Bohol News, Hotels, Travel and Real Estate Property

Impressed on the success story of the municipal government's management of natural resources and implementation of local development projects, officials of the Ecological Governance (EcoGov) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) were here Wednesday to study how the practice can be replicated in other local government units. Regional EcoGov Coordinator May Elizabeth Ybañez initiated the visit, as supported by Provincial Director Rustica Mascariñas of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Based on the success story, DILG aimed to design a plan to assist and help LGUs in the formulation of policies that shall facilitate replication of the project and for LGU officials to know the technology employed in the successful implementation of the projects like the Coastal Resource Management (CRM), Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) and the Forest and Forestland Management (FFM) in this municipality. In his welcome address, Mayor Juanario Item to...

To add more insight to the buying public on the purchase of their basic needs, the officers of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Tagbilaran held a seminar here on August 19. The activity, held at the Capt. Goyo Casenas hall, gathered the 33 barangay presidents of the Federated Senior of the Federated Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines (FSCAP), and some members of the Jagna Market Vendors Association (Jamavea). Market Supervisor Peter Jamero welcomed the DTI visitors, while for the other visitors, OIC Marcionela Reyes the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) Head Victorino Nayga Sr., and municipal FSCAP president Gregorio Tavera. DTI-Tagbilaran Division Chief Jose Hibaya led the group of resource persons, together with Concordia Erano and Lucille Autentico - -both trade and industry specialists. Hibaya explained the senior citizens' expanded privileges which interests most of the old-age group. Era...

By Kit Bagaipo, the Bohol Chronicle: By June 2009, the controversial Talibon Small Reservoir Impounding Project (TSRIP) is expected to be completed. This, despite petitions by the graft-watch group Bacosh (Boholanos Against Corruption, Oppression and Social Harassment) that civil works should be suspended while a case is still pending at the Ombudsman which accused the project's former manager Engr. Calixto Seroje and 4 other National Irrigation Authority (NIA) officials of irregularities in implementing the project. Interviewed over DYRD Inyong Alagad yesterday, NIA project manager Engr. Modesto Membreve bared that starting June next year, the irrigation project will start impounding water in order to finally serve 1,000 hectares and some 1,000 within its service area. The canals going to the farmlands will be finished simultaneously with dam embankment, Membreve said.           The Talibon Dam, which can hold 5 million cubic meters of wat...

By Angeline Valencia What was just an approach to protect the marine resources in Balicasag and Pamilacan Islands now turned into a security move to screen possible spillover of conflict in Mindanao to Bohol . During its executive committee meeting Thursday morning last week, the Provincial Development Council (PDC) discussed the proposed establishment of marine parks/sanctuaries in Balicasag         SECURITY AT SEA. In case of a spillover of conflict in Mindanao via the sea waters of Bohol, this naval patrol boat will be at the forefront guarding the Tagbilaran-Panglao-Balicasag-Pamilacan area. Docked at the city port, the vessel will soon be strategically deployed somewhere at Balicasag Island. Foto DANNY REYES Island in Panglao, and Pamilacan Island in Baclayon as a matter of protecting the marine resources in the area. However, in a late night meeting Friday with officers of the Philippine Army in Bohol , Governor Erico Aumentado said that his sc...

Aiming to help poor farmers to sell their harvests at a much higher price, the National Food Authority (NFA) here is gearing up to buy 100,000 bags of palay this cropping season. This figure is thrice as much as its regular procurement program in the past years, bared NFA Bohol assistant manager Ma. Fe Evasco during an interview over dyRD's top-rated Inyong Alagad. The NFA will also be giving a P1,800 incentive to farmers for every 50 bags of palay harvested this season. While private commercial buyers are reportedly buying at about P12 per kilo, the NFA will purchase it at a higher price Evasco said. "Wed like to inform our farmers that that the NFA is buying at P17 a kilo and we are also offering P1,800 fertilizer cash incentive for every farmer who can sell 50 bags at one time," Evasco announced. The P17 per kilo is the standard government support price for farmers, Evasco explained. This is even as reports last week bared that commercial buyers have start...

The proposed mining ordinance of the province is seen as a long-overdue mechanism for the recognition and protection of the rights of the Boholano landowners and the environment of Bohol . In the absence of the provincial law, the mining applications filed with the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), thru the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), are approved without the affected landowners' consent. Even if there are non-Boholanos among them, those who are granted mining concessions in Bohol just pay the required government fees thru the higher office of DENR or its direct arm and then earn lavishly. They will collect royalty fees from quarry extractors, for example, whose permits cover the areas which are already claimed mining concessions of the former as approved not by the local DENR-EMB office. The concerned legal owners get nothing from the natural bounties mined from their lands, lamented Board Member Alfonso Damalerio I...

