Execs allay quarrying fears on Angat Water Park

Bustos Dam

MALOLOS CITY—Bulacan officials allay fears on possible resumption of rampant quarrying in the province with the construction of the planned Angat Sports Water Park that will rival similar facility in Camarines Sur.

This came as Governor Wilhelmino Alvarado and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) Chief Operating Officer Mark Lapid led the groundbreaking ceremony in Angat town earlier this week.

Officials also made assurance that the water park will be safe as water related activity will only be held on summer days, and not during the wet season when Angat Dam release water into the river.

However, they noted operation of other facilities in the planned water park, like restaurants zip lines and others will continue even during the wet season.

“There is nothing to fear, “Alvarado said yesterday, “while there will be quarrying along the river, it will be monitored and regulated.”

As an eco-tourism project endorsed by TIEZA, Alvarado said that part of the proposed three hectare water park will require quarrying to even the depth.

He said that based on preliminary design, depth and width of the river were predetermined.

“The river bed is un-even, so, there are parts that will be quarried, but only based on the required depth,” he said adding it will be regulated in order to protect the embankment of the river and prevent possible erosion.

Alvarado added that Angat Water Park can rival similar but man-made facility in Camarines Sur due to its proximity to Metro Manila.

Concern over possible resumption of rampant quarrying along the Angat River was raised by local residents after Alvarado and Lapid led the ground breaking ceremony for the Angat Sports Water Park early this week.

Residents cited in the 2000, similar project was proposed by the local officials, but they said it was used by some officials as an excuse for rampant quarry operations.

A resident who asked not to be identified said quarrying was partly to blame in the killing of the former municipal administrator of Angat town who was gunned down by New Peoples Army rebels in 2003.

It was followed by torching of quarry equipment and other machineries in 2004, an incident whose responsibility was also claimed by the rebels.

With regards to the safety of the water park, Alvarado said water related activities like rowing and dragon boat competitions will only be held during summer.

The same was echoed by Mayors Feliciano Legazpi of Norzagaray and Arnel Mendoza of Bustos.

But Mendoza added that they are also working on safety measures for water related activities during the wet season.

Earlier, Lapid asked the town mayors of Angat, Norzagaray, Bustos and San Rafael to come with their own tourism packages related to the planned water park.

This due to the fact that the water park is not only concentrated in Angat town as the river spans all four towns.

Mendoza said that as early as January, they initiated a rowing and kayaking exhibition on Bustos Dam at the lower part of the upstream of Angat River.

“At present, we can actually hold such activities even before the completion of the Angat Water Park, but of course, it will be better if we have Waterpark,” Mendoza said.

For his part, Mayor Legazpi said that during summer, parts of the Angat River in Norzagaray town have been drawing thousands of local tourists.

“It is like a poor man’s resort especially Sitio Pugpog and Sitio Bitbit,” he said.  (Dino Balabo)

DENR intensifies monitoring of sash factories

MALOLOS CITY—Sash factories in Central Luzon are now under intensified monitoring by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources due to reports that have accepting deliveries of illegally sourced lumber.

This came as the DENR anti-illegal logging task force seized about  P70,000 worth of illegal lumber in the City of San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan on Monday afternoon, May 7.

Following the seizure, the task force said they are now preparing charges against a hardware operator and three other unidentified persons for violation of the Presidential Decree 705 or the Forestry Code of the Philippines.

The law which was amended by Executive Order Number 227 in 1987 not only prosecutes timber poachers and illegal loggers, but individuals involved in the trade of illegally sourced lumber.

Joseph Mendoza, the intelligence officer of the DENR Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force they have been monitoring sash factories in the province and other parts of Central Luzon and Rizal province.

This is due to reports that sash factories and other wood enterprises has been accepting delivery of illegally sourced lumbers.

“Our monitoring paid off,” Mendoza said in vernacular and added, ”reports are now confirmed  and we have more reasons to further intensify our monitoring on sash factories.”

Among those under the monitor of the task force is Sureluck Wood Enterprises located along the Quirino Highway in Barangay Gumaoc, City of San Jose Del Monte.

Around 4PM on Monday, they monitored men monitoring freshly cut lumber from an Isuzu closed van with license plates CSL 394.

