From Jo Hormiguera to Sunny Flower

Releasing happy hormones

And winning personal wars

If she’d have her wish granted, she’d want strength that equals the strongest in her boat.

At 38, Jo Hormiguera, is not your typical athlete.

Of below medium built, short bob hair, deeply sun-tanned, toned body, she could walk well among your average Boholanas in the mall, and no one notices.

The way she moves, nobody would know that she has gone past a failed marriage, beat depression to a pulp, joined Bohol’s most strenuous trail runs and is a certified Spartan in the obstacle race course helping Bohol paddlers grab championship trophies in her few years with Bohol Paddlers Association Incorporated (BPAI).

That, is a way too off, from the thin book lovers club she belonged to in high school and college.

"I was on the edge of depression when I decided to return to my parents’ house," she confessed during the weekly Kapihan sa PIA celebrating gender equality and women empowerment for March.

Hormiguera, along with another iconic woman paddler and dragon boat paddling trainer Naty Celada Buenafe Oson, or Nanay Naty to the paddlers, came to the Kapihan sa PIA to share their insights on life and struggles of a woman and how to get over it.

Nursing on her pain from a failed marriage and at the same time trying to fit into her normal day working in the procurement division of a government agency under the Department of Transportation, Hormiguera, said she was glad her family took her in.

She shared focusing on her work played well from the start but eventually her personal demons caught up.

That was when a friend introduced her to dragon boating in 2018.

"At first, it was hard, strenuous, but then if you are into it, work hard, pray and do everything, you will definitely improve," she advised.

Bohol women paddlers, like Jo and Nanay Naty however bask in a paddling environment where every stroke and twist of the paddle, every body rotation and every extended reach out for deeper digs, is a team effort amplified in the glide of the short or long boat.

Dragon boating, a sport dominated by men, has opened up slots for women paddlers in Bohol, and that has leveled off the playing field for men and women in land and water training as both have to do repetitive exercises and coach each other on the proper way to a synchronized paddling for efficient results.

“I was 44 and I was running marathons still,” said Nanay Naty, who sat across Hormiguera during the talk show.

But that was also when she found out that she has problems with her feet, and her doctor told her to stop.

“Og dili kaya sa sports sa land, naa may para sa water,” Nanay Naty quipped engaging women and men who have time to spare and a body to take care, adding that there is even a team of persons with disability conquering the world of the complete and abled.

BPAI has brought dragon boating to Cebu and organized the PADS Assistive Disability Services Racing Team, a team of persons with disability (PWD) paddlers kicking in world victories in competitions abroad.

An athlete who races for marathons together with her retired army husband, both nanay Naty and her husband has shared in her kids the love for sports.

A son, she said runs marathons, and she, now advised not to run anymore, accompanies him in training.

That was where she met biker and runner coach Jojo Murillo Orcullowho suggested she join a paddle boat team.

“If my problem was my feet, then I could use my upper body still, to paddle,” she shared.

Unlike Jo, who has to start her core strength training from scratch, Nanay Naty found the training exercises not as hard, even as she was then tasked to be a pacer, a dragon boat’s most demanding role.

Joining the men’s team in mixed races, both Jo and Nanay Naty find it easy to mingle as their training tightens the bond between and among paddlers that in several instances, nobody looks when a lady paddler adjusts her underwear fit or her bra strap in between heats.

There is that looming shadow of Dr. Doyet Dumaluan, always encouraging, engaging us to beat ourselves to produce a better paddler the next day of training, both admit.

Dumaluan, himself an expert and endurance paddler and founder president of BPAI has patiently steered the group, paddling both bow and portside, to the finish line with dedication, determination and focus.

To help, they train on personal discipline, enough to pack everything in a drybag before going to bed, because once the alarm sounds in the early morning, much time would be wasted in gathering things needed for the next two-hour flexibility and endurance training.

“There is something in repetitive movements that keeps the body in focus all the time,” Jo, who has found that she can easily transition from starboard to portside paddler, bared.

With the repetitive movements, women with lumps in their breast find that these get dissolved, Nanay Naty said, citing the experience of Cebu’s Pink Paddlers, an all women cancer survivors competitive dragon boat team.

Asked how her training has helped her across her depression, Jo, who has changed her facebook name to Sunny Flower has not only helped the paddlers win races, she has also strengthened her will to do marathons, trail run competitions and advocacy fun runs.

