Crowned Miss Valencia ‘23

also yields another scepter

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 20 (PIA) –Do not ever mistake her beauty as that of the stereotyped weaker sex.

Standing with her royal court, Miss Valencia 2023, Antonette Tagud, is definitely gorgeous in her red glittering spaghetti gown, maybe a notch better than the rest, but behind that slim arms cradling that fresh bouquet of flowers hide lethal muscles than can maim one to easy submission.

Tagud, who calls for everyone to inspire each other to make cleanliness and proper hygiene a habit to avert yet another pandemic, bested 12 other candidates in the recently concluded posh pageant as part of the nightly activities to herald the feast day of the Santo Nino, Valencia’s patron saint.

She must never to be mistaken, or one will have to suffer nasty consequences.

Behind the sophisticated beauty and grace of Tagud, who came to the town’s most prestigious pageant sponsored by a prominent business establishment in Canmanico; D.U. Pie Gasoline Station, is an athlete who has a lethal strike in her arsenal.

A confident 22 years old candidate who didn’t falter in the night’s glamor and dazzle of streaking light, Tagud is no stranger to the physical and psychological stress of being in front of crowds, to rattle her veins.

Having been a representative of Bohol in the Palarong Pambansa national games for two times in arnis, her welcome introduction was more of a gracious pugay (salute) among candidates, before she adeptly parries her internal fears to make the final stab towards her dazzling coronation as the town’s ambassadress and official candidate to the bigger, grander and more prestigious stage in the upcoming Miss Bohol pageant.

Valencia Mayor Dionisio Neil Balite, who personally serenaded the candidates, said he is glad Miss Valencia has bounced back after years of pandemic restrictions.

Co-presented with the civil society of Valencia, Project Chair Rotarian Louella Bantol said Miss Valencia 2023 has local business establishments joining, instead of burdening barangays with the candidate’s participation in the pageant.

Coming in as a perfect training ground for the town’s young women to become confident, assertive and outward-looking in their personal advocacies in life, Miss Valencia has been a coveted beauty and brains competition that young Valencianhons eagerly anticipate.

Miss Valencia 2023 is Antonette Tagud, 22 years old. She has won medals in the provincial regional national level for arnis.

The prolific and gorgeous Tagud also won the special award in Best in Evening Gown as well as SMART People’s Choice Award, Miss Pantene, Face of the Night and Miss Radiant Skin International, a sponsored award she received with Miss Ma. Terenz Cagulada.

Completing her royal court is First Runner Up, Miss Ma. Terenz Cagulada, 22 years, who came to the pageant through Durban' s View Beach Resort.

Cagulada also came home with the Best in Production Number, Best in Advocacy Award, as well as Miss BM Salon.

Second runner up was Miss Eda Mild Taga-amo, 18 years and who came to the pageant via Glam Browscape Aesthetic Clinic sponsorship.

She was also Miss Photogenic and Miss Cignal.

Third Runner Up was Miss Jenyl Daling, 20 years and was in competition courtesy of Bohol Limestone Corporation.

Daling also came home with Best in I Story award.

Fourth Runner Up was Miss Gwenefer Cagata, 18 years old and was sponsored by RLim's Community Pharmacy and Medical Clinic.

Cagata was also Best in Swimsuit, Miss Talent, Miss Rotary Club International and Miss Brilliant Skin.

Other big winners for the night were Juliana Mae Balistoy who was awarded Miss Congeniality and Face of Devaness; Psyche Maestre as Miss LR Tea Food Station and Veverly Tagud as Miss Save and Earn.

