AgSur guv to deliver SOPA on June 17
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur, June 14 (PIA) – In
time with the culmination of the 49th Founding Anniversary of the province on
June 17, 2016, Governor Adolph Edward “Eddiebong” Plaza will also deliver his
State of the Province Address (SOPA) – State of the Local Governance Report at
the Naliyagan Cultural Center here.
Said event on Friday is divided into two parts.
The first part will be a short program for the culmination of the Naliyagan
Festival while the second part is the SOPA and awarding of municipal
interactive booth winners, as well as recognition of outstanding achievement
and performance award.
Provincial vice governor Santiago Cane Jr will
deliver his welcome message during the program while superintendent Minerva
Albis of the Department of Education (DepEd) Agusan del Sur will share the
brief history and facts about the province.
First District Representative Maria Valentina
Plaza and Second District Representative Evelyn Mellana are also expected to
deliver their inspirational messages. Gov. Eddiebong Plaza will then give his
message and declaration of Foundation Day and Countdown of Golden (50th)
Foundation Day Anniversary and Silver (25th) Naliyagan Festival celebration.
It can be recalled that by virtue of Act No. 1693,
Agusan was made into province on August 20, 1907 where Malaybalay was part of
this new province. Agusan derived its name from the local dialect “agasan”
which means “where the water flows.”
The Province of Agusan del Sur was created by
virtue of Republic Act No. 4979 which provides for the division of the Province
of Agusan into Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur. It was enacted and signed
into law by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos on June 17, 1967.
(JPG/PIA-Agusan del Sur)
Meat-cutting plant to rise in Butuan
By Anna Gail Carreon
BUTUAN CITY, June 14 (PIA) – Officials and
representatives from Winrock International Institute for Agricultural
Development – Philippine Cold Chain Project/United States Department of
Agriculture, Happy Enterprises & Resources, Inc., and Pilmico Animal
Nutrition Corporation led recently the groundbreaking ceremony of the new
meat-cutting facility in the city.
The facility will not only provide fresh, quality
and safe meat to Butuanons and nearby provinces, but it also gives local
backyard farmers assured profit through the business model developed by Winrock
and Pilmico. Local Caraga farmers are provided the right genetics and Pilmico
feeds essential to producing quality pork.
Pilmico and its project partners are looking
forward to the plant's completion, largely because of the impact it will have
on the Caraga region's economy and its local farmers.
As true partners for growth, Caraganons are not
only assured that the meat they will buy is clean and fresh but more
importantly, it benefits the little guys at the very start of the food chain –
the backyard farmers.
In a statement released from Pilmico, this kind of
project has never been done before and with the plant's expected success, it
can be a business model that can be replicated in other parts of the country.
Plans for the official launch of the meat-cutting
plant is scheduled in October, it was learned. (FEA/Pilmico/PIA-Caraga)
Army holds bloodletting drive in Surigao Norte
By Lt. Ryan D. Layug
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte, June 14 (PIA) –
Twenty three (23) units of blood were extracted from the army volunteers in the
recent mobile blood donation activity in line with the 118th Independence Day
celebration spearheaded by the 30th Infantry Battalion (30IB) in partnership
with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) under its Mobile Blood Donation program.
With the theme, “Dugo para sa Kababayan, Alay ng
Kasundaluhan sa Araw ng Kalayaan,” the bloodletting activity was held on June 9
at the 30IB headquarters in Sta. Cruz, Placer, this province.
According to 30IB commanding officer LTC Rico
Amaro, the said activity is the soldier’s way to share part of their life to
their fellowmen.
Col. Amaro who is a regular blood donor led the
list of donors including his wife, son and daughter who is on vacation from
Baguio City.
“This is teaching our children the essence of
humanitarian service on a voluntary basis. Teaching them to understand our life
as public servants,” Amaro added.
During the said activity, PRC administrator
Marilou Talingting explained that any person 16 years old and above, at least
50 kilograms, physically healthy as determined by doctor on duty can donate
blood, and a person can donate blood every three months.
