PCG to start patrols, 

Nab non-SSEN boats 

CEBU CITY, March 22, 2018 (PIA)—If anytime, any of the multi-role response vessel (MRRV) of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), or any of their light aluminum boat and rubber boat patrol unit hails you at high seas and treats you as a security threat, that would be because like the 20% of all sea-going boat owners in the Visayas, you have refused to heed the call to get your vessel the mandatory security, safety and environmental numbering (SSEN) implemented by the PCG. 

These patrol boats are armed and are designed for speed that escaping could mean an elevated threat status into suspected terrorists, and you would not be treated lightly. 

To that tune, PCG Central Visayas Chief Commodore Lyndon Latorre warns boat owners who have yet to get the free numbering system in place, from the Coast Guard Station closest to their home-ports. 

Speaking during the ceremonial activation of two more coast guard sub-stations in Bohol and the turn-over of command of the Tagbilaran Coast Guard Station from Captain Edgar Boado to Lieutenant Erikzon Laza, March 8, Commodore Latorre reported the PGC Visayas SSEN accomplishment. 

A Department of Transportation Memorandum Circular No. 2017-001 mandates the identification of all maritime vessels in the Philippine waters which are under the watch domain of the PCG through the SSEN to prevent the use of these crafts in maritime infractions especially in piracy and terrorism. 

The registration also provides the coast guard a database of all these sea crafts and these data would also be provided to the national database of the Coast Guard Weapons, Communications, Electronic and Information System. 

The registration would also formally enlist a boat to the coast guard electronic monitoring system imbedded in the National Coast Watch Center and shows up in their sea-traffic radars every time the boat leaves the shores. 

Made effective since 2017, the SSEN should have attained a hundred percent accomplishment but several boat owners still think this is just another of the overlapping bureaucratic processes that made boat-owning in the country cumbersome. 

However, Commodore Latorre explained that the piracy incidents in Tawi-tawi in 2017 and the terrorist group members incursion into Bohol pressed on the need for safety and security measures to allow authorities to identify all boats especially those that are being used illegally or are involved in maritime and environmental laws violations. 

The SSEN registration, which should be completed as soon as the owner can satisfactorily show proof of ownership, present an official receipt in the new engine installed, one valid government-issued identification card and a photo of the owner and the vessel, also allows government authorities to tag the owner’s face to the boat while it gets into the range of any of the numerous radars the government has installed in key points in maritime highways. 

The data would be passed on to PGC patrols and it can immediately see if the boat is operated by any other person than the owner, which then raises red flags making the boat, stolen suspect. 

“We already have an identity of 80% of the boats in the Visayas,” Latorre announced to the gathering largely attended by coast guard elements. 

Sadly, for Bohol, the local PCG has still to attain a better rate. 

An updated report by the Visayas District of the PGC during an inter-agency maritime protected areas meeting at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office in Lahug, authorities said that Bohol inventory of boats reached 3,657, but only about 2,208 are presently registered. 

This, according to the PCG is 60.44% still. 

“We will soon apprehend them,” Commodore Latorre declared meaning those who have not registered their boats yet but are constantly going out in the open seas. 

Once apprehended, the Central Visayas District head said they would impound the boats and would only release them as soon as the owners can submit the necessary requirements and get the boat SSEN-marked. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

PCG Tagbilaran personnel supervises the painting of the SSEN to boats docking at Tugbongan, in De La Paz, Cortes. (photos courtesy of Ralph Barajan, PCG)

“Earth hour” ride Bohol 2018

Sets off from Plaza Rizal, 6PM 

TAGBILARAN CITY, March 21 (PIA)—Organizers of a pro-earth activity this Saturday, March 24 get off grid and put out their house lights for bike blinkers as they pedal around Tagbilaran to campaign for Earth Hour 2018, from 6:30 PM onwards. 

