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Liberal Party stalwarts Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas visited Bukidnon on September 26.
They visited several locations including the foot bath in Lorega, Kitaotao; Quezon, Maramag, and Malaybalay.
Aquino and Roxas were supposed to be on a four-province six-city swing since Friday, visiting Davao del Norte, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte and the six cities therein.
But Aquino cut short his Mindanao visit, opting to take the early Sunday morning flight back to Manila to help mobilize support for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.
While in Bukidnon, Aquino asked those who handed him coin banks and jars intended to be used for his campaign to instead use it for the flood victims. The crowd agreed to his plan, as MindaNews’ Carolyn Arguillas reported Sunday. Read her full report here.
(Liberal Party presidential standard bearer Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino is surrounded by supporters as he entered the bus terminal in the town of Maramag, Bukidnon Saturday. Aquino and running mate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas are on a four-province, six-city Mindanao visit since Friday. Photo by Froilan Gallardo)
The City Government of Malaybalay opened its controversial new public market on September 18 with simple rites amid uncertainties whether the two other phases of the P225-million project would push through.
A few food stalls have since operated in the public market as the city government has campaigned for occupants to the new public market, opened around two years late of its target opening of November 2007.
Malaybalay City Mayor Florencio T. Flores told MindaNews on September 4 the city government would open the market within the month of September following the expiration of a nine-month extension given to contractor H.R. Lopez Co. Inc. But only the first of the two-level public market building was operational.
The public market project has been subject to heavy criticism by the public on comments aired over radio station DXDB. Flores challenged his detractors to go to court if they have proof that indeed money changed hands in the project. He also broke his silence on the allegations the city government hired a contractor that ended up subcontracting the project to another firm. Read more of this at MindaNews.com.
(First published at MindaNews.com) Malaybalay City Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. challenged his detractors over the controversial P225-million public market complex in Barangay 9 to go to court if they have proof that indeed money changed hands in the project.
The mayor has responded to allegations aired over radio station DXDB that the delayed three-phase infrastructure project has been marred by corruption.
Flores also broke his silence on the allegations the city government hired a contractor that ended up subcontracting the project to another firm.
“It’s for them to settle. We did not deal with a subcontractor,” the mayor said. He added that the supposed subcontracted firm, Dreamworks, Inc., who tried to collect payment from the city government, has stopped doing so.
But Flores said they are seriously evaluating the capacity of contractor H.R. Lopez Co., Inc. whether they are able to finish the whole project.
“Extending the project (for another term with the contractor) is no longer an option,” he said.
The 540-day project was initially scheduled for completion in November 2007 but the project has been fraught with doubts of the contractor’s capacity and problems over payment scheme.
As of now, the firm is completing only the first phase, the public market. The integrated terminal and commercial complex phases have yet to be done.
Flores said for the remaining two phases, they will have to pick from only two options: to rebid or for the City Engineer’s Office to take over. He has been mum about possible legal action against the contractor.
Sources said the city government has allegedly sacrificed its other functions because of the delay in the completion of the project. A source said City Hall has used funds for other expenses to pay the amortization of the loan it acquired for the project.
The public market, an economic enterprise unit, is said to be self sustaining. Proceeds of the operations of the three buildings would be used to pay the loan.
Flores denied this, saying the money used to pay contractors is taken only from the loan acquired with Land Bank of the Philippines. He said city government allotted regular budget for the amortization.
The mayor said they have planned to open the public market within the month of September.
In the past, other city officials said the market would be opened in time for the parochial fiesta in May, then in July, and this time from the mayor himself, “within the month”.
He admitted, however, that the original design of the building has been modified to meet adjustments.
“It’s only the ground floor that’s being completed,” he told this reporter in the sidelines of a provincial government affair with Australian Ambassador Rod Smith for the memorandum of arrangement signing of the Provincial Road Management Facility Grant.
In March, Flores told this reporter they were leaving it to the City Legal Office to study the right move after the City Engineer’s Office certified that the firm, H.R. Lopez Co., Inc., had not finished the project despite the nine-month extension.
The firm is supposed to finish within the extended time the whole project, including the integrated terminal and the commercial complex adjacent to the public market.
