Monday, February 19, 2018

TESDA to give free skills training 
to returning OFWs from Kuwait 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Pebrero 19 (PIA)--The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will provide free skills training to returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Kuwait. 

TESDA-Bohol Information Officer Marichu Cua said that returning Boholano OFWs from Kuwait can enroll for free in technical-vocational (tech-voc) courses offered by their agency. 

According to Cua, TESDA Director General Guiling Mamondiong has ordered the regional/provincial/district directors and TESDA Technology Institutions (TTI) to prioritize the OFWs from Kuwait for training programs being offered by TTI. 

Mamondiong also directed TESDA officials to seek out and contact the returning OFWs in their respective areas, in coordination with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) so that they could receive immediate assistance, Cua added. 

The beneficiaries shall be entitled to free training, free assessment, and training support fund (TSF). 

Early this month, some 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Kuwait arrived in Manila. The first batches of migrant workers were granted amnesty by the Kuwaiti government. 

President Duterte announced a total ban on the deployment of Filipinos to Kuwait after the body of OFW Joanna Daniela Dimafelis was found inside a freezer in an abandoned flat in the Arab nation and believed to be maltreated due to bruises and marks on her body.
(ecb/PIA7-Bohol) 

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TESDA invites senior HS students, Tech-Voc 
graduates to the Nat’l TVET Enrollment Day 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Pebrero 19 (PIA)--The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will bring its scholarships closer to those who want to avail of free skills training and even help its graduates in finding a job. 

With this, TESDA-Bohol is inviting all senior high school students and technical-vocational (Tech-Voc) graduates to come and join the National TVET Enrollment Day and Jobs Bridging Program on February 28, 2018. 

This will be held in three sites namely: Bohol Institute of Technology-International College (BIT-IC) in Tagbilaran City; Jagna Business Center in Jagna; and at Ramon Magsaysay Multi-Purpose Gym in Ubay. 

TESDA-Bohol Information Officer Marichu Cua said that the activity aims to provide information on the different Technical Vocational Education and Training programs for the Boholanos and to promote TVET as preferred choice of career. 

Cua said they will facilitate the enrollment of interested applicants to TESDA scholarship programs from 9am to 3pm on the said day. 

Enrollment is open to all Filipinos age 15 and above for those interested to pursue various Tech-Voc courses. 

Requirements for the enrollment include valid ID or NSO birth certificate and 1x1 picture. On the other hand, job applicants should bring their TESDA certificate and resume. 

This activity is open to the public. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)
PCA lays sweet hopes 
on coconut sap sugar

TAGBILARAN CITY, February 14 (PIA)--Here is one sweet story and believe it, it has something to do with going nuts. 

For people who have been advised to go low on high fructose diet, a sweetener is now crawling into the mentality of the health conscious, and this is coco-sap sugar. 

Now touted as a sweetener which performs just like ordinary sugar but has low glycemic index, coco-sap sugar, also called coco-sugar might just bring back the farmer's waning interest in the country's coconut industry. 

Philippine Coconut Authority Bohol manager Emiliano Romero shares his high hopes for the coco-sugar, even as he admits that he has been using this as his sweetener at home, days after he learned of the simple technology in preparing it. 

Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA, Romero said they have shifted their attention to coco-sugar to be able to help farmers earn more from their coconuts. 

That same week at the Kapihan, world trading price for copra, a semi-processed coconut which is still the country's leading exported agricultural product, nose dived from P31 to P29. 

A kilo of copra can come from three or four coco nuts and its processing to copra could even go high that selling it at P29 is a losing proposition for small coconut farmers, Romero explained. 

Over this, and with the still huge need for processing plants and large scale post production technologies, the PCA now slices on the coco-sap as a feasible alternative for high income especially for those into harvesting coconut sap for tuba. 

Coco sugar is technically a coconut palm sugar, and is from the sugary fluid which circulates in teh coconut. 

Harvesting, according to PCA is still like gathering the sap for tuba, but the freshly harvested sap which is collected in containers have to be processed within two hours after harvest or bacterial would have developed and render the sap sour. 

From the coconut palm's flower, a cut is made using a sharp scythe and the liquid sap is collected in containers. 

At least two gallons of coconut sap can produce a kilo or coco sugar, Romero said. 

After some tow gallons or more is collected, the sap is then strained, to keep off the impurities which can burn black when the sap is placed under heat to allow the water to evaporate. 

While the sap is slowly boiled over fire, you have to keep stirring until you get granules, that is when you can have sugar, he added. 

