Father, son rule Baguio Scrabble
BAGUIO CITY -- Father
and son Mohammad and Bobby Suma took the Baguio Day Scrabble Tournament by
storm as they placed first and second last Sept. 9-10 at the Baguio Museum.
Father
Mohammad was at his best as he topped the expert division with a 12-4 card and
a spread of 427 for the sole place at the top.
Son
Bobby, on the other hand, shared the second to fifth spots with three others
but took the highest spot with an eye popping 1,101 spread, the best in the two
day tournament backed by the city government of Baguio.
Ferdinand Lucas
was at third place with spread of 597, while retired banker Robbie Onate was
fourth with spread of 128 and closely followed by retired police colonel Tony
Malonzo.
Anna
Tabora, meanwhile, edged three others via a higher spread to win the
novice/student division. Tabora finished with eight wins along with
Orlando Pocya, Jupiter Batong and Crichel Lao but she had a slight edge in
spread.
Tabora
had spread of 380, 11 up on Pocya and 62 more on Batong as the three took the
top three spots. Lao settled for fourth spot after spread of 291.
Three
players had seven wins each but Gillian Rae Billeson took the fifth spot with
spread of 169. Sheree Nolasco came in sixth with spread of 95 and Michael
Angelo Subas was eighth with spread of 52.
Ric Malilin had
the highest score of 516, Huub Luyk had the highest bingo of 118, while
the latter’s wife, Becky, had the l;osing score of 414. – Pigeon
Lobien
No texting for
Central Luzon cops on duty
CAMP
OLIVAS, Pampanga – Central Luzon police officers are no longer allowed to send
text messages while on duty, based on an order issued by the regional police
director Chief Supt. Amador V. Corpuz.
Corpuz
said the “no text policy” is effective immediately in the entire region.
Corpuz said a number
of police officers are often preoccupied with sending text messages or fiddling
with their mobile phones while on duty.
“The no text policy is
my marching orders and the alibi that they are making report in texting is
already an old alibi,” Corpuz said.
He said the public
feels safer if there are police officers on duty who are alert and not
preoccupied with texting.
“There
will be greater challenges ahead and we need to build a stronger
community; you are old enough to do what is right,” Corpuz told his men. -- Mar T. Supnad
PH’s bronze in
Archery won with blurred vision
SAN
FERNANDO CITY – She has blurred vision, constantly wears glasses in school or
at home and can hardly read without them.
She is 19-year-old
Mary Queen Ybañez who took home the bronze medal in Archery at the recent the
2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Interviewed by this
writer in Barangay Madayegdeg, this city, last Monday, Ybañez said she got into
the sport at an early age when her vision was perfect.
Struck by astigmatism
(blurred vision) in her teens, she had to wear corrective glasses.
Still,
she continued training herself to hit the target 70 meters out even if
international competitions meant having to do it without the aid of her
spectacles.
“Matagal ko na kasi
ito ginagawa sa paglalaro ng archery at nag-start ako 11 years old malinaw pa
ang mga paningin ko,” she said.
On competition day
last August 22, Ybañez recalls how she had to trust her pulse. As to her
vision, she said: “Binabase ko na lang po sa kulay ’yung target, kahit malabo
sa paningin ko (I had to base the target on the colors, since my vision is
blurred).”
Ybañez together with
her recurve team, Kareel Hongitan from Baguio City and Nichole Tagle from
Dumaguete City, gave the Philippines its 4th bronze in Archery at the SEA
Games.
Her vision might have
been blurred, but something remains crystal clear in Ybañez’s memory: “It was a
great feeling to plant the Philippine flag on the podium. I never expected to
win on my first-ever SEA Games,” she said.-- Erwin G. Beleo
Kalinga 4Ps get rice
aid
TABUK
CITY, Kalinga – More than11, 000 Pantawid Pamilya program beneficiaries in the
province started receiving rice subsidy from the program.
Under the Duterte
Administration, Pantawid beneficiaries are extended additional P600 monthly
rice aid.
Lorna
Lumiwan, 4Ps Provincial Link, disclosed the Dept. of Social Welfare and
Development released the rice assistance for January because the period was
covered under the “suspension of evaluation on compliance” due to super typhoon
‘Lawin’.
But starting February
until end of the year, release of rice aid will be back as compliance-based,
Lumiwan said.
Under the 4Ps program,
indigent beneficiaries receive monthly cash benefits provided they comply with
conditions set on health, education and attendance to family development
sessions.
Pantawid
families are required to have regular health monitoring at rural health units,
qualified children should be in school and undergo regular family development
sessions. -- PIA Kalinga
Central Luzon OFWs to
be hired as teachers
CITY
OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The Dept. of Education in Central Luzon announced
that it will be hiring 43 returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to teach
in different schools in the region.
Michelle
Catap-Lacson, DepEd3 Project Development Officer II said the 43 returning OFWs
will be given permanent teaching positions in public schools near their
residences in the provinces of Aurora, Bulacan, Bataan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija
and Tarlac.
“They will be
automatically given permanent teacher items, and be assigned to schools with
shortages,” she said, adding that 25 teachers will be assigned in the
elementary level while 18 will be assigned in the Junior High School level.
She added that the
Schools Division Offices have been instructed to conduct thorough interview and
demonstration teaching and address noted gaps through the conduct of teacher
trainings and other apt interventions.
The hiring of
OFW-teachers is under the “Sa ‘Pinas Ikaw ang Mam at Sir” (SPIMS) Program of
the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in partnership with DepEd, which was
launched in 2014 to assist OFWs who are passers of the Licensure Examination
for Teachers (LET) working abroad as professional teachers or household service
workers to be employed as teachers when they return to the country.
