WB LOAN SHOULD FUND ARMM REFORM AND GROWTH, SAYS EDGARDO “SONNY” ANGARA

The $300-million Development Policy Loan (DPL) granted by the World Bank to the Philippine government should partly address the illiteracy and poverty problems of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which is plagued by deep-seated poverty and illiteracy, Team PNoy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara today said.

Angara said that these twin problems, which affect more than 50 per cent of the people in Mindanao, have been the most serious in the country, adding that the underdevelopment should be tackled head-on, via empirical studies and data on how to reverse the situation.

The WB grants DPLs to countries that are on a determined path to reform and growth.

“A portion of the $300 million World Bank DPL loan should be devoted to studying the most effective policies to rein in the crippling poverty and illiteracy of Muslim Mindanao,” said Angara.

Angara said that Uganda, which was ruled by a dictator in the 70s, now has a higher literacy rate than the ARMM.

He said the focus on the underdeveloped regions of the country fits well into President inclusive growth agenda.

“If we tweak the growth of the Eastern seaboard toward a higher plane and make it at par with the growth in the western provinces, this would be a big boost to domestic productivity,” Angara said.

“Growth and prosperity should be across all regions and should not leave a single area behind,” he added.

Angara is a firm believer in building growth from ground up, which can be done by economically empowering the depressed areas.

ANGARA LAUDED FOR BEING PHL’S S&T GAME-CHANGER

Angara speaks before the National Research Council of the Philippines during their 80th General Membership Assembly held at the Manila Hotel on March 13. The NCRP gave Angara the Special Recognition Award for his invaluable contributions to the development of S&T as a major component of the country’s national agenda.

Two major sectoral groups have recognized Senator Edgardo J. Angara for his unparalleled contributions toward promoting science and technology as a major component of the country’s national agenda.

In separate occasions, the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (CanCham) accorded Angara with the highest individual honor.

The NCRP gave Angara the Special Recognition Award for his invaluable contributions to the development of science and technology in the country. Meanwhile, the CanCham named him the International ICT Awards ICT Individual Contributor of The Year for supporting the promotion of the country’s business process outsourcing sector.

 

“I am grateful to the NCRP and CanCham not only for these recognitions, but for being true partners and collaborators. Their dedication and commitment have fueled our vision to make the S&T sector a genuine game-changer for the economy.

“But there’s much more to be done. While we have built a strong foundation for S&T development, we call on government to sustain its financial and political support for the programs we have initiated. S&T is the wave of the future. It is the force that will drive innovation and competitiveness across the globe. We can no longer afford to be laggards in this area,” said Angara. 

Angara created the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), which serves as the primary proponent of science, technology and research and development in the country. 

 

In his capacity as Chair of both COMSTE and the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, he authored and pushed for the passage of the Biofuels Act, the Technology Transfer, and the Renewable Energy Law, touted as one of the finest models of clean energy legislation in Asia.

In support of the IT-BPO sector, he became the main proponent of the Data Privacy Law and the Cybercrime Prevention Law.

“The IT-BPO sector, our biggest job generator today, has been calling for the passage of these measures for years as these are critical in their operations. Both these laws will boost confidence in our IT-BPO industry and in our government’s capability to protect users and their data across technology platforms.

“Such policy in place equips government with the framework for protecting the security, integrity and confidentiality of all the personal information collected by business and government agencies, and ensuring that cyberspace is safe for Filipinos,” he explained.

Aside from this, Angara also instituted the Innovation Clusters Program which tasks private and state universities to undertake relevant R&D in areas of national priority. 

In 2012, Angara created five clusters–on algae for food security, disaster science, ICT for cloud computing, responsible mining technologies, and precision farming for smart agriculture–for which around P300 million under the national budget were allocated. 

Through his continuing efforts, another P520 million under the 2013 national budget were allotted for the funding of the five existing clusters, as well as for new clusters on renewable energy for off-grid applications, food safety and trace ability, marine and forest research centers, as well as funding for six regional laboratories for long term biodiversity studies.