Daku kayo og tabang para sa mental health, kining kauban nimo sa training nga permi nimo ikakita, mao ra pod ni ang imong ikahinagbo sa advocacy events, environmental activities ug sa panga-on, nga mura na sila og imong igsoon, Hormiguera commented.

Yes, kon nay problema, kami-kami na ang pag-estoryahay, she added, hinting that a paddler bagged by problems could easily lose focus and becomes a ‘heavy liability’ during competitions.

And when sharing delicate issues are still too hard, channeling your energies to repetitive paddling often keeps the mind away from the problem, that often leaves you feeling positive, and as always gaan permi ang paminaw sa lawas, adds Nanay Naty.

Dragon boating, for Sunny Flower, releases the happy hormones, makes you gain more friends and lets you go places.

And for Jo Hormiguera, releasing the happy hormones to win her personal wars by sports and dragon boating, picking on a Sunny Flower is already a ‘paddles up’ moment from that bleak fit of depression then.

Hormiguera and Nany Naty Oson are now training for the March 18 Saulog Dragon Boat races and the 2023 Bohol Island Dragon Boat Festival, to again prove they can equal men in a level course.

And a dragon boat course as always, is flat.

Already sitting as giants in women paddling in Bohol, both Sunny Flower and Nanay Naty have rowed on their lanes more impressively than many, but still continues to train, as getting the 56 kicks in 58 seconds to cross the 200 meter course could be a man’s best.

And then a woman’s too. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

DIG DEEP. Nanay Naty Oson demonstrates the form which makes champion paddlers, during the recent Kapihan sa PIA celebrating women empowerment and gender equality. Both Oson and Jo Hormiguera shared insights one being a woman and competitive paddler in a male-dominated sports. (PIABohol)

HAPPY HORMONES. Paddling, although banking on strenuous repetitive paddling, bolsters teamwork and camaraderie that paddlers often come out of the training happy and exuding positive energies, shared Jo Hormiguera at the Kapihan sa PIA. (PIABohol)

SORORITY PADDLES? Nope, real paddles they are, and they are not used to beat fraternity aspirants, but to steer and rod the dragon boat, beat personal demons and come out better persons with good mental health, claim women paddlers of the BPAI. (PIABohol)

PLAYING WITH THE BIG BOYS. Women paddlers never feel intimidated nor inferior with men paddlers in Bohol as the simultaneous mixed training on land and water exercises build better camaraderie than competition among them. (PIA Bohol)

Bholdex 23 adopts EUF, ABS,

ensures ‘dive site’ protection

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 16, (PIA) – Lest Bohol commits yet another mistake in its guiding policy in environmental sustainability, the upcoming Bohol Dive Loop Expo (Bholdex) 2023 this April puts in place best practices, measures that assures environmental protection and preservation which immerses newly opened dive sites in the towns on a leading edge.

Environmental User’s Fee (EUF), Advance Booking System (ABS), and regular underwater monitoring would be Bholdex’s innovations ensuring that Bohol sustains its world class marine treasures in these new dive sites in at least 12 towns here.

Unlike when Bohol opened its enchanted underwater treasures to divers in the 1980s when it was free for all, the recent advancements in marine environmental sustainability has pushed environmental managers to implement measures for underwater environment protection and conservation, explained Panglao Association of Dive Operators vice president Edgar Baylon, in an interview.

Partnering with PADO, Bohol, which has chosen to take a path to keep its resources at its pristine conditions, looks at the contentious issue of carrying capacity in eco-tourism sites.

“Before we proposed for the opening of the new dive sites in the towns outside Panglao, we conducted underwater assessments, marine stock inventory and use this to calculate for the site’s carrying capacity, which should be strictly followed to minimize the environmental impacts of divers to the sites,” Baylon said during a radio forum aired over PIA Bohol youtube and facebook channels.

Bholdex 2023 is a 16-day dive festival which highlights an underwater photography competition for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) divers category and for free dive category.

Other than that, Bholdex also offers fun dives, information education campaigns, coastal clean ups, lectures and coral transplantation activities, with host LGU activities organized for visiting divers.

It also includes in the dive loop new dive sites identified by organizers after collaborative underwater assessments by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Bohol Provincial Environment Management Office (BPEMO) and PADO.

