INFOBYTES, Issue No. 22 (August 25, 2005)

Invest in Valencia, PGMA urges power-intensive industries
Investors whose industries rely heavily on electricity may soon find their roads leading to Oriental Negros after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo openly invited investors yesterday to invest in the province's geothermal power-heavy town of Valencia.

Pres. Arroyo said that investors can find economic relief in the 50 percent electric bill subsidy enjoyed by Valencia town as host to the geothermal steamfields of Philippine National Oil Company this side of Central Visayas, particularly in the midst of apprehensions of an impending oil crisis

The President made the invitation during her visit to Oriental Negros yesterday to inspect the proposed P1.7-billion Palinpinon geothermal expansion project of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) in Sitio Nasulo, Brgy. Puhagan, Valencia.

Valencia's 50 percent electric bill subsidy is shaved off from 80 percent of the multi-million royalty tax it is receiving from PNOC.

PNOC is tapping geothermal energy from Valencia's three hinterland barangays of Puhagan, Caidiocan and Malaunay through power plants producing roughly 195.5 megawatts of geothermal power.

For this year, the municipal government is receiving a royalty tax at an average of P12,664,000 M per quarter.

In his briefing before the President, PNOC President Paul Aquino said the Palinpinon geothermal project has the highest percentage utilization in the country of about 88 percent, making it the most efficient Napocor power plant in the country today.

PNOC is building what will be the third power plant in Palinpinon, a 20MW geothermal plant in Brgy. Puhagan costing about P1.7 billion and is pegged to generate between 20 to 25 MW of geothermal power out of the excess steam in Palinpinon geothermal plants.

Congratulating PNOC and Napocor for this project, Pres. Arroyo said, "it is important that we move away from oil-based fuel" as she disclosed that Philippines is now the no. 1 user of geothermal power in the world.

With the shadow of a power crisis looming ahead, the President has been inspecting energy projects around the country to promote the use of alternative fuel, paving the way for the country to attain independence from foreign oil supply.

Pres. Arroyo has proposed to Congress a P1.05T national budget for 2006 as a strategic weapon against the looming oil crisis and poverty.

According to local Napocor manager Engr. Rodolfo Pacaña, in 2004, the government was able to save on almost 2 million barrels of oil due to the operation of its various geothermal plants nationwide. "If we can load up to 100 percent to our quarry units, we can save around 2,772,000 barrels of crude oil every year."

The surge in oil prices in the world market is seen to ripple its way harshly into the country's economy. Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said that in 2004, the country's oil import bill was pegged at $4.5 billion, while from January to May 2005, the country's oil already hit $2.31 billion.

Lotilla said that if the price of oil in the world market hikes up by another $10, the country's oil import bill would soar to $5.5 billion by yearend.
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OrNeg has high number of Filipinos leaving abroad
Oriental Negros is among the provinces in the country from where a big number of Filipinos are leaving for abroad, disclosed officials from the Commission of Filipinos Overseas (CFO) who were in Dumaguete City recently to conduct an awareness campaign on issues concerning migration and intermarriages.

According to Ma. Regina Angela Gallas of CFO in a press conference conducted by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) here, between 1998 to 2004, around 4,887 Filipinos from the province left the country to work or live overseas. Of the total, almost half are from Dumaguete City with 2, 237.

In the period from 1993 to 2004, there was a total of 1,692 Negrenses who married foreigners, of which 696 are from Dumaguete.

Janet Ramos of CFO in the same activity disclosed that as of December 2004 already 8.08 million Filipinos left the country, or around 10 of the total Filipino population are now based overseas.

About 3.19 million of the total are permanent residents abroad. Some 70 % are in USA, 14% in Canada, 7% in Australia, 6% in Japan, 1% in Germany and .5% in United Kingdom.

Ramos said the number of Filipinos going abroad has been increasing in the recent years, and based on the trend, she said that the number is expected to increase in the following years.

There were a total of 55,137 Filipinos who left the country as immigrants in 2003, and this increased to 64,824 in 2004.

She said that an average of 300 to 350 Filipinos leaving the country as immigrants register for CFO's pre-departure and guidance counseling sessions daily.

CFO is an agency catering to Filipino immigrants, either through petition or intermarriage, and holds pre-departure and guidance counseling sessions for Filipinos about to leave the country.

