MORE NEWS, BAGUIO CITY

Cordillera body urges electric coops to convert as stock coops
By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Regional Development Council is supporting the registration of electric cooperatives from the National Electrification Administration to the cooperative Development Authority to make member-consumers more participative in decision-making which would advance the interest of the general public in terms of the national government’s rural electrification program.

The Cordillera RDC urged the bicameral conference committee on the proposed amendment to the Cooperative code of the Philippines to hasten finalization of its report for ratification of both chambers since one of the salient provisions introduced in the amendment is that electric cooperatives must register with the CDA.

At present, nineteen out of the one hundred nineteen electric cooperatives, including the Abra Electric Cooperative (ABRECO) in the cordillera, have opted to register with the CDA.

According to the RDC, electric cooperatives registering with the CDA would mean that members are considered owners of the cooperative s and that they have greater involvement in the decision-making process, pay lower electricity cost and have a more transparent audit system.

In 1973, former President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued Presidential Decree 269 mandating the organization of electric cooperatives and their subsequent registration with the NEA to promote rural electrification in a bid to provide electricity to the over 42,000 barangays nationwide.

However, Republic Act (RA) 6938 or the Cooperative Code of the Philippines provides electric cooperatives the option to be registered with the NEA or the CDA.

For the NEA-registered electric cooperatives, management decisions greatly emanate and influenced by the NEA.

The RDC emphasized electric cooperatives through their monthly bill payments regularly pay the amortization of the loans of the electric cooperative and as such should have a more significant role in the cooperative decision-making process.

The regions policy-making body cited the output of the bicameral conference report on the amendment of the Cooperative code of the Philippines for the registration of electric cooperatives to the CDA is in response to the persistent clamor of member-consumers of electric cooperatives.

Earlier, the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reform (NASECOR) in the cordillera passed Resolution No. 2008-11 strongly supporting the registration of electric cooperatives with the CDA as this empowers the consumer-members to be the genuine owners who will ensure efficient and effective management of the electric cooperatives.

Gerardo P. Verzosa, general manager of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) with franchise area in Baguio City and Benguet, said the imposition of franchise taxes on the electric cooperatives by the local government units (LGUs) is still undergoing debate especially on the basis on where to compute the supposed tax.

The collection of franchise taxes from electric cooperatives is one of the offshoots of the amendments of the Cooperative code which does not exempt electric cooperatives from the payment of taxes unlike other forms of cooperatives.

Verzosa explained it would be unfair if they will be taxed based on their gross sales when 82 percent of their income is being used to pay power it buys from the power generating companies.
Under the law, electric cooperatives will have to pay one half of one percent of its gross sales as their franchise taxes to the local government units within their areas of operation. -- Dexter A. See

Baguio City tops web search for tourist site
By Larry Madarang

BAGUIO CITY — The word “ Baguio ” was cited as top keyword people searched for 2008 according to one of the top search engines based here.

Yahoo Philippines in its website “top searches 2008” tagged Baguio as the top with Batangas coming in as number two, followed by Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, Davao, Manila, Palawan, Puerto Galera, Siargao.

These places in the Philippines were tagged as the top ten keywords searched by people at the Yahoo Philippines search engine for the year 2008 and are identified under the “Byahe” category of the site.

Other top inquires and categories for the year 2008 for the search engine are: Angel Locsin, celebrities; Amazing Race Asia, TV shows; Arnel Pineda, music; Barrack Obama, news; Ako Si Kim Sam Soong, our flavor; eeePC, tech and info; Chris Tiu, leisure; and the currency converter for the sari-sari category.

Council seeks Abra-Kalinga road rehab
BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Regional Development Council urged the national government to fund rehabilitation of the Bangued-Boliney-Pasil-Tabuk road to spur economic development in remote towns of Abra and Kalinga, two of the conflict-stricken areas in the region, to achieve peace in the reas.

The region’s policy-making body cited improvement of road networks and infrastructure projects like the Bangued-Boliney-Pasil-Tabuk road are sectors that need attention to facilitate demands of growing agricultural needs, literacy and health services in the different parts of the region, especially the far flung communities which are not accessible to transportation because of lack of roads.