Based on the slippage alone, Flores said, the city government could already take action against the firm.
Vice Mayor Ignacio W. Zubiri shared the mayor’s position but stressed there should be amicable settlement.
The project was first extended from February to July 2007. In July 2007, the Commission on Audit’s Legal and Adjudication Sector considered the contract void, a decision which the firm appealed in September that year.
Construction was stopped in September 2007, according to city engineer Teodocio Pabillaran, but H.R. Lopez Co. said they stopped in November 2007.
On July 3, 2008, the COA Legal and Adjudication Sector declared no legal impediments to the validity of the contract, prompting the firm to request for the nine-month extension since “they are ready to complete the balance of work.”
Flores endorsed the request on August 1, 2008 to the city council, which approved the extension three months later, on October 21. But councilors noted that the firm resumed construction on August 15, or prior to the approval.
Zubiri said then that the P250-million loan acquired for the project will incur interest only when money is withdrawn. He said rules might allow another extension if the firm asked for it.
“But I prefer termination,” he said.
Half a year after the provincial government introduced female traffic enforcers now known as “Yellow Ladies,” has travel safety improved along Bukidnon’s highway?
The Land Transportation Office in Bukidnon says there are gains to cite.
Arthur Ranque, head of the 19-member traffic enforcers, said drivers and vehicle owners are now more conscious about vehicle registration, accessories, road safety, and driver licensing than before, as his office noted an increase in apprehension of violators since the last quarter last year.
The spike in the arrests started when the LTO dispatched traffic enforcers in both north and south Bukidnon. As of the end of March this year, the women enforcers had apprehended a total of 1,119 violators and impounded 59 vehicles. But they have also become the object of drivers’ anger. Read full report here.
Editorial, Central Mindanao Newswatch, April 2-8, 2009 issue
Whoever they are, civilians shouldn’t be dragged to the problem of insurgency. That is not just a political right, but a basic human right.
The fact that three civilians were killed in the recent attack of the New People’s Army in a Zamboanguita militia post gives this gruesome war an even more gory look.
And we can say this to the two parties, the military (including the Civilian Armed Auxiliary) and the New People’s Army: employ more tactical and humane actions.
What does it speak of this protracted conflict between ideologies and sensibilities?
There is no excuse for the death of any single civilian. Much more, for a child’s life, in a fight that has shown to have gone berserck because of the suspended peace process between the government and the National Democratic Front.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s warning to end the CPP-NPA insurgency by 2010 is being matched with this unremitting attacks, summary executions, encounters, jail attacks, gun-grabbing, and what have they, etcetera, etcetera.
Both parties have sustained losses and claimed some gains.
But the civilians have nothing to gain, and carry the brunt of all losses.
It is the public that suffered the biggest casualties to life, property, normalcy, and even sanity. The fear and terror of being caught in the crossfire is a heavy load to a people coping with poverty especially in the rural areas.
If it is a consolation, the head of the City’s Social Welfare and Development Office told a local radio station: the residents in Upper Pulangui, venue of yet the most recent mayhem have already got used to evacuating that they possibly could not be traumatized anymore. If it is true, then it is a bad sign, not a good one.
The point is every action of any of the warring parties constitute some amounts of free will choices. That they choose to go to war, is the greatest crime they commit to the civilians.
Instead, both parties choose the path of war, and what could you expect from war? There is no better war. We can never ask warring parties to tone down because civilians are there. War is always trash and it always brings violence.
Peace could also be an option, but it is a remote choice, the road less traveled, the option less taken.
Actually, it is stupid to ask both parties to employ more tactical and humane acts in conducting war. War is always inhuman.
So we better stick to the basic: choose peace and let it happen, know ceasefire and make it happen, and resume the peace talks, at all cost.
Three civilians, a woman, a seven-year-old daughter, and a village councilman, were among 18 killed as suspected members of the communist New Peoples’ Army (NPA) attacked a paramilitary detachment in Zamboanguita village in this city’s remote Upper Pulangi district past noon Tuesday.
Police identified the victims as Helen Dumogan and a still unnamed girl,
who were reported to be inside the patrol base of the Citizens Armed
Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Barangay Zamboanguita during the
attack at around 12:30p.m.
