DepEd Caraga reiterates free access to basic
education
By Venus L. Garcia
BUTUAN CITY, May 28 (PIA) – The Department of
Education (DepEd) Caraga though its regional director Atty. Alberto Escobarte
once again emphasized the equitable and free access to basic education as
elaborately mandated in the constitution.
He said that regardless of the person’s
socio-economic background or circumstances, each must obtain a quality
education at no cost to meet their learning needs.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Deped Caraga
Regional Education Supervisor and Information Officer Dr. Isidro Biol over
Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Caraga’s 107.8 Power FM, he stressed that
the annual school maintenance week dubbed “Brigada Eskwela” is purely voluntary
effort.
“No amount of monetary value should be collected
from enrollees despite omission to join the Brigada Eskwela activities. Every
pupil/student is entitled to his right of getting enrolled in a public school
without compelling him to pay for fees. All they need to bring are the report
card of previous year and certificate of live birth,” bared Biol.
DepEd Caraga is prioritizing the curriculum and
teacher’s guide for the S.Y. 2014-2015 for inclusive and most efficient program
of study.
Biol also mentioned that the Department is
expecting a three percent increase in the number of enrollees this school year
since more individuals are coming to learning institutions to acquire
education. Some pupils/students are also transferring from private to public
schools.
“We’ve observed a good increase of Alternative
Learning System (ALS) enrollees. This is a manifestation that out-of-school
youths, non-readers, dropouts in elementary and secondary are willing to obtain
the government’s ladderized, modular non-formal education programs,” stated
Biol.
As to number of teachers serving in public
schools, “the DepEd here in Caraga has more than a thousand available items for
teaching positions which will be apportioned to the 12 divisions,” he added.
DepEd Caraga has already started its Oplan Balik
Eskwela 2014 activities on May 26 and will end on June 3, 2014 to ensure a
smooth opening of classes.
For enrolment concerns, DepEd Caraga Information
and Complaints Desk at Teacher Development Center, J. Rosales Ave., Butuan City
can be contacted at hotline numbers 0999-8842671; 09428047155; 09158736272; and
at landline numbers (085) 342-8207 local 121 and (085) 342-5969.
(VLG/PIA-Caraga)
PopDev Data Banking strengthens
By May Ann O. Escobal
BUTUAN CITY, May 28 (PIA) - Local planners and
population workers are now well-equipped on data banking through the three-day
training on Comprehensive Population Data Banking and Management conducted
recently this city.
In partnership with the City Population Office
of Butuan, Commission on Population (PopCom) Caraga has designed the training
to enhance the capability of the local government units in developing
appropriate tools, processes, and methodologies to have a systematic support in
rendering social intervention for their respective constituents.
PopCom regional director Alexander A. Makinano
stressed the importance of integrating population and development and its
impact in the community which contribute to achieving population outcomes and
processes in balance with socioeconomic conditions and development patterns.
The training anchored on the actual experience
of Iloilo Province which resulted to the publication of updated
socio-demographic profile for the province and its municipalities. Part of
inputs shared by Ramon C. Yee, Provincial Population Officer of Iloilo
Province, were the strategies along with the implementation of the said
project. He also presented how they updated their demographic, socioeconomic
data as basis of policy formulation and program management of the LGUs.
Furthermore, participants were taught on the
techniques in conducting thorough interview and collecting relevant data from
respondents. Based on the data they have gathered, Population /Planning and
Development Officers encoded the processed forms, analyzed and interpreted the
data using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS).
With the technical assistance of the Population
Office Staff of Iloilo Province, the transfer of technology on Population Data
Banking and Management was concretized as the Provincial and City Population
and Planning and Development Officers of Caraga Region translated their
knowledge into action through field workshop on data gathering and came up with
an analysis using SPSS.
According to population experts, Population and
Development (PopDev) Data Bank is very helpful and also important in harnessing
the power of up-to-date information in connection with the delivery of basic
services that is accurate, fast, and reliable.
The three-day activity was indeed fruitful as action
plans with corresponding budget requirements for the implementation of the
Population and Development Program in their locality were laid out. (PopCom-13/PIA-Caraga)
'Programang Katawhan' benefits more than 1,000
BUTUAN CITY, May 28 (PIA) - Taking advantage of
the long summer break and continuing the tradition started more than seven
years ago of regularly doing outreach program especially for the less
fortunate, Agusan del Norte First District Representative Lawrence “Law” Fortun
again partnered with the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Metro Butuan Alumni Association
(MBAA) and the Alumni Council of North America in holding the Programang
Pangkatawhan (Community Program) in the various barangays of Butuan City.
