Davao De Oro recognizes heroism among volunteers in the "Bayanihan Sa Paaralan 2019"

Davao De Oro--- Davao De Oro Province celebrates “Volunteer’s Holiday” on December 13, 2019 at the Magnaga Beach Resort, Pantukan, Davao De Oro. With more or less 1,200 volunteers, it was a fun and memorable day as the provincial government spearheaded a day of thanksgiving for their selfless commitment as they give their time and effort to help those children have better quality of education through the provision of a classroom building.

This follows with the success of the Bayanihan sa Paaralan 2019 on five different sites: Danawan in Brgy. Manurigao, New Bataan, Side-4 in Brgy. Mangayon, Compostela; Sitio Sapang-lubog in Pantukan; Sitio-Bongloy in Pagsabangan and Panansalan in Compostela. Not only a 1 unit, 2 classroom buildings were built but also a teachers’ cottage, Kusina ng Kalinga (kitchen) and a Gulayan sa Paaralan (vegetable garden) were provided during the week-long build.  

“Ni-volunteer gyud mi kay ang tumong ug tinguha nga ang among mga anak maka dawat gyud ug saktong edukasyon. Nangunay gyud mi ug lihok ug nagpasalamat pod mi sa uban ng taga LGU ug lungsod nga nagvolunteer ug nitabang sa amuang dapit.” said Margonio Jacinto, the purok-chairman who donated the space in Panansalan where classrooms and teacher’s cottage were built.

“No wonder sa tanan natung kalisod, challenges sa kinabuhi, dili lang sa atung sarili kung dili sa atung kumunidad maskin unsa ka bug-at nga mga problema, ang mga taga Davao De Oro makalampos ug makabarog gyud tungod kana sa paggawas sa kultura sa bayanihan sa atung mga sarili.” said Governor Jayvee Tyron Uy. 

The provincial government of Davao De Oro initiated the celebration for all volunteers who served as “living heroes” paving the way to rack up an aspiration. Each team received a cash prize worth Php 30, 000 from the provincial government as a reward for a job well done.

“We will not stop nga maghimo ug proyekto ug programa pinaagi sa Bayanihan. Through the Bayanihan, we can do everything. Kahit gaano kahirap, kaya nating abutin basta’t nagkakaisa tayo” said Senior Board Member Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy, who has since been look up to as the father of the Bayanihan in the province. He was the one who steered “bayanihan” during his stint as the governor in the later Compostela Valley.  

 (Jasteen Abella, ID Davao DE Oro)

Tote bei Erdbeben auf Philippinen-Insel Mindanao

Bei einer Erdbebenserie auf der philippinischen Insel Mindanao sind mindestens vier Menschen ums Leben gekommen. Das heftigste Beben hatte die Stärke 6,8 und ereignete sich in der Davao-Region. Anschließend kam es zu etlichen Nachbeben. Im Ort Padada stürzte ein mehrstöckiges Supermarkt-Gebäude ein. Dabei starben nach Feuerwehr-Angaben mindestens drei Menschen. Eine unbekannte Zahl von Menschen wurde noch in den Trümmern vermutet. In Matanao starb nach Angaben von Bürgermeister Vincent Fernandez ein sechsjähriges Mädchen, als eine Betonwand umstürzte.

(C) DW

97% voted for YES to DAVAO DE ORO

Nabunturan, Davao de Oro--- It's a resounding 97% in favor of "yes"  as Compostela Valley Province is now officially renamed to Davao de Oro with a total of 174,442 voting for YES. 

“The making of history does not end here. This is only the beginning. We will work on making Davao de Oro true to its name, a province where people come, people live, and people prosper. We are Davao de Oro and this is our promise,” Governor Jayvee Tyron L. Uy said following the declaration.

Governor Uy expressed his gratitude to all who took part in the making of history in the province as he thanked Congressman Manuel E. Zamora and the late Congressman Prospero Amatong who first filed the Davao de Oro bill fifteen years ago.

He also thanked the former Congressman of District -I and now Vice Governor Maricar Zamora together with District-II Congressman Ruwel Peter Gonzaga who passionately pursued the proposition three years ago and did the painstaking work of lobbying it to the House of Representatives with the counterparts of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senator Sonny Angara for doing the same in the halls of the Senate.