Dumogan visited her husband Winnie, one of four CAFGU personnel killed
along with 11 rebels in the almost two-hour battle.
Madi Hamsali, assistant detachment commander who was one of three
other wounded government troops, said the attack was perpetrated by a
hundred rebels who arrived in two Izusu Forward trucks.
Hamsali, who spoke while being treated at the Bethel Baptist Hospital,
said they were not able to call for backup right away because the
radio man was among those killed.
He said there were at least 15 of his colleagues in the base at the
time of the attack.
One of the trucks used by the rebels was traced to Aurelio Ramos, a barangay kagawad (village councilman) nearby Brgy. St. Peter. Ramos was found dead in another part of the village.
Lt Col. Cresente Maligmat, commanding officer of the 29th Infantry
Battalion, told DXDB that “hot pursuit operations” are ongoing as of
Wednesday morning to track down the rebels believed to be members of
the NPA Front Committee 89.
Maligmat said government troops did not arrive immediately because
they also had to clear their way.
He said eight of the rebel casualties were found in the patrol base
while three others were found in a nearby village on their way out to
withdraw.
He said the Army sent two companies to the area for the pursuit operations.
Virginia Flores, head of the Malaybalay City Social Welfare and Development
Office said 46 families or 207 individuals were displaced by the fighting. He said they sent relief goods early Wednesday morning.
Maligmat told RXDB the evacuees were scheduled to return on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education has ordered teachers working in
the eight barangays in the district to refrain from traveling in the
area to wrap up the school year while hostilities are ongoing, an
elementary school principal told this reporter.
Zamboanguita village was also where suspected rebels burned heavy
equipment of a construction firm in 2006, sparking heavy fighting in
the neighboring villages of St. Peter that displaced thousands of
residents.
In early January this year, the city government of Malaybalay
bankrolled the training and salaries of 80 personnel for a local
paramilitary unit to work exclusively in the city under the Special
Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary (SCAA).
The city government of Malaybalay signed a memorandum of agreement
with the Army’s 403rd Infantry Brigade for the training and operation
of 80 personnel to be dispatched to two detachments: in the city’s
Upper Pulangui area and in Pat-pat village against communist rebels.
Later in January, suspected NPA rebels attacked the city’s jail,
carting out weapons.
Two weeks ago, Civilian Volunteer Organization members found improvised claymore
mines planted by suspected NPA rebels in a bridge near Brgy. St. Peter.
The attack came after the 45-day training of the CAFGUs and after they
were installed in Upper Pulangui.
City officials told reporters the SCAA was meant to help maintain
peace and order in the city as a “blocking force”. (From Central Mindanao Newswatch)
Bukidnon will finally have its own office of the Philippine Mediation Center, a body created by the Supreme Court in 2001 to decongest the courts of cases which can be resolved outside of trial, according to Regional Trial Court 10 executive judge Josefina Bacal. Bacal has invited judges and justice stakeholders in the province to an orientation conference on April 3 at the Pine Hills Hotel, which is part of a process en route to the opening of a local mediation center, an employee at the RTC Branch 10 said.
The Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and the Philippine Mediation Center, Bacal said, will conduct the conference in coordination with the Office of the Court Coordinator.
Read full news report here.
Councilor Victor Aldeguer said the committee on commerce, trade, and industry is studying incentives offered by the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro to Gaisano and Sons, Inc. after Vice Mayor Ignacio Zubiri last week said a portion of it is unfair and must be taken out.
Zubiri lamented at the City Council session on March 17 that the business tax incentives provided for the business locators inside the mall is unfair to those who rent outside.
Aldeguer, who chairs the committee, said Zubiri’s manifestation was a suggestion.
“But there would likely be no amendments to the incentives ordinance,” he told this reporter after the session on March 24.
Newswatch reported last week that Aldeguer said they are looking at possibly amending City Ordinance 637 Series of 2008, which embodied the city’s offered incentives both to Gaisano and Sons, Inc. and companies intending to rent in the mall.
The pronouncements came eight months after the City Council approved the ordinance in July 2008 and as the construction of the P500 million, four-storey mall in downtown Malaybalay goes on full swing.
