P5T burial assistance in Tagum City

aug 20, 2104

Tagum City Councilor lawyer Eva Lorraine Estabillo has successfully caused for the City Council’s approval of City Ordinance No. 482-S-2014 granting P5,000 burial assistance for qualified senior citizens in the city, starting January 1 next year, 2015.

The city’s current burial assistance fund is pegged P3,000 per beneficiary.

 

The lady councilor invoked Section 2 of Republic Act No. 9994, otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizen’s Act of 2010 and the principles of social justice as enunciated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. 

 

In the ordinance, those who can avail of the P5,000 burial assistance, in case of death, are the qualified senior citizens as vouched by their legitimate beneficiaries in five requirements.

 

These are: certificate of punong barangay on the residence of the deceased, marriage certificate or certificate of no marriage, certification from the barangay senior citizens coordinator that the deceased is a bonafide member of the senior citizen association, photocopy of death certificate and an affidavit of claimant.

 

Moreover, the city mayor is mandated to appropriate at least P500,000 per year for such purpose.

 

If the budget is consumed before the end of the year, it is to be replenished through a supplemental budget. 

 

Estabillo’s ordinance effectively repealed City Ordinance Bo. 138, s-2004. 

 

She thanked her colleagues in the legislative body for the support they made in the passage  of the ordinance, as well as the support of Mayor Allan Rellon.  (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

Asuncion LGU to loan P35M for barangay dumptrucks

aug 22, 2014

Asuncion, Davao del Norte Mayor Joseph Nilo Parreñas has bared that he is currently seeking a P35-million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines to fund for the acquisition of 20 units of dumptrucks to be given to all barangays in his town.

“The dumptrucks would decongest us in meeting  the frequent requests of the barangays for transportation need every now and then,” he said.

“Barangays would be empowered when the municipality downloads its responsibility and authority to them. It can make them less dependent to us,” the mayor added.

 

He said the incoming dumptrucks would be given to barangays for their economic enterprise as these could be made additional source of barangay income from multiple purposes like transport of people during weddings and burials, sand, gravel and earth for barangay road and individual home improvement and others.

 

The mayor also bared that the town officials and Solazone company are now in the proposal stage on the latter’s offer to provide an 18-kilowatt solar power system which accordingly could suffice to meet the power requirements of the municipal hall and even the street lightings of the poblacion. 

 

“That would have a big impact to our savings. We would ask clearance from Daneco on this once we decide,”  he said.

Parreñas has laid down big projects for the town during his three terms including the P18-million new municipal hall, new terminal, other public buildings and farm-to-market roads alongside giving poverty-alleviation programs and services.     

 

He doesn’t hide his profuse appreciation to the administration of President Aquino saying that it’s only during PNoy’s time that various national government agencies poured a total of more than P700 million to his municipality “unlike before nga halos di ta kakuha ug P1 million worth of project.”

 

As he actively supported the water district, there is an ongoing laying down of mainline pipes in 10-kilometer length to a water source in an upland barangay in the P30-million LWUA-assisted water upgrading project. 

 

Construction of three new bridges destroyed by typhoons is also underway in DPWH’s projects worth a total of P160 million.

“In Asuncion alone, more than P6 million is given to the beneficires of 4 Ps’(Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program),” he said, thanking big President PNoy. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

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GPH, MILF peace panels conclude BBL discussions

aug 16, 2014

The peace panels of the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front concluded their discussions on the draft Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL) yesterday, Friday afternoon.

A statement on the ending of discussions was posted in the official Facebook page of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process (OPAPP).

It was signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) Chairperson Mohagher Iqbal.

The statement stated: “After a series of productive meetings involving the GPH and MILF Peace Panels, the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, the Office of the Executive Secretary, and the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, we have concluded discussions on the various issues involving the draft Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL) originally drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and submitted to the President last April.”

The parties have agreed that the resolutions arrived at by both parties will be incorporated into the final draft Basic Bangsamoro Law that will be prepared and submitted to President Benigno S. Aquino III.

The conclusion followed ten-day marathon meetings of the panels held at Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao in Davao City last Aug. 1-10.