The top-rated commentary/ public affairs program "Pulso" will resume broadcast tomorrow after a weeklong suspension due to its advertisers' withdrawal from the program. Program host, Kagawad Roberto "Batchoy" Alba said, after meeting commitments to the radio station, the program will be back to its normal broadcast tomorrow, 9 to l0 a.m. right after the no. 1 radio program "Inyong Alagad." Alba vowed to radio listeners to continue his crusade against bad governance especially on graft and corruption at the local government units. "No amount of pressure can stop me from this crusade," he stressed. It maybe recalled that "Pulso" suffered financial set backs after majority of its sponsors terminated their contracts. Alba alleged that his program sponsors were pressured by the office of Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim to pull out their support. The mayor denied having pressured Pulso's advertisers. In fact, he offered to pay an...

It took up all of four years to build up a strong case to expose the so-called Talibon dam scam but in one fell swoop it was gone after the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas dismissed the case for lack of substantial legal basis. The dismissal ended the lonely saga of Engr. Nilo Sarigumba, chair of the Boholanos Against Corruption , Oppression and Social Harassment (BACOSH) who was so obsessed of sending the perpetrators to jail only to be waylaid by a resolution he viewed with suspicion because of the machinations of some unseen and powerful hands. Asked to react on insinuations of unseen hands as behind the case dismissal, Gov. Erico Aumentado minced no words in saying that it came from a polluted source whose motive was to discredit the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman. When appraised of the case's dismissal, Sarigumba, in a radio interview apparently threw up his hands in surrender and invoked divine justice to punish the perpetrators. Although the complaint was made up...

The Ombudsman has dismissed criminal and administrative cases for graft and corruption against Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado and three others filed by a lawyer in 2003 for alleged purchase of goats at too high a price. In a nine-page-resolution, Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer I Cynthia Maturan-Sibi of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Visayas dismissed the criminal aspect of the case on June 30, 2006 for lack of merit. In a 10-page decision, she also dismissed the administrative aspect of the case on the same date, similarly for lack of merit. Both were reviewed by Director Edgardo Canton, recommended for approval by OIC Ombudsman-Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago and approved by Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro on June 26, 2008. Aside from Aumentado, named as respondents were then Officer-in-Charge Arnulfo Apalisok of the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office (BPRMO), lawyer Antonio Amora, then provincial administrator and Engr. Edwin Vallejos, provincial gene...

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay described as "bad precedent" the scuttled Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (JBE) agreement between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that would eventually expand the territory of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) apparently in exchange for an end of insurgency. Binay, who was touted to throw his hat in the top position of the country, made his presence felt in the province for three days of roaming around and meeting local officials and his brothers in the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. A Boholano couple (names withheld) who are in Iligan City where they based their business also expressed fears that the city might end up shrank in its territorial scope because some of its barangays are included in the proposed JBE. They said that the people of Iligan were caught flat footed since there was no consultation made by the JBE proponents. The same concern being felt in the southern parts of Mindanao. The sched...

Members of the 6th Sangguniang Bayan of Jagna headed by Vice Mayor Teofisto C. Pagar, Sr (encircled left) together with the LGU Department Heads meet at the Jagna port the distinguished visitors of the day from the neighboring paradise island of the Province of Camiguin, the LGU-Mambajao counterparts headed by their Vice Mayor, Hon. James Ederango (encircled right). The LGU-Mambajao local officials and department heads after an exchange of pleasantries and lunch, listened to the power point presentation of Jagna's best practice on Solid Waste Management Program conducted by ISWM-TWG Head Councilor Senen Lloren at the Justice Bernardo Ll. Salas Session Hall. The group likewise made an onsite visit to the composting facilities.

Bohol has now an Integrated Technology , Systems and Support Amenities for Food Enterprises (It's Safe) center to provide a wide range of services to make Boholano products and their packaging safer, better and globally competitive. Gov. Erico Aumentado and 1st Counselor Sam Zappia of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) led recent inauguration rites for the IT's Center at the NIA Compound in Dao, Tagbilaran City aims In his message, Aumentado thanked the Australian government – now the top Official Development Assistance (ODA) funder of Bohol – for the latest assistance geared towards poverty reduction. National Economic and Development Authority-National Statistics Coordination Board (NEDA-NSCB) records show that Bohol is safely out of Club 20, the country's 20 poorest provinces when Aumentado first assumed office as governor in 2001, now occupying 52nd place out of 80 provinces. The governor is not resting on his laurels though. He said he see...