Banking on the strength of people especially when in numbers, Tagbilaran City Earth Hour Ride organizer Jude Ybas said they have over a hundred bikers: kids to adults, male and female volunteering to ride, turn–off their house lights and “Let Nature Shine;” the earth hour 2018 theme. 

What started as a symbolic voluntary lights-out in Sydney in 2007 to encourage millions of people to take action for earth and its people, major international iconic symbols soon got shrouded in darkness which affords people a chance to commune with the earth through stargazing, while the switch-off spread across major cities around the globe. 

Then the movement snowballed into different creative ways of people switching off their house lights, to governments switching off public monument lights, to malls joining by minimizing their power consumption and families enjoying candlelit dinners and other outdoor activities, to communities going for the cleaner solar power. 

In Bohol, organizers regularly conduct the earth hour ride: a wholesome cruising bike ride that moves around the city to spread the campaign to relieve mother earth of the strain from power consumption. 

This year, earth hour ride Bohol meets up at the Plaza Rizal at around 6pm March 24 Saturday. 

After safety checks which include bike condition, bike helmets, blinkers, brakes, hydration packs and water bottles and proper gear, bikers move two abreast from Plaza Rizal going to ICM via J.A Clarin St. 

Past ICM, they proceed to Dampas Barangay Hall, turn left going to Dampas Diesel Power Plant to Camella Homes, then turn left to Bool to the new Tagbilaran City Friendship Park. 

A request for the City to allow bikers’ access and stop over for recovery at the Friendship Park also allows for a group pictorial for report submission to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the movement initiator. 

After the stop, bikers pick up the pace again to the Tagbilaran East Road past Villa Alzhun, then take the right turn to P. DelRosario St., then turn left to CPG East, ride past the Plaza Rizal, follow the CPG Ave to Belderol street. 

Then the bikers ride towards Cogon Market, past Plaza Marcela then left turn to Gallares St. for the second stop over at Lite Port Center. 

From there, it would be another very short ride back to Plaza Rizal for another potential photo-opportunity. 

This year’s earth hour ride is Tagbilaran City’s 6th bike for the environment night ride since the campaign reached Bohol shores. 

In the past two years, Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto has issued memoranda enjoining all government employees and barangay officials to help announce the Earth Hour and urged them to do alternate activities if they can not join the rides. 

Interested bikers can use any rideable bike: BMX, fixie, mountain bike, rode bikes, cruisers, tandems, trikes or pushbikes, as long as riders follow safe riding rules adopted during the mass ride, organizers said. 

They also urged homes along the bike routes to join in the switch-off for an hour at least and give the earth its much needed rest. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Woman polio victim, basket weaver

Says disability isn’t ‘no ability at all’ 

CEBU CITY, March 20 (PIA)—There were times when she has to lay still at night, fearful that one day, somebody could to get her. 

Sofia Vallente, single at 49 years old, of Canlaas, Antequera, Bohol said, she is not worried of thieves. 

After all, she has nothing in her house worth the fortune for a robber. 

But she heard from the news and she has a fair idea what drug crazed people can do and how much the drug problem has enslaved communities. 

And she has got one problem with that. If all comes down to evading an attack, she could be an easy target. She could hardly run from danger. 

When she was three years old, something terrible happened. 

A skin infection has turned out to be a sign of polio infection, one that could have left her immobile. A heaping dose of medications later, she was lucky she could still walk, but the limp is more than noticeable. 

With it, running from danger would be a great feat, one she could hardly do. 

Living alone since her parents died in 2013, Sofia has survived using her weaving skills she learned from her parents who weave baskets when they are not busy with the small farm they till. 

Taught to weave since child, Sofia, whom kids her age then pick as butt of a joke, confessed she would rather sit in a corner weaving, than play with the kids who make fun of her limping. 

“You know kids, they are not as tactful,” she admitted, a hint of sadness clouding her eyes. 

In this environment, she grew into her teens more and more conscious that she would catch embarrassing attention and ridicule while walking alone. That, she avoids. She would rather only walk, with somebody else. 

