‘Sudden shift’ stops EGIP -CSWDO chief

City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) head Cynthia Mirande pointed to the "sudden shift" of program design and implementation as the culprit of the recent but unexpected call for interns to stop working under the Expanded Government Internship Program (EGIP).

Province hails Buluangan tanod

Tanod ng Bayan. Desiderio Enarciso explains how 

their team of 20 tanods works for a barangay 

with a population of almost 2,000. 

A tanod from Barangay Buluangan bagged the top award of the Provincial Search for Outstanding Tanod 2012.

Desiderio Enarciso, a 48-year old chief tanod from Buluangan, will also be competing at the regional level and will be evaluated on August 1 to 2.

Enarciso is a former jeepney driver to his own unit but now owns a sari-sari store in Barangay Buluangan proper. He was also a volunteer worker for a non-government organization that monitors civil agencies under the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).

Not only peacekeeping

In 2008, he became a tanod and within a few months became the leader of 19 tanods in their barangay. Then he started implementing programs outside the usual peacekeeping duties of tanods such as coastal clean-up every third Sunday of the month that covers the entire coastal area of Buluangan.

Buluangan Barangay Captain Helen Geopano said that Enarciso and the other tanods are very keen on setting good example on ecological solid waste management.

The tanods also plant trees and had planted roughly a thousand.

SCCH Doc: Meningo suspect from DSB

San Carlos City Hospital (SCCH) head confirmed that there was a suspected meningococcemia case at the hospital but clarified that the patient, who died, was not from San Carlos.

Cutting classes

No Baby Talk

By Georgene Rhena P. Quilaton-Tambiga

"Despite this (increase), some militant groups are still cutting classes to protest what they claim is a cut in SUC budgets."

I was reading deep into a paragraph of President Benigno Aquino III's third State of the Nation Address, translated in English, and I knew that this part of his speech at the joint senatorial and congressional opening session would be my jump off point for this column.

Reading P-Noy's run down on the increasing education budget and its impact on students transported me to my college days which aren't a too distant past.

Cut & Cut. I had been dying to tell these students that the state cut SUC budget because there are those who enroll at UP only to cut classes

The evening before my first college school day an upper classman and left-wing advocate joined me and a friend for dinner. He asked us to join the rally during the ceremonial opening exercises. Though excited to witness in reality a rally, I was adamant not knowing that my entire college life would be marked by so many that caused my ire.

Often, our classes would be interrupted by these students who would ask professors for a few minutes to convince other students to cut classes to join a demonstration of sorts. One time, I was plagued by one of them who came right up the lobby of my freshmen dorm to court me. No doubt he was hoping that he could tuck with him an outspoken girl to another demonstration under the roasting Iloilo sun. But his effrontery did not impress me. Cutting classes for rallies is not my cup of coffee.

There was one time when, as a secretary general of the student council, I fought tooth and nail to prevent the protesters from using the name of the official college student council as they rallied against tuition fee increase. That was after our political block won the debate against spending students' fund for transportation expenses on rallies at Iloilo City. I have nothing personal against protesters but I have my own way of fighting and any left-wing suitor just gave up

Now, reading P-Noy's SONA, I perfectly understand this particular point. As an alumna of a state university, I was one of those who suffered from the meager budget of education.

Our broadcasting laboratory was way outdated compared to those in private colleges. Our library was replete with duplicated textbooks. We had to sell ad spaces in order to put out an academic-based community newspaper. I had to give up my high-heeled sandals because the roads at the school I attended were hopeless and was friend only to Converse sneakers and rubber slippers.

Name the deprivation and we suffered it, save for the best thing we had, our expert and competent professors.

But I did not even flinch. I told myself many times over that I was an Iskolar ng Bayan and that my mother's remittances and that of millions of hard working OFWs contributed much to the budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs). I had to work very, very hard and work hard I did. Cutting a class to rally was never on my to-do list.

See, no matter how many times over the president folds the budget of SUCs if the students to do not contribute in the effort to push the quality of education up the meter of international standards, the budget will only be plain figures.

As a student, I have always been an advocate of self-imposed changes for the better. Together with a handful of students in an established organization, I believed in the Ripple Effect. Make a change and affect others with it.

This is what many of us need to today. A hundred SONAs may be delivered and 20 presidents may come to pass but if we do not contribute to the effort for progress every development plan boils down to mere paper and speech.

This is what our students need to learn in school and in life: Carpe Diem. Seize the day. While a student, do what a student ought to do: be in school not to listen to the endless parrot speech of teachers but to take advantage, ask the necessary questions, and discover your own potentials.

While a professional, use your talent and skills not only to "hanap pera" for personal ends but also to contribute to the holistic development of the community. And when contribution to community is mentioned, we often think magnanimous things like feeding a million kids or building a thousand homes for the homeless. We forget that merely doing our job well in government offices, classrooms, bank counters, grocery stores, road constructions, or even on a small news desk like where I craft the NewsRecord week after week is already contributing to the community.

Even choosing to patiently wait in line for papers than push a bribe is a contribution to development.

Honestly, I no longer care for figures especially those mentioned during SONAs. I've had enough since professors required us to listen to former President Arroyo's annual mathematical lectures. I've had enough nose bleeding. What I do understand now is that a nation as sick as the Philippines would take more than one presidential term to heal and more than one president to climb up the ladder of progress again.

Progress takes each and every Filipino taking one leap forward. And, yes, cutting classes to rally is just another step back. 

Why we still fight the MILF?

Soldier Pen's 

By BGen. Alexander Cabales (Ret.)

In our usual banter with friends, our topic swayed to my experiences as a former soldier particularly in January 1999 when I was almost killed by a friendly fire in the Battle of Camp Omar.  The friendly fire was one coming from fellow soldiers as distinguished from hostile fire which comes from the enemy.

The Battle of Camp Omar in Talayan, Maguindanao was the first major battle, and at that time the biggest that we had against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after the Philippine government signed a peace pact with the major Moro secessionist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996. 

Bantay Banat

Ni Rics Cañisarez

Mga hepe sa pulis

Niay usa ka hepe sa kapulisan didto sa lalawigan sa Pangasinan ang mi-alma human nga gisibak sa pwesto gumikan kay wala makapaundang sa illegal nga sugal sa iyang area of jurisdiction. Mi-alma pa ang buta nga daku. Dili ba nga dugay na man nga nagpahimangno si P/Director General Nic Bartolome nga kinahanglan gamiton gayud ang one-strike policy tali sa mga illegal nga sugal? Tan-awa, di gitang-tang sa pwesto.

Maayo unta kon mahitabo usab ni dinhi sa atong lalawigan nga kutob sa mga hepe sa kapulisan nga mga buta ug bungol sa pagkuyanap aning mga illegal numbers game paphaon dayon sa pwesto aron mahimong leksyon sa atong kapulisan.

Pikpik sa Abaga

Ni Henry Sandoval

Kaulaw sa?

Dinha sa  dalan Valdevia atbang gayud sa Merkado Publiko dako kaayo nang gibutang nga "GIDILI ANG PAGPANGIHI DINHI DAPITA." Pero nahimong usa ka dakong yaga-yaga ang maong bill board tungod kay ang mga tawo wala magbali sa maong warning. Maayo pa kaayo mo-posing ug mangihi. Mao sad diha atbang sa paradahan sa mga habal-habal nga wala na gyud hinuoy ulaway kay ug mangihi mupapilit ra diha sa koral nga alambre ug mopasirit way bali ug makita si manoy.