Aha. We hope someone will bring a formal complaint to the Senate. Maybe the iMPACT group should make this its undertaking as a follow-up of the signature campaign last year? If the Senate does conduct an investigation, the most important thing would be evidence, evidence, and evidence. We hope someone in the know would be willing to spill out what s/he knows.
Senate ready to probe Halsema rehab project
Sunstar Baguio
THE Senate committee on public works is willing to investigate complaints on the implementation of phase 2 of the Halsema Highway rehabilitation project.
Committee chairman Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. said any complaint over alleged anomalies committed will be immediately investigated once the issue is brought to the Senate’s attention.
In a coring test done by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in September last year, a portion of Mt. Data to Bontoc section failed the inspection. This prompted the agency to issue a remove-and-replace order to the contractor.
The rehabilitation of this section is under investigation by both the Office of the Ombudsman and the Presidential Anti Graft Commission (PAGC) for alleged overpricing and partiality in the selection of contractors to handle the project.
Funded by the Office of the President and the Mountain Province District Engineering Office (MPDEO), phase 2 of the project amounts to P1.905 billion.
Halsema highway is the major access route to the Cordilleras, coming from Baguio City.
The project aims to provide basic infrastructure which would support the attainment of the development objectives of the country and to enhance the social and economic progress in the countryside. (RO)
Related posts on the Halsema Project:
Questions, Questions, and a Suggestion
An Open Letter to All i-Mountain Province
Safety First
Project Watch: Complaining Does Produce Results
Here’s the latest update on the Campbell tragedy which we started covering last year. According to the this report, the judge is expected to issue her decision about three months from now. Here’s the links to our previous posts on the Campbell tragedy should you want to revisit them: Missing in Ifugao; Video Updates on Julia Campbell; On Juan Dontugan’s Surrender; People vs. Dontugan I; People vs. Dontugan II; Campbell Family to Attend Dontugan Hearing.
Campbell slay trial ends; verdict to be out June 30
Melvin Gascon/Inquirer
BANAUE, Ifugao, Philippines — The trial of the accused in the murder of United States Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell ended here Wednesday, a day after her first death anniversary.
Presiding Judge Ester Piscoso-Flor of the Regional Trial Court Branch 34 gave the prosecution and the defense 30 days to file their memorandum or a summary of the evidence presented in the case.
She set the issuance of the court’s decision for June 30.
“We are glad that we are on schedule. We expect to come out with the verdict before the end of June to enable both parties get over with this trial,” Flor said.
Wednesday’s hearing, which lasted only 10 minutes, capped more than 11 months of trial of one of this mountain town’s most celebrated cases — the murder of a foreigner in a village that draws thousands of foreign and local tourists every year.
Campbell, 40, a former journalist and an English teacher then assigned in Albay, disappeared on April 8, 2007, while walking along the mountain trail leading to remote Batad village. Her decomposing body was found 10 days later, buried in a gorge about 20 meters from the trail.
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This is a review of web-articles.info, an online directory of web services related articles. Said articles are submitted by different sources who would like their pieces included in the directory. Since this is a review, let us look at both what is good and what is bad with said website.
First, here’s the good side. We like the fact that the site facilitates the sharing of information and is mindful of the need to cite/link to one’s sources. We are a fan of information sharing and we also believe that if you borrow anything from the web, the decent thing to do is to link back to where you borrowed.
Now, here’s our negative feedback which, we hope, will be taken positively by the website owner. One, there is a need to check the site content’s spelling and grammar. Sure, we can be lenient with grammar and bad spellings in the web; after all, internet publishing means instant publishing so grammatical and spelling lapses are understandable and can be excusable. However, there is such a thing as too many mistakes that can turn off your readers.
Second, the articles are hard to read because 1) the font is too small and 2) the articles run from the left edge of the computer to the other edge. In newspaper parlance, it’s just too much gray space. The effect of this gray space? It looks unfriendly and un-inviting; it is likely that only a very dutiful or a very information-hungry reader will have the patience to read the articles.
How to solve these problems? To us, it would be increasing the font and changing the one column format for the articles into two columns.
So that’s our review, friends.
Here’s an article by Maurice Malanes on how we are losing our traditional crop varieties and replacing them with high-yielding ones which require a lot of input such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
The result? The farmers become trapped in a cycle of debt and dependency. Biro mo, kailangan nilang bumili ng seeds every time they plant. With these high yielding varieties, you cannot just save your seeds to plant for the next season. You have to buy new seeds every time and, as mentioned above, these varieties require a lot of fertilizer and pesticides.
Who are pushing for this tragedy to happen? Foreign agri-business companies and their local minions a.k.a Gloria and the Department of Agriculture.
By the way, in case you’ve not been visiting Maurice’s blog, he has other must-read articles which are really worth reading.
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Friends, let’s not be too snotty thinking that wisdom does not spring forth from the mouth of artistas. Here’s the words of wisdom from artista/Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. during the recently held Lang-ay Festival where he was the guest speaker: “Lang-ay means oneness. Let us also practice this spirit not only during the festival.”
Oo nga naman. Oneness. Who would go against that, ano?
Bontoc folk urged to value Mt. Province road rehab
Bernadette E. Tamayo/Tempo
SEN. Ramon Revilla, Jr. has called on the people of Mountain Province to show appreciation of the rehabilitation of the multi-billion peso Halsema Highway by actively helping in its maintenance.
Revilla made the appeal during the commemoration of the Lang-ay Festival, the annual cultural event commemorating the charter of the province.
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Anyone out there planning to join the 2008 American Urological Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida? Well, my friend, in case you are one of them urologists going to this convention and you are looking for a place to stay, why not check out the Lake Buena Vista hotels.
Uhm, but why should you check out said hotel? Because it is near the convention center, my friend, so if the conference gets a bit boring you can sneak out and go take a nap in your room. Not that we’re telling you to do that but consider it an option. (Disclosure: We’re an expert in sneaking out of boring conferences. Yeah, we’re bad. But it’s not like sneaking out is one of those deadly sins as declared by the Pope so we’re sure Saint Peter and his rooster will understand and forgive our transgressions.)
Anyways, here are other reasons why you should consider staying at the the Orlando Vista Hotel: it is just a half-mile away from Downtown Disney® Pleasure Island and minutes to the Orlando Convention Center, SeaWorld®, Universal Studios®, and the Florida Mall; the hotel is geared towards conventioneers so they know the needs and wants of convention attendees like you; and they offer great rates.
There are other reasons too but you will think we are doing too much of a hard sell if we mention all of them. But once again, those of you looking for American Urological Association hotels, should check out the Orlando Vista Hotel.
Good luck to my good friend Philian Weygan and the rest of those organizing and joining the International Igorot Consultation this 12-15 April 2008 in Banaue, Ifugao. Visit Philian’s site for the schedule of activities or program overview as well as a backgrounder on the IIC.
Photo shamelessly stolen from Philian’s site.