The pageant’s judges were businesswoman and former Miss Bohol Runner Up Genevive Jamisola, social media influences and chef Paolo Rigotti, psychologist, globetrotter and restaurateur Marie Josephine Yamada, Doctor and Rotatarian Kazan Baluyot, singer and songwriter Eva Santos, youth and campus leader Vann Lawrence Aumentado and beauty queen and the quintessential Boholana, Queenie Melody Fullante. (PIA-7/Bohol)

Modala greets CNY with

‘Bugsay sa Pag-asenso’

CORTES, Bohol, Jan 21 (PIA)—To welcome the year of the Water Rabbit in 2023, Modala Beach Resort and Moadto Strip Mall with Bohol Paddlers Association brings out Bugsay sa Pag-abante; a themed festival of hope and prosperity for Bohol and its people.

For the Chinese New Year in 2023 (CNY), business leaders, private sector representatives, local government officials and Boholanos gather to awaken the dragon in fitting ceremonies as well as to pass on the hong bao, a revered Chinese tradition during the new year.

Coming in complete with a lion dance and the awakening the dragon ceremony, tow dragon-boat teams would also sweat it out in friendly dragon-boat races at the waters fronting Modala’s expansive beach.

Modala Beach Resort Vice President for Operations and General Manager Rommel Gonzales shared the desire to welcome the Chinese new year in a venue which allows teamwork, cooperation and collaboration to a common goal: to paddle as one towards economic recovery following the oandemic and Odette.

As the water rabbit is cunning, it knows how to use advice, experience and even miscalculations of others to advance its goals, so does Bohol, where failures are unacceptable when on the road to recovery, as to the Chinese zodiac.

Bugsay sa Pag-abante is such a fitting event for Bohol’s leap to the future as it would also be a festival of prosperity, organizers said.

This event also becomes a venue for offering gratitude for the past years challenges and ushers in a new beginning for everyone, MODALA shared.

AT the program would be inspirational messages from the Chinese community in Bohol, message of hope from Vice Governor Victor Dionisio Balite, message of thanksgiving from Board Member Tita Baja, message of prosperity from former city mayor John Geesnell Yap and a message of unity from Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado.

The governor would also lead business leaders, local officials, civil society sector representatives in the symbolic awakening of the dragon before the friendly races start. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

THE DRAGON AWAKENS. After the pandemic, Bohol paddlers unleash the dragon this Chinese New Year, to also announce the resumption of the water sport in time for the national races in Bohol this July. (PIABohol)

Tagbilaran City leads CVisayas

In using cashless transactions

CORTES, Bohol, Jan 14 (PIA) –City Mayor Jane Cajes-Yap etched history for Tagbilaran City when it launched Central Visayas’ first city to implement cashless payment in its central market and public transport, as she realizes a promise she ticked during her assumption into office.

Together with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and financial service provider (FSP) partner institutions, Tagbilaran City launched January 11 its PalengQRPh plus, as it starts to implement City ordinance that allows majority of Tagbilaran City Central Market merchants to accept cashless payments of goods and services as well as fares for its regulated tricycles.

With the launching of PalengQRPh here, customers can do cashless transactions in the 57% of the Central Market merchants as well as tricycle drivers and operators in the city tricycle operators and drivers association with cashless transaction accounts, so the plus, explains BSP Deputy governor for regional operations and former tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, during her message.

The cashless transactions protect the market from the circulation of fake bills, eliminates the need for loose change, allows for a convenient shopping while it heaps up a buyer’s score which can be converted into loan amount should the account holder want to put up a credit line, she added.

PalengQR PH program is jointly developed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and aims to build the digital payments ecosystem in the country by promoting cashless payments in public markets and local transportation, particularly tricycles.

Capitalizing on the country’s QR Ph initiative, the program found support in Tagbilaran City’s Sangguniang Panlungsod under Trade and Commerce Committee chair Nicanor Besas and City Vice Mayor Adam Relson Jala with the local ordinance enjoining market vendors, community shopkeepers, and tricycle operators and drivers (TODA) to accept cashless payments.

During the launching, Tagbilaran City gathered financial service providers with QR capabilities like Starpay, Maya, UnionBank, LandBank, RCBC, AUB and GCash to assist target users to open transaction accounts.

