(PAGASA 24-HOUR PUBLIC WEATHER FORECAST as of Wednesday, 11 December 2024) Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) affecting the western section of Mindanao and Palawan. Shear Line affecting the eastern sections of Central and Southern Luzon. Northeast Monsoon affecting Northern Luzon and the rest of Central Luzon. 𝗙𝗒π—₯π—˜π—–π—”π—¦π—§ π—ͺπ—˜π—”π—§π—›π—˜π—₯ π—–π—’π—‘π——π—œπ—§π—œπ—’π—‘: 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 Localized Thunderstorms. Possible flash floods or landslides during severe thunderstorms. 𝗙𝗒π—₯π—˜π—–π—”π—¦π—§ π—ͺπ—œπ—‘π—— 𝗔𝗑𝗗 π—–π—’π—”π—¦π—§π—”π—Ÿ π—ͺπ—”π—§π—˜π—₯ π—–π—’π—‘π——π—œπ—§π—œπ—’π—‘: Moderate to Strong winds coming from East to Northeast will prevail with slight to moderate seas / (0.6 to 2.5 meters).


Monday, October 23, 2017

Enabling educators to be communicators of change

By Venus L. Garcia

BUTUAN CITY, Oct. 23 (PIA) – The advent of modern technologies or the information age brings about a progression in the perspective of professional educators from being mostly inclined in curricular areas, classroom management and academic subjects to becoming effective communicators of change to empower communities.

During the Organizational Meeting and Regional Leadership Forum of the Department of Education (DepEd) Caraga on October 19 at the LMX Convention Center, Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Undersecretary Harold Clavite thoroughly discusses different strategies on how to be an effective communicator. Said event was attended by around 1,300 participants, comprised of public elementary and secondary school heads, Schools Division Superintendents, and Assistant Schools Division Superintendents.

Clavite said keeping themselves open to new technological advancements such as appropriate use of social media, teachers can improve their communication skills, and become excellent educators. This would also allow them to communicate change better and help motivate others to embrace affirmative transformations.

“Change is inevitable. Technologies change and these have also affected the landscape of the way we want to convey change in a wider reach, through utilization of available social media platforms. Filipinos use these to communicate with friends and colleagues, share events, get news, or discover something new. People are optimizing for more interactions and reach,” said Clavite.

He added that what are being commonly posted by netizens are 'transportive visuals.'

“This means posting of photos that tell stories and making the readers feel they are in. This is where tagging of people and relevant accounts start as another effective way of engaging the community. What we post and share can inform, create opinion, influence action and affect sentiment,” underscored Clavite.

Clavite further elaborated how these platforms became favorable in disseminating information and in sharing of ideas of change that the government wants to put into effect for the welfare of the people.

He also cited studies on how relevant social media posts can help humanize relationships, inspire others, develop meaningful stories and how it contributes to crowdsourcing of ideas.

The importance of digital communications was also pointed out but he emphasized that people have to stay vigilant and be responsible in sharing information, especially with the use of social media.

Meanwhile, Department of Education (DepEd) Caraga Regional Director Beatriz Torno emphasized in her message that school principals should be the source of inspiration to the teachers, students, co-principals and to the community. "You live with inspiration so that you will radiate inspiration among others. Working with inspiration produces better outputs and a feeling of contentment as leaders and educators," Torno said.

Torno also underlined that the educators are the propellers of DepEd Caraga. “You are the region’s hands-on executives, performing several responsibilities being a school principal and doing even beyond the call of duty. You are truly an inspiration who deserved proper recognition and appreciation, that’s why you are all gathered in this very significant event,” added Torno as she sincerely addressed the participants.

According to Dr. Amelia Ronquillo, Public Schools District Supervisors Association (PSDSA) President, communication is necessary in all aspects of human lives, but learning the key points to become effective communicators of change is equally indispensable.

“Students today find it easy to pick up new electronic devices and learn how to make use of it at the best advantage. It is important that we understand the mechanism for citizens’ involvement in communicating change for sustained progress,” said Ronquillo.

Recounting some of the milestones of PIA, Clavite shared the significance of social media in its advocacy campaigns. “The agency has been tasked to lead the promotion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the country. There were already 109 ASEAN information kiosks that were established nationwide with 111 multi-sectoral and youth fora conducted. All these undertakings were hyped through the help of social media,” said Clavite.

PIA is mandated to keep every Filipino to be well-informed citizens and to make sure that proper information is given to communities to make sound decisions.

He also reiterated the importance of technology in communicating change to empower communities.

“If we communicate our message of change, we must never forget communities. Do the effort to engage with them. May you all be agents of change, and be communicators who will empower communities,” encouraged Clavite. (VLG/PIA-Caraga)


Butuan, Surigao City Divisions champ in 1st Regional Social Welfare inter-school quiz bowl

By Abegail R. Alvarez

BUTUAN CITY, Oct. 23 – Elementary and secondary students from Butuan and Surigao City won in the first regional Social Welfare and Development Learning-Network (SWD L-Net) inter-school quiz bowl competition held at the Robinsons Place, this city.

The seven participating schools in the said competition were all winners on the division level of the quiz bowl which happened in August 2017.

Each school was represent by three students who competed for easy, average and difficult rounds. The questions are based on current events, SWD L-NET, law and issuances on the protection of children, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.

