Information is our business.
iSIQUIJOR 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. 5| NO.14 April 26-May 4, 2017
DOLE calls for safe, healthy workplaces
SIQUIJOR PIA) -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) recently reminded private companies, business owners, entrepreneurs, workers, and other stakeholders provincewide to observe occupational safety and health (OSH) as mandated by law during the forum at the Sylvia’s Solangon, San Juan,
Siquijor, Siquijor. DOLE 7 Occupational Health and Safety Management Officer Gines Timosa said occupational safety and health is mandated by law so that every establishment should provide workers and management a well, sound, and safety work environment.
Occupational Governor Zaldy Safety S. Villaand (above) Health in an (OSH) Oathtaking seminarceremony of the Department of the newlyofelected Labor officers and Employment of the Siquijor (DOLE) Association at Solango, ofSan Information Juan, Siquijor. Disseminators (SAID)
He said OSH management sytem has 15 basic elements that should always be present in every workplace. Among these basic elements are safety and health meetings, safety and health rules, enforcement of safety and health rules, injury and incident investigation, workplace audits and inspections, modified duty and return to work system, and off the job safety and health. Also mandated are recognition for safety and health performance, safety of facilities and equipment, measuring and benchmarking safety and health performance, hiring for safety and health attitudes, safety and health of contractors and subsidiaries, involvement in community and customer safety and health, the safety and health organization and safety and health specialist. The forum also tackled the overview of the DOLE’s programs such as Labor Management Convergence, Family Welfare , Productivity and Innovation in Labor and Management, Gener and Development (GAD), Anti-Sexual Harassment, Employees compensation benefits, safety and health program and productivity 101, and productivy based pay incentive scheme. (rac/PIA7Siquijor)
CV economic growth up by 8.8%
(PIA) --- The economy of Central Visayas accelerated to 8.8 percent in 2016, higher than the 4.9 percent recorded growth in 2015. In the recent presentation of the 2016 Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), it was learned that the continued
growth was attributed to the upsurge of industry. The 2016 GRDP was presented by Philippine Statistics Authority 7 Regional Director Ronaldo Taghap simultaneous with the rest of the regions in the country.
Taghap said the GRDP is not a study but a compilation of all data from other government agencies. “GRDP measures the performance of the economy of the region,” he said. The biggest contributor to the economy is the Services sector with
to page 4
iSIQUIJORGOVERNMENTNEWS
#EmpoweringCommunities
The Road to Redemption: A Deconstruction of Shabu Addiction
Raymond del Rosario
The road to redemption for some of the drug surrenderers starts with a pledge to stop drug use. Shown here are drug personalities who participated in a similar ceremony held at Brgy. Carlatan, San Fernando City, La Union. (Photo by: Erwin G. Beleo/www.sanfernandocity.gov.ph)
In a labyrinthine alley of a slum area tucked between a creek and a cluster of high-rises, Bok (not his real name) scurries toward a little makeshift store. The woman tending the store understood right away and nonchalantly gave him a small sachet with alum-like substance. It is methamphetamine, more popularly known as shabu, which Bok handed over to his three companions. It cost them 500 pesos. Once inside his dingy shanty, he held a lit lighter under a foil with a portion of shabu. Smoke billowed from the heated drug. His guests “chased the white dragon” with straw fashioned from a tin foil. The pot session has begun. After ingesting shabu, Bok and his friends experienced an intense sense of exhilaration. This “rush,’’ according to a Mayo Clinic study by Lineberry and Bostwick in 2006, “includes feelings of enhanced well-being, heightened libido, increased energy, and appetite suppression.” Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, flooded Bok’s brain moments after he ingested the shabu. Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals that facilitate the signaling system between neurons. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime or UNODC says that neurotransmitters, like dopamine, “induces a range of excitatory response in the central nervous system.” For Bok, he is hooked to this pleasurable feeling, feeding this addiction by chasing the dragon as often as he could. The rush combined with the relative cheapness of shabu made it the drug of choice among the lower class, thus, its moniker – the poor man’s cocaine. However, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the lead government agency in the fight against illegal drugs, the price of shabu has tripled from its 2013 to 2015 value of 5,000 to
7,000 pesos per gram following the government’s crackdown against suppliers and intensified monitoring of users. The difficulty in obtaining shabu and other hard drugs combined with various interventions of the government, from buy-bust operations to community-based recovery programs, are game-changers. As of last month, more than a million drug users have surrendered to authorities. Crimes against persons and properties or index crimes went down by more than a quarter. Almost 90,000 pushers have turned themselves in. Bok is just one among the millions of drug users in the country fuelling the PhP 120 billion drug industry locally. This alarming number has been a clarion call for this administration who recognizes the irreparable damage to future generations if the proliferation of hard drugs is left unchecked. The road to redemption for Bok was not easy. Years of being a street runner, a colloquial term for an errand boy for drug dealers, and succumbing to his addiction repeatedly were hard to overpower. It took not just all the willpower that he could muster but also the support of his sibling and a rehabilitation program to prevent a relapse. After a Tokhang visit (a nationwide police campaign to warn users to cease from using illegal drug), Bok and other known users in his barangay voluntarily joined this community-based program which integrated rehabilitation with a livelihood component. This was made possible by a partnership between the LGU and a faith-based organization. Withdrawal from shabu was not an easy experience. The first couple of days, Bok felt tired and depressed. The next few days were the hardest. Unable to satisfy his strong cravings for shabu, Bok grew irritated, had mood swings and experienced paranoia. It was only on his second month of being clean that he began to crawl back from this deep abyss. He is finally free from an almost unending cycle of highs and crashes after a shabu binge. Drug-free for almost four months now, Bok is a different person both emotionally and physically. Gone are the hallucinations and the incessant scratching due to drug-induced sensation that resembles itching. His sister, his remaining family, said that Bok’s unpredictable mood whenever the drug-induced euphoria ebbs led to violent behaviors. A brush with the law had landed him in jail once before. Today, he works in a meat processing factory in a neighboring city. He spends his free time counseling users admitted to the rehabilitation program where he was once a patient. The craving for meth is now a distant memory. (Disclaimer: Due to the sensitive nature of this article, the character and storyline are composites culled from real life cases. Any similarity to any person living or dead is merely coincidental.)