The ordinance provides incentives for the firm’s first five years, with full implementation of taxation only in its sixth year of operations.
The city gave the firm exemption from the payment of basic real property tax for five years asking them to pay just the Special Education Fund. It also provides exemption from the payment of amusement tax for five years, and providing payment only of the current business tax rate from its operation for five years.
For locators, it has offered to give full exemption from payment of business tax on their first year of operation and subsequent 25 percent increase in imposition every year after until full implementation on the sixth year.
But the incentives were offered only to locators with capitalization of at least P500, 000, according to Section 3 of the ordinance.
Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. was critical of the proposed review saying it would put a question mark on the integrity and credibility of the city to investors. He cited that the mall’s investment is biggest to date in the city, just enough to merit commensurate incentives.
Aldeguer said the same incentives cannot be offered to locators outside the proposed mall because their investments are not as big as that of the Gaisanos.
A City Council committee will review the ordinance granting a package of tax incentives to a shopping mall here after Vice Mayor Ignacio Zubiri described some of the incentives as unfair and demanded that be taken out.
Councilor Victor Aldeguer, chair of the Committee on Commerce and Trade, said they would “look at possibly amending City Ordinance 637 Series of 2008, which embodied the city’s offered incentives both to Gaisano and Sons, Inc. and companies intending to rent in the mall.”
The ordinance provides incentives for the firm’s first five years of operation, with full implementation of taxation only in its sixth year of operations.
The city exempted the firm from paying real property tax for five years and asked the mall owners to pay only the Special Education Fund.
The ordinance also provides exemption from the payment of amusement tax for five years, and providing payment only of the current business tax rate from its operation for five years. For locators, it has offered to give full exemption from payment of business tax on their first year of operation and subsequent 25 percent increase in imposition every year after until full implementation on the sixth year.
But Zubiri ranted during the City Council session on March 17 that the business tax incentives provided for the business locators inside the mall were unfair to those who rent outside. “That is very unfair. It doubles incentives given to Gaisano.
I would hope it would be corrected by the Sanggunian (City Council),” he said. Zubiri, the presiding officer of the city council, said he was not present when the incentives ordinance was approved in July 2008 and as the construction of the P200 million, four-storey mall in downtown Malaybalay went full swing.
Zubiri said that the incentives were offered only to locators with capitalization of at least P500, 000, according to Section 3 of the ordinance.
Zubiri said they were yet to assess the exact course of action saying it has become a legal issue even as it assured mall owners that what the City Council was doing was contained in the city’s investment code. “I don’t think there will be a problem since we will be having the investment code.
We are not taking something. We approved but we found out later it has implications on the others. It is just a matter of telling Gaisano. Gaisano will lose nothing,” he said. Gaisano representatives could not be reached for comment.
Zubiri also questioned the absence of the mandated 15-meter road right of way or highway allowance in the building and warned that it was “bad precedent” in having obtained the building permit despite the “right of way” violation.
Councilor Jaime Gellor Jr., the presiding officer on July 15, was the one who signed the ordinance in place of Zubiri. It was signed by Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. Flores said, however, the move would put a question mark on the credibility and integrity of the city. He said the city council should have thought of this well first before giving these incentives.
“After you offered them the incentives, you will take them back?” he said. Flores said incentives should be commensurate to the investments.
“The Gaisano Mall project is considered the biggest building project in Malaybalay City to date,” Flores said. “This will naturally make Gaisano feel bad.
But that is the prerogative of the council. If they think this is good for everyone.
But there will be repercussions,” he said. Flores said the city council should weigh “this thing very well before they act on this”. “It was the city council who offered those incentives. The Gaisanos, in fairness to them, did not demand specific incentives. They only told us they were offered incentives in other cities,” he said. They (city council) might be pleasing one or two people but they might sacrifice a big investment, he said.
Meanwhile, City Engineer and building official Teodocio Pabillaran said Gaisano and Sons, did not violate the right of way. A special rule is being followed in the city’s downtown area, he said. Pabillaran said only 10 meters of right of way in each side of the highway was observed between the bridge near the Welcome marker in Kalasungay and the Sawaga bridge near Casisang.
“That’s what I told the vice mayor when he asked me about that yesterday,” he said. On March 3, the city council asked the session audience at the gallery to move out as they would hold an executive session.
