September 4, 2008
Manila Bulletin

GMA asks N.Ecija folk to produce more staple food for RP
By Magtanggol C. Vilar

PALAYAN CITY – Acknowledging the share of Nuevo Ecija “in producing rice that feeds the nation,” President Arroyo asked Novo Ecijanos to answer the challenge on the table for Filipinos.”

The President issued last Tuesday the challenge on the occasion of the celebration of the 112th anniversary of the “Unang Sigaw ng Nuevo Ecija” in which she was the guest speaker.

President Arroyo lauded the efforts of Nuevo Ecija Gov. Aurelio M. Umali in effecting a dramatic turnaround of the province’s economy through its agricultural pursuits together with infrastructure projects such as farm-to-market roads.

With the presidential entourage were several Cabinet members who included Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza.

On the same occasion, the President distributed a total of loans and subsidies of P1.2 billion to members of 48 farm cooperatives in the province.

She also distributed 82 flat-bed dryers to municipalities in the four congressional districts, 200 land patents under the government’s “Handog Titulo”program to landless residents in the town of General Tinio, San Leonardo, Zaragoza and Science City of Muñoz.

In her speech, Arroyo cited her administration’s efforts in ensuring food stability of the country, noting the introduction in Nuevo Ecija of additional irrigation facilities as the Casecnan and Aulo dams which have led to increased palay production. In 2007, Nuevo Ecija produced 1,231,176 metric tons of palay.

The President said the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) is helping in her administration’s country-wide development projects.

But she challenged local farm groups to help in the country’s efforts to earn dollars which would be used for the purchase of petroleum products.

In answer, Governor Umali said that Nuevo Ecija is helping earn dollars for the country through export of several agricultural products such as brown rice, rice coffee, and handicraft made of rice straws and common grass.

President Arroyo prodded the governor to rush the construction of the P13.59-billion Balintingon Reservoir Multipurpose Project (BRMP) at the tri-border of Nuevo Ecija, Bulacan, and Pampanga.

September 3, 2008
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Gov’t to pursue agri subsidies
By Michael Lim
PALAYAN CITY – PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo presided over meetings of the National Economic Development Authority and the National Security Council here to stress her bid to make the country rice self-sufficient before she ends her term in 2010.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the government will spend about P25 billion on agricultural subsidies this year and almost the same amount nest year to hopefully push the country out of the current food crisis.

The Cabinet was also set to approve an “export development program for agriculture,” an ambitious plan to make the country an exporter of hog, livestock and poultry by mid-2009.

To do this, Yap told reporters the Department of Agriculture (DA) proposed the continuous development of processing facilities all over the country (storage, refrigeration and cutting facilities).

“We want processing facilities for meat products ready by mid-2009,” he said, adding that the DA was working with local government units to increase “capacity production.”

Already the country is exporting hog products to Singapore.

“For the first time, the country will export hog products to the world,” he said.

In May, President Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled the P43.7-billion FEEDS program, a financial support package for fertilizer, irrigation and infrastructure, extension and education, loans, dryers and other post-harvest and post-production facilities.

September 2, 2008
People’s Journal

GMA graces P448-M Ecija dam, ‘Unang Sigaw’ rites
By Steve A. Gosuico

PALAYAN CITY – President Macapagal-Arroyo will lead today the inauguration of the P448-million modernized and state-of-the-art dam here coinciding with the 112th anniversary of the “Unang Sigaw ng Nuevo Ecija (First Cry of Nuevo Ecija).”

Carlos Salazar, administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, said the President, along with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, will lead in the opening of the newly-rehabilitated Pampanga-Bongabon River Irrigation System, also known as the Atate Dam.

Mrs. Arroyo will hold a Cabinet meeting here. She will be welcomed by Gov. Aurelio Umali and other local officials.

Salazar said the rehabilitation of PBRIS has been fully completed with the installation of electro-mechanically operated gate-lifting mechanism, additional intake, construction of 10.38-kilometer concrete canal lining the PBRIS main canal and installation of new slide gates for 10 main canal structures and turn-outs.

The Atate Dam forms part of Contract Package U1 of the P6.7-billion Phase 1 of the Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project.

Alexander Coloma, NIA-Casecnan assistant project manager, said the Atate Dam rehab, undertaken by the China International Water & Electric Corp., cost P448.15 million.

Coloma said the project will benefit 19,151 farmers covering 25,881 hectares of agricultural lands in 105 barangays in Cabanatuan City and Aliaga, Gen. Natividad, Jaen, Peñaranda, San Antonio, San Leonardo, Sta Rosa and Zaragoza towns.

September 1, 2008
The Philippine STAR

Fruit demo garden to rise in NE university
By Manny Galvez

CABANATUAN CITY – a fruit demonstration garden that will serve as a plant and technology exchange center for local and imported fruit trees using the multiple rootstock technology espoused by noted pomologist Bernardo Dizon is taking shape inside the 22-hectare campus of the Nuevo Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) here.

A 25-year memorandum of agreement will be signed on Sept. 6 by NEUST president, lawyer Hilario Ortiz, Dizon and Gary Dizon at the school’s Sumacab campus here.

Following the signing of the MOA, the Dizons will launch a free seminar-workshop on the propagation and culture of high-value fruit trees using the multi-rooted technology.

Under the proposed MOA, Dizon will establish, maintain and operate the demo plot and garden to showcase experimental fruit garden using the multiple rootstock technology.