The said vehicle is marked “Fruit and vegetable dealer” and is said to be registered to a certain “J. Jimenez.”

“The driver and helper fled immediately when we introduced ourselves,” said Mendoza in a telephone interview.

A total of 1,498.67 board feet of lumber worth P67,410 were seized upon verification that it was not backed with any permit, including the one for transport.

Mendoza said they are still verifying the source of the lumber but sources said cited three possible places, namely Isabela; Minalungao in Nueva Ecija and Donya Remedios Trinidad town in Bulacan.

He said that the lumbers were cut by “carabao loggers” or timber poachers.

“Timber poaching destroys our watershed especially the Angat Watershed,” Mendoza said noting that it has been categorized as one of the most highly critical watershed in the country.

The same was affirmed by Bro. Martin Francisco of the Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society (SSMEES) based in the City of San Jose Del Montte.

Francisco explained that the Angat Watershed not only serves as the main source of Metro Manila’s potable water supply, it also generates electricity for the Luzon Grid through the Angat River HydroElectric Power Plant (ARHEPP).

“What is sad is the fact that there is a logging ban, and yet, there are people who continue to act with impunity against the environment,” he said but stressed that SSMES is happy with the seizure of illegally sourced lumber.

He said that it should serve as reminder to other timber poachers that the government is serious in its campaign to protect watersheds.

Meanwhile, Mendoza said they are preparing charges against the the driver and owner of the closed van, along with the operator of Sureluck Wood Enterprises.

He said that while Sureluck was given permit by the DENR, they have received reports that it is receiving illegally sourced lumber, but the task force has not luck until Monday.

 Mendoza said that in the past, they checked with deliveries at Sureluck and found no discrepancies in documentations.  (Dino Balabo)

Cardinal Santos honored in an exhibit

Ramon Efren R. Lazaro

MARILAO, Bulacan --In celebration of the National Heritage Month and annual feast of St. Michael, the Sining Marileño Inc. in cooperation with SM City Marilao launched “Abito: Pamanang Kasuotan ng mga Pari ng Marilao,” a week-long exhibition that will end today (May 11).

 The exhibit kicked off with folk singing and theatre play replicating the re-enactment of events during the Colonial Era at the event center of SM City Marilao and features 20 antique piece collection of liturgical vestments worn by the parish priests of Marilao.

The “abitos” documented the beauty of embroidery and intricacy of the different Philippine hand-woven holy garments made from indigenous materials and highlighted the legacies of the past and the town’s identity.

Details of the exhibit exuded the indigenous practices and classical artistry wherein Filipino altar vestments are more than a colorful and fine needlework garment used by the priests. They are treasures of Filipinos' unwavering faith, rich culture, heritage and deep rooted traditions.

"Vestments or abitos are important aspect of our culture. They are the narratives of our faith and our glorious past. They are enshrined to bring us closer to the Creator", explained Jaime Salvador Corpuz, a Bulacan historian and added "I am glad that SM Supermalls was able to accommodate this kind of exhibit. It helps to educate the public on our rich history and our strong faith in God."

Most of the garments featured in the exhibit were selected ecclesiastical garments of priests in the town of Marilao from 1920 to 1950.

Highlighting the exhibit was the ceremonial robe of Father Rufino Santos, the first Filipino Cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1932.

Also featured were some garments by Father Roberto de la Cruz (1934- 1938), Father Marcelino Fajardo (1938-1939), Father Gabino Baluyot (1939- 1945), Father Florentino Fuentes (1945- 1954), Father Angel Pengson (1954- 1956) and Father Avelino Santos (2001-present).

PPI, US Embassy to lead World Press Freedom Day celebrations

For the first time, the Embassy of the United States in Manila has partnered with the Philippine Press Institute in conducting simultaneous programs in seven areas for the World Press Freedom Day.

On May 4, various programs will be conducted in Manila, Cebu, Davao, Bulacan, Gen. Santos, Baguio, and Cagayan de Oro with PPI members in said areas at the helm. The main focus of each program is decriminalizing libel which is an offshoot of the two forums on the subject conducted at the University of the Philippines College of Law and Orchid Garden Suites organized by the PPI and the Philippine Press Council. The third leg should build on initiatives from the two forums in providing venues to further discuss libel and other topics that affect the media industry.