A source told this reporter later that Councilor Conrad Barroso raised an issue on the incentives. Barroso was on leave at the time the ordinance was passed. The source said he raised an issue about the passage of the incentives ordinance exclusively for the retail giant.
First appeared at MindaNews.com and Central Mindanao Newswatch
City Hall is considering the termination of its contract with the controversial builder of the P225-million public market project citing yet another delay.
Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. told this reporter they are leaving it to the City Legal Office to study the right move after the City Engineers’ Office certified that the firm, H.R. Lopez Co., Inc., has not finished the project despite the nine-month extension.
The extension ends in July this year. City Engineer Teodocio Pabillaran said the firm is already “off” the schedule. The firm is supposed to finish within the extended time the whole project, including the integrated terminal and the commercial complex adjacent to the public market.
Based on the slippage alone, Flores said, the city government can already take action against the firm.
“It is up for the legal office to determine liabilities,” he said.
Vice Mayor Ignacio W. Zubiri said he is for the termination of the proposed project but stressed “it should be settled amicably, with no party suing another”.
Zubiri said it is now time to cut since the firm can’t definitely finish the two other components in four months. See full report here.
Bukidnon’s hundreds of information technology students are at par with their counterparts in Davao City, considered the hub of IT development in Mindanao, University of Immaculate Conception Prof. Melquiades R. Hayag Jr. said.
”Bukidnon’s IT students are at par with those in Davao and other cities in Mindanao in terms of their intellectual and attitude attributes and their resourcefulness,” Hayag told this reporter after giving a lecture on Artificial Intelligence during an ICT seminar entitled Multi-media and ICT Education in Bukidnon.
The seminar, held in the Mountain View College Annex in Valencia City, gathered at least 200 students from schools offering IT courses in the province. He said despite the lack of resources in the province compared to Davao’s IT companies and libraries, Bukidnon’s students are not left behind.
Hayag cited that both students and teachers easily adapt to advance technology in IT. But he said that majority of the students still have “pure minds” and are still free from distractions such as pornography and games addiction, they can focus more on learning.
He cited that internet cafes he had been to in Bukidnon’s towns and cities are still filled with researches, not gamers.
Hayag said one of the reasons of the students’ competence is that Bukidnon’s academic institutions are catching up in their IT programs. He cited the infrastructure backbone being put up by a telecommunications company for the fiber optic technology boosting prospects for better broadband internet service.
He cited that all schools offering IT in the province have sent their IT teachers to further study like Master’s degree in Information Technology. ”These are ground works for better capacity of the province to accommodate IT companies and ICT outsourcing firms (call centers and medical transcriptions),” he said.
Hayag cited that only UIC and Ateneo De Davao University have Masters programs on IT in Davao. To solve problems of students in Bukidnon who take continuing education in IT, UIC and MVC put up a consortium to offer the course in Valencia City.
He said by summer, Bukidnon will have 12 new teachers with Masters of Science in IT. ”There are only a few teachers who has MAIT competency in Davao and Bukidnon’s 12 graduates is a good harvest. It is a breakthrough,” he said.
He said the upgrade of teachers impacts on the readiness of the province to provide quality IT manpower to address the world wide trend on the role of IT.
Hayag also cited that aside from schools, local government units, business firms, and other organizations should also put up their own IT departments to address their IT needs.
Companies in Manila and abroad are particular about business technology used by an organization to cut on their communication expense and for better and faster service. He said if the province keeps track of these indicators, it will not be hard for Bukidnon to be in the IT map.
He has longed to help save the tales of oral storytelling, a dying tradition. Now, this 29-year old Higaonon writer is making history.
Telesforo S. Sungkit, Jr, from Kisolon, Sumilao, is launching his first novel entitled “Batbat Hi Udan” (The Story of Udan) considered by scholars in the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing in Diliman, Quezon City as a “historical novel”.
The novel, Sungkit told MindaNews Wednesday, features the culture of the Higaonon tribe of Bukidnon. The author, too, is considered as probably the irst writer from Bukidnon who has written a full-length epic novel.
