(PAGASA 24-HOUR PUBLIC WEATHER FORECAST as of Wednesday, 27 March 2024) Easterlies affecting the eastern section of the country. Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur will experience Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms due to Easterlies / Localized Thunderstorms. Possible flash floods or landslides during severe thunderstorms.


PIA News Service - Wednesday, May 15, 2013



Ecleo mom re-elected, defeats daughter by slim margin in Dinagat Islands

By Fryan E. Abkilan

SAN JOSE, Dinagat Islands, May 15 (PIA) -– Incumbent Glenda Ecleo edged out daughter Geraldine in the local polls to remain governor of Dinagat Islands.

The elder Ecleo, who ran under the Nacionalista Party, was proclaimed winner on Tuesday, May 14.

She got 23,385 votes against her daughter’s 22,760.

Public Information Officer Rosario Roxas said Geraldine, who is the incumbent vice governor and the Liberal Party bet, conceded 11 a.m. yesterday. (FEA/PIA-Surigao del Norte)


PLDT-PhilCom supports Butuan’s RMRT on 2013 elections

By Jennifer P. Gaitano

BUTUAN CITY, May 15 (PIA) -- Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT)-Philippine Global Communications (PhilCom) Inc. has partnered with Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Caraga to support the agency-initiated Rapid Media Reaction Team (RMRT) for the May 13 mid-term elections.

PLDT-PhilCom Butuan provided free internet connection to the PIA regional office for the coverage of the elections.

“As part of our corporate social responsibility and as we also aim to achieve honest, orderly and peaceful elections, we are extending our contribution to the PIA and to the legitimate media personalities who are members of the Rapid Media Reaction Team. We believe that through unified efforts with other stakeholders, we can all achieve a fair and safe elections,” said Dennis Pacot, PLDT-PhilCom Butuan head.

Grigg Pedrosa, area sales manager of PLDT-Philcom, acknowledged PIA for its initiative in promoting unity among the local tri-media outfits in the city.

“We are very happy to work with PIA and the RMR Team here in Butuan and with this free internet wi-fi connection that we are providing them, we hope this would help them in fulfilling their responsibilities to the general public,” Pedrosa said.

PIA-Caraga Regional Director Abner Caga said only relevant and accurate information will be broadcasted in real-time to the public before, during and after elections through their pool of media partners in the RMRT. (JPG/Media ngBayan/PIA-Caraga/YWR)


Caraga RDRRMC discusses responsibilities of planning section chief, unit leaders in ICS

By Jennifer P. Gaitano

BUTUAN CITY, May 15 (PIA) -- The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) in Caraga upgraded its training in Incident Command System (ICS) through participating in a five-day Integrated Planning Course held at Pietros Square.

The course contains the duties and responsibilities of the planning section chief (PSC), one of the general staff under the incident commander (IC).

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Caraga led the activity through Regional Director Liza Mazo, chairperson of the region’s RDRRMC. The participants have already attended the basic/intermediate course in ICS last May 2012.

From April 29 to May 3, the participants went through eight modules on the duties and responsibilities of the PSC and unit leaders in the ICS organization, namely, the resource unit, situation unit, documentation unit and demobilization unit.

The speakers during the five-day training were Col. Mario-Verner Monsanto, consultant of the Office of the Vice Mayor in Davao City; Randy Pabon, deputy administrator of Amity Public Safety Academy; Fire Senior Insp. Noel Nelson Ababon, acting fire marshall of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Cebu City and Ryan Castañeda, special operations officer II of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Castañeda said in the ICS organization, the general staff under the incident commander are composed of the operations section, planning section, logistics section and finance/administrative section.

“The planning section chief has a big role as he directs the activities of all subordinate personnel to lead the creation of alternate strategies for addressing the emergency and to advise the IC regarding these strategies. The planning section chief will provide the IC with diagrams, maps and information about campus buildings and resources relevant to the emergency incident,” said Castañeda.

The main responsibilities of the PSC are maintaining resource and situation status; preparing incident action plan (IAP); providing documentation; preparing demobilization plan; providing technical specialists; information gathering; strategy identification and planning; conducting meetings and briefings; IAP/Contingency plan development; interactions and management and to be knowledgeable about the forms, documents and supplies at the pre-incident, on-scene and post-incident levels.

Monsanto said the resource unit leader will be responsible in establishing all incident check-in activities and maintain a master check-in list of incident resources.

“The resource unit leader also prepare[s] and process[es] the resource status change information, as well as present displays, charts, lists reflecting current status and location of resources, transportation and support vehicles,” Monsanto added.

Ababon said the situation unit leader will be responsible in collecting and organizing incident status and situation information; evaluating, analyzing, and displaying the incident status summary, maps, and weather for use by the ICS personnel and agency dispatchers.

“The five primary maps prepared by the situation unit leader [are the] Situation Unit Map; Incident Action Plan Map; Operations Briefing Map; External Traffic Plan Map and Facilities (Internal Traffic Plan) Map,” said Ababon.

Meanwhile, Pabon said the demobilization unit leader will take responsibility of the demobilization unit to ensure an orderly, safe and cost-effective release of personnel and equipment. The demobilization unit gathers the information and writes the demobilization plan and implements it.