While regular table sugar and high fructose corn syrup are the main manes in sweeteners, it is unlike coconut sugar that retain nutrients found in the coconut palm, according to the Department of Agriculture. 

Among these are minerals iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short chain fatty acids, polyphenols and antioxidants that may also provide some health benefits, healthline.com claimed. 

What is rare however in coconut sugar is a fiber called inulin, which is that which makes the coco-sap sugar, and as a fiber, it is not absorbed in digestion. 

A kilo of coco sugar can go from P300-to 500 and with two-hour frequency in gathering sap, a farmer who collects his sap can cash in big, PCA said. 

The PCA has been giving free technology transfers on cocosugar, and other coconut product processing, in a bid to keep the farmers earning while the international buying price for copra is in a low down. 

Those Small Coconut Farmer Organizations who are willing to be trained in coco-sugar can come to PCA in Bohol, Romero capped the radio forum aired over DyTR. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
PCA manager Emil Romero explains the economic and health benefits of cocosugar especially for people with diabetes. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
Alicia biker shows true grit 
at Kinatkatay's brutal trails 

TAGBILARAN CITY, February 13 (PIA)--Bikers and trail runners called the Kinatkatay trails beautifully brutal, and yet a local biker who had the grit for the rough test proved it isn't the trails, it's the will. 

A motorcycle mechanic by day and a trail adventurer by noon patiently kept his pace where he knew his veteran competitors would be show-offs: in the flat tracks. 

Keeping a decent yet good striking distance from the lead pack, Del Monte Alicia native Gunayan Burato Ronnie Gunayan confessed he had to conserve on his energy because he knew what was coming: steep ascents that bikers unfamiliar with the trails have to go off-saddle. 

Now, he had to prove himself too, he, who never thought he could get on a bike, much more compete. 

His boss however lent him a bike to practice on the trails and compete on race day. 

A dirt-bike rider, Gunayan simply knows how to keep his cool, having been into the steepest hard trails of Cambaol in his noon-time date with the trails. 

And noontimes in tree-less trails of Cambaol to Sitio Binabaje is nothing short of baking. 

"We have pinned his hopes in him, seeing him pick the trails" Alicia extreme motorcycle rider Romulo Basalo Dasigan who occasionally sees the hardworking mechanic practice on his pacing at the peak of noon time. 

"His conditioning is great and his will is even tougher," Basalo, who thinks the Alicia native will have a high probability of winning even if pitted with true veterans in his beginners category. 

And true to form, Gunayan (#34) tailed five young riders and a veteran at the gun start of the Beginners Category of the Kinatkatay sa Binabaje 3rd Alicia MTB Festival February 11, when the bikers scrambled to get their gears to high, in the flat barangay roads leading to Cambaol. 

"I know they are fast and capable, but they did not know the Cambaol and Binabaje trails like I do," Gunayan timidly shared. 

A kilometer from the Cambaol Barangay Hall crossing, Gunayan started to cut and take over the lead. From there, he never looked back. 

Gunayan completed the 16 kilometer track in 40:15, which was 25 seconds ahead of a veteran athlete and trail runner Andy Roadboy Toniacao (#30) of Hilongos Leyte who finished in 40:40 seconds. 

Also keeping Tuñacao busy while Gunayan attempted to stretch the distance was Progreso, Alicia native Rolito Nocalan (#33), who pressured the trail run podium finisher to tire. 

Nocalan crossed the finish line at 40:55 seconds. 

About a minute later, came at a feverish pedal pace John Mark Acman (#36) of Garcia Hernandez at 39:15, while Francis Notarte of Hilongos (#31) came in at 38:25 seconds to occupy the last podium winner in Kinatkatay's Beginners category. 

30 and below age category 

In the age group category: 30 years old and below, Calape's Adelino Buligan Jr., (#23) homed in at 1:10:25, some 30 seconds before Paseo de Loon's Ernesto Garcia (#13) of Tagbilaran City who tailed at 1:10:55 for the second place. 

Baybay City's Ronald Subayno (#08) checked in after the 16 kilometer trail at 1:11:12 followed by Christian Baquero of Dauis (#10) at 1:25:15 and Deven Valderoza (#11) of Tagbilaran in fifth, at 1:28:15. 

31-44 age category 

In the 31-44 years old category, Talibon's Roger Torreon (#21) came in first after the grueling single tracks, fire lines and carved trails in palm oil plantations at 1:20:02, followed by Valencia's Jobier Visto (#40) at 1:20. 

Third in the category is (#15) Anthony Rabida (Garcia Hernandez) at 1:21:40, Richard Inson of Carmen (#16) at 1:25:55 and (#20) John Phillip Burra (Pilar) filling fifth at 1:22:32. 

