1.7% rise in poverty, 95% employment rate In Davao Region a big puzzle for RDC XI

Outgoing Regional Development Council XI (RDC) chairperson and Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio said poverty incidence in the Davao Region was the lowest in Mindanao but was saddened by the high poverty incidence of 28.8 percent as of the first semester of 2012 which is a 1.7 percent increase from 2006.

However, she noted that the Region has sustained the 95 percent employment rates for both 2011 and 2012 which is evident of the expansion of the region’s absorptive capacity for employment.

“Pero pag medyo mataas ang poverty incidence and mataas ang rate ng employment, it makes you wonder and we have to look into this,” she said,

Duterte-Carpio said the planned targets for 2010 and 2011 were not achieved because of identified risks and external shocks including the slower recovery of the US and European economies that limit market options for banana exporters, high oil and energy prices and the selling by the small-scale miners of their gold produce in the black market.

“But the Gross Regional Domestic Product levels had been increasing and the Region has rebounded as the top economy among the six regions in Mindanao for 2011,” she said.

She admitted that the statistics on increasing poverty incidence is however evident of the non-inclusive growth. But on the other hand, the creation of jobs aimed at reducing poverty is an indication of inclusive growth which is why the two conflicting statistics of increasing poverty incidence and employment growth continue to puzzle economic workers in the region.

The RDC XI has identified the remaining challenges for the region in the remaining three years (2013-2016): slow decline in poverty incidence, unsustained economic growth levels, low productivity levels in almost all major sectors, slow growth in employment generation.

One-stop-shop for small renewable energy projects to help Minda-Mayor Sara

Davao City Mayor and Regional Development Council (RDC) XI chairperson Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio cited the establishment of a one-stop-shop for small renewable energy projects in Mindanao as one of her favorite accomplishments.

“We are trying to find a solution to Mindanao’s power problem just like the hydropower electricity plant project and establishing a one-stop-shop will hopefully encourage the implementation of small renewable energy projects here,” Duterte-Carpio said in an interview held after her State of the Region Address Wednesday.

She said smaller renewable energy projects that can produce 5 to 10 MegaWatts usually find it very time-consuming to go to Manila to process their papers and get approval for their projects. With the establishment of the one-stop-shop, she said, the proponents of these projects need not go to Manila anymore because “inter-agency na ang maghatag sa ilaha diri sa Mindanao (the different agencies will take care of the permits and papers which will be issued to them right in Mindanao).”

She said she is first a mayor before she is an RDC chairperson and her stand has always been for renewable sources of energy. “I prefer renewable sources of energy,” she said, and it is because of them that this one-stop shop has been established.

While she admitted that climate change might change the water source and can result to drought or overflowing, she reiterated that the development of renewable energy source “is our thrust.”

Without exactly saying it, Duterte-Carpio remains steadfast about her preference for renewable energy source and her doubts about other energy source like the coal-powered electric plant.

“More than the environmental degradation of coal-fired power plant, we also have to consider the health risks to people in the area,” she said. The negative effects of coal-fired power plants has already been experienced even by first world countries and we don’t want our people to experience that, she added.

SPMC signs deal with HP, AMT to automate hospital

HP Philippines Managing Director Ryan Guadalquiver

Davao City-The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) signed Thursday a deal with Hewlett-Packard (HP) Philippines and Accent Micro Technologies (AMT) to pave the way for the full automation of the hospital’s system in a span of five years.

“This is a five-year financial agreement on lease purchase that will be paid by the hospital gradually on a monthly basis to help us fully automate and digitalize the hospital,” SPMC Chief of Hospital Dr. Leopoldo Vega said during the signing held at the Marco Polo Hotel yesterday.

SPMC Chief Finance Office Barbara Cesar said the SPMC has conducted a public bidding for a company that can provide computers, infrastructure and backup on a lease to purchase basis considering the hospital’s meager resources.

“Through this partnership, we will be able to help SPMC respond to its IT requirements to support the expansion and growth it is undergoing,” HP Philippines Managing Director Ryan Guadalquiver said.

Unknown to many consumers, HP does not only sell Personal Computers and Laptops but it is also the largest solutions provider in the healthcare industry.

Vega said SPMC is a 600-bed hospital with a 200-percent or 1,200 occupancy rate. With this volume coupled with the hospital’s meager budget, he added, the only way to make hospital operation more efficient is through automation.

He said SPMC along with Segworks has embarked on developing applications for the various divisions including admission, billing, laboratory, documents and records.

“The applications developer has been with us for five years and around 85 percent of the modules have been developed,” he said. SPMC and AMT’s partnership with SPMC is good timing sine we already have the applications but we need a good infrastructure and system to implement that, he added.

Vega noted the development of the x-ray department which has for years, been running on analog with the use of films and reagents to develop a single chest x-ray. With the digitalization of the xray department today, he added, the hospital can capture the medical image of a patient just like a digital camera without film and reagents.

“What we need is to invest in software and computer that can produce the image on s screen with quick turnaround,” he said.

In five years time, he said, the hospital will be highly automated such that even the medical records of the patient including the address and other data will all be managed by the hospital so there is no need to fill out forms with the same information whenever patients have to go to the hospital.

“The vision is for the doctors to be able to look at patient information even without driving to the hospital because they can just check these records in their android phones,” he said.

Vega said they have started to convert patient records in digital format in preparation for the hospital’s automation plan.

