Cebu bikers pick 3 of 5

champ trophies in 3pic

CORTES, Bohol, Dec 3 (PIA) –Cebuano endurance mountain bikers packed home three championship trophies, leaving Boholanos and Negrenses with each of the remaining two race categories as Bike Ta Bai sported another feather to its organizing cap with the successful BtB Bohol Epic Challenge 3 (3pic), November 27.

The third epic race (3pic) is still Bohol’s most grueling cross-country race that gets the bikers to the seemingly unrideable summits of Maribojoc mountains, and the technical trails of the lowlands, a fitness test for every mountain biker’s endurance, commitment to the finish, a working skill to perform minor bike repairs and the capacity to read the route from their mobile phones.

An organizer’s nightmare considering the need for race marshals strung in 108 kilometers of the race course, the organizers this time went on to add another biker’s must have skill: navigation through a map designated through a mobile phone application that bikers have to follow to traverse the full epic distance of cross-country roads, a hanging bridge, epic ascents bring a full racer’s elevation gain to nearly 1,500 meters and tricky descents that could scrape off one’s knee, if one isn’t careful.

The two-man team self-sufficiency endurance race designates a captain and navigator, follows a mobile phone application designated route and discourages any outside help, each member forced to help each other to finish the race together, instructs Engr Gerard Marmito, race organizer and cross-country bike enthusiast.

Cebu’s Keith Defiebre Cycling team represented by Jessie Sanchez and Khalil Andrei Pepito, sporting race number 019 A/ B bagged the championship trophy in the Open Elite Category while Diamond Cycling Team’s Rizaldy Sanchez Jr., and Kirk Jed Gelloagan in race number 201 A/B went home with the 30-39 age category championship.

Moreover, Cebu’s Team Iyaan represented by Rhovic Khalid Cartagena and Ramxes Nino Pabuaya on racing number 201 A/B sprung out from the finish line ahead in the 20-29 age category.

Meanwhile, Bohol’s Team Ako, Ikaw, Way Asawa (AIWA) with bikers Emmanuelito Apor and Concordio Bernales pedaled to claim the 50 and above trophy and Bayawan Trail Explorers (BTEx) of Negros Oriental’s Christopher Saavedra and Jowie Natak on racing number 404 A/B snatched the trophy in the 40-49 age category.

In the 108 kilometers, Cebu’s Jessie Sanchez and Khalil Andrei Pepito, racing for the Open Elite Category crossed back the finish line in 4 hours and 21 minutes after the race started at 5:00 in the morning, November 27.

On their heels and frantically boosting their speed with the downhill was the tandem of Jorice Mark Zabate and Aljun Villarin on 016A/B, barely 8 half-seconds behind their compatriot champions.

Ten minutes later, Rizaldy Sanchez Jr and Kirk Jed Gelloagan burst through the finish in 4 hours, 31 minutes, to win the 30-39 age championship.

Finishing fourth over-all and getting the 20-29 category championship were Rovic Khalid Cartagena and Ramxes Niño Pabuaya for Team Iyaan with an aggregate time of 4 hours and 31 minutes.

Fifth over-all and the silver medalists in the 30-29 age category were TriBohol/Gerardas of Bohol with local sprinter Nicho Lumay and Lord William Lim, posting an aggregate time of 4 hours 58 minutes. The duo was second in the 30-39 age bracket.

On the sixth place overall is Team Garagara’s Kim Michael Angelo Labiaga and Mark Gil Opo with a time of 5 hours, 6 minutes taking the 108 trails that separate the boys from the men. They came out 3rd in the 30-39 age group, finishing 3rd in the 30-39 age bracket.

Seventh overall finishing after 5 hours and 11 minutes is Sons of Zebedee of John Albura and James Kho who got 4th in the 30-39 age bracket.

Eighth in the over-all finishers were Murcia Bikers with Steven Despi Luague and Edwin Nacario Jr., finishing after 5 hours21 minutes and the 3rd in the Open Category.

Ninth is BTEX Team of John Saavedra and Jowie Natak wearing 404 and the champion in the 40-49 age bracket, finishing in 5:44.15

Tenth is Cebu’s Team GaraGara in racing number 419A/B represented by Rommel Macabuhay and Julius Regis, with an aggregate time of 5 hours and 54 minutes .

In the end, top fifth honors for the Open Elite were Champion Jessie Sanchez and Khalil Andrei Pepito (Cebu), Silver: Jorice Mark Zabate and Aljun Villarin (Cebu) and Bronze: Murcia Bikers Steven Despi Luague and Edwin Nicario Jr. (NegOr), fourth: John Paul Dagatan and Elijah Zamora (Cebu) and RMG Team of Geronimo Rodrigo and Rodale Justin Villegas (Bohol).

In the 50 and above, Champions were AIWAs Emmanuelito Apor and Concordio Bernales (Bohol); Silver Bohol Bike Kings Anthony Peralta and Noel Benedict Clarin (Bohol); Bronze Team Yummies Raymond Bayquen and Lloyd Ompad (NegOR), fourth SMB’s Cyril Dano and Eduardo Bungabong (Bohol) and fifth: AIWA Floro Tunday and Romulo Acaylar (Bohol).

