BORONGAN CITY – To help sustain the Philippine Airlines’ operations in the province, Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone asked all local government units to create a tour package for their respective tourist destinations.
Evardone made this call during his meeting with the mayors and tourism officers in the province as he urged them to develop a tour package.
The governor asked them to submit their proposals to him next month.
Since the opening of its flight in the province in December of last year, the country’s flag carrier had recorded 900 passengers.
“This is big advantage for us having flight here in the province. That is why we need to sustain it, and we can do it by promoting the tourist destinations in our respective places,” Evardone said.
“I know that every town in Eastern Samar has something to offer to visitors. What you have to do is to create a product wherein tourists will know where they will go and what they will do when they come to visit our province,” the governor added.
Evardone stressed that promoting the tourist destinations of the province will help the local economy and will open job opportunities and income to the locals like farmers and fishermen.
Meantime, the tourism personnel from Maslog town informed the governor that they have to beg off because of their problem of accessibility as it is not yet connected to the province.
To reach the town, one has to travel by sea from Dolores town. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III leads the inauguration and turnover of the P9.1 million 28 linear-meter Tulay ng Pangulo in Balangiga, Eastern Samar during his recent visit to Eastern Visayas. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)
HINUNANGAN, Southern Leyte– A total of 29,149 residents including 4,759 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from the Hinunangan agrarian reform community (ARC) from this town will now have easier access to transport their agricultural products to the nearest markets, with the completion of the P8.5-million bridge under the ‘Tulay ng Pangulo Para sa Kaunlarang Pang-Agraryo (TPKP)’ project.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III leads the inauguration and turnover of the P9.1 million 28 linear-meter Tulay ng Pangulo in Balangiga, Eastern Samar during his recent visit to Eastern Visayas. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)
The TPKP project is facilitated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), in close coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Victorio Dagohoy, president of Barangay Ilaya Kikoy Farmers Association (BIKFA), expressed his gratitude to the government and said that the newly-constructed bridge would be a big help not only in bringing their products to the market but also during emergency disaster evacuation cases.
“Thank you very much. You can expect that we would take care of this bridge so we can benefit much longer from the project,” Dagohoy said.
Atty. Kazel C. Celeste, DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Office (FOO), and Rene E. Colocar, Assistant Secretary for Special Projects under the Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Office (FASPO), led the inauguration and turnover of the said bridge to Vice Mayor Marian Donayre-Pelin.
Celeste said that DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, will provide more support services to the farmers upon the directive made by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
“The Secretary’s intention is to link the remotest barangays or villages to the town and market proper, so that farmers can feel that they belong and play a big role in nation-building,” Celeste said.
Atty. Robert Anthony P. Yu, DAR Eastern Visayas regional director said the 22.80 linear meters two-lane bridge will benefit 17 barangays and one sitio namely: Calag-itan, Calinao, Catublian, Ilaya, Ingan, Libas, Lumbog, Manlico, Matin-ao, Nava, Nueva Esperanza, Palongpong, Patong, Pondol, Sto, Niño II. Tuburan, Upper Bantawon, and Sitio Tabjon. (PR)
WHEN Christ told his disciples to be the salt and light of the earth (cfr. Mt 5,13-16), we too should feel addressed by such divine command and make ourselves good influencers in a world that is increasingly wracked by confusion and error despite the apparent lights it seems to enjoy due to the powerful developments in the sciences and technologies today.
We can readily conclude from that gospel that what Christ wants is for us to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving, as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits.
We also are meant to give light to the others by giving good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God along the right if prudent and tortuous and treacherous paths of this world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to follow us so that with us they can come to Christ. This is what a good influencer is.
This means that we have to see to it that we inspire others properly. And by that, we mean that the spirit we ‘breathe into’ the others by our mere presence or by our words and deeds, should be the spirit of God.
In other words, to inspire is to infuse the spirit proper to us, the spirit that gives us life and that animates our thoughts, desires, words and actions. And that spirit is ultimately nothing other than the spirit of God who is our Creator and Father, in whose image and likeness we have been created. We need to correspond to that spirit of God.
It’s, of course, good and indispensable that we enjoy our human right of free speech and expression, but we should also give due consideration to the serious duty of exercising that right with a deep sense of responsibility. We should avoid the practice of simply making off-the-cuff comments and shooting from the hip, pure gossiping, backbiting and idle talk, etc.
Especially in the world of public opinion, we should try our best that our views are properly studied and expressed. We should express our opinions, despite contrary positions from others, in a way that would at least leave people enlightened and edified. This can always be done if we truly live by our Christian standards where truth, charity, mercy, fairness, patience and courtesy are always upheld.
We may disagree with others in their views and opinions, but we should avoid being disagreeable. Even in matters of faith and belief, when we feel that a party is clearly in error, we should not feel as if we are entitled to be rude to him. In fact, he should be treated with utmost delicacy.
What is helpful in this regard is to see to it that we do everything always in the presence of God. We should be wary when we would only be guided and driven by our own emotions and passions, if not by our own biases and prejudices. It would be good to know where everybody is coming from in order to facilitate understanding and a meaningful exchange of views.
Let’s always remember that in matters of opinion, we cannot make ours the only right or fair one. We have to respect the opinions of others, even if we do not quite agree with them. In fact, the greater the variety of opinions expressed, the better for all of us, since more things would be put into consideration.
The crystal ball of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), flashes positive sign of year 2023 having an extension of the importation of rice and corn – staple foods of many Filipinos.
The USDA prediction is based on the 2022 data, but mainly on the low rice production and the extension of lower tariffs by the Marcos administration. Thus, the USDA data reported through its Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) forecasting an importation of 3.8 million metric tons (MT) in 2023, up from 3.4 million MT targeted in 2022. The higher forecast was resorted to offset the production shortfall shown in the figures above.