2 Govs, 1 Mayor to light up Tagum City’s famous Xmas Tree Tonight

No less than two governors and one mayor will lead the lighting up of Tagum City'sfamous giant Christmas Tree at 7 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, November 21 at the Freedom Park at the back of Tagum City Hall.

The lighting up, which will also coincide with the 3^rd Food Festival, will be led by Mayor Rey Uy, Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario and Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy.

“Tagum City became popular when it built the country’s tallest Christmas Tree in 2006 at 153 feet,” Engr. Nemar Jumarito of the City Engineer’s Office said. The city’s Christmas Tree was reduced to only 113 feet in 2011 but still had an interesting design.

One of the attractions during the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is the Christmas Medley rendition by the Tagum City Youth Orchestra which is composed of 330 music artists from the groups of Symphonic, Rondalla and Choir of the different schools in the city.

 

He said this year’s Christmas Tree will stand 109 feet in height and will have a different design with 300 pieces of clear raindrops designed to look like beads of rain is falling from the tree. The other decorations consisting of stars, flowers and angels have also been incorporated in the design, he said. The tree has a star design on top with a combination of pig tails and rope lights.

 

Jumarito said the Christmas Tree will operate on two sets of controls, the manual and the automatic control. The tree will be manually lit up during the opening night but will be set to automatic for future and everyday use so that it is turned on every 6 p.m. and turned off every 2 a.m. 

 

The start of the Christmas celebration in the city is expected to be very merry and literally bright, he said, considering that three areas have been set up including the mini-park area with a mini zoo theme with lighted animals.

 

Jumarito said a total of 14 arcs have been constructed within the City Hall area with lanterns and an assortment of rope lights.

(Thanks to Tagum City CIO for the photo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oplan Kaluluwa to ease traffic in Davao City during All Souls, All Saints Day

The Davao City Traffic Management Center (TMC) is all set for the observance of this year’s All Saints and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2.

“We have deployed a total of 154 personnel to the various cemeteries and nearby the vicinity for this year’s Oplan Kaluluwa,” Senior. Inspector Manuel Espaňola of TMC said yesterday during the regular iSpeak Program at City Hall.

Espaňola said TMC has a total of 370 personnel which they hope to utilize to ensure that traffic in the city will be properly managed during these days.

TMC has temporarily suspended the filing of leave of all personnel considering that the observance of the All Saints and All Souls Days require police and traffic personnel visibility.

The TMC has already mapped out the traffic routes for November 1 and 2. Vehicles that intend to proceed to Forest Lake, San Pedro memorial Park, Catholic Cemetery, Public Cemetery and Masonic Cemetery can enter from San Pedro Extension going to the Circumferential Road on a one-way basis.

He said they will also impose a one-way traffic going to the Chinese Cemetery along the Circumferential Road from the Davao medical School Drive to Bacaca. One-way traffic will also be imposed along the roads going to the Buhangin Memorial Park along Cabantian Road.

Christmas comes early for Davao government employees with up P15T bonus guaranteed

Employees of the Davao City government will have more reasons to smile these days after they were assured of their Christmas bonus.

The Davao City government has assured the employees of the early release this November of the remaining portions of their 13th month pay, half of which was already released last June.

“We will start to release the 13th month pay of the local government employees by November,” Assistant City Administrator/Human Resource Management Office Department head Edwin Alparaque said yesterday.

Alparaque also assured the employees that they will be given their Social Amelioration Bonus amounting to P15,000 for regular employees and P10,000 for contractual employees and job orders.

“These benefits are already part of the 2012 annual appropriation so I do not see any reason why they won’t receive these benefits this year,” he said.

The same Social Amelioration Pay has been previously given to the employees last year, he added.

However, Alparaque clarified that this is not yet the signing bonus as both management and labor are still negotiating the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA). The signing bonus, he added, is given the employees whenever a new CNA has been negotiated and approved.

“Ginatuki pa man ang bag’ong CNA so wala pa’y signing bonus (we are still negotiating the new CNA so there is as yet no signing bonus),” he said

Tagum coop now has P86.66M net surplus

The Tagum Cooperative has grown by leaps and bounds with a previous net surplus of P27.497 million, Latest figures however show that it now has a net surplus amounting to P86.66 million and total combined assets of P1.7 billion as of August 2012.

The Tagum Cooperative topped the list of cooperatives all over the country in terms of net surplus.
Provincial planning and development office supervising cooperative development specialist Humber Cabunoc said the Tagum coop is not only on the Top 20 cooperatives in Southern Mindanao but was chosen as the country’s most outstanding large cooperative during the 11th Cooperative Summit held in Cagayan de Oro City last week.  Cabunoc also said next in line are the Sta. Ana Multi-Purpose Cooperative with a net surplus of P24.97 million and the Agdao Multi-Purpose Cooperative with a net surplus of P22.34 million. Both are based in Davao City.  “The cooperative was previously chosen as the number 1 cooperative in Southern Mindanao in terms of its net surplus,” he said.  “We are encouraging residents of Davao del Norte to become members of the Tagum Cooperative considering that it has shown proof of good governance and an established financial and recording system,” he said.  Cabunoc said with almost 80,000 members the Tagum Cooperative has no external borrowings and relies on its own loan portfolio of P1.35 billion and deposits amounting to P833 million. The Tagum Cooperative, which was previously known as the Holy Name Society of Tagum Parish, was founded in May, 1967 with an P80 capital and several members