Rescuers survive
A MOTORIZED banca crammed with passengers and relief goods got stalled in Tañon Strait yesterday afternoon after violent waves broke one of its outriggers.
About 80 passengers were rescued, including volunteers from the Philippine Red Cross, on their way to the quake-stricken La Libertad, Negros Oriental.
Two military helicopters and a naval boat were sent out to rescue the mv Agape, said Lt. Commander Agapito Bibat of the Philippine Coast Guard station in Dumaguete City.
Ronda Mayor Mariano Blanco told Sun.Star Cebu the vessel departed from their wharf at 12 p.m.
Victims leave home for peace of mind
NICK Ashlee Vargaso played with his yellow toy car yesterday afternoon, his hair still wet from his first bath in four days. His cousin Cherry Mae, sitting beside him, drew the images on his worn-out stickers in the pages of a big spiral notebook.
Last Monday, when the ground shook in Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental, four-year-old Nick Ashlee kept his toy car and stickers safely in his bag. His mother Aneline, who came to fetch him from his kindergarten class, held his hand and they ran up a hill as fast as they could, his shoes slipping off his feet.
Forum scoffs at city proposals for flyovers, undersea tunnel
A FLYOVER then an undersea tunnel?
Businessmen and technical experts who shared their ideas in the Sustainable City Dialogues 2012 last week didn’t agree to some proposed projects that were not backed by proper planning.
They were referring to the flyover projects supposed to be funded by Rep. Rachel Marguerite del Mar (Cebu City, north district) and were ordered stopped by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Another project that is starting to attract opposition is the undersea tunnel, which is among the first bills that del Mar filed in the 15th Congress.
P50M to be spent for Calungsod canonization
CEBU CITY -- At least P50 million in funds is being raised for the canonization of the Visayan martyr Pedro Calungsod, an official said.
The amount is double than that spent for Calungsod beatification in 2000.
Gunmen torch P13.5M worth of equipment in Digos
DAVAO CITY -- About P13.5-million worth of property was damaged when unidentified armed men torched heavy equipment owned by a construction company in Digos City on Friday.
Major Jacob Thaddeus Obligado, chief of the Army's 10th Infantry Division’s Civil Military Operation Battalion (CMOBN), said the suspects, wearing black bonnets, torched one backhoe Volvo and one well-mounted crane of the Algon Engineering Construction Company.
Negros fault line discovered since 2008
CEBU CITY -- A Manila-based environment studies professor said the fault line that caused the strong earthquake in Central Visayas last Monday has been known since 2008.
The statement is contrary to claims of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) that a new fault was discovered after the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that occurred before noontime on Feb. 6, 2012.
Fear of being buried alive grips barangay residents
THE fear of being buried alive continues to plague residents of a mountain barangay in Ronda, Cebu.
Barangay Vive has been living in fear since last Monday’s earthquake that left cracks on its mountainsides.
Rains and aftershocks are feared to cause landslides anytime, geologists said.
Huge boulders and trees fell down, narrowly missing houses at the foot of mountains.
Newly-constructed classrooms cracked and the soil loosened.
The barangay, which was considered non-habitable since 1996 for being located in a hazardous area, is occupied by 1,000 individuals.
Guv shares tourism ideas with Puerto Princesa
PUERTO Princesa City, Palawan-Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said the benefits of tourism should not be focused on metropolitan areas but on the countryside as well.
Garcia shared the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo, a local tourism program of the Province, during the first tourism summit of Puerto Princesa City, on invitation of Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn.
“If you talk of massive tourism influx, it’s always Cebu and we will follow all the good things that the governor has been doing,” Hagedorn said.
More rain due to climate change
CLIMATE change will bring more rain to the Philippines, said a presidential consultant.
Elisea Gozun, presidential adviser on climate change and former environment secretary, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study on the economic impact of climate change in Southeast Asia revealed that climate change will probably lead to an active southwest monsoon in Luzon and Visayas.
“The Philippines would be wetter until the end of the century,” she said during the 33rd Philippine Association of Water Districts (PAWD) national convention last Thursday.
Environmentalists to sue project’s LGU proponents
NATURE conservationists threatened to file a case in court if the Cordova reclamation project pushes through.
They said the reclamation project would result in the loss of marine and land ecosystems.
“There would be extensive damage on seagrass, mangroves and coral reefs,” said Dr. Rene Rollon, associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
This would threaten food security in the country, he warned.
800 families have to go: Speed
SOME 800 families in Cebu City will be affected by the clearing operations of the Squatters Prevention Encroachment and Elimination Division (Speed) in the coming days, said Speed chief Noel Artes, after the final notices have lapsed.
The informal settlers living near the banks of rivers and creeks are the subjects of the operation.
Artes said that 116 of the families along Alviola St., Barangay Tejero will also have to go because of the opening and restoration of roads going to Barangay Carreta.
Group to raise P10M more for Cebu City face-lift
THE Beautiful Cebu Movement Foundation Inc. (BCMFI) will hold a masquerade ball on Feb. 29 to raise P10 million to finish the beautification of Osmeña Blvd. in Cebu City.
