Author Archives: ACE R. MORANDANTE
DAVAO CITY — A European Union (EU) envoy urged both the government and armed insurgent groups to look for more options to get the stalled peace negotiations back on track.
“It (peace negotiations) didn’t work, so far; so, they need to do more,” said Johan Snijckers, deputy head of contracts and finance of the European Commission delegation to the Philippines. “We think that parties have made quite some effort.”
Snijckers, who was in Davao for the culmination of the EU-funded project Action Repair, said that both parties need to get together again to see what the options are; and, if possible, explore new ones. Read on
“Please, let’s choose the right President,” pop singer Christian Bautista suddenly blurted out in the middle of the concert at the CAP Auditorium on Anda Street in June just as he was about to start another song.
His companions, soap opera actor and singer Jericho Rosales and talent-search champion Yeng Constantino, shared the same sentiment. At the after-party interview, Rosales said a person’s educational background is not an assurance that ones choice of a leader is good. As an example, Constantino said an economics degree of some of the countrys leaders did not guarantee good things for the country’s economy. Read on.
Even before actual construction could begin, Camella Homes has already sold 90 percent of all its units in the first building within the seven-building condominium complex the company is developing near the Buhangin flyover.
DAVAO CITY — Scholars of House Speaker Prospero Nograles, the Davao City first district Representative, are worried. When the congressman steps down after his last term in 2010, they fear that funds for the scholarship program “Oplan Kaalam” will also end.
So, when a Nograles staff mentioned this in a May 26 scholars’ orientation program, some scholars suggested letting Karlo Nograles, the son of Prospero Nograles, run for election. Read on.
Lawyer Wendell Avisado, city administrator, said the 2.8 billion pesos the city borrowed from the LBP this year will finance a local stimulus package, a large chunk of which will be spent on road infrastructure and the citys traffic signal system. Avisado admitted that the traffic system will not directly help the people but it will add on to the citys existing infrastructure and will serve as a come-on to investors. Read on
Davao City — The health department hopes to decrease by 75 percent the number of mothers who die during childbirth by increasing its pool of skilled birth attendants in the region.
The Department of Health (DOH) has secured national funding for the Maternal Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN), a strategy to address the high rates of maternal mortality. Read on.
JOBS FOR GRABS. Hundreds of job seekers queue at the job fair dubbed Jobapalooza on May 1 in one of the leading malls in Davao. The Department of Labor and Employment initiated the job fair to “address the effects of the global crisis on the workers and the economy.” (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
DAVAO CITY — Unlike most of the overseas Filipino workers who lost their jobs in Taiwan, Isabelita Atis, 29, felt relieved when her plane finally touched down at the Davao International Airport in December last year. She was among the 6,468 thousand overseas Filipinos laid-off in Taiwan after 95 Taiwanese companies were forced to trim down their workers as an effect of the global financial crisis.
Atis said she was glad she got rid of her exhausting job, which was supposed to end in January this year. Unlike other OFWs from Taiwan, she had no debts to pay and had also put up a decent amount of savings.
Other retrenched workers were not as lucky. Those who were laid off with Atis were worried how to pay their debts and how to find another job to support their families. Read on.
DAVAO CITY The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in Southern Mindanao is wary of the proposal to amend the Constitution to open up the countrys resources to foreign companies, saying such proposal will only result to unfair working conditions for workers.
Arman Blas, KMU-Southern Mindanao spokesperson, said salary deductions, lay-offs and unfair flexible labor conditions that workers experience right now will worsen if government allow foreign companies to come in.
He reiterated the KMUs stand against constitutional amendments which would give multi-national companies greater control over our economy. Read on
By CJ KUIZON | Davao Today
Sitio Valma of Barangay Ngan in the municipality of Compostela used to be a thriving logging community in the 1970s up to the 1990s. When the company’s timber logging agreement (TLA) expired, Consuelo Valderrama, its owner, chose not to renew the contract, signalling the death of the boom town.
By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN | Davao Today
The mayor said he is not “that dumb” to show everyone he is handing out cash to an armed revolutionary group. “If ever I will do that, I’d rather deposit the money through the NPA’s ATM account,” Duterte said as he advised residents of Mandug and Callawa not to believe the reports.
