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THE OFFICIAL E-NEWSLETTER OF THE PHILIPPINE INFORMATION AGENCY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.PIA.GOV.PH and the DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.DOST.GOV.PH
VOL. 3 | NO. 7 February 16-22, 2015
SIPCOR now operates in Siquijor, to solve power outages SIQUIJOR (PIA)-– The Siquijor Island Power Corporation (SIPCOR) with its new 6.464-megaWatt diesel plants started operation as power provider of Siquijor province. In its opening ceremony with Department of Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, he wants to make sure all the plants that are put in the province will materialize not only for this year but in the long term. The long term solution is for SIPCOR to come in and when it does, he said, he wants to make sure they operate properly and that the energy needs will be provided for. Petilla said the move is in line with the government’s thrust to provide electricity to all especially SPUG (Small Power Utilities Group) areas. There are areas in the country where electricity is eight hours a day, some 16 hours, and in small islands, 6 hours, he said pointing out that the thrust right now is to provide 24 hours electricity in areas where NPC SPUG is operating and reduce or eliminate brown-outs as the legacy they can leave before the President’s term ends. Economic activity now is measured by electricity consumption. The more electricity you actually consumed can be a gauge whether something is moving in that area, Petilla added. He said Siquijor province has now four power stations, each with a capacity of 1.6 MW compared to the whole province’s power demand of 3.4 MW. The two stations, constructed, owned and managed by SIPCOR house the brand new bunker-fired power generating facilities with installed capacity of 3.2 MW. They are located in Siquijor and Lazi towns. The power stations will be interconnected with the 13.8-kiloVolt network of the Province of Siquijor Electric Cooperative (PROSIELCO), which has been serving a total of 22,503 consumers. W i t h t h e S I P C O R ’s p l a n t , consumers will still pay the same government-subsidized rate of P 11.2269 per kilowatt-hour, added Petilla.
SIPCORoperated power plants in Candanay, Siquijor (inset) and in Tignao, Lazi.
As you progress, which with no doubt will happen because of the present leadership, subsidy will progress too, Petilla said explaining that without the subsidy, consumers would pay as much as P20.30 per kilowatt-hour. He said Siquijor province alone gets some P118 million a year in subsidy which will still increase once the economic activity of the island increases which also brings reduction of electricity rate. S t a r t i n g A u g u s t t h i s y e a r, the Secretary assured there will be no more brown-outs in Siquijor. But he said, this will only happen if everybody works together and make sure that brown-outs will never happen again in the province, he said especially calling the LGUs, PROSIELCO, and the national government’s cooperation. “The solutions are there, the coop is not a problem. Usahay
lang ang cooperatiba mapolitika (but sometimes the cooperative can politicized),” Petilla said as he calls local leaders not to politicize the coop and be serious in giving service to the people. Petilla said his visit to the island was to make sure that Sipcor will not be delayed in the commissioning and that all the promised power generation and facilities will be put in place. He said Napocor will have to leave Siquijor as this was programmed to be privatized, but meantime the island will still be backed by the firm’s power service until stable power supply will be availed by Siquijodnons,” Petilla added. PROSIELCO General Manager Laureen Malolot said, SIPCOR has a 20-year power supply agreement with the cooperative, and that it is now expected to address the present generation capacity requirements and even future demand of the province. (mbcn/RAC/PIA7-Siquijor)
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
DOST conducts OL monitoring, evaluation in Siquijor sentinel schools
by Engr. Reinhold Jek Abing
SIQUIJOR (PIA)--Representatives from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recently conducted rounds of monitoring and evaluation on the implementation of the ovicidal-larvicidal (OL) trap programs in 12 different sentinel schools in Siquijor province. Engr. Reinhold JekAbing, in lieu of Ronya Mae Bayan, and Eliezer Serra of DOST conducted the activity as part of the agency’s effort to step up its program implementation and to re-orient the OL coordinator of each sentinel schools on the 2015 School-Based OL Trap Roll-Out Program. In an interview with DOST Provicial Director Mario de la Pena, he said the program was supposed to end last December 2014 but is extended this year. New supplies of ovicidal-larvicidal(OL) pellets, ladles, and containers are to be given to each respective school. During the visitation, OL coordinators were asked on the progress of the program in their respective schools. Some expressed minor concerns which lead to inefficient implementation and some said
they had stopped receiving supplies of OL kits. Others were unable to send report through text but were later solved upon learning that the codes used in the reporting via SMS were inappropriate. They were however advised to send their reports as soon as possible using the recommended codes. Asked on how beneficial OL Trap program is to their school Ellie May Bulahan of Enrique Villanueva Central Elementary School expressed her gratitude to the program. She said she attributed the decline of the number of mosquitos to the affectivity of the OL traps citing that the school used to have cases of dengue before the School-Based OL Trap Roll-Out was implemented. She said she is proud that all of her co-teachers willingly cooperate in the program implementation and that students are participating because they saw its benefit. In order to increase its efficiency in gathering the information, some OL coordinators called on their students and organized the so-called “Lamok Patrollers,” a group of students who are tasked to determine the number of OL traps lost and those which indicated positive or negative to possible larvae of the Aedes mosquitoes. In the province, six public elementary and six high schools of the different municipalities were identified as sentinel schools. The schools identified are Enrique Villanueva National High School, Enrique Villanueva Central Elementary School, Basac High School, Larena Central Elementary School, Campalanas National High School, Simacolong Elementary School, Candaping National High School, Maria Central Elementary School, Catulayan National High School, San Juan Central Elementary School, Cang-alwang National High School and Candanay Elementary School. (mbcn/RAC/PIA7Siquijor/Engr. Reinhold Jek Abing/DOST-Siquijor)
DOST personnel during the monitoring and evaluation on the implementation of the ovicidal-larvicidal (OL) trap programs in 12 different sentinel schools in Siquijor province.