Included in the divers’ itinerary for the festival competition are dive sites in Lila, Dimiao, Valencia, Garcia Hernandez, Jagna, Duero, Guindulman, Anda, Mabini, Ubay and Talibon with Panglao.

These new dive sites are privileged as they open with the right measures, unlike what we did with Panglao when the measures came later, after we realized there have to be regulations in place for environment sustainability, adds Baylon who operates a dive resort in Alona beach front, Panglao’s most famous beach front.

We have the town councils adopting the EUF and ABS as well as the monitoring systems seeing who it worked in Panglao, Baylon shared.

The ABS works in such a way that a diver who books through the Bholdex website, is given a dive site assignment in a specific time and date, to make sure that there is no extra diver in the site which can impact on the area’s carrying capacity.

Meanwhile, the EUF will assure the town that it will have a resource it can use in the future to rehabilitate and improve the dive site or build new facilities as an add-on, he quipped.

“These new dive sites in the towns that we are opening for Bholdex are comparable to the premiere core dive sites in Panglao, Balicasag, Pamilacan, and Cabilao,” Baylon, who has dived the Tubbataha claimed.

Earlier in the interview, he also said Bohol’s dive sites are at par with the Great Barrier Reefs of Australia, a mecca of the world’s SCUBA divers.

But, when other areas are not as keen with the environmental impacts caused by the divers in their waters, Bholdex just doesn’t want this to be happening here, Boholdex organizers shared.

Divers and free divers interested in joining Bholdex have to register at www.Bholdex.com to be assured of slots. (PIA-7/Bohol)

A DIVE DAY IN BALICASAG. On a normal day in Balicasag Island, encountering a hawksbill turtle is a certainty, but with the increasing number of divers, a risk of impacting the environment has become real and eminent, says Edgar Baylon, whose organization is partnering with Bohol to ensure environmental sustainability of the new dive sites. (PIABohol/photos from DOT-DIVE7)

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHERS PARADISE. A SCUBA diver sidles into a coral to get close to a resting hawksbill turtle for a personal memento. Bholdex 2023 invites underwater photographers to join in the dive safari that would get them to newly opened dive sites in 12 towns, promising unforgettable underwater experience. (PIABohol/foto by Alex Stoyda)

SP Committee dismisses

graft charge for Jamora

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 16, (PIA) – For insufficiency and lack of evidence, the Sangguninag Panlalawigan Committee on Good Government, Justice and Human Rights dismissed the administrative case for graft and corruption filed against a town councilor in Jagna town.

The administrative case filed against former Councilor Maricris Jamora, arrived at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan as indorsed by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas to Vice Governor Victor Dionisio Balite for resolution.

The case stemmed from a letter complaint to the Ombudsman by Arnulfo Lagare Jr., which alleged that in 2018, as the town distributed hams to Jagna LGU employees, the said hams were to be claimed at the local Pampanga’s Best Products Outlet, owned by Jamora.

Lagare also alleged that the procurement was irregular and that the funds used to pay for the ham was realigned from another activity.

The complainant also alleged that Jamora benefitted from the illegal transaction.

The indorsed complaints also got attached affidavits of witnesses claiming that the ham were claimed at the store after presenting claim stubs, further stating that the LGU does not own a freezer to keep the hams from spoiling.

In her answer to the complaint, Jamora said the complainant did not present any direct evidence that she committed acts in violation of RA 3019.

She added that the documents attached to the complaints do not directly involve her, contain her name or her signature, further alleging that her family does not own the store Pampanga’s Best.

Jamora claimed that she only responded in good faith to the LGU need to preserve the ham for distribution to the employees.

Having weighed on the facts and the available witness affidavits, the SP Committee led by lawyers Venzencio Arcamo, Jiselle Rae Villamor and Tomas Abapo, Jr., agreed that the case filed against Jamora does not have a leg to stand on.

Looking at the affidavits of witnesses and documents submitted by the complainant, there is nothing that would show that the respondent is guilty of violating any of the provisions of R.A. 3019, the SP committee bared.

As to the contention that the respondent benefited from the program, the committee saw that, there is proof that she benefitted from storing and releasing the ham to the employees upon presentation of their claim stubs.