 “We have nothing but gratitude to all who helped us in the campaign, to all local government officials, employees of the Provincial Government and everyone who helped us get the message of this renaming across, to the security sector, teachers and election officers who worked hard to give us a seamless plebiscite and most especially, to the people of Davao de Oro to whom this change is inspired, we thank them for going out last December 7 plebiscite and casting your vote, no matter what that vote is,” said Governor Uy.

He added that, “our twenty years as Compostela Valley Province gave us enduring lessons- of resilience, convergence, cooperation and collective responsibility. Certainly, we will bring those ideals as Davao de Oro.”

With its renaming, “Davao de Oro” aims to bring in more investments in the province since Davao Region is a bustling region with competitive business environment and a relatively peaceful province. De Oro refers to the rich/vast gold deposits found in the province were 10 of its 11 towns have gold deposits. 

The final and official result was formally announced by the head of the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC), COMELEC Regional Director Remlane Tambuang on December 8, 2019 at past 10 in the evening.  The total result of the voters turn-out reached 44% or 179,953 casted votes with 5,020 who voted for “No.” 

 (Rey Antibo, ID Comval)

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Compostela Valley Province is now officialy called Davao de Oro as 174,442 persons voted YES to rename the province and only 5,020 voted NO or against the renaming. Out of 410,261 registered voters in the province, 179,953 casted their votes or a 43. 86 percent turn-out.(Provincial Photo)

Davao de Oro celebrates “Thanksgiving Day “

Davao de Oro Province (Dec. 8, 2019, 11 AM)--- Grateful for all the triumphs received by the golden province for the entire year of 2019, Davao de Oro celebrates its annual interfaith “Provincial Thanksgiving Day” held at the Provincial Capitol Grounds on December 8, 2019.

The celebration came a day after the plebiscite was held for the renaming of Compostela Valley province to Davao de Oro. As of this writing, election returns have yet to be completed and submitted to the Provincial Plebiscite Board of Canvassers (PPBOC) at the New SP Session Hall, Provincial Capitol in Nabunturan.

The “Thanksgiving Day” aims to nurture universal values to all constituents to direct the institutionalization of the spiritual development as well as values restoration program implementation from provincial down to the barangay levels. The celebration was attended by all LGU officials from the 11 municipalities, different barangay officials together with the stakeholders in the National Government Agencies.

With the theme “Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name” Davaweños,  with different religions were united as one during the event.

The Thanksgiving Day also gave way to help identified beneficiaries of calamities and crisis affected individuals through the offerings given by all attendees during the event. “For the last 21 years, more or less 22 years, maskin unsa man ang muabot nga delubyo o problema sa atung probinsya nga tan-aw nato lisod kaayo sulbaron pero ato gihapong na solusyunan as a province mao na nga diha nato makita ang true meaning sa atuang ngalan sa probinsya isip Davao De Oro.” said Governor Jayvee Tyron L. Uy. 

(Jasteen P. Abella, ID COMVAL)

Gift Giving

A day after the plebiscite for the renaming of Compostela Valley province to Davao de Oro, the Provincial Governor’s Office gives cheers and well wishes as they  visited the Gawad Kalinga Village in Nabunturan and the PDLs (Persons Deprived of Liberty) at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Montevista on December 8, 2019.  (fem, ID Comval)

Our limited time on earth

My column in Mindanao Daily, BusinessWeek Mindanao and Cagayan de Oro Times

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MOST of us tend to think of time as linear, absolute and constantly “running out” – but is that really true? And how can we change our perceptions to feel better about its passing?

While becoming 66 already, I use think about my age. Yes, it's only a number. I know.  “Time” is the most frequently used noun in the English language. We all know what it feels like as time passes. Our present becomes the past as soon as it’s happened; today soon turns into yesterday. If you live in a temperate climate, each year you see the seasons come and go. And as we reach adulthood and beyond, we become increasingly aware of the years flashing by.  

While keep on thinking about age and its consequences, I came along with Claudia Hammond, author of Time Warped: Unlocking The Secrets Of Time Perception.

She wrote that although neuro-scientists have been unable to locate a single clock in brain that is responsible for detecting time passing, humans are surprisingly good at it. If someone tells us they’re arriving in five minutes, we have a rough idea of when to start to look out for them. We have a sense of the weeks and months passing by. As a result, most of us would say that how time functions is fairly obvious: it passes, at a consistent and measurable rate, in a specific direction – from past to future.