The country’s Department of Agriculture (DA) leadership debunked the apprehension from the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), viz., “the country may need to import at least three million MT of rice due to the looming shortage” in production the higher food consumption this year.
The USDA reported that the country’s milled rice production is expected to be lower down to 11.975 million MT from the earlier forecast of 12.411 million MT for the year – the lower production attributed to the damage from Super Typhoon Karding in September 2022. Their observations included the decline in the importation of fertilizer from April to July 2022 as well as the lower nitrogen content by 46 percent of fertilizers imported from July to August of the same year.
Per FAS Manila report showed a reduced corn production, tempered by the high production cost considering that fertilizer plays a major factor. Thus, the USDA sees the country’s corn importation up by 300,000 MT from the earlier projection. The same expectations on corn feed consumption deemed to increase by 300,000 MT due to extension of lower tariffs and competitive future quotes. Corn is a popular component for broilers and layers feeds.
MY COMMENT:
PBBM’s signing for another year of extension of Executive Order 171, means that tariffs rates on select agri-products will be pegged at 35 on imported rice and will return to 40 percent for in-quota and 50-percent out-quota tariffs by January. And for corn, the Philippines will import and consume less wheat in 2023 – lowered the in-quota tariffs on corn imports to 5 percent from 35 percent until end of January 2023. I concur with the USDA expectations on the importations of rice and corn attributing it to low production in the country and the one-year extension of EO 171 – even if the EO (signed by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte), was meant “to bring down prices and stabilize the supply of agricultural products in the country.
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In my last column, I mentioned that there is a need to reintroduce indigenous toys and games as alternatives to gadgets. The aim is to introduce these to our young people and thus save them from too much exposure or addiction to gadgets. What, then, are these toys? The following are samples of those traditional, ethnic, cultural, or indigenous toys: Badlot first comes to mind. It is made of that sugarcane-like grass called locally as puti, tigbaw, or lupaw. Indeed, this grass looks like sugarcane, but it is very thin compared to the latter. The base of its stem is bigger and more sturdy. It is being cut off at the base, cleaned, and from it, one to one-and-a-half feet length is to be removed from the plant, cleaned, and that would be it—a badlot to play with. Two players are required, each with a badlot in hand. One will lay his badlot on the ground, while the other one will hit it using his badlot. They will have to take turns in doing this. The aim is to destroy the other person’s badlot. The badlot that gets badly damaged first is the loser.
Another example of old toys is called balugsay. This is composed of little sticks made of bamboo. They look like barbeque sticks but are shorter in their uniform length. Two players are required to play these, using their palms that alternately face up and down, with the balugsay sticks on top. Suddenly, the player lets go of the sticks and quickly snatches certain numbers of those sticks. They have to take turns in doing this after each player gets disqualified for not being able to snatch the required number of sticks.
Satom, or sato in other places, is another indigenous toy. It’s a pair of bigger sticks made of wood or solid rattan, one is longer like a small baseball bat, and the other one is short, around 5 or 6 inches long. This could be played by a pair of players, or by two groups of players. There should be a small hole in the ground on which the smaller stick is placed.
There are three ways of using the toy: one is to eject the small stick using the bigger one as far as the player can, while the opponents watch on the spots where they think the thing will fall. If they can catch it, the player gets disqualified to give way to his next groupmate.
If the watchers cannot catch the falling stick, then the distance from the hole to that short stick will be measured using the longer stick. The next move is to bat the small stick as strongly as the player can while the opponents try to catch it to disqualify the player. If they fail, the distance will be measured as well. The third move will be made—the stick will be placed in the hole, its tip sticking out. The player strikes that stick and as it flies upward, he will have to bat it as strongly as he can. The watching opponents in front will have to catch it to disqualify the player. If they fail, then the distance from the hole to where the short stick fell will be measured again. So it’s a contest on which group accumulates the highest number of points.
From the leaves of coconuts, the native toy called mola-bola can be made. The leaves are being fashioned into a ball-like form. Once done, it can be used in many games, one of which is what the children call fire-fireay. It is played by two groups, each of them armed with a ball. Every member of a group hit by the ball is removed from the active players until all members get disqualified. The group with surviving players wins. (To be continued)
Considered by most of the world as a love month, the month of February is once again hovering in the air, sweetening the corners with whispers of love and devotion against the backdrop of red roses and chocolates, cards and love letters flying here and there as promises are exchanged by passionate lovers.
The highlight is still on the 14th when the so-called Day of Hearts unfolds, but as early as now, plans and preparations are already underway. Dates among friends, lovers, couples and other love-based relationships are planned in advance such that, this early, accommodations have already been booked; reserved for those who want to spend the day with the ones they dearly love.
And so, in a time like this, dating places prove to be in demand. Restaurants, resorts, hotels, plazas, etc. turn crowded with lovers come that day. Prices of flowers soar high, including the rest of related goods and services. In the United States alone, more than a billion dollars is spent on flowers and another billion dollars on chocolates. That’s business, commercializing love.
For sure, there is nothing wrong with observing occasion milestones, nothing wrong with celebrating the love month. But certain things have to be clarified. First, it must be emphasized that love is not limited to a day or month—it should be a daily feeling towards an object of love. Second, love doesn’t have to be that expensive—even the poorest of the poor can richly love someone.
At any rate, we still would like to celebrate this month with the rest of the world as the month of love. May it remind everyone, especially those that are living in hatred and bitterness, that love is still the best emotion to harbor in relation to others. The world would be peaceful and comfortable to live in if only love predominates in society.
