April 2008
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04.30.08MGD and His Allies, 0 vs. JdcD and Her Allies, 1
Shall we have a running tally of this emerging rivalry? Even if Kalinga Representative Manuel Agyao has been appointed as “caretaker”, we hope Mt. Province officials will lobby to have a special election held so the peoples choice will come out. Eh matagal pa naman ang 2010 elections.
Kalinga solon appointed as Mountain Province congressional caretaker
By Dexter See/Northern Philippine TimesBONTOC, Mountain Province – House Speaker Prospero Nograles appointed first-term Kalinga Rep. Manuel S. Agyao as the caretaker of the congressional post of this province which was vacated by the demise of veteran lawmaker Victor S. Dominguez last Feb. 8.
Nograles appointed Agyao even as some politicians in the province endorsed Baguio City Rep. Mauricio G. Domogan as caretaker of the vacant congressional post for over two months now.
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04.30.08Smarter Solutions’ Lean Six Sigma
Note: Sponsored Post
Ever heard of the Lean Six Sigma? Well it is a process-oriented strategy developed by Smarter Solutions Inc which is aimed at increasing operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and shareholder value. It is primarily designed for business organizations but its objective of eliminating waste (of financial resources, time, etc) should also apply to non-business entities.
Check out Smarter Solutions’ Six Sigma Black Belt Training if you’d like to know more about this.
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04.24.08Benguet Cowgirls
Wow. You got to be impressed with these girls. Can you imagine yourself grappling a bull to the ground and tying it up? Our Benguet State University coeds were able to do that during a rodeo contest in Masbate. They made the Inquirer as a result. Congratulations, cowgirls.
Coeds turn cowgirls in Masbate rodeo
By Jaymee T. Gamil / Inquirer
MASBATE CITY – At this time of the year, most “colegialas” can be found on the beach, flaunting the latest swimwear and perfecting their tans. Janice Mino and Juanita Palileng of Benguet State University (BSU), however, choose to spend the summer in Masbate’s dusty corrals, wearing denims and wrestling bulls.For three years, Janice and Juanita have been roughing it, along with teammates from the BSU Highland Cowboys and Cowgirls, at the cattle sports events during the Rodeo Masbateño festival in Masbate City. The rodeo is a yearly event to celebrate the island-province’s “cattle country” culture.
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04.24.08Don’t Throw Out Those Broken Bottles
What do you do with your broken bottles or glasses? Do you just throw them out with the rest of your garbage? If you do, that’s considered an environmental sin. It’s just as bad as McDonalds and Jollibbee using all those plastic cups and styrophor plates.
So what should we do with our broken bottles then? Well, let’s make them into glass cullets, that’s what.
I heard of glass cullets back in the 1990s when I visited the recycling place in Sagada which was located near Ken Kitongan or the bottomless pit. [If you haven’t heard of Sagada’s bottomless pit, it’s between the cemetery and the old St. Mary’s School laboratory.]
Anyways, while visiting that recycling center I noticed that they were crushing broken bottles and glasses. I was told that the Glass Cullet, among its many other uses, can be added to the sand and cement which one uses to build a house or any construction project. I was like, “Whoo, wouldn’t those pieces of broken glass cut into the tires of a car when they’re used in a road project?”
Stupid question, no? I was assured that it won’t happen like that. In fact, I was told that crushed glass cullets behave like natural sand. Natural sand, of course, don’t cut into the tires of passing cars, right? Right.
Anyways, I’m not sure whether the Sagada folks who were recycling these broken bottles are still at it. I certainly hope they are. It would be sad if, like practically every worthwhile undertaking in these islands in the Pacific, their venture dies an unlamented death.
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04.23.08The Princess of Chico River
UN representative baptized as princess of Bontoc’s Chico River
GMA NetworkBONTOC, Mountain Province - Suneeta Mukherjee, the representative of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in the Philippines, was baptized as “wagchas” or the “Princess of Chico River” by local government officials in an elaborate ceremony here.
Does that mean that Mukherjee, an Indian national and a strict vegetarian, would be able to partake of pork, the favorite food in Bontoc?
“No,” said Gov. Maximo Dalog. “But this is our way of saying that we are serious in our thrust for population management and development.”
Mountain Province and nearby Ifugao were among the few provinces in Northern Philippines that passed a code for comprehensive reproductive health.
Dalog said that the implementing rules and regulations of the code, as well as the Gender and Development Code were approved recently.
Mukherjee said local government units should not wait for the House and Senate to pass the National Reproductive Health Code.
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OUR TAKE: Hmmm. Princess of Chico River? What a title. Hindi kaya magalit ang mga bading sa Bontoc because that title should be bestowed to one of them not to some “interloper”. Hehe. Joke lang, UNFPA Representative.
Anyways, it’s good that Cordi local government units (LGU) view reproductive health as an important issue. Kudos goes to Ifugao for being the first province in the entire country to pass a reproductive health ordinance. Mt. Province followed and is the second province in the Cordilleras to do so.
Now, after passing their ordinances, the officials of Ifugao and Mt. Province should now buckle down to work to make their ordinance a reality. Let’s hope they won’t back down if the Catholic Bishops threaten them with excommunication, deny them communion, or anything like that.
Ito naman kasing mga obispo sa Pilipinas, biro mo ba namang they equate using condoms or other birth control methods with killing life daw. How very 19th century, ano?
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04.23.08Governor Baguilat Denies Banning “Moma”
From Sunstar: The betel nut chew or more popularly known as “moma” in the local dialect was never barred from being used as the traditional chewing gum in Ifugao.
Ifugao Governor Teddy Baguilat Jr. issued the clarification after some expatriates who attended the recently concluded International Igorot Consultation (IIC), asked why the Provincial Government is banning a tradition known to be practiced not only by Igorots but also by lowlanders.
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04.23.08Kapangan’s Silk Cocoons
Let’s give kudos to whoever thought of introducing silkworm farming in Kapangan. It seems like its going to be a success. Photo credit: John Javellana/Reuters.
Silkworms give Philippine farming town a makeover
By Manny Mogato/Reuters
KAPANGAN - Hundreds of white mulberry trees have started to cover mountain slopes deep in the northern Philippines’ Cordillera region, changing not just the landscape but also making over the image of a poor farming town.Up until the early 2000s, the upland villages of Kapangan, a vegetable growing town of 18,000 people in Benguet province, was widely known as one of the country’s largest cultivation areas of an illegal plant — marijuana.
“We’ve started something to erase that tag,” Roberto Canuto, a public attorney in the province who was elected mayor in 2007, told Reuters. “We’re determined to be known as something else, perhaps, the silk capital of the country.”
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