Over socializing, Sofia said she has found her love, bringing weaving materials to school so she could pick up the task during class breaks. The money she earns, she said helps the family get the much needed food on the table. She had 6 more siblings, Sofia being the 6th among seven kids. 

What she could not do as much walking and doing tasks which her disability has kept her off, weaving became the love of her life. 

She started with weaving decorative chalices from bamboo and nito (black vine), which then sold at a peso each. 

Then she graduated to more complicated jobs until she could do the high-end rattan with buri strips weave she would call as tuhog-tuhog. 

Sofia had to develop the delicate skill as a weaver, knowing that her parents could not send her to school past the secondary level. 

What she couldn’t do in school, she filled with the perfection of weaving, several of her products helping Antequera respond to the filling orders which resorts and restaurants demand for their hotel and room services. 

“I would rather help the family, the money I earn from sold baskets go to rice, or supplies at home. 

My parents are poor farmers and they too weave when they are not busy with the farm,” Sofia who has to limp-walk from Canlaas, some 8 kilometers away from her school in the Poblacion and back pointed out. 

Past high school, she tried a different job: minding a dry-goods store of a relative in Samar. That accordingly got her pre-occupied. 

“I was a dry-goods store keeper in Samar for 6 years, that was when my parents were still stronger,” she said. 

But as her parents grew older, her father begged her to stay home to care for her aging mother, her siblings have long gone and started their own families leaving the three of them in the maternal house. 

While caring for her aging parents who could not provide for their needs, she has to revert to weaving again. 

It was the life I grow up with, and it was the one I can be comfortable with, she describes how weaving has become her cozy corner as a lady and her comfort pillow when she confronts issues at home. 

By weaving, I can think better, she admitted, perhaps getting engrossed with the art and skill also triggers her mental faculties to be whetted right. And in weaving, she is among the town’s finest, admits then mayor now lady councilor Cecilia Rebosura-Solomon. 

In 2013, in less than a year, both her parents died. 

And as if it was not enough, the October 15 2013 earthquake toppled their house. 

A relief organization gave her a small house beside the ruined family house, and she stays there now. 

Alone and vulnerable to the threat of drug crazed people, Sofia has only to rely on prayers and a sense of belief in humanity. 

Every day, she wakes up to the usual household tasks; which is not much, because she lives alone. And then, it’s the weaving. 

Every Sunday, after going to church, Sofia, along with hundreds of weavers haggle for raw materials: blackvine, bamboo strips, wicker, buri strips, midribs, raffia fiber, buntal, crazy vine, pandan leaves, and still several others. The cost would be recovered from the woven baskets price. 

To bring down the costs, Sofia sometimes use up a day foraging to find materials from the nearby thickets and forests, one that would bring her to places often not frequented by people. 

This is where danger lurks, not from wild animals or the perilous landscape. It is from drug crazed people. 

She confesses, the recent campaign against illegal drugs has made her forages in the forests a lot safer. 

Recently too, after years and years of only coming out on Sundays, she was invited to the local federation of disabled persons in Antequera. 

It was tough at first, I was not confident, had low morale. But then I saw there were people in worse disabilities, I gained a little courage to join. Then I was later elected as official. 

Now, apart from her weaving, Sofia also helps other Antequera PWDs gain their confidence, and become independent. 

She helped organize trainings for PDWs in candle making, soap making be they dishwashing or laundry powder and organic facial soap. The skill also allowed her a little more source of income. 

For PWDs who are still sulking about their fates, she urges: “come out, there is help available for those who want to be helped, make yourself useful, do not lose hope, for even those persons with more severe disabilities, they can still work using their learned skills.” 

Asked what is it that keeps her going; she said she has not much of a choice. Maybe, that is in reference to her disability and the limited options before her. 

Until recently. 

“There are opportunities now, which were not easily available then” she said pointing to available funds for capital from the PWD organizations and from government financial institutions. 

