COMMUNITY BILLBOARD

13-year old girl,  BBPICAG are  Gawad Kalasag nat’l awardees

BAGUIO CITY- - A 13 year old girl who saved her little brother in a fire accident in their shanty along Tuba, Benguet in 2012 and  volunteer group Baguio-Benguet Public Information and Civic Action Group(BBPICAG) joined  this year’s GawadKalasag national awardees.

Marimar Agnawa   who won in the Gawad Kalasag Heroic Act category and  BBPICAG  in the Gawad Kalasag Volunteer Organization category were among those given recognition during awarding ceremony at the Armed Forces of the Philippines main headquarters recently in Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Established in  1988, the “Gawad Kalasag”( Kalamidad at Sakuna Laban, Sariling GalingangKaligtasan) is an annual award that aims to give recognition to Outstanding Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils, private volunteer organization non-government organizations and other service providers for being a major stakeholders in promoting and implementing significant DRRM and Climate Change Adaptation programs and innovation.

Office of Civil Defense Cordillera regional director Andrew Alex Uysaid  National DRRM council officials Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Undersecretary Eduardo Del Rosario spearheaded the  GawadKalasag awarding this year..

Agnawa was 12 years old  when a fire accident due to a lighted  candle  engulfed  their shanty in 2012. Marimar was left  to look after  her four younger siblings as their  mother  went to get the payment for the dog they sold to buy a milk for the baby.

The siblings were asleep when the lighted candle burned their curtain and the flame immediately spread to their little house.

Marimar immediately carried her youngest 7-month-old brother Jayver to safety and called for help.

Her three other siblings – one died on the spot while the other two were treated at a hospital.

On the other hand,  BBPICAG has been a significant and long time partner of the OCD, the city government of Baguio and the local government units of the nearby Benguet towns, in responding to any emergency, disaster or calamity.

BBPICAG was cited as always ready and willing to join DRRM efforts, even in other parts of the country.

Uy, in extending the OCD’s congratulations to Marimar and the BBPICAG, also encouraged local government units, schools, private institutions and other stakeholders  in the region to actively participate in DRRM and CCA campaigns by establishing their own best practices.

“We have already achieved significant milestones in the field of DRRM, compared to our ASEAN neighbors. However to actively ensure the sustainability of our government’s programs on DRRM, we need to do more. Let us continue to enhance disaster resilience through partnerships”, Uy said.    

Food processing plant to provide livelihood for Ilocos Region folks

NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur -- National Tobacco Administration (NTA) Administrator Edgar D. Zaragoza announced the newly-opened food processing plant here in Barangay Nanguneg, is expected to provide additional livelihood oppostunties to the tobacco farming families in the Ilocos Region.

According to Zaragoza, the food processing plant is designed to provide a ready market of all crops and livestock being produced by the tobacco farmers to ensure better income.

“Most of the employed personnel for the operation of the plant were qualified children of the tobacco farmers,” he said.

He said that the P165-million food facility, which is a project of President Aquino, is being managed by the NTA, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), targeting to serve an initial 7,700 tobacco farmers in the Ilocos Region.

Last week, Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson the Senate committee on agriculture and food, with Ilocos Sur 2nd District Representative Eric D. Singson, Zaragoza, other ranking DA officials, and local government unit (LGU) executives formally opened the plant.

He said the food plant has the equipment to process vegetables and meat like beef, pork, and chicken to meet the quality demand of the domestic and the world markets.