“There was no showing of any payment needed to be made for claiming the ham, in fact the on that benefitted was LGU Jagna for getting the service of the facility to store the ham to be given away to the employees, according to the SP committee reviewing the case.

“It must also be noted that the complainant did not even show any proof of any involvement or participation of the respondent in the purchase of the ham products, complainant merely alleged that the store Pampanga’s Best was owned by the family of the respondent but there was no proof that Pampanga’s Best was the store where the LGU procured the ham, the reports summed.

Moreover, the complainant also did not show in the documents that the respondent owns Pampanga’s Best, that document shown did not contain any of the respondent’s name, or wahte ever it is that she benefitted from the storage and handling of the ham.

The act of the respondent is clearly one without malicious intent but instead an act of charity which will benefit not only the LGU of Jagna but also the employees who would prefer to claim their ham on a date or time which is most comfortable to them.

With this, the Committee recommends to dismiss the complaint for insufficiency and lack of evidence. (PIA-7/Bohol)

SP RULES ON GRAFT CASE. SP through its Committee on Good Government has recommended to dismiss the administrative charges for graft against Jagna councilor for insufficiency and lack of evidence when the complainants failed in their allegations to implicate in their affidavits the direct or indirect connection of the accused to the alleged crime. (PIABohol)

Bohol EO 11 imposes total

ban on pork from Cebu

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 15, (PIA) – TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 17 (PIA)--That chicharon from Carcar, sure looks yummy, but you can't take that to Bohol.

This as Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle C. Aumentado issued Executive Order No. 11 series of 2023, banning the entry of pork products like chicharon, Cebu longganiza, chorizo, lechon, raw pork, live pig, and frozen semen from Cebu to Bohol.

The govenor's measure is in line with keeping Bohol insulated from the dreaded African Swine Fever (ASF), a serious concern that could wipe out the six billion pesos local hog industry.

ASF, a viral disease fatal to hog population and could be brought to other places by raw or processed meat, when it could slip to Bohol could seriously affect the livelihood of nearly 50,000 backyard hog growers whose income from the industry is their main source of funds for their basic necessities.

Earlier, the Provincial Government of Bohol passed Provincial Ordinance No. 2022-011, which revised Provincial Ordinance No. 2021-015 which prohibited the entry of live pig, pork, pork products and frozen semen from ASF-affected areas and providing penalties therefor.

That same ordinance is supported by another measure in Executive Order No. 45 series of 2022 which established the implementing rules regulations.

As to that ordinance, transporting, carrying, possessing or importing live pig, pork, pork products, frozen swine semen, swine feeds, and processed porcine animal protein, in whatever quantity coming from or passing through African Swine Fever (ASF) affected areas to Bohol is prohibited.

Any person who violates this Ordinance shall have the illegally smuggled goods confiscated and the person be fined P1,000 for his first offense, P2,500 for second offense along with and P5,000 and imprisonment of not more than 6 months at the discretion of the court.

While Central Visayas has remained ASF-free since the animal disease was first officially detected in Luzon in 2021, last March 1, 2023, the Provincial Government of Cebu, in an executive order, said that the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Animal Disease Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory had confirmed the presence of ASF viral DNA in blood samples from ASF surveillance activities in Carcar City.

This also had the BAI identifying areas in Cebu province as Red Zone, which means infected zone in the latest ASF zoning classification.

Fearing the possible displacement of pork and its processed products or live pigs to Bohol, the governor, exercising the powers expressly granted upon him by the Local Government Code of 1991 issues the prohibition on the entry of live pigs, pork and processed pork products from Cebu and Cebu City to Bohol.

In fact, all transport vehicles and carriers from Cebu can not get to Bohol, as they can only be allowed at the port areas Livestock and poultry carriers are allowed only at the port premises to transfer cargoes not prohibited under the ordinance.

This means, consignees of goods from Cebu to Bohol shall bring with them a Bohol based transporter to withdraw the incoming goods as the arriving transporters can not be allowed outside the port premises.

As to imported meat passing through Cebu for Bohol, while these are allowed entry to Bohol, these boxes or packages can only be opened inside the National Meat Inspection Services accredited cold storage facilities in Bohol, prior to their distribution here.

As to the supply of swine feeds, Bohol is set to sources them out from other safe areas, to minimize the negative impact on the local supply.

The governor signed the executive order March 7, and was set to take effect immediately. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)