In the 40-49 Age group: Champion Christopher Saavedra and Jowie Natak (NegOr), Silver Team Garagara’s Rommel Macabuhay and Julius Regis (Cebu), Bronze: Garagara’s Lawrence Lozada and Orville Tecson (Cebu), fourth TriBohol’s Pio Castro II and Nerio Zamora (Bohol) and fifth BTEX Dave Alexand Gelvoria and Lito Villegas (NegOr).

In the 30-39 Age group, Champion Diamond Cycling Team’s Rizaldy Sanches Jr. and Kirk Jed Gelloagan (Cebu), Silver TriBohol/Gerarda’s Nicho Lumay and Lord William Lim (Bohol), Bronze Garagara’s Kim Michael Angelo Labiaga and Mark Gil Opo (Cebu), fourth Sons of Zebedee John Albura and James Kho (Cebu) and fifth BTEX Leo Morgado and Rey Ian Gomez (NegOr).

In the 20-29 age group, champion Team Iyaan Rovik Khalid Cartagena and Ramxes Nino Pabuaya (Cebu), Silver: Start Something Adelino Ortillano and Ernesto Garcia Jr., (Bohol), Bronze BTEX Erm Canete and Jotham Yunos Tanasan, fourth SMB Alvin Ligores and Adson Calamba (Bohol). (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

EPIC LOSS. Riders who brave the race route without regularly consulting the race route on their mobile phone applications run the risk of getting off track, losing precious time, energies and the chances to finish ahead of their targets, like this group who pedaled for 6 more kilometers to get back to the racetrack. BtB 3pic is this year’s longest and hardest cross country bike race in Bohol opened to other regions. (RAHC/PIA7/Bohol)

GET UP AND GO. Crashes, be they major falls of slips like this are regular incidents in the entire stretch of the Epic race, things that could easily discourage many to stop competing. The BtB 3pic had 144 bikers comprising 72 teams competing in Bohol’s yet most grueling crosscountry bike race yet. (RAHC/BikeTaBaifoto)

Permaculture: Restoring lost

balance in farm ecosystems

The harvest may be plenty for a small patch, but when farmers who grow single crops pour in large amounts of resources: fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, to get that, would that be reasonable?

Thus runs the poser that Erastus Leopando, a retiree and a self-confessed permaculture farmer cast over at Piskay ni Bai, PIA Bohol’s talk show that tackles on topics that are important and engaging to Boholanos.

Where is the logic there when you produce a hundred bags, of which you would use 50 bags to buy fertilizers?

Leopando, who used to be a government employee before he migrated to the US with his family, is now back for good, to take on a love he turned his back on, when he was still much stronger to take on the laborious task of farming.

But for him, farming could be strenuous, if one goes against the natural ecosystems.

Adopting a farming system called permanent culture or permaculture, Leopando and his farm manager Engr. Pojas Dioscoro “Ite” Pojas, are managing the Leopando farm by looking back at the wisdom of old that worked and noting the natural and flourishing ecosystems.

When you plant something that does not go with the soil, you would need fertilizer to make it grow, but when you plant one that is already there or has grown there, you may not need that much fertilizer, because that plant has been proven to grow and flourish there, Leopando illustrated on the online talk show.

Aside from going with the organic nature of the farm, both highlighted the need for setting up of an environment that allows the plant to survive and harden its capacity to fight off natural elements that the imbalanced farm ecosystem keeps following years of farming abuse.

Permaculture adopts integrated diversified organic farming, and uses a happy mingling of vegetables, fruit trees, flower gardens, vermiculture and natural pollination

“Help the plant first by protecting them against natural predators like snails, or worms, because the conventional system of farming has poisoned the worms that kill the birds that eat it,” he explained.

Work with what is there: if your farm is near the sea, using drifted seaweeds is a great idea, and if your farm is far from the sea, rotting banana trunks are great places for earthworms, which are your soil softeners, Leopando illustrated.

Permaculture uses the naturally decayed farm refuse, animal manure, kitchen peel and parings as well as rotten fruits, dried leaves processed through vermiculture.

To regulate the insects in the farm, they use a natural concoction from plants that have been proven to deter insects, and because these are naturally sourced, they are harmless to birds.

In fact, to help in natural pollination, other than birds, butterflies and insects, the farm keeps colonies of stingless bees.

Pojas, who has worked with Gawad Kalinga and has done extensive stingless bee keeping training recalled that his father, who also kept stingless bees, would harvest honey and use it to ease out fever when he was young.

“I do not know what was in it, but now, I also use that when my kids would have fever,” Pojas said.

Stingless bees, owing to their size, can access pollens that other pollinators can not go, so they facilitate a much better farm pollination that any other pollinators, Pojas explained.

Besides, stingless bees rarely go beyond 500 meters from their colony, and would rather stay in the farm than venture out where there are predators and chemical spray in conventional farms that can kill them.