Of course, the human perspective of time may not be exclusively biological, but rather shaped by our culture and era. The Amondawa tribe in the Amazon, for example, has no word for “time” – which some say means they don’t have a notion of time as a framework in which events occur. (There are debates over whether this is purely a linguistic argument, or whether they really do perceive time differently.) Meanwhile, it’s hard to know with scientific precision how people conceived of time in the past, as experiments in time perception have only been conducted for the last 150 years.

Physics tells a different story. However much time feels like something that flows in one direction, some scientists beg to differ.

In the last century, my very favored Albert Einstein’s discoveries exploded our concepts of time. He showed us that time is created by things; it wasn’t there waiting for those things to act within it. He demonstrated that time is relative, moving more slowly if an object is moving fast. Events don’t happen in a set order. There isn’t a single universal “now”, in the sense that Newtonian physics would have it.

It is true that many events in the Universe can be put into sequential order – but time is not always segmented neatly into the past, the present and the future. Some physical equations work in either direction. Here, I strongly agree with Claudia Hammond.

One aspect of time perception many of us share is how we think of our own past: as a kind of giant video library, an archive we can dip into to retrieve records of events in our lives.

But psychologists have demonstrated that autobiographical memory is not like that at all. Most of us forget far more than we remember, sometimes forgetting events happened at all, despite others’ insistence that we were there. On occasion even the reminder does nothing to jog our memories.

Several years ago, I started writing my biography. With Beethoven under palms. The great German composer and me under palms. Wow.  Meanwhile, I found out: as we lay down memories, we alter them to make sense of what’s happened. Every time we recall a memory, we reconstruct the events in our mind and even change them to fit in with any new information that might have come to light. And it’s much easier than you might think to convince people that they have had experiences which never happened. The psychologist Elisabeth Loftus has done decades of research on this, persuading people they remember kissing a giant green frog or that they once met Bugs Bunny in Disneyland (as he’s a Warner Bros character, so this can’t have happened). Even recounting an anecdote to our friends can mean our memory of that story goes back into the library slightly altered.

So we shouldn’t curse our memories when they let us down. They’re made to be changeable, in order that we can take millions of fragments of memories from different times of our lives and recombine them to give us endless imaginative possibilities for the future.

Thank you very much Claudia Hammond. I changed my opinion when it comes to time. My limited time on earth.

Comval Gov encourages voting “Yes” for Davao de Oro’s plebiscite on December 7

Compostela Valley Province--- Governor Jayvee Tyron L. Uy encourages everyone to go out and vote “YES” for the upcoming plebiscite on December 7, 2019.

The Plebiscite is for changing the name of Compostela Valley Province to the Province of Davao de Oro.

(Early morning) December 5 during a net-teleradio program “Radio De Oro” hosted by Executive Assistant IV Alfonso L. Tabas Jr. at the provincial capitol, the governor encouraged the people of the province to go out and support the plebiscite on December 7 (Saturday) by voting for “YES” or “OO” and to be part of the biggest history in the province.

“As per official ballots question “Pumapayag ka ba na palitan ang pangalan ng lalawigan ng Compostela Valley at gawing Davao De Oro alinsunod sa Batas Republika bilang 11297?”  “Your YES can change our province’s history. Make it count this December 7, 2019. Mag-yes ta ninyo ha, the governor said.

On the other hand, On November 28, 2019 President Rodrigo Duterte through his Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea issued and order declaring December 7, 2019 a special non-working holiday in Compostela Valley.

This is to give the people in our province an opportunity to vote in the plebiscite on the aforementioned date,” said governor Uy.

Meanwhile, the governor explained how to cast your vote by simply follow the instructions.

Who can vote? All qualified and duly registered voters of the province as of May 13, 2019 national and local elections.

Step-1, Go to your designated voting precincts. This may be the same precinct you went to vote during the May 2019 local and national elections.

Step 2, Look for your name on the voter’s list posted by your precincts. Here, you can verify your registration and assigned room.

Step 3, Follow the instruction set by the officer-in-charge and get your ballot.

Step 4, write “Yes” or “Oo” on the blank beside the question, and submit your ballot accordingly.

