Fisherman dies in shooting incident

DINALUNGAN, Aurora, March 19, 2013-A fisherman died following a shooting incident that transpired at Brgy. Ditawini Friday afternoon.

Ruben de Leon Y’ Deparine, 39, fisherman and a resident of Brgy. Dibaraybay was shot to death by unidentified perpetrator/s while on his way home riding on his motorcycle Honda TMX along national road of Sitio Bulo, Brgy. Ditawini.

The Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) team recovered from the crime scene two (2) pieces of fired cartridge case, one (1) piece fired bullet, one (1) pair of slipper and one (1) piece of helmet.

Police Authorities investigation continues for the possible identity of the suspect/s. (Jason de Asis)

 

EDGARDO “SONNY” ANGARA IDENTIFIES 3 SECTORS CRUCIAL TO EMPLOYMENT

Team PNoy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara today said the Philippines should develop its agricultural, manufacturing and tourism industries to alleviate poverty and address unemployment in the country.

Angara urged both the public and private sectors to promote these three growing industries in order to create more job opportunities.

“We need to grow our agricultural, manufacturing and tourism industries because even high school graduates can get jobs here,” said Angara, a Harvard-trained lawmaker and co-author of the Tourism Act of 2009 (RA 9593) which declares a national policy on tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth and national development.

The Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistics Office (NSO) in January 2013 showed underemployed Filipinos of working age -15 years old and over – rose to 7.934 million (20.9 percent) from 7.018 million (18.8 percent) last year.

The unemployment rate slightly dipped to 7.1 percent from 7.2 percent in January 2012.

The NSO describes the underemployed as employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.

The survey showed that underemployment is particularly high in agriculture (41.8 percent).

“Millions of Filipinos are either unemployed or underemployed in the rural areas because large tracts of our agricultural lands are underutilized, if not unproductive,” Angara said. “Many of our youth are reluctant to go into agriculture because they don’t perceive it as a lucrative livelihood.”

Angara has filed House Bill 391 or the Rural Employment Generation Act which seeks to convert one million hectares of idle and underutilized lands into modern productive agricultural resources.

If enacted into law, it is expected that one million rural jobs will be created, with annual farm income of at least P25,000 per hectare being generated.

“For agriculture to be an attractive industry, it should be productive and profitable for farmers. Nevertheless, it is equally important as well to harness the skills of Filipinos for higher paying jobs,” said the veteran lawmaker from Aurora.

Angara, chair of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, also authored House Bill 500 or the Young Farmers Program Act which encourages the Filipino youth to pursue farming and fishery as an occupation.

The measure mandates a scholarship program for agriculture students that will provide them learning in agriculture and entrepreneurial skills.

“We should imbue among the Filipino youth a new perspective of farming, provide them career guidance, equip them with entrepreneurial skills and maximize their learning from school-to-work opportunities in the university’s academic, research and extension activities, inspire and make them productive partners in the development of the country’s agriculture sector,” Angara said.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH PRIORITIZE EDUCATIONAL REFORMS NOW, SAYS EDGARDO

Team PNoy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara today asked the government to immediately act on educational reforms before another student takes his own life because he was deprived of the education he deserves.

“One death is enough. This should serve as a wake-up call for all of us,” Angara said, referring to the suicide of a freshman student of the University of the Philippines-Manila due to financial constraints.

“Let’s stop pointing fingers and putting the blame on others since we’re all part of the system. The best we can do is use this as an opportunity to gather support for much-needed reforms to education,” he added.

Kristel Pilar Mariz Tejada, 16, and a first year Behavorial Science student, took her own life after she was reportedly forced to take a leave of absence from her studies for failure to pay tuition on time.

Amid the public dismay and outrage, the veteran lawmaker from Aurora called for stronger support and higher subsidy from the government to provide more scholarships for the poor.

Angara has been pushing for higher budget for state universities and colleges (SUCs) since he was named chair of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education in 2010.

Last year, Malacanang approved the proposed hike, increasing the budget of SUCs by almost 44 percent, up from P25.85 billion in 2012 to P37.12 billion in 2013.

“We have successfully raised the budget for SUCs this year but this is not enough. The budget should be augmented annually,” Angara said.

Angara also pushed for the immediate approval of his bill which seeks to establish a Unified Financial Assistance System for Higher and Technical Education (UniFASTS) that will make quality education more accessible to more underprivileged students.

The UniFASTS bill shall harmonize all government scholarship and grants-in-aid programs to promote greater efficiency, coherence, synchronization, rationalized access, effective funding and improved coordination among implementing entities.

“I can’t stress this enough: quality education should be accessible to everyone, most especially to the poor,” Angara said.

“President Aquino’s ‘daang matuwid’ promises higher budget for social services. There is no excuse why education should be left out,” he stressed.