Talingting then thanked the 30IB for its support
to the program. “Our vibrant relationship is encouraging, just last February
our soldiers from 30IB also donated blood. Thank you very sir for your
support,” said Talingting. (FEA/CMO-30IB, Philippine Army/PIA-Surigao del
Norte)
Surigao Norte hosts PLS national assembly
By John Glenn Platil
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao City, June 14, 2016 (PIA) -
The members and officers of the Philippine League of Secretaries (PLS) to the
Sanggunian convened on June 1-4 for the national assembly which was held in the
city.
Regional president and national assembly director
Rosendo Campos spearheaded the historic and meaningful convergence which aims
to strengthen the linkage among Sanggunian secretaries all around the country.
Top policy-makers from the Surigao del Norte’s
Sanggunian also graced the event under the supervision, control and management
of Rudolph Valentino Sering.
In her keynote message through Provincial
Administrator Atty. Premolito Plaza, Governor Sol Matugas explained the
official duties and responsibilities of the Sanggunian secretary in every municipal,
city and provincial LGU, pursuant to the local government code of the
Philippines.
“By providing the stakeholders and manpower
complement with vast opportunity to learn and share the best practices and
innovative strategies, we see to it that all roads lead to success in the
conduct of decision-making and legislative work,” Matugas said.
She said that ordinances and resolutions are the
anchor and foundation of good governance because the people are guided to
become law-abiding constituents in a province which endeavors to institute
sweeping, instant and concrete reforms.
“We recognize the go-signal and mandate of our new
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to stamp out bureaucratic red tape and end any
delay in official business. Duterte who is a true son of Mindanao wants to
adopt policies which reflect his vision for real change and absolute
transformation starting with character building and value formation," said
Matugas. (PGO-SDN/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
Sec. Singson’s last policy instruction: Budget
‘limit’ on projects to cut underspending
BUTUAN CITY, June 14 (PIA) - Secretary Rogelio L.
Singson of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has this last
policy instruction to recommend to management which is to impose ‘limit’ on
annual funding for each project implemented by the Department to address
underspending of budget. This was
disclosed by the secretary during his recent visit to Caraga Region, his last
before he bows out of the department come June 30, 2016.
The outgoing secretary has been recently doing his
rounds nationwide, visiting each region to assess current status of
infrastructure program to ensure a smooth transition of governance to
department’s newly- appointed Secretary Mark Villar.
“I am ready for turn-over anytime now, but I’m
just doing my rounds to make sure the next administration will not encounter
major problems following my lead,” he said.
On June 9, he had a stopover at the DPWH-Caraga
Regional Office here, where he held a two-hour meeting with the agency
executives and officials to hear their concerns on project implementation as
well as share insights on policy directions and program thrusts of the incoming
new administration, which may affect the bureaucracy of the department.
Sec. Singson disclosed that “despite the
department is given huge amount of budget, a notable percentage of it were not
used for projects neither for services, which is the prevailing issue at this
point – underspending of funds.”
Underspending pertains to percentage of funds
allotted to the department for its expenditure that were unable to utilize
within the given period.
According to him, the DPWH Central Office has
recognized budget programming as the bottleneck of series of complications that
eventually “results to underspending.”
“The management committee is meeting regularly
nowadays with incoming Sec. Villar, and we have studied closely the necessary
approaches to undertake to address this issue, of which one is to limit annual
funding of projects with multi-million worth, such as bridges, to be based on
capacity of contractors to accomplish certain percentage of projects,” he said.
He said this policy entails contractors to enter
into multi-year obligational authority.
“By that, it means the single contractor will
assume implementation until the project is completed, but the annual funding
will be based on how much they can accomplish for the current year the project
is being implemented,” he added.
Another factor he identified that hinders the
utilization of budget is the delay on accomplishment due to road right-of-way,
inaccessible project locations, and protracted processing of documents.
"These problems could’ve been mitigated, if
not avoided, when they are worked out initially prior to the beginning of
implementation of project itself,” he said.
At this point, Sec. Singson recommended that by
the following year, only projects that are ‘workable’ should be implemented,
while the rest of the budget is utilized in the preparation of those that have
anticipated difficulties.
Sec. Singson clarified that while imposition of
the said ‘limits’ does not entail low budget for the succeeding years – but
only for a time being until workable conditions are met for projects to push
through – thus fund utilization is efficient in this approach.
(DPWH-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)
