DAVAO City soon will have three sisters in China: Nanning city in Guangxi region; Jinjang city in Quanzhou, Fujian province; and on the process to sisterhood is Sanya city in Hainan province. Davao’s advantage in sistership of cities is tied on the areas of tourism, economy and environment.
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Bravo! Davao de Oro. Comelec sets December 7, 2019 to empower the 462,942 registered voters of Compostela Valley province to ratify R.A. 11297 through a plebiscite, as to whether or not re-baptize the province into Davao de Oro.
The law took effect in April 2019 and the townsfolk approval is scheduled by the Comelec Resolution No. 10600 from 7 a.m. until 5p.m. of December 7, then canvassing will follow. The plebiscite period is from November 7 to December 14.
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Is it not an irony to note that Davao City is blowing its horn for the abundance of sweet and potable water from the foot of Mt. Apo, yet 63 out of 290 Public Elementary Schools have no clean and potable water? Most of these schools according to DepEd Davao City Division Health Unit are the last mile schools in Paquibato and Marilog Districts where the services of Davao City Water District (DCWD) is yet available.
There are also areas covered by the DCWD services like Buhangin and Cabantian but still suffering insufficient supplies ranging from lack of faucets, condemned water pipes and inconsistent to no water flow at all.
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The country’s free education program may end up closing of private schools if the drastic move to cut the DepEd budget continues.
Small private schools under the National Alliance of Private Schools (NASPHIL) are receiving a tiny chunk from the DepEd funds through Government Assistance Subsidy (GAS). But the department’s budget to GAS was reduced by 2.93 percent from P32.12B in the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to 31.18B in the 2020 National Expenditure Program (NEP). Enrollment in many private schools decreased when the government offered free for K to 12. So, individuals planning to enroll in private schools can avail subsidies for tuition and other school fees through voucher with an amount ranging from P8,750 to P22,500 depending on the location of the school and category as set by the DepEd. The subsidy helped the fiddling private schools survive.
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Lourd de Vera described the congested EDSA as “mahabang bituka ni satanas” that Senator Grace Poe and Secretary Arthur Tugade spun around in trading barb, deadlocked. Tugade has months been suppliant to the legislators for President Duterte’s emergency power to work out the traffic problem in the metropolitan. But the prudent senator stood by her feet that DOTr must present a clear and well-studied master plan. After all, Poe is right in saying that “It is not for lack of powers, but lack of master plan.”