“Just make your best skill as the collateral and chances are, there is available help,” she added. 

“The world is a lot safer now, and help is a bit easier to find, so there really is no reason to be lazy,” she quipped even as she tried to keep off from looking at the camera. 

But then, again, she hinted her arduous trek towards the life she has now, not really rich but competing with other weavers, her finer skills get her comfortable enough be excitedly looking forward to the next Sunday’s mass and haggling for materials for another weaving week. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Disability does not mean no ability, proves Sofia Vallente, 49, single and living alone as a basket weaver of Canlaas Antequera, Bohol. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

RDC-7 urges DENR to act

On raw rattan export ban 

CEBU CITY, March 19 (PIA)—A circumvention of the law has deprived Cebu and the Visayas furniture manufacturers of rattan, which is among the region’s best selling product. 

Alarmed by the dwindling supply of rattan which has ceased to get to Cebu despite an export ban, furniture craftsmen are asking the Regional development Council (RDC) to intercede and draw the defining lines so that there is a unified interpretation of the laws and so that the circumvention can be stopped. 

Raw rattan poles are among the products listed in the export ban as per Customs Memorandum Circular No. 64-2014 dated May 15, 2014 signed by then Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner John Sevilla. 

The same memorandum prohibits and regulates export of products such as gold from small-scale mining, some marine resources as humphead or Napoleon wrasse, live mud crab, live shrimps and prawns, marine wildlife species, milkfish, shells, elvers or eel fry and fingerlings, and saba banana planting materials. 

The to help implement the ban on the export of raw rattan, the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) led by the Department of Trade and Industry as per Executive Order 1016. 

Along with the DTI, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Customs are the line regulators, while PhilExport is tasked to police its members. 

But, RDC Social Development chair and private sector representative Melanie Ng claimed that the export ban is being circumvented in Mindanao. 

Mindanao has been the source of raw rattan for Central Visayas and its furniture and manufacturing industry, which has affected the reliability of local exporters who could not deliver anymore orders and local industry workers are finding lesser jobs in the absence of materials, Ng, who also sits as chairman of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry added. 

Ng, during the recent RDC reported that Mindanao exporters circumvent the ban by making minor modifications on the raw rattan poles to make them look like they have been processed, so these can be sent out as exports. 

The legal loophole, according to those in the industry is that front line regulators have been in subjectively interpreting processed raw rattan. 

Contributing to the confusion is that line regulators slightly modify raw rattan to make them look like these are processed and slip though as export. 

Over this, the furniture manufacturing industry has a proposed solution. 

They said that if all concerned agencies use the DENR Forest Management Bureau in ist 2014 interpretation. 

In 2014, the DENR ruled that “although rattan poles are cooked or sun-dried, these are not considered processed and finished unless these are transformed into manufactured products.” 

Along this, the RDC then resolves to request the DENR Secretary to urge its regional offices to strictly implement the export ban on raw rattan poles as provided by the IAC Resolution No. 1 and the Executive Order 1016 as well as the BOC CMO 64-2014. 

The RDC, during its full council meeting, also requests the DENR to ensure the harmonized implementation of the ban, using the DENR FMB 2014 implementation. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

RDC-7’s NEDA Efren Carreon (center) sits with Chairman from the private sector Kenneth Cobonpue and Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto during the recent full council meeting when the council asked the DENT to stop the illegal circumvention of law to export raw rattan, thus depriving local furniture manufacturers raw materials. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Team Paseo de Loon sweeps

Antequera Offroad Duathlon 

ANTEQUERA, Bohol March 18 (PIA)—It was well a 1-2-3 sweep for Team Paseo de Loon, whose members huddled ahead of the pack to claim the top three podium posts during the recently concluded Antequera Offroad Duathlon 2018 March 18. 

Paseo de Loon, an elite team of swim-bike-run aces spruced up by a Philippine team seeded duathlete Emmanuel Commendador dominated the event participated in by a hundred beginner and professional athletes proving their mint in the sweltering race that included 5 kilometer run, 25 kilometer offroad bike and 3 kilometer run before crossing the finish line. 