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BI warns public against phone scams CEBU CITY (PIA) –The Bureau of Immigration (BI) warns the public against extortion done through telephone calls allegedly from BI officials for the “release” of a foreign national friend of the would-be-victim. Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said the usual victims are Filipinos who have gain friendship with foreigners through the internet. The supposed foreign national, who in reality is part of a syndicate will arrange for a meeting with the Filipino wouldbe-victim and make it appear that he or she will be arriving in the Philippines at a given date, explained Mison. The Filipino would-be-victim during the supposed arrival date would receive a telephone call from someone
who claims to be an officer of the BI and demands money to “release” the foreign national from custody. The Filipino would immediately remit the money but never gets to see the foreign national acquaintance, said Mison. “Please be advised that immigration officers at the airport are not authorized to make the first contact with non-passengers. It is even more illegal to demand for money from anyone,” said Mison. “We advise our Filipino kababayans to exercise vigilance with their internet acquaintances to avoid being victimized by scammers,” further said Mison. As a rule, the BI does not hold custody of arriving passengers unless they have been excluded for reasons enumerated in section 29 of the Philippine
Immigration Act. In the latter case, the passenger is sent back to the port of origin on the next available outbound flight. “Excluded passengers are informed of the reason for their exclusion and in such case they may demand a copy of the exclusion order. They will not be prohibited from making a call to their friends in order to seek assistance,” said Mison. The BI chief said Filipinos with expected guests from another country who get in the same situation are advised to know the exact airport location and flight number of the passenger in order to verify the truthfulness of the claim. Mison advised the public to call their hotline number at (02) 465-2400 to check if a certain passenger is actually in our custody at any of our airports. (mbcn/fcr/pia7)
DOLE challenges unemployed youth to develop life skills
With graduation drawing near, with tens of thousands expected to join the labor market, and with hundreds of thousands more who are not in employment, education, or training—or NEET, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda DimapilisBaldoz, is challenging young people to develop life skills to be able to jumpstart their careers, either in wage employment or entrepreneurship. “Let’s face it. While we see our youth as dynamic potential innovators and leaders in the present-day world of work, surprisingly, they still compose almost half, or 49.1 percent, of the country’s unemployed population of 2.4 million,” said Baldoz. “Skills gap, or the mismatch between labor demand and supply, is the culprit for the high youth unemployment in the country,” she said, explaining that a considerable part of the unemployed population consists of educated workers— most probably young ones. “44 percent of our unemployed have reached or graduated from high school; 35.3 percent, on the other hand, graduated from college,” Baldoz said. And because it’s almost graduation month, the labor and employment chief said graduates ought to realise that in the current situation, the school-to-work transition in the Philippines is long. “It takes a long time for young Filipinos who leave their schools or universities to pursue careers in the labor market, simply because of the skills gap,” she said, pointing out the results of the ADB household survey in Manila and Cebu showing that it takes a college graduate one year to find his first job, and up to two years to find a regular job. The study also show that the period is even longer for a high school leaver who takes up to three years to find his first job,
and four years to find a regular wage job. “The ADB study is seminal. It cited that educational attainment, social status of family, and job search behavior are significant factors influencing the length and quality of the school-to-work transition among young Filipino jobseekers,” said Baldoz. To speed up the school-to-work transition, Baldoz said young people should take note of what employers’ have said: entry-level employees lack life skills—and do something about it. In particular, they need to improve their attitudes towards work and in the work place. They need to enhance their presentation and communication skills, she said. Noting that very few youth undertake skills training during the transition from school to work, she urged NEETs to train on life skills. “That’s the only way they can improve their prospects in the labor market,” she said. Join JobStart Philippines “Being the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, JobStart seeks to help young people jumpstart their careers by creating opportunities to improve their technical skills and develop the life skills necessary for success in today’s competitive workplace. It introduces the full-cycle employment facilitation service, a comprehensive and systematic approach in assisting young jobseekers, from planning their career paths all the way through acquiring the best-fit jobs through career guidance, life skills and technical training, and internship,” Baldoz explained. JobStart is funded by the Government of Canada through the Asian
Development Bank. The DOLE, through the Bureau of Local Employment, executes the program, while the LGUs and the PESOs serve as implementing agencies and employers as partners. Director Dominique Tutay of the Bureau of Local Employment said that to be able to join JobStart, a participant needs to be between 18-24 years old, at least high school graduates, no job experience or have no more than one (1) year of experience, and currently not in employment, not enrolled in school or in any training, and actively seeking work. Once selected, an applicant will undergo the following stages: assessment of participant’s job readiness and enhanced career guidance; selection of full beneficiaries; life skills training; job matching; interview and selection by employers; training plan preparation; signing of internship contract; technical training; and internship with employers. She said JobStart participants are provided with knowledge on conducting job searches; access to career guidance and employment coaching; access to relevant Labor Market Information (LMI) and PESO infrastructure; referral to potential employers; holistic employability through multi-faceted training; up to six months of on-the-job training with an employer; trainee stipend during the technical training and at least 75 percent of the minimum wage while with the employer as an OJT trainee; and a certificate from DOLE and ADB for completion of the program. “One of the most exciting features of the JobStart is the life skills training, an eightday training to develop participants’ attitudes to work and workplace environment; job hunting skills and networking; personal and interpersonal skills; and health and financial management,” Tutay said.