iSIQUIJORGOVERNMENTNEWS #Empowering Communities
The Long Journey to Economic Integration The ASEAN Economic Community gets a lot of mention these days, but ASEAN’sjourney of economic integration has actually been underway for over decades. The economic linkages that bind ASEAN together have taken root through different channels over time. This includesdifferent ASEAN countries sharing complementary roles in manufacturing, the improved ease in moving products across borders, and other mechanisms that facilitate the smoother flow of goods, services and capital, and skilled labouracross the region. This contributes towards the narrative on ASEAN being one of the most dynamic regions in the world, and a key contributor to world economic growth. Economic integration – and the doors of opportunity it opens –hasbrought concrete financial and economic benefits to hundreds of millions of people in ASEAN. If it were a single country, ASEAN would be the seventh largest economy in the world and the third largest in Asia. From 2007 to 2014, its combined GDP nearly doubled to 2.57 trillion US dollars. Tariffs among ASEAN countries stand at nearly zero today, bringing down the price of goods and increasing choice for consumers. ASEAN has also become a world class investment destination attracting 136 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment in 2014, thus creating more economic and employment opportunities for its population. Looking ahead, the further liberalisation and integration of ASEAN’s economies after the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community in December 2015 is expected to bring more benefits for the region. Collectively ASEAN is projected to become the world’s 4th largest economy by 2050. Formally established on 31 December 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is a major milestone
in the ongoing regional economic integration agenda of ASEAN. Adopted by the ASEAN Leaders in November 2007, the AEC Blueprint (2008-2015) has helped chart the region’s journey towards the formal establishment of the AEC, characterized by: (a) a single market and production base, (b) a highly competitive economic region, (c) a region of equitable economic development, and (d) a region fully integrated into the global economy. As an integrated community, ASEAN aims to be a region where there are simplified rules, lower tariffs and harmonisedstandards and closer regulatory cooperation, greater transparency and a talented, welleducated pool of workers and a large, vibrant consumer base. The story of ASEAN’seconomic cooperation and integration spans more than four decades, its foundation having been planted through the seventies and picking up pace in the nineties. As early as 1977, ASEAN put in place the ASEAN Preferential Trade Agreement. The steps toward deeper economic integration quickened with the Framework Agreement on Enhancing ASEAN Economic Cooperation, which covered areas ranging from trade, industry, minerals and energy; finance and banking; food, agriculture, and forestry; transport and communications.