“Busa adto nata sa atong tagsa-tagsa ka presinto aron makabuto, makapartisipar, ug mamahimong kabahin sa usa sa mga giilang labing bililhon ug halandumong kasysayan sa probinsya,” said Governor Uy. (Rey Antibo, ID Comval)

Comval romps awards in the “Digital Governance Awards 2019”

Compostela Valley Province--- ComVal garnered two National Awards in the recently concluded “Digital Governance Awards 2019” held at Jose Rizal Hall, Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Complex, Pasay City on November 26, 2019. 

In a plaque signed by DICT Sec. Gregorio B. Honasan II, DILG Sec. Eduardo M. Ano and National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) President Jonathan D. De Luzuriaga, the province was recognized for “Best In Government Inter-operability Award (G2G) Provincial Level” and 2^nd Place in the “Best in Business Empowerment Award (G2B) Provincial Level.’

Both awards were received by Gov. Jayvee Tyron L. Uy together with the Information Technology and Communication Development Division (ITCDD) Division Head Joyzel R. Odi, Provincial Voluntary Blood Services Program Coordinator Leonardo Merced and Information System Analyst Wilfredo M. Galagala.

The “Document Management System” developed by George Dan Hill (Computer Programmer) got the winning entry for the “Government to Government (G2G) Award” and the “Blood Distribution Management System” developed by Kent Vincent Gonzales (Computer Programmer) won the “Government to Business (G2B) Award”.

The Digital Governance Awards is annually celebrated which aims to search for best practices among local government units through the use of ICT in promoting effective and efficient public service. In line with the Provincial Government of Comval’s 4Ps+ Program, both systems were developed to provide convenience for the Comvaleños’ as well as for the good governance in the province.

"Thank you for the support and leadership Gov.Jayvee Tyron Uy and Vice Gov. Maricar Zamora, and to my team, the ICT ManCom and ITCDD, we made it again. I would like to specially mention George Dan Gil Duran and Kent Vincent Gonzales, the developers of the the systems. " said Joyzel Odi, the ITCDD Division Head. (Jasteen P. Abella/ID COMVAL

Deutsche Botschaft Manila: Krisenvorsorge Taifun Kammuri (lokaler Name Tisoy)

Taifun Kammuri soll über Catanduanes, Albay, oder Sorsogon (Region V, Visayas) am Abend des heutigen Montag, 2. Dezember oder am frühen Dienstag  Morgen, 3. Dezember, auf Land treffen und weiter nach Westen ziehen. Bewohner, die sich im Einzugsgebiet des Taifuns befinden, müssen mit orkanartigem Sturm und sehr starken Regenfällen rechnen. Mit Überflutungen, Erdrutschen und gefährlichen Verkehrsbedingungen muss insbesondere von Dienstag, 3. Dezember, bis Mittwoch, 4. Dezember, gerechnet werden.

Beachten Sie die lokalen Wettervorhersagen, insbesondere die Taifunwarnungen wie beim Joint Typhoon Warning Center (https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html) oder beim philippinischen Wetterdienst „Pagasa“ (https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html).

Treffen Sie persönliche Krisenvorsorge, beispielsweise:
•       Vermeiden Sie Reisen in die vom Taifun betroffenen Gebiete.
•       Informieren Sie Freunde und Verwandte über Ihre Sicherheit und Erreichbarkeit.
•       Halten Sie Ihre Reisedokumente griffbereit.
•       Überprüfen Sie Ihre eigenen Evakuierungsmöglichkeiten.
•       Halten Sie sich bei Sturm und heftigen Regenfällen in gesicherten Gebäuden auf.
•       Verfolgen Sie die lokalen Medien.
•       Folgen Sie den Anweisungen der lokalen Behörden.

Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf der Homepage der Botschaft unter https://manila.diplo.de/ph-de/service/elefand.

Sie erreichen die Botschaft per E-Mail unter info@mani.diplo.de und unter der Telefonnummer +63-2 8702 3000, außerhalb der Öffnungszeiten in dringenden Notfällen unter der Mobiltelefonnummer +63-917 867 3000.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Botschaft ab Verkündung von Signal Number 3 für Metro Manila geschlossen bleiben wird.

156th Bonifacio Day

Impressions from the commemorating the 156th Birth Anniversary of the Great Plebeian, Gat. Andres Bonifacio at the Bonifacio Circle, corner C.M. Recto and Magallanes Street in Davao City.