Batbat Hi Udan, written in Filipino, was first launched on February 11 at the UP Los Baños Campus in Laguna where a speaker described it, as quoted in the author’s blog, as the Philippine version of “The Lord of the Rings”.
The Bukidnon launching will be on February 27 at the Bukidnon State University Media Resource Center in time for the grand opening of the 2009 Kaamulan Festival.
Blessed with the gift of the written word, Sungkit defied the hassles of the print industry by choosing to self-publish, keeping off from the whims of editors and publishers in releasing the book. Sungkit said the 215-page; P400 per copy book is Bukidnon’s own.
The novel is the story of Udan (Binukid for “rain”), a young man, his journey to a hidden world called Lidasan beneath the Mt. Kitanglad range, and his love for Ananaw (the beloved).
The setting of the character’s journey in Batbat Hi Udan covers four present-day towns including Lantapan, Sumilao, Impasug-ong, and the City of Malaybalay.
He said it’s not just a love story because it interlinks with the epic scale narrative of rivalry among datus (tribal chieftains) who struggle for supreme leadership of the world. He said the story involves not only people but also spirit creatures like Alagasis (Kapre), Abyans (spirit companions) and Tiums (child-like replicating spirit creatures).
He fused imagination and a reconstruction of his incomplete concepts about the tales he heard starting from childhood to finish his fiction, he said in an interview with this reporter on February 25.
In Batbat Hi Udan, Sungkit said, he has fused his fiction with the stories of the nanangen, which he has heard as a child in a Higaonon community.
Sungkit was transfixed to the stories of “Nanay Siling”, his grandmother’s sister when he was still a young boy, citing it as his initial inspiration to write the story.
He said there must be a way to preserve what he described as the lumad’s “dying tradition” of nanangen oral story telling. People should pursue telling the stories to others, he said.
“We must put it into print because the future generations may no longer know what we used to hear,” he added.
Sungkit is a BS Agricultural Engineering graduate from UP Los Baños. He has put up a tutorial school in Laguna but for six months in 2005 he wrote the first draft of the book.
He has since revised the copy for two years until he finished editing it last year.
Side by side with research work for his future novels, Sungkit wants to work as a farmer and stay for good in Bukidnon.
In his next book project, which he plans to write in Cebuano, he said might be able to feature a story that covers the rest of Bukidnon and Mindanao.
He said he wants to encourage other local writers to write about Bukidnon and its people. But he said the timing for the launching date is only coincidental with the Kaamulan Festival.
He offered that as the Kaamulam festival slowly becomes commercialized, the book’s theme should give cultural context to the celebration.
Sungkit said it is noteworthy that the essence of the Kaamulan is to show Bukidnon’s culture. “Here is one way to do it,” he said.
The city government of Malaybalay is willing to shell out at least P57.5 million as counterpart in the estimated P115-million irrigation project under the Department of Agriculture’s World Bank-funded infrastructure program.
The amount excludes additional counterpart of at least P1.17 million for feasibility and detailed engineering study for the project that will cover at least 500 hectares of rice lands in Managok and two other villages.
Water for the so-called Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP)-Managok Communal Irrigation System would be sourced from the Langgasihan River.
The city council approved two resolutions Tuesday to form part of the requirements set by the World Bank-funded Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) in a session that saw Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. assuring there would be no need to loan for the project even if it has remained an option.
Flores clarified that the WB fund will be a grant, not a loan. The city government would have to fund the other half of the project that will be implemented by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
Borrowing for the city’s counterpart, he said, is just an option and that the local finance committee has yet to meet to discuss the issue.
Rica Carcueva, city accountant, assured councilors of the availability of funds, which means there might be no need to loan. “But it is really up to the mayor if we are taking that option,” she told Councilor Conrado Barroso during recess of the session before Flores came in at noon.
The estimated P115-million project cost is adjusted to current prices. Based on a feasibility study in 2002, the project cost was estimated at P80 million.
Flores said the actual cost may either go up or down based on the detailed engineering study.
But the same has been subject of the inquiry launched by legislators, especially councilor Jimmy Gellor and Vice Mayor Ignacio Zubiri. They have questioned the proposal to issue an authorization when the cost of the project is not fixed.