This led to other ASEAN trade accords, including the 1992 ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) that is largely responsible for tariff reductions within the region.AFTA aimed to boost ASEAN’s competitive edge as a production base through the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and through the attraction of more foreign direct investment into the region.Other agreements that pushed economic integration range from the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services in 1995, the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in 2010 which consolidates ASEAN commitments and initiatives on trade in goods, and the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement in 2012. By 2003, ASEAN Leaders declared the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community as the goal of regional economic integration within the ASEAN Community. In 2007, theyadopted the Blueprint that served as the master plan guiding the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, a completion date that had been moved up from 2020. As at end-October 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community Scorecard, which tracks the progress of the measures in the Blueprint, showed that ASEAN had implemented 92.7% or 469 out of 506 measures they committed to undertake. In terms of the four areas of integration under the Economic Community, Member States had fulfilled 100% of the measures relating to equitable economic development and ASEAN’s integration into the global economy. The remaining key measures will be prioritised for implementation by end2016. At the same time, ASEAN Leaders have acknowledged the need to continue working on regional economic integration. In the area of trade liberalisation, ASEAN Member States will need to continue working on reducing non-
iSIQUIJORGOVERNMENTNEWS
DBM,CHED mipagawas og sumbanan sa free tuition program sa SUCs sa gobyerno (PIA)--Nagpagawas og joint implementing guidelines ang Commission on Higher Education (CHED) ug Department of Budget and Management (DBM) kalabot sa paggamit sa P8 bilyon nga Higher Education Support Fund (HESF) ubos sa free tuition program sa gobyerno karong tuig. Nahisulod sa 2017 General Appropriations Act ang HESF ug gigahin kini sa mga state university ug colleges sa nasod alang sa 2017-2018 school year. Una nang gimando ni Presidente Rodrigo Duterte ang pagpatuman sa libreng tuition sa state universities ug colleges sa tibuok nasod. Base sa joint memorandum, sakop sa free tuition program ang tanang estudyanteng Filipino nga mo-enroll sa undergraduate course programs sa SUCs alang sa academic year 2017-2018. Dili angay singlon sa SUCs ang mga estudyante sa tuition apan kinahanglan nalang kini kuhaon sa Higher Education Support Fund pinaagi sa billing statements alang sa CHED. Apan dili apil niining programa ang miscellaneous ug uban pang fees, ug mahimo kining singlon sa estudyante. Ang mga mosunod ang mahimong benepisyaryo sa student
iSIQUIJOR 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.
THERE IS GOOD NEWS EVERYDAY.
FOLLOW US online! /Pia Siquijor /PIA Siquijor @PiaSiquijor
financial assistance programs (StuFAPs) sa gobyerno base sa gipagawas nga guidelines o sumbanan sa CHED ug DBM: 1. Graduating students nga adunay nahabiling usa ka semester (regardless of household per capita income); 2. Graduating students nga may nahabiling usa ka academic year (regardless of household per capita income); 3. Non-graduating students nga nalakip sa household nga benepisyaryo sa 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program); 4. Non-graduating students na wala sukad nahimong parte sa household nga nahimong benepisyaryo sa 4Ps apan nalakip gihapon sa Listahanan 2.0 nga gilaray base sa ilang estimated per capita household income; ug 5. Non-graduating students nga gi-rank base sa ilang per capita household income base usab sa gidusong dokumento alang sa proof of income. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)
Cebuano News Publiko, gipaamping batok sa mga kolorum nga van
(PIA)--Gipa-amping sa Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) ang publiko sa pag-abang og van tungod kay giingong kadaghanan niini mga kolorom o walay prangkisa. Nipasidaan ang LTFRB nga kun ma-aksidente ang mga kolorom nga van, dili mabayaran ang mga biktima og insurance tungod kay dili man kini rehistrado. Gihimo sa LTFRB ang pasidaan sa dihang na-impound ang pipila sa mga van sa syudad sa Baguio nga nasakpan samtang namasahero sakay ang mga magtutudlo nga motambong sa usa ka seminar sa Department of Education (DepEd). Tu n g o d n i i n i , g i t a m b a g a n sa LTFRB ang mga tag-iya og van nga mokuha og prangkisa aron mahimong legal ang ilang pamasahero ug aron magbaton og kasegurohan sa insurance ang ilang mga pasahero. Dungan niini, gipahayag usab sa LTFRB nga sunod nilang target mao ang social media diin nagbutang o nagpatik og advertisement o pahinumdom ang mga kolorom nga van aron makadani og mga pasahero. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)
CV economic growth up by 8.8% from page 1
percent share, although this is slower than the 57.0 percent share recorded in the previous year. The Industry Sector followed at 39.1 percent leaving behind Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF) with 5.4 percent share. Manufacturing and Electricity, Gas and Water Supply (EGWS) continued to accelerate by 5.9 percent and 7.7 percent, individually. The Mining and Quarrying on the other hand, decelerated to 1.0 percent from the growth of 3.0 percent in the previous year. Temporarily, services decelerated to 5.9 percent in 2016 and lower than the 8.7 percent growth last year. He said deceleration was due to the slowing down of Transportation Storage and Communication (TSC) with 5.1 percent in 2016, as compared to the
10.9 percent in 2015. Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities (RERBA) maintains its steady pace at 7.1 percent in 2016. Finally, AHFF suffered reversal in 2016, recording a negative 0.6 percent as compared to the 2.3 percent growth in previous year. The reversal was due to the turnaround of agriculture and forestry which pulled down by 1.4 growth percentage. In contrast, Fishing recovered in 2016 as it grows by 4.4 percent from a decline of 0.7 percent in 2015. In the overall 8.8 percent growth of the region, Industry contributed 5.4 percentage, while Services shared 3.4 percentage. AHFF, however, pulled down the growth by 0.04 percent of point. (fcc/ PIA7-Cebu/Diana Rose Decena)