Thank you very much for the invitation City Government of Davao City thru City Administrator Attorney Zuleika Lopez.

The Honorary German Consulate in Davao City joined also by participating in the floral offering.

ANDRES BONIFACIO

Andres Bonifacio (November 30,1863 – May 10,1897)

Portrait of Andres BonifacioAndres Bonifacio was born on November 30, 1863 to Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro in Tondo located in Manila Philippines. He was a Filipino revolutionary hero who founded the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) or Katipunan a secret society devoted to fighting the Spanish occupation of the Philippines. He was the first one to have a clear vision of what a Filipino nation should be—The Father of the Filipino Nation. He would later be known as Supremo; destined to change the history of the Filipino people.

Bonifacio was not born and raised a plebeian, his mother was half-Spanish and he was privately tutored by a certain Guillermo Osmeña. But things became tough for him when his parents died when he was 14 years old forcing him to quit his studies and look after his 5 younger brothers and sisters. He earned a living as a craftsman and seller of canes and fans and then he became clerk and agent for a foreign commercial firm, Fleming and Company. In spite of his lack of formal education, he taught himself to read and write in Spanish and Tagalog, and was actually so good at it that he later got a job as a clerk-messenger for the German trading firm Fressel and Company. It was said that Bonifacio was interested in Western classic rationalism and read the works of Victor Hugo, Jose Rizal, and Eugene Sue. He had a deep interest in reading books on the French Revolution and the lives of the presidents of the United States and acquired a good understanding of the socio-historical process. Although it must be argued that the main thing that made his later organizing activities successful would be his savvy to appropriate local consciousness and ancient Filipino concepts to the Katipunan—Inang Bayan, sandugo, kapatiran, kaginhawaan, and katimawaan or kalayaan. His passion for changing the plight of his countrymen under colonialism encouraged him to join La Liga Filipina. La Liga Filipina was organized in July 3, 1892 by Jose Rizal with the purpose of uniting the people under “one compact homogenous body” which is the nation, instituting reform, education and cooperation, building the nation in the grassroots.

Rise of the Katipunan

Four days after the establishment of the Liga, July 7,1892, the arrest and banishment of Jose Rizal the day before made it practically nonexistent as an organization. Andres Bonifacio along side Ladislao Diwa, Teodoro Plata and others decided to continue the struggle and formed the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang ang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) or Katipunan at the home of Deodato Arellano in Calle Azcarraga, Manila. A small room lit only by a table lamp they signed a solemn compact with blood drawn from their forearm to symbolized the birth of the Katipunan the sandugo was not just a blood pact but a pledge to love each compatriot as brothers and sisters as the ancients did when they consolidate the bayan—kapatiran.

Only when people have mabuting kalooban (good intentions, thus the Kartilya) for each other, will true kaginhawaan (total well-being) and kalayaan (freedom) be attained. Thus it must be said that the Katipunan was not just a mere organization that wanted to unite the people to topple the Spanish Empire, but wanted a true unity of mind and hearts among the Tagalogs (Taga-ilog, river people, referring to peoples/mga bayan from the whole archipelago) under one Inang Bayan seeking the enlightened and straight path, an original Filipino concept of the nation. After two previous Supremos, the humble founder of the Katipunan Andres Bonifacio finally agreed to be Supremo of the Katipunan.

An Excursion to the Mountains

As a theater actor himself, Bonifacio had a favourite character to play—Bernardo Carpio, the mythical Tagalog king trapped in between two mountains who will soon be freed to fight and free the people from the bondage of colonialism. On Good Friday of 1895, he went to the caves of Mt. Tapusi, Montalban, Rizal with his men. They wrote through charcoals on the walls of the caves “Naparito ang mga Anak ng Bayan, hinahanap ang Kalayaan. Mabuhay ang Kalayaan.” (The Sons of the People came here searching for freedom. Long live freedom!) Definitely, it was not a coincidence why he chose that time place for this, a declaration of independence: The Katipunan will be the Bernardo Carpio who will free Inang Bayan. They are willing to sacrifice their lives for the altar of freedom.

(Members of the Diplomatic Corps during the commemorating)

Photo Courtesy: Pibi Ann Neri Balcom, German Honorary Consulate, Davao City.