45 years old and above category 

In the golden category, homegrown Ben Amora (Alicia) with race number 24 used his advantage of familiarity to the trails as he zoomed through the obstacles in 1:20:32 with Pilars Berting Escatron (#29) on his heels, finishing at a good 1:20:45. 

Also another oldie favorite Alejandro Macalam of Duero (#27) sprinted to the crossing line at 1:21:18 to stretch a considerable lead from his closest pursuer Joel Torrefranca (#26) of Carmen finishing at 1:26:15. 

Over 15 minutes later, Joselito Galbo (#28) of Garcia Hernandez crossed the finish line at 1:45:56. 

Kinatkatay sa Binabaje is Alicia's extreme mountain bike race offer, a race largely held at the trails of The Alicia Panoramic Park, a series of rolling hills that peak at 350 meters towering above Alicia and offers a panoramic view of at least five Bohol towns and the Bohol Sea. 

The hills, generally covered with cogon grasses without trees form a carpet of all the hues of green and the trails that traverse the hills and over the ridges have been perfect for extreme mountain bikes and dirt bike enthusiasts. 

Alicia locals have started to cash in on the treks that have been coming, and the local officials hope that the bike festival gives them the free promotions they could only afford. 

It is all about helping people help themselves, Alicia Mayor Marnilou Ayuban said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
Boholano biker unsaddles 
Kinatkatay ’17 champion 

THE FARM, Cambaol, Alicia, February 12 (PIA)—Kinatkatay sa Binabaje 2018 Alicia Mountain Bike Festival proved to be a classic race of the twenty niners and 1 x 11 drivetrains for the elite division, and a better prepared local biker used this as an ace to the edge, unseating the 2017 champion by a slim margin of 30 seconds. 

2017 Kinatkatay sa Binabaje champion Dongkey Sanchez (#5) of Lapulapu City in Cebu struggled to keep within attack range of the pack leader and lost a good amount of steam trying to shake off the alternating challenge of Boholano bikers in his tail, trying to unseat him from the 2018 post. 

Nicho Biol Lumay (Batuan, Bohol) wearing racing bib #3 and teammates Jonathan Pagaura (#1) (Maribojoc) on a 26r and Victor Justol Biongcog (#4) (Dagohoy) gave Sanchez a thoroughly planned hassle while simultaneously screening off Sanchez’s teammate Emmanuel Pedrosa (#6) of Lilo-an, Cebu from joining the front fray and ruin their game plan. 

Sanchez, who just claimed championship trophies in the recent Getafe Fiesta Cross Country MTB Challenge, Catmon Enduro and another big win in Negros Occidental a couple of weeks ago, is among the country’s top rated extreme and endurance mountain biker as well as enduro motorcross icon. 

Picking a Specialized 29’r on a 1 x 11 drivetrain and keeping his edge from his Scott 29’r in 2017, Sanchez did not opt for the clincher dropper seat for his ride, in the undulating technical ascents and steep down hills of Cambaol. 

On the other hand, his tough contender Nicho Lumay came in his BMC 29’ with the same 1 x 11 drive train which would be tough for the notorious Binabaje climbs but is set to easily skip over the rutted trails and coast through the rolling hills. 

With the right gearing and battle-tested pedal pumping power, both bikers literally flew over heavily rutted downhill rampage-rated single track trails and crawled over brutal technical climbs while Lumay and Pagaura took turns in taking the lead position while the other riding off from Sanchez’s trails. 

I was totally not prepared for the off saddles, Sanchez confessed after the race. 

Midway into the race, Pagaura dictated the pace, Sanchez on his tail a good minute away. 

That time, observers positioned at the midway point has read the Boholano riders’ game plan: Take turns in tiring the Cebuano champ by alternating lead while other rider humping behind to keep the Cebu rider pumping to distance and lose his steam. 

The succeeding wicked downhill had Lumay gaining the lead while Sanchez had Pagaura a meter away in the mad dash off-the-saddle over another unride-able 15 meter ascent. 

As both riders topped the hill, Lumay has gained a considerable lead half a kilometer away attacking another equally brutal obstacle hill leading to the highest peak in the race, sauntering a good 280 meters above Cambaol. 

While Pagaura kept the pressure on Sanchez, Biongcog, wearing racing bib number 4 tried to keep Pedrosa (#6) off the chase. 

Pagaura, who is among the best local sprinters, relied on his ace: the kilometer long barangay road would be his chance to leave Pedrosa off his tail. 

