COMMUNITY BILLBOARD

Espino turns over first Phl orthography primer 

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Gov. Amado Espino Jr. turned over to Department of Education officials the Pangasinan Orthography Primer as the highlight of the Pangasinan Tourism Month celebration here last week.

“We are the first in the entire country to have our Pangasinan orthography so that our local teachers can teach their students our own language the right way,” Espino said.

He said the provincial government commissioned this first attempt to formulate the orthography of the Pangasinan language, and it was done on purely voluntary basis by the writers of UlopannaPansiansiaySalitanPangasinan (Group to Perpetuate the Use of Pangasinan Language), and a team of academicians, linguists, and a cultural worker, under the official guidance of the KomisyonngWikang Filipino.

Espino said this is part of instilling in students their love for their province and in support of the DepEd’s program to use the vernacular in teaching various subjects under the K-12 program.

Through the Pangasinan orthography, he said proper diction and spelling, among others, are taught. 

Espino has been espousing various programs geared toward love for the province and the local language.

Fr. Immanuel Escano, commissioner of the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission and member of the committee that created the primer, said this would be useful to teachers in using the mother tongue as implemented now by the DepEd.

Escano said it is understandable that teachers encounter difficulties in the initial use of the Pangasinan language and its orthography, like in any undertaking in its initial stage, “because no one thought about doing it before.”

Game fowl breeders share P30,000 to kids of the blind

BAGUIO CITY -- Local game fowl raisers last week-end added a humanitarian element to their hobby by providing P30,000 to help pay for the miscellaneous expenses of 43 children of members of the Baguio Federation of Visually Impaired Persons (BFOVIP).

Former city councilor Antonio Tabora Jr., Dr. Edward Dogui-is and Engr. James Oyaman represented members of the United Baguio-Benguet Breeders Association (U3BA) in handing over the support fund to the federation headed by Valentine Manginga  during a program last Sept. 14  at the city social welfare and development office.

The fund came from earnings of the U3BA in cock derbies in coordination with the national association of game fowl breeders.

Dogui-is said one child per family was recommended by the BFOVIP to receive cash support ranging from P6,000 for each in the elementary grades and up to P1,000 each for those in high school  to augment their regular stipends  from their parents.

Tabora added that the U3BA is also set to distribute school bags to children before the end of the year, also as part of its social responsibility thrust.

On his own, U3BA member Gilbert Tanding recently began setting aside a regular fund from gate receipts during Monday hack fights at the  Shilan Sports Arena in La Trinidad, Benguet for medical support to indigent patients.

Among those who have availed of his support are three  hemodialysis patients – barangay kagawad Jocelyn Singson of barangay Bahong and 19-year old DharrenGawili of barangay Balipi, both in La Trinidad, and Belinda Allosa of Pinsao, Baguio City; Ruben Tomayan, also of Bahong; and heart patient Ruben Lalan, formerly of Virac, Itogon, Benguet; and two siblings who are  on maintenance medicine for bipolar disorder. – Ramon Dacawi

Mother seeks help in dialysis treatment

Thirty four-year old Evelyn Guiniguin-Bautista, a truck driver’s wife and mother to two young girls, has been confined for a month now at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center for complications of kidney failure.

“She has difficulty breathing and is on oxygen support,” her sister, Joanna Guiniguin-Dang-ay said last week .  Joanna was making the rounds of offices, in search of  gentle souls who could support her sister’s twice-a-week hemodialysis treatment needed to cleanse the blood and prevent poisoning.

Evelyn, the fifth of nine children of “kaingin” (swidden) farmers Pedro and Antonia Guiniguin of Talnag, Ampucao, Itogon, Benguet, was diagnosed for end-stage renal failure last February.

She was experiencing dizziness and her face had bloated,” Joanna recalled. “She has been on dialysis since then, scheduled at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and 8 p.m. on Saturdays at the BGHMC.”

Problem was she had just used up a P17,600 guarantee support from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the dialysis treatments pegged at P2,200 per session.

“She had applied for Philhealth membership but it will take sometime before she will be eligible for coverage,” Joanna rued.

In a social case study report, social welfare assistant Sharon Baroa of the municipal social welfare and development office in Itogon said Evelyn’s latest dialysis sessions were paid from a P5,000 donation of members of her church – the Assembly of God.

“The meager income of the client’s husband (Ariel) as a driver earning P5,000 a month is being stretched to buy…the basic needs of the family, and if there is excess, it is often used for the education… of the children,” Baroa pointed out.

The two kids, Arlene, 12, and Lyka, 11, go to school at the Philex Elementary School.

As Evelyn’s cellphone was stolen, people who can help may ring up her sister Joanna’s mobile (09109162377)  or they may directly pay the cost of one dialysis session at the BGHMC during her scheduled treatment on Wednesday or Saturday. – Ramon Dacawi

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Number coding scheme suspension set Oct. 3-4

BAGUIO CITY  -  With the city of Baguio hosting the “Kabayan Ko, Kapatid Ko” medical mission sponsored by the Iglesia ni Cristo this coming October,  Mayor Mauricio Domogan issued Administrative Order No. 117, suspending the implementation of the Baguio number coding scheme for private vehicles on Oct. 3 to 4.

Over 100,000 local residents and visitors are expected to attend the medical mission at the Baguio Athletic Bowl.

“There is a need to suspend the implementation of the Baguio number coding scheme for private vehicles to provide our local residents and visitors, particularly the organizers, sponsors, and participants from the different parts of Northern Luzon and their families convenient and stress-free journey around the city to help boost the city’s identity as the tourist destination in the country,” said the mayor. – Paul Rillorta

Crackdown on vs rich CCT beneficiaries

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan  — The city government here will crack down on individuals listed as beneficiaries of the government’s PantawidPamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) despite being affluent members of the community.

Under the 4Ps, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the national government is only for indigent families to assist them in sending their children to school and augment their basic needs.

A city official who declined to be identified said an investigation has showed that at least two affluent families in this city have been receiving benefits under the 4Ps.

Rules set for ambulant vendors

BAGUIO CITY  -  Mayor Mauricio Domogan imposed rules in the implementation of the “zero vending policy” in all roads, streets and sidewalks in the different parts of the city. 

The Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA) adapted a “zero vending policy” through its Resolution No. 009-2013 and 9a-2013.

The city government implemented clearing and cleaning operations against all sidewalk vendors even as vending time for certain areas was allowed until such time that a relocation site for the affected vendors be identified.

The designated relocation areas include the parking area of Block IV, between Rillera and Block III and between Block III and Block IV. Vendors were advised to submit applications for screening and evaluation in order to be accommodated for a possible slot.

However, BCMA will give priority to vendors who are paying their obligations to the city and to vendors with arrears but are still paying. Delinquent vendors since 2012 will not be included in the priority list.

It is the responsibility of the allocatees of vending slots to pay in advance during the last week of the month to the city treasury office P600 to cover a one-month occupancy of the slot.

Renters will not be allowed to rent out or sub-lease the same, to observe cleanliness within his/her vending space at all times. No allocatee will be allowed to lend his/her vending space to another vendor for a certain period of time.—JhoArranz