For the elementary category, Ong Yiu Central Elementary School placed first with a score of 37, followed by Kiawan Elementary School of Bayugan City with 28, and Tagbina Elementary School of Surigao del Sur with 26 placing them at 2nd and 3rd spot respectively.

For the secondary category, Caraga Regional Science High School of Surigao City got the first place. Butuan City School of Arts and Trades got the 2nd place, and Claver National High School of Surigao del Norte got the 3rd.

Both elementary and secondary students winners received cash prizes of P5,000 for 1st place, P4,000 and P3,000 for 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. They were also awarded with medals, certificates, and trophies.

The quiz bowl, with the theme “Knowledge Sharing through Caraga SWD L-NET,” was organized by the members of SWD L-NET, which is chaired by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and co-chaired by Habitat for Humanity. It aims to promote and popularize the SWD L-NET and advocate the Regional Learning Commons (RLC), the 21st century library of DSWD-Caraga.

The SWD L-NET was created through Administrative Order 20, series of 2005. Its objective is to establish a self-regulating learning network, where members and SWD constituencies can provide and avail of quality capacity building programs. It also aims sustain the functionality and viability of the learning network to ensure available, accessible and quality capacity building programs to constituencies and clientele. (Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga/PIA-Caraga)


SSS now releases UMID cards on time

SURIGAO CITY, Oct. 23 – Social Security System (SSS) said members of the pension fund applying for the Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) cards may now receive their cards within 30 working days from their card application.

SSS President and Chief executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said the production of UMID cards is now back to its normal processing time after it experienced delay from mid-February 2017 due to the stoppage of operation of the Central Verification System (CVS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The CVS checks biometric uniqueness of member applicants, which is required prior to the issuance of UMID cards.

“We would like to inform our members that the UMID card processing time is now back to its normal processing time. Your UMID cards will be delivered right into your doorsteps within 30 days, upon successful data capture, via Philpost delivery,” Dooc said.

UMID cards are released for mailing within eight days upon successful application and data capture of the member and will be delivered via Philpost within two weeks for National Capital Region (NCR) and four weeks for those with registered addresses outside NCR.

Dooc said the backlog in UMID card production was wiped out on the last week of September 2017.

According to SSS ID Card Production Department, almost one million UMID card applications were affected by the delay since February 2017 when the machine overheated. As of end-September 2017, the SSS has already released some 1 million UMID cards to its members.

To date, SSS has already released more than nine million UMID cards.

The CVS stopped operation from mid-February to mid-June 2017 due to the high temperature of the data center of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

To date, the temperature in DICT remained stable and compliant to the requirements of CVS.

The CVS was housed in DICT by PSA after it was turned over by SSS in July 2015. (SSS/PIA-Surigao del Norte)


Tagalog News: Mga IPs sa Caraga region ibinahagi ang kanilang natatamasang pagbabago sa implementasyon ng IPRA law

BUTUAN CITY, Okt. 23 (PIA) – Kasabay ng selebrasyon ng ika-20 anibersaryo ng Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA) law base sa Republic Act 8371, nagtipon-tipon kamakailan ang mga indigenous people (IPs) mula sa ibat-ibang tribal community ng Caraga region at ibinahagi ang kanilang mga natatamasang pagbabago at karanasan sa loob ng 20 taong implementasyon ng IPRA law sa rehiyon.

Ayon kay Randy Catarman, ang Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) ng Jabonga, Agusan del Norte, may malaking tulong na naidulot sa kanilang mga IPs ang IPRA law. Nabigyan na umano sila ng pansin ng gobyerno at ng lipunan. Nakakadalo at nakakapagbahagi na rin sila ng kanilang mga hinaing sa mga mahahalagang pagtitipon ng gobyerno kasama ng ibang sektor.

Dagdag pa ni Catarman, marami pa silang gustong makita at maramdaman na magagandang dulot ng IPRA law sa IP community. Umaasa rin syang maisasakatupan na ang IP-led Ancestral Domain Development Plan, na nagsasaad ng kanilang mga plano na mas makakatugon sa kanilang pangangailangan sa edukasyon, kalusugan, pangkapaligiran at iba pa.

Ibinahagi naman ni Marlon Plaza, ang IPMR ng Talacogon, Agusan del Sur ang kanyang pakiusap sa gobyerno, na sana ay dagdagan pa ang pondo ng National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) at gawin itong isang departamento, para sa gayon ay mas matugunan at maisakatuparan pa ang mga plano, programa at serbisyo para sa kanilang sektor.

Dagdag pa niya, malawak ang aspektong tinutugunan ng NCIP para sa mga IPs kaya nararapat lamang na mabigyang suporta ang ahensya.

Ayon naman kay Atty. Jose Dumagan Jr, Regional Director ng NCIP Caraga, ang IPRA law ay batas na kumikilala, nagtatanggol at, nagtataguyod sa karapatan ng mga katutubong pamayanang kultural o katutubong pamayanang Pilipino, nagbubuo ng pambansang komisyon para sa mga katutubo, nagtatadhana ng kaukulang kaparaanan sa pagpapatupad at naglalaan ng gugugulin para dito at sa iba pang layunin.


Binigyang diin rin ni Dumagan na sa pagpapatupad ng IPRA law sa bansa, ipinapakita ng gobyerno na kinikilala nito ang karapatan ng mga IPs na magkaroon ng ancestral domain titles. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)