This time around, the following services offered
were: libreng tuli, libreng gupit, feeding, optical, dental, medical and gift
pack distribution benefiting the residents of Barangays Rajah Soliman, Maon,
Ampayon, Mahogany, Salvacion, Diego Silang, JP Rizal and Datu Silongan. The
group also participated in the Brigada Eskuwela of the Department of Education
(DepEd) in Salvacion Elementary School. A total of 452 children were able to
avail of the free circumcision and around 566 availed of the free haircut.
According to Gilbert Espana, an alumni of the APO, the Alpha Phi Omega as a
service fraternity and sorority where Cong. Fortun is an active member will always
provide services to the community as their commitment to the ideals of selfless
vow to their calling of servitude.
For his part, Fortun said that this outreach
program has been regularly implemented since more than seven years ago. “This
is our way of giving back to the people a service that they truly need for the
support and confidence they have given to my leadership and we will continue to
partner with well-meaning organizations and agencies to continuously offer this
to our people,” the solon said. (LAWig Katawhan/PIA-Agusan del Norte)
Feature: Way to discover one’s gift and calling
Giving it a try . . . a follow through
By Gervacio C. Dauz, Jr.
BUTUAN CITY, May 28 (PIA) - We were breezing
through several official activities inside the Robinson's Place here during the
Labor Day celebration and my particular task was to document them as they
unfold and progress. When a lull
provided me with a break, I sneaked near the Atrium Activity Center and lined
up for a much needed free massage being conducted by fellows who are alumni
from the Butuan City Manpower Training Center (BCMTC).
As the seats were fully loaded, I just keenly
observed for a while until I narrowed my choice to a fellow who seemed to be
meticulous and passionate with his handling of a particular client. He got an oomph and an o-la-la chuckle that I
felt would be worthy of my time for a body tune up. Forthwith, I chatted with him as to “how long
will I wait for my turn to be massaged?”
He smiled and begged me to wait for one more gentleman to be massaged
and then “it’s your turn, sir,” he assured me.
It was a chair massage, which was not quite
comfy compared to a bed massage.
“Shocks, oh boy,” I thought to myself, “but he got the knuckles and the
strength for hard press and he did touch me just enough in the right places for
me to feel a sensational, pleasurable pain.”
It was then that I felt more than comfortable with the set up. In between, I conversed with him how in the
world did he land undergoing a skills training in Massage Therapy NC II.
“I have had been into this for quite a while,
sir,” he disclosed, “but I needed a legal document to boost my part-time income
generation.” It was such answer that I
desired to hear before I requested him if he can spare a time for an interview
with me. He agreed.
The sand and breeze of Doha, Qatar is terribly
oven hot by day and bitingly chilly at night. Harry V. Tumada, who was then in
his early 20’s at that time and working as a Steel Fixer for the Construction
Development Company from year November 2006 up to May 2009, was used to such
kind of harsh condition as an Overseas Filipino Worker through force of
circumstances. For such manual work, he
developed toughened knuckles and vigorous gripping hands, which readied him for
an alternative vocation.
While resting one evening, he got a surprise
request from a bed-ridden co-Filipino worker, pleading with him to care for his
semi-invalid lower body. With nary any
training nor trial for massage, he was not amenable to the idea of helping
him. But the fellow kept desperately imploring:
“Just try, because if nothing would happen, at least you have tried.”
Stricken by his conscience, he approached the
fellow one solitary evening and began to tenderly massage him. Miraculously, the fellow was able to walk and
go back to work after three intensive massage sessions and this became the talk
within the compound where he and his fellow workers with different
nationalities are billeted. With such
news, his brand of massage therapy sold like pancake as almost everyone began
to patronize and line up to him for a schedule.
It was heaven-sent for him who needed to boost his little income – with
him grossing 200 Qatari Riyals (QR) per month as a Steel Fixer, but
supplemented by 50 QR per hour of doing massage for a client.