Other topics such as the freedom of information act, killings of journalists, ethics, media accountability, right of reply, and press freedom are a host of media-related subjects that can be chosen by each area as attendant or accompanying segment for its own program.

The World Press Freedom Day activity is the first regional initiative following the 16th National Press Forum from April 23 to 24 at Traders Hotel Manila, which among other topics, also discussed libel in the industry forum.

The U.S. Embassy found it an advantage to be conducting the programs in the areas that have American Corners in De La Salle University-Manila, St. Louis University in Baguio, University of San Carlos in Cebu, Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, and Ateneo de Davao University which are venues for the simultaneous celebrations. Bulacan will have Bulacan State University and Notre Dame University in Gen. Santos as partner-universities.

In Manila, U.S. Embassy press and information officer Tina Malone will give the opening remarks.

On January 31 this year, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) released a resolution declaring the country’s libel law discordant with the provision in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that upholds free expression as a right. The Philippine is the lone signatory of the international protocol in Southeast Asia. The Committee holds the country’s dated and draconian criminal libel law “incompatible with Article 19, paragraph 3 of the ICCPR” or freedom of expression.

( First posted at www.philpressintitute.com)

DOST confers 2012 environmental science award to Virginia Castillo-Cuevas

By: Allan Mauro V.Marfal, S&T Media Service

The Department of Science and Technology’s advisory body, the National Academy of Science and Technology (DOST-NAST) conferred the 2012 Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award to Dr. Virgina Castillo-Cuevas for her significant contributions in the development of technologies leading to agricultural sustainability that contributed to environmental conservation and protection.

Dr. Cuevas, professor and scientist at University of the Philippines- Los Banos (UPLB), was awarded last April 23, 2012 at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino, Ermita, Manila.

Dr. Cuevas was recognized by the Academy for developing composting technology using Trichoderma harzianum Rifai Activator, which was specifically used as an inoculant in the in-situ composting technology that significantly improved growth performance of the biofuel crop Jatropha curcas.

The composting technology, which can also decontaminate copper-contaminated soils with mine tailings, was used in the rehabilitation of the agricultural lands damaged by mine tailings in Mankayan, Benguet and Cervantes, Ilocos Sur.

The technology also develops Trichoderma microbial inoculants (TMI) for vegetables and other upland crops as biofertilizer, biological control agent, crop promoter, and as activator for composting which not only raised productivity but also of great benefit to the environment.

Dr. Cuevas received a plaque of recognition from the Academy and US$ 1,000 from Dr. Hugh Greenwood himself through the NAST Foundation and former NAST President, Academician Perla D. Santos Ocampo.

This annual Hugh Greenwood award  honors outstanding scientific and technological researches that contribute to environmental protection and conservation.  Accordingg to DOST-NAST, the rapid pace of environmental degradation and the eventual depletion of natural resources made it necessary that the remaining resources be used wisely and that pollution and contaminations be prevented for the benefit of the present and future generations. 

Decriminalize Libel, a forum in celebration of World Press Freedom Day

Print may fade, but not newspapers

By Vergel O. Santos

It’s a rather curious theme:

Media accountability and public engagement.

How could we, the newspapers, have managed to make those two things a problem for ourselves, given the very nature of our enterprise? How can we, every time we publish, help not engaging the public and not putting ourselves as well under its audit?

In fact, we did manage it. And if we finally have realized that, we can only hope we have done so before it’s too late.

The pre-eminent medium for the longest time, such that no piece of news or opinion gained full legitimacy and currency until sanctified in it, the newspapers seem to have become so smug as to presume pre-eminence some preordained permanent place for them, which, of course, is not the case, a fact long-enough unmistakable if only we have been looking with the professional quality we’ve always claimed to possess – objectivity. In this case, conspicuously and possibly fatally, that precise quality happens to be absent.

There’s simply no denying, as stark as they are, the radical changes in the media environment, changes driven mainly by technology and increasingly working against the newspapers. We do acknowledge them, but, again, only to a convenient extent, that is, again, to the extent that our place in the hierarchy of media is preserved – if only in our minds.

