Politicians urged not to pay “permit to campaign” fees to NPA
The election period is well on its way and with this, the Armed Forces of the
Negros Oriental Provincial Director P/Supt. Melvin Buenafe said that they will not allow the New People Army rebels to collect “permit to campaign” fees from potential candidates.
Dialogues with the candidates have been made during the past elections to stop this effort of the NPA to generate funds.
According to Insp. Gilbert Renasa, the NPA rebels use the election period not just to generate funds but also to maximize their works in favor of their movement. They are using the election period for their electoral struggle such as positioning their movement in the government and to gather intelligence materials.
P/Supt. Buenafe added that they are doing a routine talk with the politicians here in the province but with the limited number of police and military they cannot give each candidate a bodyguard.
The Provincial Police Office will still have to evaluate the hotspots in the province which will be determined through previous incidences and intelligence reports.
A gun ban will be enforced starting on January 14 up to June 13.
The AFP has earlier said it would thwart any efforts by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) to collect “permit to campaign” fees from politicians during the May elections.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon said the military had received reports that the NPA was planning to collect “permit to campaign” fees in their respective areas of control from candidates.
“We hope to be able to control the collection of permit-to-campaign fees. We will discuss this with the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies as I think it’s an illegal activity,” Esperon said.
The NPA collects the fees from politicians who want to campaign in areas where they hold sway.
Esperon urged candidates not to pay campaign fees to the NPA. “We should not be paying fees to an armed group that is bent on extorting [money] from the people, from the candidates. (I am) calling on probable candidates not to pay permits to campaign fees to the NPA,” said Esperon. (Donna Christine T. Ucang/PIA)
OrNeg to host 2nd Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival
Agriculturists and agriculture enthusiasts in
The festival will banner the theme “Save the Earth –
The festival, said Bangay, aims to promote a widespread awareness among farmers and agriculturists on the importance of adopting natural farming methods and discouraging the use of pesticide and chemical fertilizers.
Both Oriental Negros and Negros Occidental provincial governments are pushing for the organic farming technology or natural farming systems.
During the festival, organically-grown farm products from local government units all over the
A symposia will also be held at the Lamberto Macias Sports Complex.
Topics that will be taken up include Organic Agriculture and Fair Trade, International Market for Organic Products and Lifestyle on Health and Sustainability, Prospects and Challenges in the Local Organic Market, Clustering as a Strategy for Global Competitiveness, Updates on the Optimization Standardization of Muscovado Processing, Rice Duck Raising and Organic Piggery, Organic Vegetable Production, Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT 2), Organic Certification and Standards and Updates in Vermi-Composting.
A business counseling/technical and marketing sessions will also be done on February 9.
Participants will also be treated to agri-tours to the
The first Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival was held in
Meanwhile, the Philippines is set to sign 19 farm agreements with China involving investments worth P240.1 billion or $4.9 billion over the next five to seven years.
The deals include the development of 1.2 million hectares for rice, corn, sorghum and other crops in the
The biggest of the deals will be a memorandum of agreement that will allow the Fuhua Group Ltd. to invest $3.83 billion in one million hectares of land in the country for higher-yielding corn, rice and sorghum.
The two agreements with total investments worth 43.4 billion pesos will also be signed with the Beidahuang Group, the corporate state farm of the Hei Long Jiang province.
NegOr still bird-flu free
The Provincial Veterinary Office conducts random blood sampling of birds such as egret (tulabong) every month in
The said cities have been identified to be areas in the province where migratory birds land, according to Dr. Rodney George Pangilinan, special project coordinator at the Provincial Veterinary Office.
The abundance of food resources and wetlands and mangrove forests in the province attract the migratory birds who fly here during the warm season to take advantage of good weather conditions that prevail in the islands of
Records show that most of the migratory birds from other Asian countries stay for a while in the mangrove and wetlands of
Recently, Japan pledged an additional $67 million contribution to the battle against avian influenza and other pandemic diseases that have hit some countries in the Southeast Asian region.
Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Japan ’s new contribution during the 10th ASEAN Three Summit among the heads of state of the ASEAN, China , Japan and the Republic of Korea at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Hotel Resort and Spa.
Last year, Japan contributed $150 million to the multi-nation campaign against avian flu, but the amount has already been spent.
ASEAN leaders also expressed appreciation for the contribution of their three dialogue partners in East Asian in disaster reduction and management in combating the spread of infectious diseases in the Southeast Asian region.
BIR sees 20% increase on tax collection in 2007
Tax collection is expected to be higher by 20 percent this year.
This was disclosed by Atty. Arturo Acabal, Officer in Charge/Revenue District Officer of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here.
Acabal is confident that tax collection will be higher this year because of the Value Added Tax.
A 2 percent VAT was added on all goods and services on February 2006 which generated negative feedback from the public.
But a year later, VAT proved to have helped the economy greatly specifically in the administration’s project to alleviate poverty, said Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye.
In December 2006, the BIR national office issued a memorandum to all district offices nationwide for the submission of the total VAT collection of each cities and municipalities.
This is to determine the share of the Local Government from the added tax, said Acabal.
The 20% excess from this collection will be given to the LGUs.
Acabal said his office is still preparing their collection data and has yet to submit the total collection for this year to the national office
President Arroyo congratulated the economic team for the efforts that was done to put the economy in a better state.
With this improvement, the President hopes, that more investors will come in and have more confidence on the country’s economic system that will eventually generate more jobs. (Donna Christine T. Ucang/PIA)
Registered voters in NegOr decrease this yr - Comelec
Registered voters for this year’s election in Oriental Negros is expected to decrease from 606,000 in 2004 to 593,382 as of October 2006 even as the provincial election registration board still collating the number of the remaining new registrants of the last two months of last year.
This, the Commission on Election (Comelec) is cleansing its list of voters by removing the names who are already dead, persons who transferred to and from the province, and who failed to vote twice for two consecutive elections shall be deactivated, and those who are convicted for a year or more per records provided by the court, Provincial Election Supervisor Atty. Manuel Advincula cited.
Moreover, Atty. Advincula lamented that the youths are seemingly uninterested or unconcerned as half of the qualified voters of the youths failed to register last 2006.
He said the youths lack the motivation to participate in the democratic process.
As the election period starts, the Comelec Provincial Supervisor implored that no untoward incidents will happen especially in the municipalities and cities in the province where intense political rivalry are happening.
Atty. Advincula identified the election hotspots in the province such as Canlaon, Vallehermoso, Guihulngan, Ayungon, Bindoy, Bais, Tanjay, Bacong, Zamboanguita and Siaton.
Meantime, a command conference will be held this week with the Comelec officials and Philippine National Police (PNP) Provincial Police Director and chiefs of police from the municipalities and cities at the PNP Provincial Headquarters to discuss the implementation of the gun ban.
According to Comelec, even those with permit to carry firearms will be apprehended if they break the ordinance.
The PNP will strengthen its implementation of Oplan Bakal throughout the country.
PNP is also in the process of creating Task Force Armas and Task Force Hagibis to monitor criminality in the streets daily until after the election period.
The Administration enjoins the people to be vigilant and watchful of election fraud, as the PNP and the AFP sustains their visibility in enforcing election- related strictures such as the implementation of the gun ban, the manning of check points and the monitoring of choke points. (JCTilos/PIA)
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