Pilar PO gets solar package for

partnership with One Meralco

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Aug 14 (PIA) –Blessings continue to pour upon a tribal community which decided to help manage, conserve and preserve their forests not just for their posterity but also for the environment that direly needs a little help.

Lundag Eskaya Tribe and their Multi-purpose Cooperative (LETMULCO) recently received a 5.4 megawatt solar electrification package that would be capable of powering their food processing business.

Through Meralco group of companies’ corporate social responsibility channeled to One Meralco Foundation (OMF), Letmulco, through its chairman Apolonio Bia Jr,. together with Pilar Mayor Engr. Wilson Pajo, Lundag Barangay Chairman Edelio Balaba Sr., and its members gratefully accepted from OMF the operational solar package through OMF executive director Jeffrey Tarayao, August 14.

The solar electrification package with solar panels installed on top of the barangay covered court, can also serve the Barangay government in times of emergency.

Organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through its Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management Program (INREMP), Letmulco understood that the need to reforest and rehabilitate forests and fill in idle areas with forest cover can help Bohol secure a protection against calamities and the creeping effects of climate change.

Eskaya, the tribe they are on, have subsisted on farming and traditional ventures into the forest for food and lumber for shelter, and hundreds of years of this practice has presented an unsustainable situation: forests are becoming thinner as the tribal population increased.

With their participation in the reforestation and environmental rehabilitation especially in their ancestral domains, the Eskaya tribe can even enhance their natural grounds.

Through INREMP, instead of venturing into the forests for food, Eskayas went into camote and banana farming, which still contributes to the program objectives, the DENR said.

In exchange for committing to replant and reclaim most of the forests affected by human encroachment, natural calamities and the effects of changing climate, in exchange for their participation in the environmental rehabilitation, the DENR through INREMP granted the community farm to market road projects, infrastructure and a livelihood package that includes a livelihood shed, banana and camote chip slicer and shredder, freezers and other heavy duty food processing equipment, shared Bia Jr, during the turn over ceremonies.

Immediately, the women in the tribe underwent food processing training and operationalized their business, which is a strong support for Bohol’s tourism industry.

And then, just as the food processing business was starting to boom, typhoon Odette blew off their ambitions.

About 50-60% of the livelihood shed was damaged, the equipment and food processing that we were able to salvage, could not operate because of the power outage.

We were back to zero, admits Bia, who is restarting to nurse back the coop members to be active in the organization.

And then came One Meralco, which picked 7 people’s organization in Pilar town to help in their companies’ One Merlaco For Trees Program of planting one million trees.

As a OMF partner in the One for Trees Program, OMF visited Eskaya to see what they can do, shared Tarayao, during the program.

As we were working on the electrification package, we did not know that Letmulco also availed of the Department of Science and Technology’s Community Enhancement through Science and Technology, which grated the group additional food processing equipment like industrial baking ovens and, Tarayao said.

We figured, a solar power package through OMF’s Agriculture and Livelihood Electrification could help them operate so that power outages could not hamper their operations.

With 5.4 MW of solar power, Letmulco sure can now restart their business and further help reduce their people from overexploiting the forest for additional livelihood. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

ONE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. One Meralco Fopundation through Exec Dir Jeffrey Tarayao (third from right) handed over to Pilar mayor Engr Wilso Pajo and LETMULCO chairman Apolinio Bia Jr., the 5.4 megawatts of solar electrification package to allow the people’s organization to operate their food processing business even during power outages. Witnessing the turn-over are Cong. Alexie Tutor’s representative Ester Archuelo (second from right) and local non-government organization conduit exec director Aurelio Salgados Jr. With them are women members of Letmulco. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

IT WORKS! Pilar Mayor Enger Wilson Pajo talks with One Meralco Fdn Director Jeffrey Tarayao as Letmulco members operate the camote chipper machine run by solar power, through the Foundation and its partner NGO Process Bohol. Camote chipping which used to be done in hours can now be finished in standard sizes within minutes, through mechanization. (PIAbohol)

Insure with PCIC, Pvet

urges pigfarm owners

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Aug 18 (PIA) –While veterinary officials and volunteers continue tracing the extent of the incursion which African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in Pilar, Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz urges owners of family pig-farms to insure their livestock.

A government insurance agency, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) provides insurance cover to livestock, including swine and poultry, aside from other livestock like cattle, carabao, horse, goat sheep and even game fowls.

The PCIC insurance covers death due to accidents and diseases, and other covered risks affecting livestock.

The insurance can be for backyard non-commercial mortality insurance cover, commercial farm mortality insurance cover so farmers can recover part of their investments, in case ASF get to their farms.

According to Dr. lapis, PCIC provides P10,000 insurance cover per head of swine, on a premium payment of only P225.

In fact, she added that small backyard hog raisers are given free insurance if they are listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA).

Speaking during a radio interview, the female veterinarian who personally supervised the immediate activation of the ASF protocols as soon as Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado issued Executive Order No 37, activating the necessary measures to immediately stop the spread of the disease, in Pilar town, stressed that the insurance coverage is different from the ASF indemnification claims.

Bohol Provincial Government set up an indemnification fund for ASF: which allows farmer owners of breeders and fattened sine to get P5,000 assistance if these are culled, to control the spread of the disease.

For newly weaned swine which are included in the culling, the owners can get an assistance of P3,000 while for sucklings, beneficiaries are eligible for a P1,000 assistance.

While we pray that we would not be hit by the virus, it is also good to get us in a better position to recover part of the investment, she said.

Meanwhile, in San Vicente Pilar, as the virus that hit and caused the death and culling of 87 heads from the 9 household farms hit by the virus, the authorities have noted that their random tests beyond the 500 meters and within the next 500 meters from the index cases have produced negative for viral infection.

Moreover, as to the Department of Agriculture Administrative Circular No. 02 series of 2022, after a lapse of 15 days without any other ASF viral outbreaks outside the index case and elsewhere, Bohol could be declared ASF Free still.

Authorities however still believe that without everyone’s help, anytime the ASF virus could again come in, through the countless entryways that could not be totally covered by the hundreds of veterinary quarantine inspectors.

Biggest among the concerns are those meat sold in the online markets.

In this case, if the buyers demand from the sellers information and documents as to where the meat came, then the concern could be lessened.

Always make sure that the meat that you buy bears the veterinary health certificate, or at least a certification from the municipal agriculturist who can attest as to the origin of the pig, and that it is ASF free.

Or, when buying meat, at least look for the National Meat Inspection Certificate, which should be displayed on the stall where the meat is sold.

NMIC seals are placed in meats that are slaughtered in government accredited slaughter centers, these facilities have veterinarians who supervise and look at the animal’s health before they are sent out to slaughter. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

RECOVER. Provincial veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz has urged Boholano pig-farm owners to insure their swine breeders and fatteners with the PCIC. For a sum of P225, one can benefit from a P10,000 insurance if the animal dies or is culled to prevent the spread of the disease. (Rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)