Ecleo mom re-elected,
defeats daughter by slim margin in Dinagat Islands
By Fryan E. Abkilan
SAN JOSE, Dinagat
Islands, May 15 (PIA) -– Incumbent Glenda Ecleo edged out daughter Geraldine in
the local polls to remain governor of Dinagat Islands.
The elder Ecleo, who ran
under the Nacionalista Party, was proclaimed winner on Tuesday, May 14.
She got 23,385 votes
against her daughter’s 22,760.
Public Information
Officer Rosario Roxas said Geraldine, who is the incumbent vice governor and
the Liberal Party bet, conceded 11 a.m. yesterday. (FEA/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
PLDT-PhilCom supports
Butuan’s RMRT on 2013 elections
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY, May 15
(PIA) -- Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT)-Philippine Global
Communications (PhilCom) Inc. has partnered with Philippine Information Agency
(PIA) Caraga to support the agency-initiated Rapid Media Reaction Team (RMRT)
for the May 13 mid-term elections.
PLDT-PhilCom Butuan
provided free internet connection to the PIA regional office for the coverage
of the elections.
“As part of our
corporate social responsibility and as we also aim to achieve honest, orderly
and peaceful elections, we are extending our contribution to the PIA and to the
legitimate media personalities who are members of the Rapid Media Reaction
Team. We believe that through unified efforts with other stakeholders, we can
all achieve a fair and safe elections,” said Dennis Pacot, PLDT-PhilCom Butuan
head.
Grigg Pedrosa, area
sales manager of PLDT-Philcom, acknowledged PIA for its initiative in promoting
unity among the local tri-media outfits in the city.
“We are very happy to
work with PIA and the RMR Team here in Butuan and with this free internet wi-fi
connection that we are providing them, we hope this would help them in
fulfilling their responsibilities to the general public,” Pedrosa said.
PIA-Caraga Regional
Director Abner Caga said only relevant and accurate information will be
broadcasted in real-time to the public before, during and after elections
through their pool of media partners in the RMRT. (JPG/Media ngBayan/PIA-Caraga/YWR)
Caraga RDRRMC discusses
responsibilities of planning section chief, unit leaders in ICS
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY, May 15
(PIA) -- The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC)
in Caraga upgraded its training in Incident Command System (ICS) through
participating in a five-day Integrated Planning Course held at Pietros Square.
The course contains the
duties and responsibilities of the planning section chief (PSC), one of the
general staff under the incident commander (IC).
The Office of Civil
Defense (OCD) Caraga led the activity through Regional Director Liza Mazo,
chairperson of the region’s RDRRMC. The participants have already attended the
basic/intermediate course in ICS last May 2012.
From April 29 to May 3,
the participants went through eight modules on the duties and responsibilities
of the PSC and unit leaders in the ICS organization, namely, the resource unit,
situation unit, documentation unit and demobilization unit.
The speakers during the
five-day training were Col. Mario-Verner Monsanto, consultant of the Office of
the Vice Mayor in Davao City; Randy Pabon, deputy administrator of Amity Public
Safety Academy; Fire Senior Insp. Noel Nelson Ababon, acting fire marshall of
the Bureau of Fire Protection in Cebu City and Ryan CastaΓ±eda, special
operations officer II of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
CastaΓ±eda said in the
ICS organization, the general staff under the incident commander are composed
of the operations section, planning section, logistics section and
finance/administrative section.
“The planning section
chief has a big role as he directs the activities of all subordinate personnel
to lead the creation of alternate strategies for addressing the emergency and
to advise the IC regarding these strategies. The planning section chief will
provide the IC with diagrams, maps and information about campus buildings and
resources relevant to the emergency incident,” said CastaΓ±eda.
The main
responsibilities of the PSC are maintaining resource and situation status;
preparing incident action plan (IAP); providing documentation; preparing
demobilization plan; providing technical specialists; information gathering;
strategy identification and planning; conducting meetings and briefings;
IAP/Contingency plan development; interactions and management and to be
knowledgeable about the forms, documents and supplies at the pre-incident,
on-scene and post-incident levels.
Monsanto said the
resource unit leader will be responsible in establishing all incident check-in
activities and maintain a master check-in list of incident resources.
“The resource unit
leader also prepare[s] and process[es] the resource status change information,
as well as present displays, charts, lists reflecting current status and
location of resources, transportation and support vehicles,” Monsanto added.
Ababon said the
situation unit leader will be responsible in collecting and organizing incident
status and situation information; evaluating, analyzing, and displaying the
incident status summary, maps, and weather for use by the ICS personnel and
agency dispatchers.
“The five primary maps
prepared by the situation unit leader [are the] Situation Unit Map; Incident
Action Plan Map; Operations Briefing Map; External Traffic Plan Map and
Facilities (Internal Traffic Plan) Map,” said Ababon.
Meanwhile, Pabon said
the demobilization unit leader will take responsibility of the demobilization
unit to ensure an orderly, safe and cost-effective release of personnel and
equipment. The demobilization unit gathers the information and writes the
demobilization plan and implements it.