Permaculture is taking care to regain the balance in the entire farm ecosystem: from water management by using drip irrigation, coco peat to facilitate water retention, natural fertilizer, natural spray fertilizers, natural pest management, pollination, to propagation and reproduction, so that everything becomes self- sustaining and farming now becomes a breeze. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

HARDY FARMER. Hardy Leopando used to work at the court, before migrating with his family to the US. Now back in Bohol to take on a love he once turned his back to, Leopando picked on permaculture, knowing that it is also taking care of the earth. He along with his farm manager Engr Dioscoro Pojas adopted natural farming and management systems to allow the farm to recover. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

STINGLESS BEEKEEPING TRAINOR. Engr. Dioscoro Pojas has himself seen the critical role of stingless bees in pollination as the increase in harvests in his managed farm would show. Aside from improved harvests due to better pollination, stingless bees also produce honey, beeswax and propolis which sells high in the local markets. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

Bohol runs third in CVGRDP contributions

CORTES, Bohol Dec 3 (PIA) –As the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in Central Visayas surges to P1.195 trillion in 2021, Bohol contributes a third of it.

This as the economy starts to rebound, posting a 4.3% growth rate in 2021, a relatively high leap from the negative 6.3 % as posted in 2020, as to the Philippine Statistics Authority which set up the Provincial Product Account since it was piloted in Region 7 years back.

During the annual Dissemination Forum on the Provincial Products Accounts for Bohol held at the Harborview of the Bohol Tropics Resort, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Provincial Statistician Jessamyne Anne Alcarazen said based on the 2018 constant price, Bohol’s gross provincial domestic product (GPDP) increased to P159.9 billion in 2021.

This is despite a P10 billion economic slump in 2020 from the 2019 GPDP.

GPDP is the standard measure of the value added, created through the production of goods and services in the region during a certain period. With that, it also measures the income earned from production, or the total amount spent on final goods and services.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the increase is 4.3% from a negative 6.3 % in 2020.

For 2021, the top contributors to the GPDP in percentage points are wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles at 1.5%, followed by education at 0.7% and information and communication at 0.5%.

Picking tourism as another major economic engine which could address a multitude of un-employment issues as well as investments, the pandemic which has practically halted tourism led thousands of tourism workers jobless, denting so much on the services sector and dragging its contribution to the economy to the ground.

The lockdowns and the travel restrictions including the work safety protocols may have hit the services sector, but Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries stepped in, while services sector rolled off again towards the end of the first half of 2021, enough to post positive growth.

Sans new route plans, Bohol feels

Pinch in negative transport-growth

CORTES, Bohol, Dec 3 (PIA) – Years of inaction by local officials who were supposed to craft the municipal and the provincial route plan has heavily dented Bohol’s economy that should have been streamlined as the country re-opened its doors after the pandemic.

Without the much-needed route plan, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) could not move to release new franchised routes, even as Bohol population has increased and new roads have been constructed.

During the 2021 Provincial products Accounts of Bohol, as presented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), of Bohol’s major industries, only in services sector has Bohol getting a negative growth rate in transportation and storage services.

In 2021, while Bohol posted a 4.3% growth rate in its Gross Provincial Domestic Product compared to a negative 6.3 in 2020, a facilitated legislation setting up the municipal and provincial route plans could have solved the transportation woes that the Boholanos experience.

The stringent measures implemented by the authorities has forced many operators to stop investing, considering that the already approved routes are already overserved, while many areas do not have any public transport regularly plying.

Joselino Baritua, Provincial Tourism Council Tourism Transport Committee chair and a key official of the Bohol Transport Cooperative explained that before the LTFRB could approve new routes, these have to be identified by the LGUs concerned and validated by the provincial officials for an omnibus resolution detailing approved new routes.

Before the release of the Provincial Accounts detailing the performance of Bohol’s leading industries which largely define the gross provincial domestic products, Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado met with the transport leaders to determine the assistance that the provincial government can extend to their problem.

In consultation with the transport sector, steps are in place leading to the approval of a unified transport route plan, emanating from the provincial government, Baritua shared.

It would be quite tedious if we get back to the town legislative councils to propose a route plan and then have the provincial sanggunian validate it. We are into a faster establishment of the measure to allow the LTFRB to establish and approve new routes, the tourism and transport official added.

Belated this may be, this is the best we can do, especially that Bohol is now starting to feel the pinch in the lack of transport operating in several key routes that could drastically cut the travel time and save the commuters money and the hassle. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

IF ONLY TRANSPORT SERVICES WERE UP. Bohol may have grown 4.3% in 2021 from a -6.3 in 2020, this could have been higher, as all contributing industries posted positive growths except transport and storage services which still stayed at -2.0 in 2021, the PSA in its Provincial products Account presentation showed.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. Neda 7 OIC FOR Development Research Division Archt Neil Andrew Menjares said Bohol could sustain and capitalize on its agricultural production to fight back inflation and keep people tiding over the economic wave the sweeps across the region. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)