--
Franco G. Regala
Tabuk City ups drive against
minor drivers
TABUK CITY, Kalinga
-- The City Public Order and Safety
Office has intensified its campaign against minor drivers amid reports of
high violations.
POSO Dionisio P.
Falgui III reported their office had recorded 1,911 traffic violators in the
city from January-June, mostly minor drivers and driving without license.
This
explains why road accident is the top cause in cases of physical injuries in
the city police report, Falgui said.
In line
with the campaign, mobile check points along the city’s main thoroughfares
has been intensified. Because of strict traffic regulation enforcement,
the POSO had collected P574,350 in penalty fees for the period.
But Falgui
said collection of penalty fees is just secondary to their mandate of assuring
public order and safety.
We impose penalty
because we want drivers to follow proper traffic rules to avoid accidents, he
said.
He appealed
to parents to cooperate with the authorities by preventing their minor-children
from just going on fun-driving without the assistance of licensed
drivers. -- PIA Kalinga
Ban on sale of tickets mulled in Baguio
BAGUIO CITY – The local legislature
has passed on first reading a proposed “anti-scalping ordinance” in the Summer
Capital.
Authored by
councilor Leandro Yangot, Jr., the measure is applicable to all local residents
and individuals operating with or without ticket offices or official booths
within the city’s territorial jurisdiction.
Scalping is the mass purchase and
resell of tickets at more expensive prices while a scalper is one who sells
airline, bus, theater, concert tickets and similar undertakings with or without
profit outside the ticket office or official booth or place designated for the
purpose.
The proposed
ordinance makes it unlawful for any scalper to sell airline, bus, theater,
concert tickets and similar undertakings with or without profit outside the
ticket office or official booth or place designated for the purpose.
It also prohibits
any person to finance, manage or operate scalping which is pernicious or
inimical to public interest.
Violators of the measure’s
provisions shall be meted a fine of not more than P5,000 or by imprisonment of
not more than three months or both, upon the discretion of the Courts. – Gaby Keith
Kalinga
farmers learn ratooning technology
CITY
OF TABUK, Kalinga -- The Provincial
Agriculturist Office educates farmers on the ratooning technology to increase
rice production.
Joe Casibang, Kalinga
rice program coordinator, said ratooning could add at least 40 percent of the
average yield per hectare to farmers.
Under
the technology, farmers are taught to apply some interventions to palay plants
left out during harvest and could still get additional yield. Farmers just
apply additional two bags of urea per hectare compared to the usual 8-10 bags
of fertilizer per hectare in the regular cropping.
Casibang said the
ratooning period runs for about 60 days, which is actually the regular cropping
interval, before the ratooned palay is ready for harvest.
The technology is
applicable to both hybrid and inbred rice. Rice farmers get an average of 120
bags of palay per hectare.
A 50-hectare demo-farm
is being used for the technology in this City, the province's major rice
producing area. -- PIA Kalinga
DSWD
sets 30,000 family food packs for rainy months
BAGUIO
CITY – Dept. of Social Welfare and Development in the Cordillera Administrative
Region has set family food packs for disaster augmentation this rainy season
particularly for landslide-prone areas
in the region.
DSWD-CAR regional director Janet
Armas said 30,000 food packs have already been brought to provinces for distribution
in case of disasters.
She said 6,200 food packs are in Mountain
Province; 5,000 in Ifugao; 2,642 in Abra; 1,500 in Apayao; and 15,601 at their
warehouse in Puguis, La Trinidad town in Benguet.
A
food pack contains 6 kilograms of rice, half dozen 3-in-1 instant coffee, 8
canned goods, brown rice bar (energy bar) and infant dry-cereals.
Armas said the goods will augment food
supplies in cases of disasters in Cordillera as landslides frequently occur due
to the terrain.
DSWD-CAR, she said, spent about P13 million
for the family packs. About P21 million was also spent for non-food items like
blankets and tents.
Cordillera the past days has been
experiencing strong rains and thunderstorms brought by the southwest monsoon. A
number of roads were closed to vehicular traffic due to landslides. -- PNA
PVET teaches
farmers organic feed formulation
HUNGDUAN,
Ifugao --The Provincial Veterinary Office (PVET) here recently conducted skills
training on organic swine and poultry raising and feed formulation to 83
farmer- recipients of native pig raising project of the provincial
government.
The training was to
enable pig raisers gain more profit in their backyard livestock endeavor by
formulating their own organic feeds using ingredients and materials that are abundant
and indigenous in their places rather than relying on commercial feeds which
are very expensive, said PVET training coordinator Ferdinand Dunuan.
By adopting organic
farming that includes feed formulation to reduce feed cost,
they can produce not only animal meat products which are safe and fit for
human consumption but also earn more profit because organically produced farm
products nowadays are in great demand.
Dunuan
lectured to participants on animal husbandry, issues on bio-organic inputs and
good agricultural practices.
Gilbert
Caclini, also of PVET, demonstrated the preparation of the feeds using the
indigenous materials with the hands on participation of the farmers so
that they can learn and experience on the spot organic feed formulation.
The ingredients and
materials used during the actual preparation of 50 kilograms (kgs) of
organic feed include 20 kilos rice bran, 5 corn grits, 5 corn bran, 3 chopped
banana stalk, 3 chopped camote trunk and leaves, 3 of ipil leaves, 10 ofazola,
a kilo of brown sugar, another kilo of indigenous micro-organism (for
fermentation) and two liters of rice wash.
The farmers said were
happy with what they learned and promised that they will immediately start
preparing their own feed supply. -- Daniel
B. Codamon
Read more...