Pabon said the
demobilization unit leader is also responsible in duplicating the IAP
operational period briefing and assisting other incident functional areas with
photocopying needs; maintaining incident documentation in easily accessible
files during the incident operations; establishing the incident history file
and turning over the completed documentation files to the PSC, hosting agency
or another documentation leader.
To come up with the IAP,
there are 23 ICS forms to be filled out by the respective ICS personnel,
however, not all of the forms are used on every incident.
The forms needed in ICS
are: 201 (Incident Briefing); 202 (Incident Objectives); 203 (Organizational
Assignment List); 204 (Division Assignment List); 205 (Incident Radio
Communication Plan); 206 (Medical Plan); 209 (Incident Status Summary); 211
(Check-in Information); 213 (General Message); 214 (Unit Log); 215 (Planning
Worksheet); 215-A (Incident Action Plan Safety and Risk Analysis); 216 (Radio
Requirements Worksheet); 217 (Radio Frequency Assignment Worksheet); 218
(Support Vehicle Inventory); 220 (Air Operations Summary) and 221
(Demobilization Check-out).
Mazo said after the
participants have done all the exercises in the modules and passed the
speakers’ assessment/evaluation, they are now equipped with the knowledge and
tools necessary to perform the duties and responsibilities of the PSC and its
unit leaders.
“There will be more
training on ICS for the RDRRMC member-agencies to look forward to,” she said.
(JPG/RER/PIA-Caraga)
Surigao Norte celebrates
112th founding anniversary
By Tessie A. Balomaga
SURIGAO CITY, May 15
(PIA) -- The provincial government of Surigao del Norte will celebrate its
112th founding anniversary dubbed “One Surigao” today.
This year's celebration
is anchored on the theme "Celebrating our Rich Heritage and Sustaining the
Gains of Development Onwards - Ang Bag-ong Surigao."
Series of activities
will be conducted to showcase the rich history and culture of Surigaonon as
well as its natural bounties.
The activity kicked off
this morning with a motorcade around the city. It was followed by a Eucharistic
Mass at the Provincial Sports Complex.
Other activities lined
up for today’s celebration include an anniversary dinner in honor of great
Surigaonons, agri-aqua skills competition, trade fair and recognition of
outstanding farmers and fishers. (SDR/PIC/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
University on the Air
Program for Corn Production soon to be heard in Caraga Region
By Aurell P. Arais
BUTUAN CITY, May 15
(PIA) -- Recognizing the power of radio, the AgriPinoy Corn Program of the
Department of Agriculture-Caraga will conduct the University on the Air (UOA)
on White Corn Production.
The radio course will be
carried out through the expertise of the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries
Information Division (Rafid) with support of its "farmcasters" from
the local government units (LGU).
Last April 16-18, a
series of mass briefing and enrollment was conducted in the provinces of
Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte and in
Butuan City.
Around 500
farmer-students were officially enrolled in the program in the whole region.
The UOA on White Corn
Production will be aired one hour per week from June to August 2013.
Enrolled farmers will
just need to tune in to the radio program and learn the lesson based on the
course module to be discussed on air.
The program will be
anchored by the respective "farmcasters" with support of the
LGU-based corn coordinators.
Outstanding
farmer-students will be selected based on their class performance and
examinations. They will be recognized during the mass graduation tentatively
set this September.
During the enrollment,
Rafid OIC Rebecca Atega said that radio is the cheapest means of communication and
is a powerful tool in disseminating the right technology by reaching target
audiences even in the remotest place.
Caraga AgriPinoy Corn
Program Coordinator Abel Wagas also expressed optimism that the UOA on White
Corn Production could help improve farming practices.
White corn is being
advocated for human consumption as identified under the Food Staples
Sufficiency Program. (NCLM/DA-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)
Parents trained to
educate parents
BUTUAN CITY, May 15
(PIA) -- The Commission on Population (Popcom) empowered 407 parents to reach
other parents with adolescent children for their continuing campaign on
adolescent health and youth development.
This was the offshoot of
the 15 trainings conducted region-wide on Learning Package on Parent Education
on Adolescent Health and Development (LPPED).
In close coordination
with the Department of Education, Popcom-Caraga enabled a pool of educators in
all divisions, who are also parents, to conduct parenting classes using the
learning package.
The LPPED-trained
teachers, who became parent educators, then trained their co-teachers in their
respective schools. The classroom teachers were responsible in the conduct of
parenting classes using the regular Homeroom Parent-Teachers Association
(HRPTA) meetings.
Popcom-Caraga had only
funded the initial training of trainers at the division level. Succeeding
trainings for the school level were funded either by the school or the local
governments.
Alexander A. Makinano,
officer-in-charge of POPCOM-Caraga, said this initiative is sought to address
findings of the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey, which identified
Caraga as among the regions with the highest percentage of youth pregnancy.
According to the survey,
women who began childbearing at aged 15-24 in Caraga posted at about 40 percent
.
He said, although
several affecting factors were identified, the role of parents is very critical
in this stage of development as this is the time when understanding, guidance
and support are needed most.
He added that not all
parents are able to perform these functions because they either lack knowledge
on sexuality issues or they don’t know how to communicate these concerns with
their growing children.