When he went back to the Philippines, he got
practically no savings, even if he worked like a beast of burden. “At least I was able to help my six other
siblings go to school for them to acquire credentials and be established later
in life,” he shared. But just like in
the past, he again got employed in several back-breaking jobs locally and used
his savings to return to Qatar once more as a Steel Fixer beginning in January
2011. His salary this time was quite
bigger while working with the Al Jabber Engineering (AJE) in Al Khor, Qatar,
and it was supplemented more with his massage sideline. One time, he got a crude awakening as there
were raw reports of complaints to legally charge him for practicing massage
therapy without any necessary document to show.
Alarmed by this, he just minimized his once lucrative sideline and
contented himself with serving only those within the compound of AJE until he
exited on October 2012 and worked locally.
Vowing not to get flat-footed again, he enrolled
in Massage Therapy NC II at the BCMTC on November 2013, courtesy of a
scholarship by TESDA and Cong. Lawrence Lemuel H. Fortun, and graduated on
April 2014 already armed with a National Certification.
When I asked him for whom and for what is he
striving for all these years?
“I was immersed to hardships and sacrifices
since I was a small boy,” he shared. “My
father died while I was only two years old and my mother did not have much time
for the seven of us, siblings, because she was always tending our small farm in
the mountain. But she would send a small
amount for us, plus some produce from the farm.
It was us, siblings, who rather supported each other through thick and
thin. I sold ice drops, balut, and many
other stuff. I became a shine boy, then
a janitor by day and a student at night.
Even without food sometimes, I persevered and survived until I graduated
from high school. Afterwards, I tried my
luck in Manila doing several menial jobs, then went back here, applied at a
Jobs Fair sponsored by our city government somewhere in 2006, and by God’s
grace I was accepted for Qatar. Prior to
my second leg in Qatar, my mother died without me seeing her remains as I was
scheduled already to board the plane.
“However, I want to be back for the third time
abroad. This time, I would really save
money for the long haul as I got a two-year old son to support. I hope to marry his mother too if and when
the right time comes. Above all, I
thanked God, who became my Lord and Savior when I first worked in Qatar. He helped erase my bad memories, my negative
thinking, and my ill-tempered ways. He
has given me a new beginning, and now I feel so much hope welling from
within. I likewise believed that it was
God who opened an opportunity for me to discover massage as one of my gifts and
calling. Now, at 34 years of age, he has
given me also the credential to pursue massage therapy with passion and
discipline. Back up with TESDA’s national certification, I will surely be
engaging in massage therapy with forehead tilted high and with confidence.
Thank you, sir,” this he blurted as his goodbye message.
“Thank you, too,” I responded. To summarize, here was a fellow who has
hurdled the storms of life through the school of hard-knocks and experience,
with a definite resolve and direction, coupled with a credential and an
ever-enduring trust in God, who alone can open doors of opportunity and bless
the works of his hands. I say, “May his
tribe increase.” (TESDA-Agusan del Norte/PIA-Agusan del Norte)
Cebuano News: Surigao City PopCom mipagawas sa
ilang 1st quarter accomplishment report
SURIGAO CITY, Mayo 28 (PIA) – Ang Buhatan sa
Commission on Population (PopCom) sa syudad, mipagawas sa ilang accomplishment
report sulod sa unang kwarter gikan Enero ngadto Marso sa tuig 2014 atol sa
Flag Raising Ceremony nga gipahigayon sa City Hall grounds bag-ohay pa lamang.
Sumala ni City PopCom Officer-in-Charge Jupiter
Correos pipila sa ilang mga programa ang nahimong nagpadayon kini sama na sa
pagpahigayon sa ilang Youth Advocacy Program ug Responsible Parenthood and
Family Planning diin mikabat sa 15 ka mga nagkalain-laing mga tulunghaan ang
napahihayon na niini, 12 ka mga sesyon
sa Pre- Marriage Counselling diin mikabat sa 86 ka mga maagtiayon ang
mipailawom sa maong counselling.
Sumala pa ni Correos nga lakip usab sa ilang
accomplishments ang pagpahigayon sa Youth Volunteers and Facilitators training
ug Youth Camp usa kini ka tinuig nga kalihukan matag bakasyon alang sa mga
kabatan- onan.
Samtang dako gayod ang pasalamat sa City PopCom
ngadto na sa local nga pagamhanan sa syudad sa pagpangulo ni Mayor Ernesto
Matugas tungod sa dakong tabang ug pagsuporta niini sa tanang kalihukan sa
PopCom, dugang pa ni Correos. (SDR/MICO-Surigao/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
