"Ang Atong Bulawan"

 Like gold, Davao de Oro has been through “peaks and valleys” before reaching its triumph and sustaining it with golden standards.

 

Through the years, the province remains solid and progressive as it was known as Davao region’s golden province. With its celebration of the Online Bulawan 2020 with the theme “Ang Atong Bulawan”, Davao de Oro showcases various events thru social media platform. The 3 day virtual celebration officially opened on October 19, 2020 and will end on October 21.

 

This year’s Bulawan celebration departs from the ordinary. Thru the transition from the physical celebration to virtual or via online, the Online Bulawan 2020 paves a way to converge not only for Dabawenyos, but people from all over the archipelago of different generations, such as; Baby boomers, Millenial generation and Generation Z. Everyone can access and witness the celebration with just a click of their fingertips.

 

This year’s theme “Ang Atong Bulawan” brings out the province’s augustness and wealth--- the Dabawenyos and the province’s culture. Virtually, the Bulawan Celebration will brandish everything that is purely local- from raw materials to agri-products and local talents.

 

“Ang Atong Bulawan” means the Dabawenyos themselves, who in times of crisis and downfall remains hopeful and strong as their hearts were anchored of the province’s spirit of “Bayanihan”. It also signifies local talents that already romped the international stage and brought pride and honor in Davao de Oro and its agri-products from the eleven municipalities each with distinct harvest and agricultural endowments that could match export standards.

 

“Ang Atong Bulawan” showcases the province’s past and present. Since the renaming of the province from the former “Compostela Valley” to “Davao de Oro”, this is the first time that the province celebrated the bulawan virtually. Formerly, the celebration was called “Anibina” and now “Online Bulawan”, an evolution towards progress with observance to the New Normal.

 

The former festival activities were transformed in-line with the current situation. The yearly Indak-indak sa Kadalanan became Tiktokan sa Bulawan, annual Fun Run to Subasta for cause, Tree Planting to Green Day at Home, and Garbo Comvalenyo to Bulawanong Musika. The celebration will also host Bahandi Talks, Balik Tanaw: Bidyu Serye, Agri-Oro and Babayinihan for the first time. There will also be a special tribute for the front-liners who, from the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, relentlessly served the public.

 

Online Bulawan 2020 reminds people of the golden things the province is blessed with and conveys that Davao de Oro, no matter what comes in its way, will remain hard-bitten just like gold. (Jasteen P. Abella, Information Division Davao de Oro)

Philippine Penny Stocks Spark Gold Rush

By 

Cecilia Yap

 and 

Ian C Sayson

• There’s a gold rush in Philippine telecom minnows and everybody’s invited. For now.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to award a new telecommunications license has sparked a frenzy as speculators bid up the prices of once-forgotten penny stocks which may benefit from the shakeup of the sector’s current duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.

NOW Corp.’s market value has surged almost 400 percent so far this year on wagers the broadband service provider will be part of a new consortium to challenge the incumbents. Its market value of about 21 billion pesos ($403 million) is 8,400 times the 2.5 million pesos in net income it posted in 2016. Earlier this month, it became more valuable than GMA Network Inc., the nation’s second-largest broadcaster, which earned 3.6 billion pesos during the same period.

EasyCall Communications Philippines Inc., a former 1990s provider of paging services that’s seeking to build a wireless broadband network, has risen over 1400 percent since the end of November. Transpacific Broadband Group International Inc., a satellite station operator, is up more than 200 percent over the same period. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index has eked out a miserly 3 percent gain in comparison.

The ongoing interest was evident in trading Wednesday. EasyCall was up 49 percent and Transpacific 13 percent as of 11:39 a.m. in Manila. The benchmark stock index was down 1.2 percent.

The Philippines will bid out a new telecom license in the first half of 2018, a process set in motion by Duterte’s invitation in November to Premier Li Keqiang for a Chinese company to invest in the sector and improve services. The bidding was moved to May from an original plan of March upon the request of contenders, said Eliseo Rio, acting head at the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

The proposal sparked investor interest in potential domestic partners for any Chinese bidders, and NOW, EasyCall and Transpacific Broadband are among the 10 biggest gainers this year in the all-share index. Bets that they can leverage their franchises, existing operations and listed status to potential overseas bidders will likely continue until the bidding, according to Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc.

“This gives hope to small, listed telecommunication companies that they could be the third major player,” Ravelas said. “The government probably wants a company that can be up and running immediately.”

Read: Terms of telco bidding to be changed, perks to be added

The speculation has even spread even to some real estate shares, according to market participants.

Golden Haven Inc., a builder of memorial parks that expanded into mass housing, has seen its shares surge over 1,300 percent this year on speculation its billionaire owner Manuel Villar will use the company to list his telecom venture that will bid for the frequencies the government will sell. Even Villar’s Starmalls Inc., a shopping mall builder, has risen over 170 percent in 2018 on the same speculation.

