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DTI organizes innovation conference
On October 23, the innovation conference Slingshot Cebu 2018 will gather start-ups, entrepreneurs, innovators, educational institutions and government agencies at the Cebu City Sports Club. According to the organizer Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the latest edition of Slingshot Cebu will have the theme of “Revving up your business in a Digital World”. Appropriate for its target participants which are both brick and mortar MSMEs and tech startups. Slingshot Cebu 2018 will have the twin objectives of nudging brick and mortars to adapt and adopt digital, while our tech startups will have the opportunity to network, validate business models and gain traction. This year’s Slingshot topics include: The Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem, Scale Up Program for Startups, Data Privacy and Digital Marketing. There will be two panel conversations. One to tackle Entrepreneurial Journeys and another will be on Revving up Revenues through Business Model Design. All will have both MSMEs and Startups in the panel to show that innovation and entrepreneurship are really two sides of the same coin. Slingshot Cebu 2018 has two break-out sessions held simultaneously in the afternoon. The first session is called “The Pitch” for tech start-ups and brick and mortar MSMEs. Judges will be corporates from both the traditional and startup world. The second session is called “Coach and Connect.” This coaching session will focus on sales & marketing, financing & funding, legal, HR Related, and Payment Solutions. Right after the conference, the DTI will launch the Startup Island Mentoring Program in Central Visayas. DTI 7 Assistant Regional Director Ma. Elena Arbon said that the Startup Island Mentoring program, which is being piloted in... read moreNM resolves to elevate Valencia Church as ICP
The faithful here rejoice and gather to thank God for an unexpected blessing: the possible realization of a plan to restore and rehabilitate a church that is one of the two surviving coral stone churches with wooden floorboards that have survived for at least 140 years. During a thanksgiving mass officiated by Bohol Bishop Emeritus Leonardo Medroso and co-celebrated by Holy Infant Parish priest Rev. Fr. Johnson Inte and vicar Noel Varquez, with Catholic Bishops Conference Chair of the Cultural Heritage of the Church Commission Rev. Fr. Milan Ted Torralba and other co-celebrating priests, National Museum (NM) Assistant Director Angel Bautista read the museum resolution elevating the status of declaration of the Holy Infant Church a notch higher. It was in 2013 that the NM declared same church of the Holy Infant as Significant Cultural Property (SCP), but the declaration is only as a preparation for further study for it to be enlisted as among the country’s Important Cultural Property (ICP). The church, being clearly over 50 years is already considered a heritage structure, based on the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 (RA 10066). Former Valencia Vice Mayor Romulo Tagaan shared that the church had organized fund raising anc charity activities to raise funds for the repair of its leaking roof which could damage the church fixtures and the rare floorboards among them. Built by Rev Fr. Mariano Cornago in the 1870’s, it was Fr. Francisco Arcaya in 1882 who completed the structure and the installation of the designed floorboards. The floorboards: a witty combination of 5-inch molave and bayong slats placed one after another in wood parquet... read more
PCG rescues 64 passengers, crew from MV South Pacific
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Bohol scored plus points when all they rescued 64 passengers and 19 crew from a boat that ran aground early morning of October 9, 2019, in the vicinity seawaters off Danajon Bank. PCG search and rescue team dispatched to the site also assured that aside from the slight dents in the boat’s hull, the grounding boat did not damage the area, had no damaged propellers and noted no oil spills. The boat: MV South Pacific operated by Southern Pacific Transport Corporation is a 230.99 gross ton passenger ship and cargo vessel with a capacity of 204 passengers and has Cebu as home port. MV South Pacific accordingly left Bato, Leyte at 9:00 PM October 8 with 59 passengers and 19 crew members, according to the captain of the ill-fated ship, Arturo Sullano. While cruising off to Cebu, the boat strayed into the shallow waters and accidentally ran aground at about 1:00 AM, the skipper said in his report. Good the incident happened in calm seas, otherwise it could be a major problem, observers who learned of the incident commented. It was about 3:55 AM on October 9 that PCG PO1 Uy relayed to Coast Guard Tagbilaran the information and the exact coordinates of the grounding incident, for proper action. Coast Guard Station (CGS) Tagbilaran then immediately called CGS Talibon to verify and report. By about 4:15 of October 9, CGS Talibon established contact with the ill-fated boat captain, who confirmed the incident. CGS Talibon then dispatched a search and rescue (SAR) team to do visual and surface inspection. By early morning, the PCG...A Step Closer to Digital Bohol