Flores, however, assured the council there is enough surplus funds from the 20 percent development fund that could be used for the cost adjustment.
The city council passed a resolution expressing intent, willingness, and commitment to adopt the MRDP and authorizing Flores to enter into a memorandum of agreement.
The other resolution was for the city government to provide counterpart funding for the 50 percent of the project cost.
Among the questions raised was whether passing the resolutions would bind the city already to the project where the cost is not yet fixed.
Flores said passing the intent to enroll at the MRDP and the authorization would not be binding.
“At any stage we may decide not to proceed,” Flores said, citing the city government’s decision in 2003 not to proceed with a loan package for the Kibalabag water project, at that time with a proposed loan from the World Bank.
“We are not going through this half-blinded. We have a fall back position just in case we don’t want to push through,” he said when Vice Mayor Zubiri pointed out the provision in the wordings of the forms being complied.
Another point questioned during the session was the rush to beat the deadline for submission of the WB requirements set on February 9, or a day before the session.
Councilors wanted to seek for an extension to subject the proposal for further study but City Agriculture Officer Andrew Bergado said there could be no more extension.
The project was described as advantageous to the city because prior proposals to build irrigation project was bucked for lack of funding from the NIA.
“This will double the productivity in the area and help in the livelihood of farmers there,” Councilor Amado Estrada told the city council in his presentation.
Estrada, who chairs the city council committee on agriculture, said the project redeems the dependence of farmers to rain-fed irrigation system.
Bergado said they will source water from the Langgasihan River and assured that existing irrigation initiatives will become part of the SWIP.
He dismissed a concern raised by councilors on the capacity of the river to supply irrigation water when the area has a depleted watershed.
Councilor Victor Aldeguer questioned the sustainability clause considering it is a multi-million project and water might not be enough.
“Langgasihan survived several El Niño occurrences in the past,” Bergado noted.
Zubiri said there could be a parallel effort to undertake a reforestation project along with the irrigation project.
Bergado told this reporter there is still no timeframe for the subject since they would await the WB-MRDP’s approval of the city’s intent.
He also assured no displacements would occur if the project is pursued since the impounding dam would be built in government property in Langgasihan.
City councilors questioned the mechanics of the grant and the local funding source after Councilor Amado Estrada presented the need to pass the resolutions on February 10.
The second phase of the MRDP promises to release at least $130 million for infrastructure in Mindanao.
Bukidnon Provincial administrator Romeo Cardoza said the provincial government has invited Senator Loren Legarda as guest of honor of the foundation day rites of the province, but that her office has not confirmed her attendance as of press time.
The province will celebrate the 92nd Foundation Day on March 10.
Former Senate president Manuel Villar was the guest of honor last year. The 403rd Brigade’s Peacemaker Band will start the nightly band performances on February 18. Local bands and those based in other cities including Manila will also perform nightly throughout the festival.
February 18 has been set as the “soft opening” of the 22-day Kaamulan, Bukidnon’s annual cultural festival, a brochure produced by the provincial tourism office said.
The food fest, bazaars, agri fair, garden and livestock shows will open on said date. The festival’s grand opening, however, is on February 27, the tourism office said.
This year’s Kaamulan carries the theme “Rekindling the spirit of Kaamulan through the 7 Hill tribes.” A traditional opening ritual at the Kaamulan grounds, ribbon cutting for shows and fairs, the “panangkila” of the seven tribes, motorcade of sponsors, parades of school bands and mountain bikes are among the attractions for the grand opening.
There will also be a school band competition on February 27. The 8th Kaamulan Invitational Basketball Tournament will open on the same day at the Bukidnon State University gymnasium. On March 1, the Kaamulan rodeo opens at the city grandstand.
The Laga Ta Bukidnon talent night will be held on March 3. There will be a Bukidnon ethnic songwriting workshop on March 4 at the provincial planning and development office. The pageant night of the Laga Ta Bukidnon, a beauty contest, is on March 5 at the Kaamulan open theater.
A motocross competition was scheduled also on March 4 to 6. The ethnic street dancing competition, Kaamulan’s main attraction, is on March 7, followed with an ethnic dance clinic in the afternoon and fireworks display in the evening. Ethnic sports among the different tribes kick off on March 9.
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