this would consists of farm to market roads, cold storage, post harvest facilities and rehabilitation of irrigation systems.

The rural infra project aims to generate employment especially during this time of crisis and the MRDP is a program implemented under DA geared towards alleviation of the poor communities in Mindanao and jointly funded by World Bank, DA and the local government units.

World Bank team leader Carolina F. Geron said the release of funds will given directly to the LGUs even as she said that the process went through consultation with them and the LGUs and the communities and the DA.

The projects pass through national competitive bidding and part of the agreement is to allocate 70 percent of labor to be taken from the local communities and this type of intervention will have impact at the local level.

The implementers of the program are accountable of the project the WB representative said and Geron continued that it is important to really build their capacity.

Anti-corruption measures she said are embodied in the MRDP projects and their role is to ensure that measures are implemented in all the projects.

The $10 million fund or P586 million comprises 90 percent of farm to market road, 6 percent potable water system, 2 percent for single bridges, and 2 percent on irrigiation projects. Another P200 million is for livelihood assistance and P40 million for protection and sustainable management of natural resources.

MRDP 2 covers 27 provinces in Mindanao and 225 town of the 400 municipalities of the island with 75 subprojects. The rural infa component under MRDP 1 covered only 19 municipalities with total project cost of P160.889 million for the 25 subprojects on the ground.