Fairly clear-eyed to the virtues of technology for our own purposes, we’re not at all averse to using the most modern communication devices and facilities (all manner of computers, the Internet), yet we seem blind to the inexorable encroachments on our territory – thanks also to technology – by other media. We don’t seem to notice, for one thing, that more and more readers are taking to the screen and fewer and fewer to paper – not to mention that there’s less and less pulp available for producing paper.

The numbers tell the tale: television, favored by technology itself and able somehow to adapt to the new consumer habits it has created, has cornered 77-78 percent of the advertising money, and radio, suitable especially to an increasingly mobile society as well as to the archipelago’s island dwellers, has bounced back taking 17-18 percent; that leaves a mere 5 percent for the print media, not just the newspapers, to fight over. True, that 5 percent has held for some time, and still constitutes a fair amount of business in peso terms. But the writing is on the wall – it’s all a matter of time.

In any case, we continue foolhardily to cling on to the hope that the numbers would reverse themselves, even as cold reason demonstrates that any changes in prospect are not likely to favor us, perhaps not even television or radio, but the online media.

Few businesses in cyberspace (definitely not in our parts), let alone media businesses, are actually making money, although where money is made it is apparently made big. Anyway, cyberspace enterprises should be positioned well to catch the favors of the fast-arriving future.

We ourselves would seem, on the other hand, poorly positioned, imprisoned as we are in tradition, scarcely able to kick our now unprofitable habits, fading with our market. And with no public to engage and account to, what reason is there for being? What reason is there, indeed, for all this – we coming together to deal with an issue being rendered irrelevant by our own undoing?

In fact, it can all be made timely and relevant if only we come clear-eyed and open-minded enough to change with change. With all the weaponry and wisdom we should have collected through our long and useful years, how can we not have our own competitive advantage today or at any other time?

Never will news become an irrelevant product, or journalism an irrelevant skill. Print may fade but not, in their professional sense, newspapers.

Switch or perish

Indeed, to switch media or not has become a non-issue for us. It has been decided by arrangements beyond our control: to not switch is to perish – in time. The debate has now been ultimately narrowed and confined to when, not if, that time will come.

The anxiety attacking us is perfectly legitimate: the market is taken with sexy and efficient communication devices, while trees, pulp, paper, in that consequential order, are vanishing.

But why should the time-tested, indeed timeless, idea of newspaper vanish as well? However one gets one’s news – whether by reading or by listening or by watching – is, after all, a mere matter of medium. The trick lies with content, with news itself, and, having been at the trick longer than any other news medium, our own medium should have an essential advantage and therefore simply cannot be counted out in the paperless competition: we only need to switch media.

A number of us have in fact positioned ourselves, with separate editions, online, our closest comparable medium, if only because what it dispenses is similarly meant to be read. But let’s not oversimplify. Switching media is akin to removal only in the loosest sense: it entails a far greater expense and effort than packing and moving. Even before the move is made in earnest, its prospects of sustainability should have been determined. As happens, such determination can only be approximated.

Cyberspace is one boundless marketplace, one that has only begun to be explored, although in its mysteries may precisely lie its allure. It has been sucking in all manner of enterprises, as if to be caught out constitutes a sentence of doom, which is, of course, an exaggeration except for the truly courageous – or covetous.

Anyway, while news online is generally conceded to be the emergent logical successor to news on paper, the product and the consuming public to engage and account to remain the same in the succeeding arrangement.

A journalist’s compass

Something ought to be said about “media accountability,” in the meantime, given the misunderstanding that may have been created by our pairing of that phrase with “public engagement.”

Accountability is not something the public needs yet to demand of the media. It’s a sense so fundamental to our profession it requires no provoking in order to make it work. It’s a self-working initiative that operates on the burden of responsibility that every journalist bears with every word he sets down. It’s a sort of compass that sets him right – right by his sworn professional duty to publicize the truth in the public interest with fairness.

Accountability, in other words, has little if at all to do with public engagement: the former is professional sense, the latter market sense.

As in the case of a sense of ethics, itself close cousin to a sense of accountability, those who possess it likely don’t need to be reminded, and those who don’t possess it likely don’t care to be reminded.