Angara also authored the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act, which has made the Philippines compliant with the standards on biological diversity management and protection set under various international conventions, such as the World Heritage Convention and the ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

 

He has also intitiated a new system of S&T Scholarships with Teaching Incentives, through which it is hoped that 10,000 new S&T, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates will teach science and match courses in our high school all over the country as their return-of-service.

 

This complements the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) program he helped create. This consortium among eight-member universities, namely UP Diliman; UP Los Banos; De La Salle University; Mapua Institute of Technology; Ateneo de Manila University; Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology; University of San Carlos; and Central Luzon State University, is focused on replenishing the country’s pool of scientists, engineers, and researchers. 

 

From 2007 to 2011, about 89 percent of the available Master of Science programs scholarships and 83 percent of those for PhD programs have been taken up. (Rikka Sotto)

 

Aurora gets P1 billion allocation for concreting of roads in tourist spots

BALER, Aurora, March 21, 2013-At least P1 billion has been allocated by the national government for concreting of access roads leading to known tourist spots in the province, which could further spark tourist arrivals in this emerging tourism mecca.

          Michael Palispis, provincial tourism officer, said of this amount, P500 million will be used for the construction of a new by-pass road in Barangay Canili, Ma. Aurora town.

          Palispis said the bypass road project has already been bid out last October and will start construction soon.

          Another P416 million will be used for the concreting of the 21-kilometer Casiguran-Dilasag Road.

          Palispis said the funds for the twin projects will be sourced from the road convergence program of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Tourism codenamed TRIP or tourism road infrastructure projects. He said P230 million was allocated last year.

          He said these roads will open tourist spots, particularly in northern Aurora such as the CasapsapanBeach in Casiguran, the DibutunanFalls in Dipaculao and the BulawanFalls in Dinalungan.

          “We are already one of the provinces which posted the highest number of tourist arrivals because of the improved road network. We expect this to improve even further with these additional roads,” he said.      

          Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said the government is spending close to P12 billion this 2013 for infrastructure projects that would link roads to top tourist destinations and address the growing demand of domestic and foreign tourists.

          He said that as the country is gearing towards attracting 10 million foreign tourists and 56 million domestic tourists by 2016, the government should ensure that roads, ports and airports leading to major tourist destinations are reached with ease by travelers.

          State funding for tourist roads has almost doubled this year from P7.92 billion last year and P1.39 billion in 2011.

The tourism industry in this province, already on a steady growth path since eight years ago, posted another banner year in 2012 with a 74 percent growth in tourist arrivals over that of 2011.

          The number of tourists in the province reached 215,098 in 2012, up from last year’s 123,043, representing a 74% increase. Of the 215,098, some 119,308 stayed in the houses of relatives and homestay lodging facilities while 95,790 stayed in accredited hotels, inns and resorts.

          The tourism industry has come a long way since 2005 when only 8,744 tourists were recorded, representing a whopping 2,351 percent increase over the eight-year period.

Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo has made tourism a part of her development agenda for the province, particularly the improvement of access roads in known tourist spots.

          Ana Riza Mendoza, provincial tourism operations officer, said back in 2005, it was very hard to get to Aurora from other places. But now, traveling in Aurora is a breeze,” she stressed. (Manny Galvez)

5,000 gov’t employees in Aurora now get wages via ATMs

BALER, Aurora, March 21, 2013-At least 5,000 government employees, including 1,000 rank-and-file personnel from the provincial government are now drawing their salaries, allowances and other benefits through an automated teller machine (ATM).

          After over 30 years since the first 24-hour ATMs were introduced in the country, the automated payroll system is now in place in the province also catering to  policemen and soldiers, employees of the Aurora State College of Technology (ASCOT) and over 2,000  employees of the Department of Education (DepEd) with the activation by the Land Bank of the Philippines of the ATM inside the Capitol compound here, the first known off-site ATM unit in the province.

          LBP Baler branch head and department manager Aurelio L. Bagaoisan said the use of e-card systems is in line with the thrust of the bank to provide alternative service delivery channels to its clients.