The agency conducts annual awareness campaigns in provinces identified to have a high number of Filipino immigrants.
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FBRE calls for action vs. billboards advertising alcohol drinks
The Friends of the Banica River and the Environment spearheaded a petition submitted to the Provincial Board Aug. 18, 2005 calling for action on the highly visible proliferation of billboards advertising alcohol drinks along national and other roads in the province.

FBRE is spearheading the campaign which was signed by various concerned citizens and those from the academe and the local government.

In a press statement, FBRE stated that billboards advertising alcohol and cigarettes purport to "welcome" or direct the traveling public to virtually every municipality and city, barangay and even an elementary school.

FBRE's press statement said that irresponsible messages are being directed at youth, citing the advertisements of Colt 45 with their tags "Kaya mo na, tol!" and "Colt 45, Kool sa driving!"

These are dangerous as the provincial police has noted that many road accidents are caused by drunk driving, said FBRE's press release.

The same statement added that while the province is being extolled as a nature tourism destination, the view of nature here is marred by billboards and the alcohol hard-sell. "Urbanized areas too are a visual clutter of adviertising streamers, billboards and posters plastered anywhere and everywhere, on walls, electric poles and tree trunks. Torn, faded, peeling off or new, they deface almost every city street."

The FBRE is calling for a sense of public order that should extend to eliminating worse forms of what it describes as "visual pollution and commercialism" if Negros Oriental is truly to become a nature destination.
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Nursing grads asked to serve country first before working abroad
Anticipating a shortage of health care providers in the country as the exodus of nurses and doctors-turned-nurses continue to rise, a government doctor appealed to fresh nursing graduates to serve the country at least two years before entertaining the idea of working abroad.

Dr. Helen Retuta of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in a Kapihan sa PIA this morning admitted that she does not blame nurses and even doctors-turned-nurses who want to pursue better opportunities in other countries. Beyond economics, the feeling of security for their families come first in case things don't work well here, Retuta said.

Retuta, a nursing graduate before proceeding for a doctoral degree, said the VSMMC suffers from a shortage of nurses. In one ward alone, there are only two nurses catering to 60 patients. While the VSMMC that has a 400-bed capacity accommodates more than 600 patients from the Visayas and Mindanao, this was learned.

Given an impending shortfall of nurses in the country due to the surge of demand for health care professionals abroad, Retuta asked nursing graduates to practice their profession first in the country for two years to hone their nursing skills and gain them the necessary experience.

Dr. Marilou Viray, president of the Cebu Medical Society, in the same forum bared that every year, 3,000 doctors are taking up nursing, which is double the figure of newly- licensed practicing doctors.

Viray cited three major reasons why doctors are changing profession to become nurses in order to work overseas. First, the opportunities call for it, the country's political instability and financial security.

But there is also a good side to the brain drain of health care providers, Viray noted. Because aside from helping the country's economy through dollar remittances, these health care providers can also apply and share the technology they learned abroad in the Philippines as she has known of some medical professionals who have worked abroad for a long time and came back to retire here. "The Philippines is a good retirement haven and even foreigners opt to migrate here," Viray quoted.

The remittances of overseas Filipino workers for the first six months of this year alone has reached P4.9B and the amount is expected to double by yearend, according to the Central Bank. It was surmised that the growth of dollar remittances is attributed to the mass deployment of medical professionals mainly nurses.

Atty. Roy Ligad, information officer of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA-7) bared that for the first semester this year, their office has processed 815 nurses for deployment abroad including 49 working visas for the US. The figure however, does not include nurse-immigrants for the US while most are off to the United Kingdom followed by Ireland.

Last year, the POEA-7 processed 1,510 nurses. Arnulfo Jaranay, president of the Operating Nurses Assn. of the Philippines (ORNAP) - Cebu chapter said the mass exodus of nurses and doctors-turned-nurses will create a vacuum of health care providers in the health care sector. Albeit the shortage can be augmented with new nursing graduates, he added.