At the end of the 16 kilometer race, Lumay crossed the line in 47:10 seconds, while the champion followed suit 30 seconds later at 47:40 seconds. 

Pagaura hit the cross line at 48:10 seconds while Bioncog came in at 48: 55 with Pedrosa on his heels crossing at 49:53. 

Kinatkatay sa Binabaje is Alicia’s annual MTB Challenge and uses the footpaths, single tracks, creek crossings, wicked ascents and steep downhills while offering the riders a killer view of The Alicia Panoramic Park (TAPP). 

TAPP is Alicia’s flagship tourism product, and Mayor Marnilou Ayuban hopes they can sustain the events at the site to provide the locals the jobs that could help them get off poverty. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
Braaping* to Alicia's tops 
not for the faint-hearted 

The Farm, Cambaol Alicia, Bohol, February 11 (PIA)--If one knows the essential features of a trail bike, one would have second thoughts with this one assignment. 

That night, the only available ride was a stock Kawasaki KMX 125, stripped to the bare and now converted into a lightweight dirt bike. 

Driven by extreme adventure riders with nerves of steel and guts as rigid as the bike's extended front forks, the extreme motor bikes of Bohol East Trail Bikers are stock 125 dirt bikes. 

Under the engine head however is a different story. 

The pistons are oversized and the chassis is lifted higher, fitted with dirt wheels that sport huge spikes which assure the riders to get them to peak the notoriously steep climbs of Binabaje. 

For trails riders here where crashes are as ordinary as skipping over to the dismount, the bike's stock headlights often do not survive. They are useless anyway for day trails, and these bikes seldom come out the streets. 

Foot rests, although necessary to afford comfortable ride for backriders, these can snag in the undergrowths and deep rain-rutted trails, so they too have to go. 

In the same trails that forest and fire rangers traverse to the bunkhouse peak some 350 meters above sea level, The Alicia Panoramic Park Trail (TAPP) Run 2018 runners need to follow. 

Runners have to heave their bodies up the 5th kilometer marker where the bunkhouse towers over the panoramic landscape towards the end of the 21 kilometer run. Somebody has to get at the bunkhouse to document the event for LGU Alicia. 

Organizers have set the runners to be let off at 5:00, at The Farm. If the civerage team leaves early morning, there is practically no material time anymore to hit the trails hiking to the peak on race day. 

The PIA, the government's leading information dissemination agency keeps a mandate to help NGAs and LGUs bring their programs to the communities. 

As Alicia has picked sports tourism as a key economic driver and in empowering its communities to use sports events as venue for income generation, this has to be known. 

What is unique with Alicia's trails is that the grass-covered hills also draw fog that would at times be good marketing add-on for the event: the sea of clouds run. 

With PIA in an engagement in another town until 5 pm Friday February 9, we arrived at the Farm in Alicia at 8:30, too late for a solo trek. The peak is some 5 kilometers through thick canopies, a crisscross of pasture trails past creeks and into the open ridges which characterize the last two kilometer scramble to the over 45 degree slopes to the bunkhouse where the PIA has to pitch tent. 

Braaap in, Bohol East Trail Riders, to the rescue. 

Riders Benjie Gundaya with his Kawasaki KMX 125, Romulo Basalo Dasigan on his Rusi KR150 and Jojo Duetes on his KMX 125, distributed my payload. In no time, they strapped on battery-powered headlamps and with minimal gear, kicked on the starter and were set to go. 

I started to doubt if this was sane. 

Basalo and Gundaya would be escorts. 

"Nobody goes up alone," Duetes said. 

When a rider is alone and has problems, he will have no one to the rescue. 

I lugged a sizable backpack for two nights provision, a set of cameras, a small tent and my motorbike helmet. (I have to admit, I was aware of the risks having seen these riders in 2016 when we did the ocular inspection of the trails before the first Alicia MTB Festival. The bike trek to one of the mid-height hills was brutal then, when I used my hardtail bike as trekking pole to balance so I'd stay on course and not backslide. I also happen to drive dirtbikes and somehow, the anticipated thrill had me the moment the wheels churned loose gravel to Purok 7 Binabaje before the we go off road) 

We stopped by a roadside store, woke up the owner to get us provisions and a few bottles of beer to drive the cold at the peak. 

I was to camp solo, on top of the ridges, the nearest neighbor would be five kilometers away. 



Then, the briefing. 

I was to ride with Gundaya, Basalo has my bag and Duetes shouldered my tent. 

"Use my footrest, hold on tight and we need to lean forward to stop a wheelie," Gundaya instructed. 

"Yes, I heard him say wheelie," and I said, "whaaat?" 