Dizon said the project will be readily accessible to the farmers, orchard owners and interested backyard growers for their technological requirement in growing fruit and hard wood trees.

He said that with the project, farmers will be taught through actual planting the modern methods of culturing traditional fruit trees such as mango and non-traditional ones such as lychees, oranges, rambutan and durian which are potential dollar-earners.

“This project will disprove the wrong notion that non-traditional fruit trees cannot be grown in Nuevo Ecija or anywhere else in the Philippines,” he said.

August 27, 2008
Malaya

N.Ecija gov charged with graft anew
By Jojo de Guzman

CABANATUAN CITY – For the nth time Nueva Ecija vice governor Edward Thomas Joson charged Gov. Aurelio Umali and four other provincial officials with graft at the Office of the Ombudsman, this time for the allegedly questionable disbursement of P1.3 millio t a caterer which had not actually supplied the food for Umali’s oath-taking at the Nueva Ecija Convention Center in Palayan City on July 4, 2007.

Also named respondents in the complaint were provincial trade and industry officer Giovanni Agtay, provincial administrator Alejandro Abesamis, treasurer Edilberto Pancho, and former administrator Jaime Pallanan.

Joson said Umali and his co-accused made it appear that the Ryan Angelo Sweets and Catering provided food for the affair because the firm still had a live two-year contract with the provincial government to supply meals and food services beginning Sept. 21, 2006.

Joson presented a sworn statement from Cleopatra Gervacio, owner of Ryan Angelo, stating that Agtay requested her to issue a receipt for P1.3 million as food and catering expenses although another caterer had actually provided the food. Gervacio said Agtay told her this would facilitate the release of payment and her other collectibles from the provincial government.

Joson said the actual cost of the food delivered by the real caterer was only P1.08 million, consisting of 9,000 pieces of packed lunch at P120 each. He also questioned why there were 9,000 packed lunches when the convention center where Umali was sworn in can only accommodate a maximum of 3,000 persons. “Sabihin nang may mga tao pa sa labas, pero sabihing naubos yung 9,000, sobra-sobra na iyon,” he said.

Joson also asked the Ombudsman to place the respondents under preventive suspension pending the investigation of this complaint.

August 26, 2008
Manila Bulletin

DPWH employee slain in Cabanatuan
By Magtanggol C. Vilar

CABANATUAN CITY – As employee of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) here was gunned down the other day by an unidentified man near a gasoline station in Barangay D.S. Garcia, this city.

Senior Inspector Danilo Eduardo, chief investigator of the Cabanatuan police, identified the victim as Edwin Wycoco, 47, resident of Villa Cecilla (Phase 2), this city.

The victim was a son of retired Assistant City Prosecutor Pacifico Wycoco, now chief of the City Legal Office, and twin brother of Barangay Chairman Edward Wycoco of Sta Arcadia here.

The police said the victim was walking towards his red Zuzuki multi-cab parked near the Fuel Zone gas station adjacent to city’s multi-purpose parking terminal when the gunman fired several shots at him at close range.

The police found six shells of caliber .45 bullets at the crime scene.

Meanwhile, former Nampicuan (Nuevo Ecija) Vice Mayor Luisito Verayo y Sanchez was nabbed yesterday by policemen at a checkpoint in Bliss, Barangay Cabaducan East, Nampicuan town for possession of a caliber .45 pistol (SN482058) with 10 rounds of ammunition. He was unable to present any document for the Strayer Voight Inc.-made firearm.

He was charged with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

August 26, 2008
The Philippine STAR

Pair of giant slippers ushers in Gapan’s ‘tsinelas’ festival
By Manny Galvez

GAPAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – A pair of giant slippers as big as 30 feet went on display in this city’s main thoroughfares as the city government launched here yesterday its “7th Tsinelas Festival” or festival of slippiers highlighting its seventh anniversary as a component city.

Mayor Ernesto Natividad and Vice Mayor Christian Tinio led city officials usher in the festival meant to boost sales and income of local slipper makers in the face of stiff competition from imported slippers coming from China and other countries.

Dozens of tsinelas stalls have been installed along the national highway in Barangay Bucana to showcase the slippers aside from the parade of floats and street dancing at the entrance of the new city hall, a giant slipper mounted on a float is put on display.

The city’s backyard slippers industry, which originated in the 1930s, has been abuzz in Barangays Mangino, Pambuan and San Lorenzo. It generates annual sales of P500 million.

During the pre-war period, slippers were made of carabao leather from Meycauyan, Bulacan.

However, the government prohibited the slaughter of cattle such as carabao, resulting in the decline in leather supply. Slippers makers were thus, forced to tap other raw materials such as plastic and rubber.

Local slippers are now made of synthetic material, giving the city distinction of being the biggest producer of synthetic-made slippers in the country. These type of slippers are sold in Luzon, mostly in Bicol, Ilocos Norte and Baclaran and major department stores in Manila.

Matividad, who is one of the biggest slipper producers here before he entered politics, said with a minimum capital of P15,000, one can start a slipper-making business.

One of the few exceptions was Tessie Gomez who started with a meager capital of P120.

The city’s slipper industry, however, is being threatened by the flood of imported slippers. Aside from China, other countries where slippers are being brought in are Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.


Photo by coldapoy
Visit: http://coldapoy.multiply.com/photos/album/177/Tsinelas_Festival_Gapan_City_Nueva_Ecija