MORE NEWS, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE

Checkpoints to stop theft of bridge parts in Mt Prov

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Gov. Maximo Dalog has asked provincial police director Pedro Ganir to establish check points in strategic exit routes to regulate transport of scrap iron outside the province.

Dalog, who is also provincial peace and order council chairman said reports reaching the local peace keeping body have it that stealing of steel pipes including iron parts of infrastructure projects alarmingly continues despite earlier warnings from officials.

After the sway braces of the Amlusong bridge were stolen, GI pipes for the Paracelis town waterworks were taken by suspects and were reportedly transported and sold somewhere in Cauayan City.

Even the pipe line supplying water to Bila, Bauko were not spared. The latest incident is the stolen plastic pipes of the Bontoc water project which were stored at Talubin, Bontoc.

Except for the Amlusong incident, suspects in the other cases are yet to be identified although police said investigations are underway to locate the missing items and to eventually unmask the culprits.

Ganir asked the cooperation of the public in solving the cases. “Securing government and private property is the responsibility of the people and not only of the uniformed men. Unless he himself is the witness, a policeman can not solve any case if the civilian populace will not give their part,” Ganir said, adding police should not be solely blamed for all crimes committed within their area of responsibility.

“If the reason for the occurrence of a crime is because of police inaction or participation, report to my office those involved so that I could make my action accordingly,” Ganir said. Meanwhile, Dalog requested board member Luke Wanason as committee chairman on peace and order to sponsor a resolution asking police authorities to establish check points to give more weight to the decision of the council.

The governor said check points will deter transport of stolen iron scraps outside the province. This, after the initial plan to bar dealers from entering the province was shelved based on the opinion of provincial attorney Einstein Calaoa that such move is against existing laws.

The checkpoints shall be constructed along the Bontoc-Banaue, Bontoc-Baguio, and Bontoc-Cervantes national roads.


CHED releases P3.5 M for MP school’s facilities

BONTOC, Mountain Province – The only state college here is still receiving support from concerned government agencies to improve its facilities and laboratories to boost the eventual accreditation of its courses.

Latest was the Commission on Higher Education which released a total of P3.5 million to fund the completion of the school’s speech laboratories in the Tadian and Bontoc campuses.

The release made by CHED central office was the P1 million intended for the completion of the facilities of speech laboratories so students could use the speech labs to strengthen their learning tools and materials and avail of the latest technology for better quality of education. Since last year, the CHED has released a total of P2.5 million from its available funding source to ensure the establishment of the speech laboratories, one of the most important tools for teaching and learning.

Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, MPSPC president, said support from government and private sectors for the development of the school was encouraging, thus, the administration, faculty and students must reciprocate such support through responsible and dedicated efforts in teaching, managing and learning for the benefit of the future generation.

Dacyon said support from various sectors is being utilized for the development of school-based facilities that would provide the teachers and students a wider avenue of interacting with each other and strengthening tertiary education.

She added education is still the best inheritance that parents could give to their children since it could not be easily taken away from an individual, thus, everyone has the responsibility in bringing education in the rural areas to greater heights so that it will be at part with the education offered by well-known private and public higher education institutions outside the province.

With education being highly commercialized in urban areas, poor but deserving students now prefer to enroll in state universities and colleges like MPSPC which are located in their own areas because of lower tuition and school fees but with the same quality of education being offered by respected colleges and universities nationwide.

Dacyon urged stakeholders in the province to support the school’s development in order to have its courses accredited so it could attain university status. -- Dexter A. See