4 new coops in Sorsogon get livelihood seed fund

By Connie Calipay

LEGAZPI CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bicol (DSWD-5), through its Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), has awarded seed capital funds to four new eligible cooperatives in Sorsogon province.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Ram Joseph Zaragoza, DSWD-Bicol project development officer for SLP, said DSWD-Bicol awarded on Tuesday some PHP1.1 million to the cooperatives under the Zero Hunger Program of the DSWD.

“The groups are expected to engage in food production-related livelihood based on the approved proposals. The four associations’ seed funds were given depending on the amount indicated in their projects. We will continue to moni - tor them, the incubation period what we call it, to ensure the sustainability of the projects is two years,” Zaragosa said.

The four groups and the amount they received are the Agriville SLP Association with 29 members -- PHP435,000; Blessed Village SLP Association with 10 members -- PHP150,000; Purok 4 Extension Cambulaga SLP with 27 members

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MIRACLES IN LIFE?

What are miracles in life?

A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific laws and accordingly gets attributed to some supernatural or preternatural cause.

Allow me to move your view to other wonders, to supernatural happenings or to a prodigy. A "miracle" (from the Latin "miraculum") can be actually found at any corner of our daily life. I am not yet talking about the so-called miracle plays, the popular medieval form of drama based on the lives of the Saints or on Biblical history.

Let's begin with ourselves. Can you still see the doors of opportunity just opened for you? Why is it that so many people nowadays get tired instead of discovering their own "VIP" within? The bible clearly states that God has "crowned us with glory and honour" (Psalm 8:5). "Honour" is equal to "favour"... . To assist, to provide with special advantages and to receive preferential treatment... .

No, these are indeed and

Kim’s Dream

definitely miracles. This should be common sense, but it seems that many of us have forgotten it!

In November 1981, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and given just a few months to live. Spread cancer! Some doctors told me that they reached their limits on what they could do. My father left us during that time. I lived more than 500 miles away from our home in Berlin.

She passed away seven years ago at the age of 92 living in Davao together with all of us.

Can miracles happen in real life? Yes, then even in the most impossible situations, miracles can become possible. The good thing about miracles is that we don't have to wait for them to happen. They happen every day and sometimes even little changes are enough to see big miracles.

Yes. We have a supernatural God. I say this, without thinking about special religious directions or ministries. We all believe in one God. As a Christian I would explain it as follows:

No Rule of Law on Environment

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HENRY

Any law student who wishes to pass the bar must put in the inner recesses of his thoughts that in this country, no one is above the law and that all must bow to its majesty. This is so because ours is “a government of laws and not of men.”

In fact, all political law books are unequivocal in their declaration of the supremacy of the rule of law and that “a republican government is a responsible government whose officials hold and discharge their positions as a public trust and shall at all times be accountable to the people they are sworn to serve.”

When these words are verbalized in classrooms of law colleges and courts of law with all eloquence, one cannot help but be awed. Even more awesome are statements, such as, “let justice be done till heavens fall,” as boldly written on the wall behind a judge’s seat in a courtroom or those words portrayed on the wall conspicuously seen as one enters the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Building, “No master but law, no guide but honour, and no aim but justice.”

Against the backdrop of the enforcement of environmental laws, all of these legal pronouncements, however eloquent in prose and style, are just empty rhetorical statements, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” For in truth, while our country has the most comprehensive of laws in Asia as far as the

He is not limited to the laws of nature. He can do what human beings cannot. He can make a way in our life. Let us not imagine how hopeless a situation looks like. We may not be a priest, pastor or preacher, but we can mix our simple words with God's words and something powerful begins to happen. Miracles in life? Yes. But we should pray for it and believe in Him. There is purpose and meaning in my life, even if it is chaotic. Miracles can happen in the chaos. Meaning can come out of madness +++ environment is concerned, are the most delinquent in their enforcement.

You can email me: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or visit www. germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www. klausdoringsclassicalmusic. blogspot.com .

This is Res Ipsa Loquitor, as the Philippines now faces an alarming environmental crisis and unless soon averted, will lead to our accelerating drive towards ecological disasters.

Look at what we have done to our forest ecosystem. Despite all the laws protecting the dipterocarp species and all the biodiversities of flora and fauna which are endemic only in the Philippines, the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest is almost gone that saw the massacre with impunity of billions of life forms that once lived in the forest.

From 1971 to 1988 alone, the loggers have harvested some 3.88 million hectares of virgin forests and have not at all complied with the terms and conditions of their contract of reforestation. In fact, the logging industry, despite amassing forty-eight billion dollars from1970 to 1988, had only contributed from 0.5% to 1.3% to the government revenue, based on the report of the Asian Development Bank.

It is a fact that the loggers have raked so much wealth and power to form a strong cabal of vested interest that has allowed them to fragrantly violate forestry laws. One DENR top official once said that “loggers are more powerful than the government.”

Please read the book of

PCIJ’s distinguished journalist, Ms. Marites Vitug, “Power from the Forest,” to erase any opinion to the contrary.

The shameless loggers continue to mock forestry laws as manifested in their illegal cutting of trees in the watersheds of Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and Lake Lanao, flagrantly violating the following laws: 1) the prohibition to cut trees in slopes that are of 50% gradient; (2) prohibition to cut in areas which are 1,000 meters above sea level and (3) prohibition to cut dipterocarp species.

A satellite map of CD0Lanao watershed revealed that today only 2,000 hectares of forest remain from 37,000 three decades ago with loggers carrying recycled or xeroxed permits or without permit at all.

All the on-going massive hydraulic flush and open pit mining operations in the uplands of Cagayan de Oro up to Iligan City are all illegal as these are highly injurious, not only to the critical balance of nature but to human life itself. These illegal activities have not only destroyed 25-million Peso irrigation proj -