Undersecretary Hermenegildo Dumlao of the North Luzon Growth Quadrangle Area had been advocating for the immediate opening of the Boliney-Pasil road to connect the existing Bangued-Boliney Road to the Tabuk-Pasil road to enhance economic activities in the remote areas.

The regional Department of Public works and Highways had completed the required technical survey and project guide for the improvement and rehabilitation of the Bangued-Boliney-Pasil-Tabuk road which were eventual submitted to the NLGQA and the DPWH central office two years ago for inclusion in future commitments to be made by the Arroyo administration for the Cordillera.

According to the RDC, the improvement of the Bangued-Boliney, Pasil-Tabuk road would bring about development in the Abra and Kalinga provinces, open up the municipalities and barangays traversed to the capital towns of the adjoining provinces and consequently, to the neighboring regions and would open up and pave the way for the municipality of Boliney to transport its farm products to the neighboring provinces of Kalinga and Mountain Province and vice versa.

Furthermore, the new road network would eventually lessen travel time and make travelling from Abra to Kalinga and vice versa more convenient and it would serve as an alternative route to the Abra-Kalinga road, which is so far the only national road connecting the two provinces.

Earlier, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Kalinga passed on June 10, 2008 Resolution No. 2008-269 and Resolution 2008-270 endorsing the multi-million road project to Kalinga Rep. Manuel S. Agyao and Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. for funding purposes especially for inclusion in the State of the Nation (SONA) projects of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to complete the rehabilitation and upgrading of the cordillera roads, particularly those linking remote communities which are potential growth areas that would contribute in the region’s economic growth.

Pasil town is known to be a mineral-rich area in Kalinga while Boliney is one of the agricultural areas in Abra which produce quality agricultural crops being traded in the various markets of the province and the Ilocos region. -- Dexter A. See

Treatment facility urged for Baguio hospital toxic wastesBAGUIO CITY -- The Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) has asked the city government here to speed up the purchase of a “more efficient” treatment technology for the city’s infectious hospital wastes.

HCWH-SEA executive director Merci Ferrer said in a statement that Baguio must soon have a centralized treatment facility for such wastes.

She said her group agreed with Baguio officials and the administrators of seven tertiary hospitals there last September that a centralized treatment facility is the “immediate and long-term solution” to the city’s hospital waste problem.

Since July last year, chemically treated wastes from Baguio hospitals had not been collected by the city government due to the lack of a treatment facility for chemical and hazardous wastes at the Metro Clark waste management facility.

This forced the hospitals to handle the final disposal of their own treated wastes. The seven hospitals churn out 9,708 kilograms of infectious wastes in a month.

The HCWH-SEA is recommending the use of an autoclave, a pressurized device used to heat solutions above the boiling point normal atmospheric pressure to achieve sterilization.
The group is part of a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in the health care sector. -- SC



DVD vendor, cohort nabbed with P32,000 worth of shabu

BAGUIO CITY -- A seller of pirated digital video discs and his cohort were found to be using the DVD business as their cover in trading shabu when they tried to deliver two sachets of the dangerous drug to an agent of the regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency who acted as poseur-buyer around 10 a.m. Thursday here at Otek St.

PDEA officials identified the suspects as Acsapala Guro, 28, married, of Marawi City and resident of Dagupan City, Pangasinan and Rodel C. Montero, 28, single, construction worker, resident of Dagupan City.

Guro and Montero were caught red-handed with a pirated DVD containing a medium sachet and small sachet of suspected shabu weighing 2.50 grams and 0.05 gram respectively, valued at P32,000.

The Nokia 1600 cell phone used by the suspects during the ‘entrapment’ deal and 16 other pirated DVDs were also confiscated by cops as additional pieces of evidence against them.

A case for illegal drugs was filed against the suspects.

Reports from the intelligence and investigation Division of Cordillera PDEA identified Dagupan as one of the lowland areas where shabu is being distributed and sold in the Cordillera.

Other areas named were Manila, Cavite, Urdaneta City (also in Pangasinan), La Union and Bulacan.