Antequera Duathlon organizer Vice Mayor Simon Leo Jadulco described the route as exciting and showcases the best of his town which is better known as the basket capital of the Philippines. 

Commendador crossed the finish line without much of a sweat at 1 hour and 46 minutes; a good two minutes ahead of team mate Jonathan Pagaura, who also blasted through the arch tailed by another team-mate Adelino Ortillano at 1:58 in a classic team sweep finish. 

It could have been a slightly different finish, had a tough contender in Victor Bioncog been able to completely join the race after meeting a bike tire handicap. 

Race witnesses reported a Biongcog solo breakaway at the beginning of the bike segment after a manageable 5K run. 

By the time Bioncog emerged from the offroad bike segment, Commendador and several contenders have taken the opportunity to catch up while the ace biker has to half-walk-half run his bike, cleat shoes swinging by his bike’s handlebars, 3 kilometers towards the final 3 kilometer run to the finish line. 

Commendador, who claims to be also from Dagohoy, leads his Paseo team in nailing other categories including Roger Torreon of Dagohoy in the 40-49 age group finishing at 2 hours and 4 minutes. 

In the relay, Team Paseo de Loon with Ernesto Garcia and Christian Baquero broke the finish line at 1:48. 

Antequera Offroad Duathlon, one of the 142nd Antequera Foundation Days highlights, opened up races for 29 and below, 50 years old and above, 40-49 years old, female 36-39, female 31 to 35, male 30-39 years old, and each for male and female relays. 

In the 29 years old and below, Neil Arado came first with 2 hours and 4 minutes, followed by Ronie Jorigue at 2:07; and Leonides Sollegue Jr., completing the podium arriving at the finish arch at 2:09. 

In the 30-39 years old age group, triathlete Jeffrey Real clocked in at 2:21, followed by Ewelito dela Torre at 2:22 and Paul Mesagrande came in third at 2:24, two minutes later. 

In the 40-49 age group, Rogelio Torreon crossed the victory line at 2:04, followed by Glenn Flores at 2:19 and Nerio Zamora at 2:20. 

For the golden category of 50 and above, Alberto Taga-amo crossed first at 2:38 while at his heels came Emie Gopo at 2:40 and Godofredo Albuladura at 2:54. 

In the female 35 years below, Lyzle Hermoso clocked the best time at 3:01 while Emmylou Fuertes came next at 4:02. 

For the female 35 years and above, Marisyl Maristela came in at 3:45,followed by Ella Marie Pocot at 4:17. 

At the male relay, Paseo de Loon topped with Ernesto Garcia and Christian Baquero finishing the 33 kilometer run-bike run with official time of 1:48 while Joseph baldon Jr., and Julius Abay-abay pair clocked in at 1:55. Following them were the team of Albino Vinas and Jonathan Viel Lumay at 2:00. 

In the female relay, the pair of Caeczarina Mae Idul and Elma Lumanas clocked at 4:02. 

The Antequera Offroad Duathlon is the latest in Bohol’s assertion as a veritable sports tourism destination, as the majority of the 100 runners completed the race and received finishers’ medals while crossing the finish line below the cut-off time of 7 hours. 

The Antequera trails proved to be enough of a grueling challenge to test the basic and the technical skills of professional bikers who have chosen an entirely different way of de-stressing. 

At least three athletes: two from Antequera and one from outside had mechanical problems with their bikes, mostly flat tires or chain breaks during assaults. 

Another biker too could not continue with the race due to a crash. 

But during the awarding ceremonies, in the real atmosphere of sports brotherhood, although the sore was visible among those who took the podium, the sense of accomplishment pervaded. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Team Paseo de Loon with then mayor Cecilia Rebosura-Salomon during the podium honors of the recent Antequera Offroad Duathlon 2018. (LGUAntequera)