Jaranay said the absence of opportunities in the country and the offer of attractive compensation abroad is a temptation they cannot refuse. On the positive side, working abroad is one way of helping the country's economy and provide decent lives to our families left behind as this is also a huge sacrifice on our part, Jaranay claimed.
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LTFRB-7: Commuters assured of no fare increases despite rising fuel prices
As more oil price hikes are expected in the coming weeks due to the spiraling prices of crude in the global market, commuters can heave a sigh of relief as the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB-7) assures the riding public of no fare increases until December 31, this year.

LTFRB-7 information officer Eugenio Ibo Jr. said that an agreement forged with the transport sector is the non-demand of another fare hike until December 2005 with the recent implementation of the P1 fare increase of public utility vehicles. Also recently, public buses have been given the go signal to up their fares.

As government called on the use of alternative fuel in both public and private vehicles to cope with the rising costs of oil, taxi operators in Manila urged the government to provide incentives for those willing to convert their petrol-fueled vehicles to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

In Cebu, Ibo said that so far, there has been no known similar request by taxi operators and agreed that LPG would be much cheaper. The alternative use of LPG instead of imported oil can also be used by jeepneys, according to Ibo.

As this developed, Liquefied Philippines Corp. based in Luzon is looking at the possibility of supplying autogas to the transport sector after some public drivers expressed interest in LPG.

To cushion the impact of the continuing costs of imported fuel, government is recommending the public to use bicycles or walk, in case of short distances to their destinations.

President Arroyo has reduced the tariff on imported oil products and is planning to abolish excise taxes as well to mitigate the impact of rising oil prices. The President likewise has convened her economic team to map out safety measures to mitigate the effects of increasing oil prices.

As part of efforts to conserve energy in the face of the oil crisis, Pres. Arroyo in a radio interview just this afternoon said she favors the re-implementation of the four-day workweek scheme in government offices. Government agencies involve in security, health services and those that have daily transactions with the public are exempted from the four-day workweek scheme.
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Another 1M school building completed in Lazi
Another P1 million four-classroom school building was completed in Lazi this middle of the year.

Appropriated from Congressman Shane Fua's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the construction and repair of this school building in Lazi Elementary School was completed last July 30, ten days ahead of targeted schedule. This was made possible through the perseverance and team effort of the technical team of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the leadership of the district engineer, Construction Engr. Jerauld Villaverde stressed.

On the other hand, Engr. Gena Sugabo, Project-In-Charge, said that the construction of the said building was done in accordance with the plans and specifications approved by the department that resulted to high quality of workmanship.

Mrs. Cresencia Boncawel, principal of the school, during the turn-over activity, expressed her gratitude to Congressman Shane Fua, Jr. for slicing a reasonable amount of his congressional funds to fund the project and to the DPWH as well for fast tracking the construction in time for this school year. She is optimistic of better times ahead for the children since the school has been producing professionals through the years.

"Our students can now enjoy the benefit of this school building. In fact, these were the same classrooms our governor and congressman had been entering during their early school days", Mrs. Boncawel said.

Meanwhile, James Dellosa, District Engineer of the DPWH said they have an enormous task that lies ahead of them. "As public servants, we will show to the Siquijodnons the real essence of public service. We really need to supervise and monitor closely all on-going projects based from the approved plans and specifications mandated by the department because if we do this, it will be more advantageous on the part of the government as it will become cost-effective", said Dellosa.
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LNAS, SSC ladderize programs
The TESDA-administered Lazi National Agricultural School (LNAS) & the Siquijor State College (SSC) have ladderized three of their respective regular programs namely: (1) Agricultural Technician Course - Bachelor in Agricultural Technology (ATC-BAT), (2) Hotel & Restaurant Services Technology - Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management (HRST - BSHM), and (3) Textile & Apparel Technology - Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology Major in Garment Trades (TAT - BSIT Garment Trades).

Under the program, a student can take up the first two years of his study at LNAS, graduate as a technician, and proceed to SSC for the remaining two years and graduate with the baccalaureate degree.

The programs were formally ladderized in a workshop jointly conducted by focal persons of both institutions at SSC on May 25, 2005. The program is in compliance with Executive Order No. 358 which provides for the interfacing and articulation of programs between Technical - Vocational Education & Training (TVET) and Higher Education (H.E.) thereby effectively removing barriers.

This is a welcome development for the communities in Lazi and the nearby areas who do not have the luxury of sending their college students for four straight years in Larena.
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