BCMFI head Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung said the amount will cover the expenses for the sidewalks from Fuente Osmeña to Sanciangko St.
This forms part of the second half of the project.
Cooperation
Expenses for the first half, which was from the Capitol to Fuente Osmeña, were shouldered by the Cebu Provincial Government.
Verification of signatures is premature, says lawyer
THE lawyer of Danao City Mayor Ramon “Boy” Durano Jr. maintained that the verification of signatures or thumbmarks set by City Election Officer Ian Dominic Marigomen tomorrow, Feb. 13, is premature.
Atty. Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu said the pre-verification conference called by Marigomen last Feb. 8 and the verification process on Feb. 13 are premature, and must be set aside.
CH restores use of civilian drivers for patrol cars
STARTING tomorrow, policemen in Cebu City will no longer be allowed to drive service patrol vehicles.
The Cebu City Government announced it is bringing back the civilian drivers, and will be deploying 19 of them to the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) as well as to the 11 police stations.
The MPG has at least 15 patrol cars, while the 11 police stations have one patrol vehicle each, but only 19 civilian drivers will be deployed first considering that other City Hall organic personnel are needed by their assigned departments.
Stable consumer prices seen, says planning chief
THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) reported that prices of consumer goods and services are within the government’s target of three to five percent in 2012.
The public, however, should stay on guard for incidental factors that could trigger unstable prices on consumer goods and services such as typhoon-related effects and oil prices increases, Neda said.
DTI: Shipbuilding may propel exports growth
FOLLOWING the sobering data on the country’s export performance in 2011, the Department of Trade of Industry (DTI) turned its attention to other avenues for growth, including shipbuilding.
"We are continuing to look for these additional BPOs (business process outsourcing) that can bring our economic growth faster. It could be shipbuilding. We are now fourth largest in the world after China, Korea and Japan," Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said.
Corona’s peso accounts is ‘smoking gun’ to convince senator-judges
THE 188 lawmakers who signed the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona believe the P31.7-million peso accounts of the respondent is enough to persuade senator-judges that the magistrate is not morally fit to remain in office.
Earlier, Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) president Pascual Garcia III disclosed that Corona had two peso accounts with a combined balance of P19.73 million as of December 31, 2010.
Palace confident Corona support won’t lead to People Power
MALACANANG on Saturday downplayed a people power scenario from the supporters of Chief Justice Renato Corona who are supposedly backed by Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).
No absolute secrecy on foreign currency deposits, prosecution argues
THE impeachment prosecution team, citing a previous Supreme Court (SC) ruling, argued that there is no absolute secrecy on foreign currency deposits as they push to have the alleged dollar accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona be disclosed in the trial.
This is despite of the SC’s issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the subpoena of dollar accounts believed to be under the name of the Chief Justice.
One of the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) dollar accounts was said to have an initial deposit of $700,000.
Senate impeachment tribunal ‘not a puppet of SC’
THE Senate sitting as an impeachment court should not allow itself to be a “puppet” of the Supreme Court (SC), Malacanang said Saturday.
Senator-judges will be holding a caucus before Monday’s impeachment trial to discuss the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the SC on the subpoena of documents pertaining to PSBank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona. The SC voted 8-5-2 in favor of PSBank’s petition.
Quake victims to get skills training
VICTIMS of the recent strong quake that hit the province of Negros Oriental will get over 400 scholarships ranging from wielding to commercial cooking, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) said on Saturday.
Some P5 million worth of scholarships has been allotted for Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental, one of the badly-hit areas in the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the Negros and Cebu provinces last February 6.
"We hope these scholarships will give them hope and encourage them to rise above this calamity," Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva said.
Lawmaker: Recall polls not solution to Oro problem
SAN Juan Representative Joseph Victor Ejercito said the effects of Tropical Storm Sendong in Cagayan de Oro City is not the fault of Mayor Vicente Y. Emano
Ejercito said recall election is not the solution to what is happening now in the city after the storm, which left thousands dead and thousands more homeless.
Rebels to face raps for burning heavy equipment
MILITARY in North Cotabato will file charges of human rights violation against the rebels behind Friday’s torching of heavy equipment used for doing road rehabilitation projects.
Lieutenant Manuel Gatus, chief of the civil military operations of the Army's 57th Infantry Battalion, said they would file the charges of violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) against the New Peoples' Army (NPA) rebels at the Government of the Republic of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (GRP-NDF) peace panel.
City Hall spends P3.6M in 2011
DAVAO City has spent P3.6 billion in 2011, translating to 80 percent of its total gross income for the same year.
Based on the city's statement of income and expenses for the calendar year 2011, the city has a total gross income of P4,573,259,181.20 and a total of P3,656,179,496.79 has been spent the whole year.
Hearing on food ordinance held
THE Davao City Council conducted Wednesday its first public hearing on the proposed Street Food Ordinance highlighting some of its key rationale and benefits.
Councilor Bernard Al-ag, chair of the City Council committee on health, said the first public hearing was attended by various stakeholders including representatives from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) that conducted the study.