Pabon said the demobilization unit leader is also responsible in duplicating the IAP operational period briefing and assisting other incident functional areas with photocopying needs; maintaining incident documentation in easily accessible files during the incident operations; establishing the incident history file and turning over the completed documentation files to the PSC, hosting agency or another documentation leader.

To come up with the IAP, there are 23 ICS forms to be filled out by the respective ICS personnel, however, not all of the forms are used on every incident.

The forms needed in ICS are: 201 (Incident Briefing); 202 (Incident Objectives); 203 (Organizational Assignment List); 204 (Division Assignment List); 205 (Incident Radio Communication Plan); 206 (Medical Plan); 209 (Incident Status Summary); 211 (Check-in Information); 213 (General Message); 214 (Unit Log); 215 (Planning Worksheet); 215-A (Incident Action Plan Safety and Risk Analysis); 216 (Radio Requirements Worksheet); 217 (Radio Frequency Assignment Worksheet); 218 (Support Vehicle Inventory); 220 (Air Operations Summary) and 221 (Demobilization Check-out).

Mazo said after the participants have done all the exercises in the modules and passed the speakers’ assessment/evaluation, they are now equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to perform the duties and responsibilities of the PSC and its unit leaders.

“There will be more training on ICS for the RDRRMC member-agencies to look forward to,” she said. (JPG/RER/PIA-Caraga)


Surigao Norte celebrates 112th founding anniversary

By Tessie A. Balomaga

SURIGAO CITY, May 15 (PIA) -- The provincial government of Surigao del Norte will celebrate its 112th founding anniversary dubbed “One Surigao” today.

This year's celebration is anchored on the theme "Celebrating our Rich Heritage and Sustaining the Gains of Development Onwards - Ang Bag-ong Surigao."

Series of activities will be conducted to showcase the rich history and culture of Surigaonon as well as its natural bounties.

The activity kicked off this morning with a motorcade around the city. It was followed by a Eucharistic Mass at the Provincial Sports Complex.

Other activities lined up for today’s celebration include an anniversary dinner in honor of great Surigaonons, agri-aqua skills competition, trade fair and recognition of outstanding farmers and fishers. (SDR/PIC/PIA-Surigao del Norte)


University on the Air Program for Corn Production soon to be heard in Caraga Region

By Aurell P. Arais

BUTUAN CITY, May 15 (PIA) -- Recognizing the power of radio, the AgriPinoy Corn Program of the Department of Agriculture-Caraga will conduct the University on the Air (UOA) on White Corn Production.

The radio course will be carried out through the expertise of the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Information Division (Rafid) with support of its "farmcasters" from the local government units (LGU).

Last April 16-18, a series of mass briefing and enrollment was conducted in the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte and in Butuan City.

Around 500 farmer-students were officially enrolled in the program in the whole region.

The UOA on White Corn Production will be aired one hour per week from June to August 2013.

Enrolled farmers will just need to tune in to the radio program and learn the lesson based on the course module to be discussed on air.

The program will be anchored by the respective "farmcasters" with support of the LGU-based corn coordinators.

Outstanding farmer-students will be selected based on their class performance and examinations. They will be recognized during the mass graduation tentatively set this September.

During the enrollment, Rafid OIC Rebecca Atega said that radio is the cheapest means of communication and is a powerful tool in disseminating the right technology by reaching target audiences even in the remotest place.

Caraga AgriPinoy Corn Program Coordinator Abel Wagas also expressed optimism that the UOA on White Corn Production could help improve farming practices.

White corn is being advocated for human consumption as identified under the Food Staples Sufficiency Program. (NCLM/DA-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)


Parents trained to educate parents

BUTUAN CITY, May 15 (PIA) -- The Commission on Population (Popcom) empowered 407 parents to reach other parents with adolescent children for their continuing campaign on adolescent health and youth development.

This was the offshoot of the 15 trainings conducted region-wide on Learning Package on Parent Education on Adolescent Health and Development (LPPED).

In close coordination with the Department of Education, Popcom-Caraga enabled a pool of educators in all divisions, who are also parents, to conduct parenting classes using the learning package.

The LPPED-trained teachers, who became parent educators, then trained their co-teachers in their respective schools. The classroom teachers were responsible in the conduct of parenting classes using the regular Homeroom Parent-Teachers Association (HRPTA) meetings.

Popcom-Caraga had only funded the initial training of trainers at the division level. Succeeding trainings for the school level were funded either by the school or the local governments.

Alexander A. Makinano, officer-in-charge of POPCOM-Caraga, said this initiative is sought to address findings of the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey, which identified Caraga as among the regions with the highest percentage of youth pregnancy.

According to the survey, women who began childbearing at aged 15-24 in Caraga posted at about 40 percent .

He said, although several affecting factors were identified, the role of parents is very critical in this stage of development as this is the time when understanding, guidance and support are needed most.

He added that not all parents are able to perform these functions because they either lack knowledge on sexuality issues or they don’t know how to communicate these concerns with their growing children.