Everyone laughed and I started to blink, unsure now. 

"Not every rider here is authorized to carry passengers up the trail," Basalo pressed on. 

That, in a way, assured me a bit, just a little bit. 

I can still remember that trail then. 

It was just a meter wide swatch of brown rain-rutted dirt trail cleared from a from a tall carpet of talahib. The trail follows the ridges and winds up to where a dirt bike assault to the top can be managed by the disguised 2-wheeled whining beasts. A crash here would be a long roll down the slopes. Or fatal. If the grasses you grab hold, you're lucky. 

It was midnight, and nobody would see how we fall, if that was of any consolation. 

The riders decided to go the short cut trail they call: Plan B. 

It was a quick entry into the secondary forests, the path illuminated only by a thin illumination of a headlamp. 

The dirtbike zipped over the trail carved by rain and feet, on the edge of a mild cliff, through oil palm plantations, past creeks where I have to alight because it was way too impossible for the bike to go up the slopes, over 2 kilometers at the base of the first hill. 

There are accordingly 3 trails, this one is the shortest, Gundaya explained. 

Now, I have to say, the shortest was probably the toughest. After about 15 minutes of agonizing ride, me trying my best to remain on the backseat, no matter how much the bike galloped into the hard trails, I had more than enough. But i had to get to the peak. Twice my feet fell off the shared footrest, but I recovered real quick. 

"Let me just handle it," Gundaya reminded me in the tough sections of the trail. 

A rider, will always be rider and he would know when it is time to bail out. Twice, I was on the verge of ejecting myself, but on the last microsecond, I stuck to the backseat. 

Then we were at the base of the long climb. We waited for the escorts, checked on the bike and readied for the last sprint. 

There is a portion where we have to walk, Gundaya finally told me. He shone the headlamp into the straight trail up and the night swallowed the light into its bosom. 

When the escorts arrived, we hit the trail again. 

I pressed my chest to the back of the rider and we flew into the trails, the bike, many times skipping past the deep ruts and swerving to the tall grasses before the driver corrects and foils a spill into nothingness. 

I could only watch how this rider could keep on playing with the throttle and the clutch, gears churning as the wheels shuddered in strain, the engine shrieking the trademark wail of the KMX. 

Midway, I could hear the engine at first gear and the bike slowing from the strain. It was the best it could do. A mistake in the gears would send the bike into neutral and we would backslide. 

Expertly, Gundaya cut across the trail and we stopped in the middle of a 200 meter sprint as the engine stalled. The radiator boiled. 

I decided to walk, while Gundaya started the bike and drove another 50 meters or so to a mild slope. 

I walked, no half crawled on the next 50 meters or so, masking the hyperventillation by pausing to scan at the gorgeous view. 

It was Ubay, Mabini and Candijay town centers like mini cities sprinkled in the vast nothingness of night. It was a view that was worth the climb. 

I walked past the last assault trail and arrived at the waiting bike. I was about to walk past the bike when the rider said it was the last sprint to the bunkhouse. 

It was also the longest minute of my life. 

The rider revved one last time, let off the clutch and i pressed my body to his back, anticipating the wheelie. The bike ground to a good start, accelerated and shot off into the night, the headlamp painting s crisscross of light, as if it can erase the rain gutted canals in the trail. 

I could have closed my eyes if it helped, that is so that I can keep the rider managing the climb without me burdening the driver's balance. But I could not, me making sure I could quickly bail out the moment the bike fails. It did not. 

We topped the last obstacle hill and instinctively I looked back at the scenery. 
It was perfect. 

The riders have to go down after an hour of talk and brief rest from the challenging trek. 

I pitched my tent aided by camp lights while we exchanged small talk. And then it was their time to go, leave me alone at the camp. 

I expected them to get their engines gunning down hill. They did not. They free-wheeled down, the whir of tires were the last sound I heard and then it was silence broken by the comforting sound of night in camp. 

Sleep was just there creeping and the adrenaline ebbed aided by the soothing calm of being alone way up in the hills, kilometers away from the nearest neighbor. 

I woke up at dawn, light already filtering the clouds and bouncing off a glow that lends the hills a mystical image. 

Then I looked back at the trail we traversed the previous night. 

Riding downhill should be fun, but it was not for me. 

Going up daytime astride a bike again? well maybe. 

But I am perhaps not suited for the downhill ride in these hills. I'd leave that to these riders whose nerves are of steel. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
*Braaping" - a term used by motor cross enthusiasts to describe the braap of the motorcycle as one revs the throttle producing a shreiking whine of the engine. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)