The panels are expected to finish the final draft of the BBL in their level on Monday, Aug. 18, per their timetable before they will submit the same to the President.

The statement did not provide highlights of the BBL as the panels have been bound by their protocols not to disclose the details to avoid confusion and prevent the derailment of the process.

Earlier, they however assured the public that when the President submits the bill to Congress the document will be opened for public scrutiny. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

Daneco-CDA suffers new blow in CA’s denial of motion to quash

aug 16, 2014

In another deadening setback, the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative- Cooperative Development Authority (Daneco-CDA) group failed to get a nod from the Court of Appeals in their motion to quash its seven earlier resolutions and the writ of preliminary injunction (WPI) favoring Daneco-NEA group. 

Associate Justice Edgardo Camello of the Court of Appeals (Special) 22nd Division based in Cagayan de Oro City denied the group’s motion to quash the resolutions and the WPI in 7-page decision promulgated last July 31, 2014.

 

The court’s decision was received by Daneco-NEA legal counsel Jeorge Rapista just last Tuesday.

 

The CA’s WPI issued last Aug. 29, 2012, prohibited Daneco-CDA’s respondents from “further exercising powers as members of the Board of Directors, or as responsible officers”, necessarily also their agents and representatives.

 

In the latest decision, the CA particularly denied to Daneco-CDA’s consolidated motion for reconsideration to certiorari suit filed by NEA Administrator Editha Bueno relating to cases that included issues on the legality of subsequent board of directors and management officials of the Daneco-CDA and on the issue on the temporary restraining order issued by RTC 3 Nabunturan Judge Hilarion Clapis stemming from NEA’s administrative case that dismissed members of the board of directors in 2011. 

 

In the two protagonists’ lengthy legal battle on who is legitimate between them to operate and control the management of the billionaire electric cooperative servicing Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, Daneco-CDA appeared to be the party in the seven CA cases that appealed, motioned for reconsideration and sought to quash adverse court rulings against them one after another.

 

Even then, Daneco-CDA group ignored the WPI and continued operating and collecting payments for electricity bills from member-consumers, citing their CDA registration is not revoked yet and that cases where they lost are still on appeal at the Supreme Court.

 

Earlier, Daneco-CDA media consultant Nilo Lariosa said they have “secured a status quo anti order from a Court of  Appeals in Manila prohibiting Daneco-NEA, NEA and other parties from making detrimental actions against (them).”

 

In an interview, Atty. Rapista said that Daneco-CDA’s motion to quash, which was denied already, “is an admission on their part that there is really a WPI issued against them, which prohibited them from performing functions and from operating.”

 

Already, Daneco-CDA group’s main office in Tagum City and all its collection centers dispersed in various sites in the two provinces have been closed in the recent weeks by the National Electrification Electrification implementing its Cease and Desist Order (CDO) issued last Dec. 13, 2013. NEA enforcement officers were backed up by a dozen of provincial policemen.

 

NEA premised its CDO on the CA’s standing WPI and its quasi-judicial power to issue CDO on Republic Act. No. 10531, the revised NEA Charter Law, which provides that all electric cooperatives should be under its supervisory and disciplinary powers. 

 

Rapista said that they are constantly monitoring whether Daneco-CDA group would try to open up collection centers amid a continuing implementation of NEA’s CDO.(Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

GPH, MILF panels vow to finish Bangsamoro BL Aug. 18 as Davao City meeting ends

 

aug 11, 2014

 

Both panels of the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front vowed to finish the draft of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law by August 18 as they ended their ten-day meeting Sunday evening in Davao City.    

 

 

The meeting was closely kept under wraps as local reporters were prohibited from covering the meetings following denial of MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal to a news report last Thursday that he accused President Benigno Aquino III of reneging on a “promise the government that will be flexible in its application of the Constitution to the (BBL).”

 

He said he was misquoted by Manila Times reporters who wrote the report, although he said he “(does) not recall having been interviewed by any of the (said) reporters.”

 

Iqbal, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, led the MILF panel, talking with the government’s chief negotiator, Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer.  