On the other hand, BSP put up a booth that accepts the conversion of crumpled, soiled and dirty bills into mobile accounts, so owners can immediately start buying.

GCash also assured that they are putting up more and more pay-in outlets

At the market, buyers simply need to scan the QR codes on the items they want to buy, and this directs him to the merchant account, and in just a push of a button, he can consummate the sale, his payment exact and without any need for change. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

DIGITALL. City Mayor Jane Yap and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor for Regional Operations Bernadette Romulo-Puyat display their phones showing scanned QR Code of a fruit stand merchant at the Dao Central market, as the city launched cashless transactions, the first in the Visayas and the first in the country this year. (PIABohol)

WITH NGAs DURING THE DIGITAL LAUNCH. City mayor Jane Yap and BSP Deputy governor Bernadette Puyat join national government heads and representatives during the digitalization launch at the Tagbilaran City Central Market. (PIABohol)

‘Individual titles’ for farmers

via SPLIT program, says DAR

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 13 (PIA) –Finally, after decades of studies on how to improve the land reform program, agrarian reform beneficiaries could get their individual and not communal titles of their properties anytime soon.

This as the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) accomplishes over their target for the preparation of the final transfer of these properties to their final farmer owners.

Of the target 2,100 hectares of farmland readied for field validation in preparation for the parcelazation to individual titles, we have accomplished 2,704 hectares, reports Dr. Ronald Pumatong, Bohol Agrarian Reform Officer.

So far, so good, he comments, during the recent Kapihan sa PIA, at the PIA studio, and aired live over DyTR, PIA Bohol youtube and facebook accounts.

Pumatong, along with Engr Leonard Cagampang and Corazon Noroño, came to the radio forum on air to disseminate the information about another government program through the DAR which now allows the individual agrarian reform beneficiary to own up a clearly-delineated farm as stated in his own individual titles.

Through the Support for the Parcelazation of Lands for Individual Titles (SPLIT), the previously issued collective certificate of land ownership awards (CLOA) would now be partitioned for award to individual beneficiaries, explains PARO Pumatong.

The 2,323 agrarian reform beneficiaries tilling parts of the 2704 hectares issued to them in the recent years, are now on their way towards owning individual titles split from the communal lands awarded to them by the government for being in food production.

The awarded CLOAs then were not technically delineated as to who works on that particular lot, that farmers later realized part of what they farmed does not anymore belong to their awarded lots.

Moreover, while some farmers are diligently involved in food production, others in the same awarded CLOA work only until they want, compromising their over-all harvests.

Still to some, despite the land award, without a secure instrument assigning them of the lot they till, their tenure is actually teetering in the balance.

And notwithstanding the DAR accomplishment on the vast tracts of lands awarded, food production still remained to be a challenge.

As the government sees issues like these, awarding patches of lands to individual farmers is the next logical thing.

Giving out collection CLOAs indeed hastened the process of giving out the lands to farmers, but farmers could not really own up patches which they can call their own, while the collection CLOA prevents them from investing in improving the land because the collective CLOA can not be put up as loan collateral, adds Pumatong.

He also shared that a project management office for SPLIT has already been moving around Bohol to validate and inspect areas with communal CLoAS to be included in the SPLIT Program.

The PMT and its field validation teams have also tracked the inherent legal and technical problems which have plagued the country’s flagship social reform program.

Even then, Bohol still managed to put up 325 individual titles in computerized form for 217 agrarian reform beneficiaries, Pumatong said.

These were part of the 642 hectares of the 656 agrarian reform beneficiaries which the DAR has processed to the Register of Deeds for eventual release of computerized titles, he summed up. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

SECURITY OF HOME AND FOOD PRODUCTIVITY. PARO Bohol Ronald Pumatong stressed that giving farmers individual titles could result in more food production as this allows the farmer to work on his own, and could use the owned titles to contract loans for better farm operations and production. (RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)