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March is Fire Prevention Month
Theme: “Kaligtasan sa Sunog: Alamin, Gawin, at Isabuhay Natin!” Top Hot Home Fire Prevention Tips and Measures
1. Regularly clean the house by removing the accumulation of dried leaves, wood shavings and litter in all parts of the house, these items can act as “fire fuel”. The mix of heat fuel and oxygen make it possible to create fire. Temperatures of these “fire fuel” via the summer heat can reach a certain critical point where ignition is possible to start dangerous household fires. 2. Give extra attention to oil, native lamps, and other combustible decorations and materials in the house. They should be placed away from curtains and other objects that easily catch fire. Do not put them where the wind, children, cats and other moving beings may topple them. Put them out before going to bed. 3. Observe what your children are playing with during this Summer break, be in high alert this season for children playing with combustible items such as matches inside your house. The spread of fire is faster so react quickly! 4. Regularly check your home electrical installations by a licensed electrician. Have frayed wirings and electrical fixtures repaired to ensure that the recommended solution and brands are used, especially during seasons of fire prevention (Which is summer and Christmas season). 5. Do not overload your electrical circuits, turn off electrical appliances that aren’t necessary to be used. Overheating of electrical circuits causes the insulation to melt leading to seasonal house fires. Avoid this by using proper insulation such as TARTAN™ 1710 General Use Vinyl Electrical Tape which is flame retardant, a property that stops the spread of fire once source of flame is removed.
Fire prevention tips
The following fire prevention measures are generally recommended: Proper installation and maintenance of electrical connections Avoiding the use of metal items like staples or nails to fasten electric cords Proper maintenance of electric cords Proper use, storage, and maintenance of all electrical appliances Unplugging of electrical appliances after use
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is the Island of Siquijor’s first electronic newsletter produced by the Philippine Information Agency-Siquijor Information Center and the DOST - Provincial Science and Technology Center. It contains snippets of information about Siquijor, Central Visayas and the Philippine Government.
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Proper connection and maintenance of gas stoves and LPG tanks Keeping flammable liquids, matches, and lighters out of children’s reach Avoiding smoking indoors and making sure that cigarette butts are fully extinguished when discarding them Making sure that lighted candles and mosquito coils are never left unattended Obeying of “no smoking” signs Installation and maintenance of fire detection and prevention devices Securing an appropriate and effective fire extinguisher for your home, which should be Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) certified Proper storage of flammable items Keeping flammable objects away from stoves and other heating devices Observing vigilance when cooking What to do in case of fire Small fires may be extinguished by covering the flame with a non-flammable item like a pot cover or a dampened towel or blanket. Water should be used only for non-electrical fires. If the fire gets out of hand, the nearest fire department should be called. Escape quickly. Your household should agree on an escape plan and each room should have at least two easily accessible escape routes. Avoid suffocation in a smoke-filled room by crawling as close to the ground as possible on hands and knees to the nearest exit. If your clothes catch on fire, stop, drop
and roll to extinguish the flames. TO OPERATE THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER CORRECTLY....THINK P.A.S.S. P: Pull the pin. A: Aim at the base of the fire. S: Squeeze the lever. S: Sweep side to side. But they say the most important lesson of all is when not to try using an extinguisher. The devices are only meant for small fires in their very beginning stages. Anything bigger, you should get out while you can and call the nearest fire station: Siquijor Fire Station- (035) 480-9051 Larena Fire Station - (035) 377-2325 San Juan Fire Station - 09268249985 Lazi Fire Station - 09058623420 “FIRE SAFETY IS OUR MAIN CONCERN” A message from: SFO3 Panfilo U Bagotchay BFP Acting Municipal Fire Marshal FO3 Zylbeth Y Cortes, MPA PIO/Fire Safety Inspector/Investigator