The vision of Digital Bohol to have internet connectivity across the province is now closer to reality. This week, Gov. Edgar Chatto received PLDT Visayas Head Rito Ray Salas and PLDT Area Head Isabelo Rosales at the People’s Mansoion. They updated the governor about ongoing PLDT Fiber To The Home, the most optimum connectivity solution. Rosales said PLDT targets a minimum of 1 kilometer of fiber optic connection completed every day. This will allow fiber connectivity for the towns of Clarin, Tubigon, Calape, Loon, Maribojoc, Antequera, Balilihan, Sikatuna, Cortes, Jagna, Garcia Hernandez, Valencia, Dimiao, Lila, Loboc, Loay, and Albur at the end of this year. PLDT also targets connectivity for the remaining towns of Bohol by 2019. Fiber To The Home is the optimum connectivity solution, stated Rosales. Fiber to the home (FTTH), also called “fiber to the premises” (FTTP), is the installation and use of optical fiber from a central point directly to individual buildings such as residences, apartment buildings and businesses to provide unprecedented high-speed Internet access. The governor welcomed this development as Bohol positions itself in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. He recalled launching Digital Bohol when PLDT also launched its submarine and inland fiber optic network spanning 328 kilometers – from Cebu through Bohol to Misamis Oriental with PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno. Digital Bohol is aimed at making every Boholano part of digital technology revolution, and to make technology available. Next to tourism and agriculture, programs have been geared towards creating a niche for the ICT industry. A private sector-led initiative, Digital Bohol key component is the establishment of Technology for Education...Local News/ Bohol Balita
Aris assures no service vacuum for B’vista folk
By JUNE S. BLANCO REP. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) assures the Buenavistanhons that there will be no “service vacuum” in the town in the wake of the killing last Sunday of Buenavista Mayor Ronald Lowell “Sample” Tirol. Aumentado immediately met now Mayor Dave Duallo and the Sangguniang Bayan after the incident, for a closer look into the plans and direction the local officials, led by the late Tirol, had prepared and took. It is now, more than ever, that the people of Buenavista need to feel that they have the support they need – even with the murder of their former mayor, the solon said. He observed that some residents had admitted fearing for their lives when a gunman shot Tirol at close range while the latter was at the town cockpit past 3 pm last Sunday. But while Aumentado grieves over the death of a “close and intimate friend”, he said no leader is indispensable. Change is inevitable he philosophized, because of term limits and risks like death. But services will not be disrupted. After all, his is a people-based leadership, not leader-based. The interest of the people is paramount – not that of the leader, he said. He says he has confidence in Duallo, another “close and intimate friend” who is now picking up the pieces where Tirol had left off. Duallo has the determination to continue his dreams and those of his father and immediate congressional predecessor, former governor and congressman Erico Boyles Aumentado, for the development of Buenavista and the 2nd District in general, he added. On learning of Tirol’s murder, Aumentado said,...Shipyard to rise in B’vista, but with conditions — Aris
By JUNE S. BLANCO RESIDENTS of Buenavista and nearby towns better start to learn welding now. This after Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) met with the top henchman of a company that plans to establish a shipyard in Buenavista town. The company executive, Aumentado and Buenvavista Mayor Ronald Lowell “Sample” Tirol earlier on discussed possibilities and scouted around the district for the ideal location until the former settled for Buenavista. Aumentado took the former’s decision as a good omen where employment opportunities for his constituents are concerned. The solon, however, wants to balance development on one hand, and Bohol’s environment on the other. After all, he said, the province’s ecological-cultural tourism and agriculture are its two main economic drivers. As such, as the company started clearing some mangrove patches as part of earthworks in building the shipyard, Aumentado wrote Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Laurentino Bautista to inquire if the former already has complete papers including the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for the expected big project. The ECC itself limits a proponent to what he can – and must not – do to the environment as he develops his project site. Aumentado clarified that he welcomes development, but he is against everything that destroys the environment. An ECC also states what mitigating actions a proponent can do – like, among others, planting more mangrove propagules than what were sacrificed in the name of development – a shipyard in this case. To note, the solon even filed a bill banning the establishment of coal-fired power plants in the province and especially the 2nd District. In case the company has...NPC picks bets for 2019 polls in Japan meeting
