DAVAO CITY – The Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) here on October 12 has challenged the airline companies and shipping forwarders to offer special discounted rates to Mindanao growers, who assured typhoon-struck Luzon that they would offer cheap vegetable and other food items if transportation rates would be taken cared of.
“Or, if government is interested, it can send in the C130 of the Armed Forces to bring the cheap food products from Mindanao,” said Ednar Carlos Dayanghirang, executive director of the MinBC, who reacted to reports about the high-priced vegetables from Southern Mindanao reaching the Metro Manila markets after the floods have subsided.
He blamed the high freight cost for the high prices “when we have plenty and very cheap vegetables in the country”.
The MinBC and local government officials have long been challenging government to revisit the country's cabbotage law, or the law governing the local shipping industry, to allow Mindanao access the markets in Metro Manila.
“We can, and we want to help by sending our cheap food items here,” he told the regular Monday press conference of the Davao Press Club at the Cafe Rysus at SM City here.
Davao City Councilor Peter Lavina, said that high transportation rates have been a perennial problem among businesses in Mindanao, which often make it cheaper to import from neighboring Asian countries than to get the products from Mindanao.
The shipping industry has already warned in a statement last month against tampering with the cabbotage law or lose local shipping to foreigners.
Meanwhile, the Dayanghirang and the agricultural growers in Davao City has formed an agricultural board to petition the City Council to consider their 25-year development plan while the city reviewed its Comprehensive Development Framework.
Among the highlights of the 25-year plan was to discourage the conversion of lands “:while the city has not maximized the use yet of the areas identified and segregated for housing and industrial use”.
“We want businesses to maximize these areas first before they want to get the agricultural lands for housing and industrial use,” he said. “We don't want zoning changes to happen as fast a sit can be, because this will only encourage landbanking.”
Lavina assured however, that the City Council was not amenable at tinkering with the classification of the the prime agricultural areas “because these are the areas covered by law that should not be touched”. He said that these are the areas devoted to irrigated rice lands.
He said that the the Council has also suspended the approval of conversion of lands and has informed all landowners that it would not accept any petition for reclassification of lands for the duration of the review.
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Damage to schools, DepEd assets reaches P552M
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Classrooms and various properties owned by the Department of Education (DepEd) sustained damages amounting to P552 million during the onslaught of Typhoon Ondoy.
This was announced by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus during a press conference on Monday shortly before addressing teachers and school officials in the Davao region for the regional education summit at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao.
Lapus said damages to classrooms amounted to P344,192,840 while damages to other DepEd properties such as textbooks, desks, computers and other equipment reached P206,096,062.
During Typhoon Ondoy, for instance, 1,008 schools were damaged and another 242 were being used as temporary shelters for 34,087 evacuees, said Lapus.
The DepEd has yet to assess the effect of Typhoon Pepeng, which hit Northern Luzon.
“Imagine this damage of P550 million, and this is not in the budget,” Lapus said.
He said the rehabilitation of classrooms to be used immediately would be the urgent aim to reduce the negative impact of the disaster to the schoolchildren.
Government disaster agencies have agreed to the proposal of Lapus to use public facilities like gymnasiums and stadiums to house the victims of disasters such as flash floods and typhoons.
“Rather than use the schools immediately, [members of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC)] agreed to use these facilities first. That’s what they are also using in the US,” Lapus said.
Gymnasiums, stadiums and covered courts have better roofing and facilities like restrooms, and they could accommodate more people, he said.
“The government can also easily conduct relief and distribution and other services, like dental and medical missions in these government structures,” he said.
He said schools should be spared from being “penalized” in situations of evacuees fleeing disaster areas.
Classes just opened yesterday and some evacuees have moved to covered courts and gymnasiums.
“That’s in the National Capital Region [NCR] only because we are still assessing the extent of damage of Pepeng in the north,” he added.
As a consequence of the big number of damaged schools and those used as evacuation center, the DepEd has directed holding of classes on Saturdays, and to use the last week of October to continue classes instead of using them for “in-service training.”
“The last week of October is often misunderstood as a semestral break,” he said. “But no, it’s being used for in-service training.”
The NCR and Calabarzon were the most affected by Typhoon Ondoy, with the NCR accounting for P286 million damages and dislodging 19,402 from their homes and seeking refuge in schools. Calabarzon sustained damages of P211 million and is currently housing 12,352 evacuees.
This was announced by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus during a press conference on Monday shortly before addressing teachers and school officials in the Davao region for the regional education summit at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao.
Lapus said damages to classrooms amounted to P344,192,840 while damages to other DepEd properties such as textbooks, desks, computers and other equipment reached P206,096,062.
During Typhoon Ondoy, for instance, 1,008 schools were damaged and another 242 were being used as temporary shelters for 34,087 evacuees, said Lapus.
The DepEd has yet to assess the effect of Typhoon Pepeng, which hit Northern Luzon.
“Imagine this damage of P550 million, and this is not in the budget,” Lapus said.
He said the rehabilitation of classrooms to be used immediately would be the urgent aim to reduce the negative impact of the disaster to the schoolchildren.
Government disaster agencies have agreed to the proposal of Lapus to use public facilities like gymnasiums and stadiums to house the victims of disasters such as flash floods and typhoons.
“Rather than use the schools immediately, [members of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC)] agreed to use these facilities first. That’s what they are also using in the US,” Lapus said.
Gymnasiums, stadiums and covered courts have better roofing and facilities like restrooms, and they could accommodate more people, he said.
“The government can also easily conduct relief and distribution and other services, like dental and medical missions in these government structures,” he said.
He said schools should be spared from being “penalized” in situations of evacuees fleeing disaster areas.
Classes just opened yesterday and some evacuees have moved to covered courts and gymnasiums.
“That’s in the National Capital Region [NCR] only because we are still assessing the extent of damage of Pepeng in the north,” he added.
As a consequence of the big number of damaged schools and those used as evacuation center, the DepEd has directed holding of classes on Saturdays, and to use the last week of October to continue classes instead of using them for “in-service training.”
“The last week of October is often misunderstood as a semestral break,” he said. “But no, it’s being used for in-service training.”
The NCR and Calabarzon were the most affected by Typhoon Ondoy, with the NCR accounting for P286 million damages and dislodging 19,402 from their homes and seeking refuge in schools. Calabarzon sustained damages of P211 million and is currently housing 12,352 evacuees.
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