 

In a joint press statement issued early Sunday night after the meeting, the panels said they “have reached agreement on substantial portions of the document, and have developed a shared understanding of the remaining challenges and unsettled issues, which they will bring back to their principals for further guidance. “

 

They reiterated their commitment “to finish an agreed draft Bangsamoro Basic Law by August 18, 2014, in sha Allah, in order to allow the Office of the President to submit the same to Congress as soon as possible. “

 

During the ten-day meeting, “discussions took place in plenary as well as in small groups focused on addressing specific issues such as fiscal autonomy and administration of justice,” their joint communique said.

 

“There were also inputs provided by resource persons coming from the Bangsamoro Development Agency, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and the Ateneo School of Government on the matter of development planning and budget transfers to the Bangsamoro,” it said.

 

Moreover, the panels expressed their appreciation to the members of the International Contact Group, the Third Party Monitoring Team, and Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed “who observed,” and to the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and the Panel of Independent Lawyers “who assisted.”

 

They also thanked members of Mindanao-based civil society organizations who visited and expressed their support and encouragement. 

 

The Facebook of Opapp Peace Process posted Saturday a photo showing Bangsamoro Transition Commission as composed by it Chairman Iqbal and BTC Commissioners Robert Alonto, Pedrito Eisma, Hussein Muñoz, Ibrahim Ali, Said Sheik, Akmad Sakkam and Asani Tammang. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)

AS MORE BPO FIRMS ARE COMING, MAYOR DUTERTE ADVISES YOUTHS TO ENROL FOR FEW SEMESTERS IN ENGLISH, DICTION SUBJECTS

aug 11, 2014

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has this practical advice to college-level youths: to just take up few subjects on English grammar and diction for mastery in few semesters.

That is in preparation of the coming of more Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms in the city.

“More are coming, and I advise (them) to learn to speak what they want to hear so they will be employed. Just a few semesters… one or two semesters on grammar, voice and diction,” he said in his regular Sunday program “gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa” aired over ABS-CBN Davao at 8:30 to 9:00 A.M.

The mayor is visibly gonghu over the thousands of BPO jobs that even non college graduates but English-literate and proficient youths who are abundant in the city and in Mindanao can seize on, even as he singled out the BPO sector as the greatest jobs’ generator in his city in the recent years.

Duterte expressed his renewed commitment to make the city peaceful to pave the way for the continuous entry of investments.

He was also thankful for the growth for other economic sectors in the city such as manufacturing, construction, private investments, service sector that contributed to the consistent overall growth of the city in the recent years.

“In the last five years, naiba gyod ang Davao,” he said.

The National Economic Development Authority-XII recently figured out the city as belonging to Top 37th and 59th spots in various rankings as a BPO destination in Asia and world categories.

BPO industry officials in the city late last year bared a target of some 35,000 full-time employees employed in call centers and other types of BPO firms by 2015.

At present, the city has some 20,000 to 21,000 full-time employees in more than 20 big, medium and small BPO firms.

Well-known and big BPO players that located in the city years back included Convergys, Concentrix, Teleperformance Philippines, Hubport Interactive Center Davao,  while the city  four notable IT areas which are the Damosa IT Park, Matina IT Park, SM City Davao and Abreeza Mall.

Over the years BPO firms such as call centers, medical transcription, back office outsourcing and others trickled to establish main offices or branches, making Davao City to be dubbed in various ranking labels as “Top 10 Asian Cities of the Future” as a fast emerging and leading ICT Hub in Mindanao for attracting more BPO companies two years ago, and as “Top Next Wave Cities for IT-BPO” last year.

As the country steadily rose to top ranks with Metro Manila placing 2nd to Bangalore, on the other hand, Davao City, already the top ITC player throughout Mindanao, did the same in the 2013 ranking of Tholons, a strategic offshoring advisory firm.

In Tholons’ ranking for Top 100 BPO destinations in the world, Davao City was ranked 71st  while Metro Manila placed 2nd and Cebu 8th. Other IT places in the country such as Bacolod and Sta. Rosa were ranked 94th and 82nd, respectively. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)