By JUNE S. BLANCO THE Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) is now drafting the names of its candidates to carry the party colors during the 2019 polls. Fresh from his study tour to Israel, Rep. Erico Aristotle “Aris” Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd district flew Thursday to Japan for the national NPC meeting called by their president, Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco. Aumentado said they will pick the NPC senatoriables and name their bets even in the local level. The solon is now NPC’s provincial head following the oath-taking of former head Rep. Arthur Yap of the Bohol’s 3rdDistrict as new member of the PDP-Laban, with House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and former President, now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The meeting is expected to hatch party plans as to who how they will support the provincial level candidates. Among others, it was learned, the support may come in the form of alliances. With Yap’s affiliation with the PDP-Laban, he is expected to run under that party’s local...Rep. Aris says visit to Israel “informative”
By JUNE S. BLANCO REP. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) says his study visit to Israel to familiarize himself with drip and other alternative and modern forms of irrigation was “informative”. The solon is expected to be home tomorrow – in time to vote during the barangay elections. He says he will meet agriculture and irrigation officials shortly to relay the lessons he learned from his visit, and to brainstorm on how to replicate the Israeli technology for the use of farmers especially those in his district. Aumentado said he was most impressed with his visit to the Volcani Center in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv where he and fellow Philippine delegates met with Associate Director for International Relations Dr. Shamuel Assouline, Ph.D. He said they discussed the plan of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to send scholars for Masters in Science (MS) and Doctor in Philosophy (Ph.D.) programs to do their theses and dissertation writings in The Volcani Center. The Center is the Agricultural Research Organization under the Ministry of Agriculture of Israel. Meanwhile, Aumentado said, after 18 years, he again met his friend and schoolmate in the University of San Carlos (USC) – Randy Arquiza – who is now the First Secretary and Consul General of Israel at the welcome dinner tendered for the Agritech 2018 participants hosted by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of Israel. The solon considers this as another channel for technology transfer – on top of incoming Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz who earlier invited him and his fellow delegates to a lunch meeting at the latter’s official residence in Manila. The...Aris to visit Israel to study drip irrigation
By JUNE S. BLANCO REP. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) will fly to Israel later today for a study tour to familiarize himself with drip and other alternative and modern forms of irrigation. Prior to his departure, however, he met with top honchos of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for a briefing on current practices and places he should visit. He also negotiated for more funds to buy modern farm equipment for the use of farmers especially those in his district. He observed that the farmers have remained poor through these years. The only way to save them, he said, is through modernization. The funds he requested will be for a couple of tractors, solar and mechanical driers, harvesters, transplanters and the like. These equipment, he said, will reduce wastage of the palay harvest by 25%, thereby increasing the income of the farmers. Aumentado equates the absence of development to the farmers’ remaining poor. After all, he said, the farmers comprise 30% of the labor force in the province. He sees hope in improving the lot of farmers through modernization – including the application of alternative irrigation methods. The solon admits that he has often wondered how the Israelis have converted their deserts into productive agricultural areas. This visit, he said, will finally give him the opportunity to facilitate the transfer of this Islaeli technology to the Boholano...National News
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