However, to some in the market, the rally has gone too far and there is a growing risk of a pullback. Rachelle Cruz, an analyst at AP Securities Inc. in Manila, is cautious on the sector given the speculative nature of the moves, even for shareholders of the company which gets the license.

“Share prices are already stratospheric and will likely collapse once the bidding is over,” she said. “Even the winner would see its stock collapse because raising the capital it needs will lead to massive dilution while its first five years of operations isn’t likely to be profitable.”

Gains in the stocks will moderate as the bidding nears, with the realization that the winner can’t build the business overnight, said Paul Michael Angelo, an analyst at Regina Capital Development Corp. “The incumbents will put up a tough competition,” he said.

As for the companies themselves, they aren’t convinced by the naysayers, preferring to highlight the logic they see behind the moves.

“There is irrational speculation, there’s rational speculation,” NOW President Mel Velarde said of his company which this month won a renewal of its franchise for another 25 years. “In this particular space, we are in the right spot and we want to seize this opportunity.”

— With assistance by Clarissa Batino

Two late athletic Golds avert Philippines shutout

By Gerry Carpio (The Philippine Star)

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The Philippines’ Kaitlin de Guzman adds a silver in floor exercise and a bronze in balance beam after a gold feat in uneven bars. JUN MENDOZA

KUALA LUMPUR – Team Philippines lost the momentum of its golden romp the day before and was staring at a gold-less day until athletics’ Trenten Anthony Beram and Aris Toledo delivered late in the night in the 29th Southeast Asian Games here.

Beram erased the specter of fellow Fil-Am Eric Cray’s shattering loss in the 100m dash Tuesday by ruling the 200m in a new Philippine record while Toledo proved to be Games’ ironman by winning the decathlon, giving the Philippines its 10th gold that went with 15 silver and 19 bronze medals to remain at sixth.

Beram clocked 20.84 seconds to beat Thai Jirapong Meenapra (21.22) and Malaysian Thevarr Gunasegaran (21.26).

Khairul Hafiz Jantan, who foiled Cray in the 100m dash, struggled to end up fourth in 21.28 seconds.

Toledo, on the other hand, amassed 7433 points to clinch the decathlon gold. Thai Suttisak Singkon settled for second with 7411 points while Vietnam’s Bui Van Su took the bronze with 6737 points.

Mark Harry Diones also took the silver in triple jump with a 16.63m leap. Malaysian Mohd Hakmi Ismail won the gold in record 16.77m feat.

Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

Malaysia pulled away with 47-35-29 (gold-silver-bronze) followed by Singapore (26-22-20), Vietnam (26-19-22), Thailand (16-27-33) and Indonesia (15-17-32).

EarIier, in a unusual day after a harvest of five gold medals Tuesday and three in the first three days, Team Philippines was stopped in its tracks by rivals from host Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia which leveled the field and carted away all the 32 gold medals staked until the late hours of the afternoon.

Until Beram and Toledo came through with late gold feats.

Perlas Pilipinas also hacked out a tough 69-67 victory over Thailand to stay in the medal hunt in women’s basketball.

Karatedo John Paul Behar advanced to the finals when the officials upheld a protest which involved a Malaysian karatedo’s entry to the finals on a wrong scoring. Behar advanced but lost in the gold medal round.

Kaitlin Cera Lianne dela Cruz added a silver medal in the floor exercise and a bronze in the balance beam, respectively, while Reyland Capellan took the bronze in the vault at the close of the artistic events in gymnastics yesterday. 

Dela Cruz who became gymnastics’ new sensation with her win in the uneven bars a day earlier, emerged as the best performer in artistic gymnastics in the Philippine team with a gold-silver-bronze medal finish.

The best finish before her was the silver medal of Ava Lorein Verdeflor in the uneven bars in 2015.

Capellan ended his stint in the SEA Games with a 1-3 finish counting his gold in the floor exercise to improve on his 1-0-0 gold-silver-bronze medal performance in 2015.

Last-minute substitute Arniel Ferreira, a former SEAG champion who was pulled out of retirement to sub 2015 gold medal winner Caleb Stuart, a no-show in the national eliminations, took the bronze in the men’s hammer throw.

A New Adventure? Yes....? BUT!

It has been one of my favourite places in Mindanao. Just after couple after hours, when I left this place rushing home I got the sad message, that three miners have been killed due a landslide.

I kept on visiting those areas since my first visit in 1982. I kept on archiving video shots of people being happy and "out of breath" discovering milligrams of "certain gold". 


Sad to say, another landslide happened now (while writing this post)! in the Province of Sitio Tagurong, New Bataan, Compostella Valley.