          “The opening of this off-site unit is in response to the snowballing clamor of ATM cardholders in Baler to beef up the existing two ATM units we have which have high utilization especially during the peak payroll periods,” Bagaoisan said.

Bank employees from its ATM and cash department led the distribution of e-cards at the Capitol recently.

          Prior to the opening of the off-site unit, two ATM units installed inside the bank’s compound fronting the Capitol are servicing ATM users such as individual ATM account holders, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) cash card holders, the Philippine National Police and the military.

          Bagaoisan said that with the additional 5,000 cardholders, the bank’s three ATM units now service 20,000 card holders all over the province.

          He said they are eyeing to open a second off-site ATM unit at the municipal hall in this capital town to service an initial 500 card holders from the local government unit (LGU) and institutional clients from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of the Interior and Local Governments, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and Mt. Carmel College.     

          The activation of the first off-site unit was the offshoot of a memorandum of agreement signed on February 13 last year between the provincial government represented by Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo and Vice Gov. Gerardo Noveras and Land Bank represented by Region 3-B head Lolita Cruz, Bagaoisan and Guimba (Nueva Ecija) branch head/department manager Marilou Saturno.

The Land Bank ATM card features cash withdrawal 24-hours a day, seven days a week; payment of purchases through Point of Sale (POS) up to P100,000; bills payment and access account through phone and internet.

ATM savings account has an opening and maintaining balance of P5,000 while ATM current account has an operation and maintaining balance of P10,000.

Land Bank ATM cards are free of charge upon initial issuance. Defective cards will be replaced free of charge within 30 calendar days upon receipt of request with replacement of lost/stolen cards to be charged P50.

The ATM card has a security feature involving the personal identification number of the holder, a computer-generated four-digit number provided by Land Bank.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the first 24-hour ATMs were introduced in the Philippines in the 1980s.

Between 2001 and 2011, its network grew by 175 percent from 4,000 to 10,000 ATMs. As of June 2012, over 11,000 ATMs were installed nationwide.  

In terms of individual ATM cardholders, there were around 30 million as of 2010. (Manny Galvez)

P115.38-M infra projects bid out in Aurora

BALER, Aurora, March 21, 2013-Thirty two projects worth P115.38 million, ranging from construction of school buildings and construction, repair and rehabilitation of major road networks and barangay roads and flood control facilities have been bid out in the province by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

          Leopoldo Mendoza, district engineer of the DPWH Aurora engineering district, said that the biggest of these projects is the P23.8 million road upgrading  of the Dinadiawan-Madella and Dinadiawan-Dipaculao roads.

          Mendoza said six more projects, worth P60 million or P10 million each involve repair,rehab and improvement of a portion of the Dinadiawan-Madella Road, the Baler-Casiguran Road, Baler-Cemento Road, San Luis-Maria Aurora-Castaneda (SLMAC) Road and portions of roads leading to Nueva Ecija.

          Jesus Capiendo, chief of the DPWH Aurora’s maintenance section and chairman of its bids and awards committee (BAC), said also bid out were the concreting of roads in Barangays Suklayin, Obligacion and Setan-Calabuanan (Baler), Masagana (Dilasag), the Kadayacan-San Joaquin Road and Barangay Wenceslao (Maria Aurora), Dinadiawan,  Calaocan and the Salay Mucdol Road (Dipaculao).

          A farm-to-market road worth P500,000 will also be constructed in Barangay Ditale, Dipaculao.

          Five school buildings, with two classrooms each and worth a total of 6.75 million will also be constructed at the Singawan Elementary School in Dingalan, P. Oreta ES in Dilasag, L. Pimentel ES in San Luis, the Casiguran National High School and at the Baler NHS.

          Three flood control facilities worth P2 million will be set up in Barangay Lual and Barangay 06 in Casiguran and Barangay Cabituculan East in Maria Aurora. Two drainage canals worth a combined P4 million will also be installed in Barangay Reserva (Baler).

          Capiendo said multi-purpose buildings will be constructed and rehabilitated in Buhangin (Baler), Barangay 01 (San Luis) and North Poblacion (Dipaculao) and the Sto. Tomas ES (Maria Aurora). (Manny Galvez)