SM City Marilao prioritizes safety and emergency preparedness

MARILAO, Bulacan –As part of precautionary and emergency measure to ensure safety of clients,mall tenants and employees, SM City Marilao recently conducted itsmall based earthquake and fire drill.

The emergency preparedness exercise provided opportunity for the participants to put into practice the things they have learned and work together in case of fire and earthquake.

Simulations of earthquake and fire incidents were executed to illustrate the proper response before, during and after these hazards happen. 

This action sought to enhance skills in mobilization, communication and response, as well as the ability to account for all the people within the affected premises.

Likewise, the drill served as a refresher course for the emergency response team (ERT). Topics like prevention, nature of earthquake and fire disasters, emergency and first aid treatment were also discussed in an earlier seminar.

The earthquake and fire drill was a part of the simultaneous program observed by different government agencies in Bulacan.

 It is also a national activity in which all provinces, cities and towns are encouraged to participate to convey the importance of being alert in case tragedy happens.

Diocese of Malolos marks 50 years

MALOLOS CITY—Pope Benedict XVI along with Filipino church leaders hailed the success of the Diocese of Malolos as it celebrated its 50^th Jubilee on Saturday.

All of them underscored the grace of God and the faith of the parishioners, which Bishop Jose Oliveros, the current bishop of the diocese, constituted it in the past 50 years and hoped to have the same in the future.

Reading the message of the Pope, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines said the Pontiff congratulates the diocese for its faitfulness.

He added that the Pope Benedict XVI wished the celebrations be use in the further renewal of faith and commitment, while invoking the intervention of St. Mary.

Pinto also led the canonical coronation of the image of the Virgen Inmaculada Concepcion de Malolos, the patron saint of the diocese.

Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, the former archbishop of Manila affirmed the same and added that faithfulness will be rewarded.

He said that members of the diocese must prepare to receive more blessings.

Noting the diocese’s faithfulness, Rosales said in Filipino, “God will drown you with joy.”

The same was echoed by retired Cardinal Ricardo Vidal who served as co-adjutor bishop of the diocese for two years before his appointment in Cebu as archbishop.

Vidal said “Bulakaneyos faith runs deep. May your faith flows with the same faith I encountered when I was a part of your Christian community.”

“May your faith be constant and pure, active and generous, so that it may lead souls, and will bear more fruit in renewal of lives,” he added.

Earlier, Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of the Metro Manila challenged  parishioners in his homily where he stressed that the biblical passage which states that faith without works is dead.

“Let us care for the people whom God care and love most,” Tagle said and mentioned the widows, orphans, the olds, and the street children.

For his part, Bishop Oliveros said that the diocese has been living with the transforming grace of God and unwavering faith, which also served as the theme for the 50^th Jubilee celebrations.

Oliveros noted that the diocese has been operating homes for battered women, street children, orphans, mentally challenged, drug dependents, and for the aged.

The bishop also said that in the last 50 years, the diocese has witnessed the grace of God and the faithfulness of the parishioners.

He said that when the diocese started in 1962, it only 50 priests serving in 50 parishes with a little over 500,000 parishioners.

Today, Oliveros said that the Diocese of Malolos is one of the biggest in the country with ove 100 parishes, 216 active priests, and at least 3.2-Million in parishioners in the province of Bulacan and the City of Valenzuela in Metro Manila.

Valenzuela City used to be part of Bulacan, until it was included included to Metro Manila in the 70’s.  (Bernardino Balabo)

Unilab Ideas Positive invites the youth to team up for a healthier Philippines

MANILA – Unilab Ideas Positive, the only social marketing congress and competition for college students in the country today, is expanding this year from Metro Manila to the entire Philippines, covering North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The nationwide expansion is a result of the encouraging response from universities and college students to the program, which was first launched in 2010 to serve as venue for Filipino youth to improve the health and wellness of their communities with their social marketing ideas.

“The increasing number of positive ideas we receive every year and the passion the youth have shown in helping their communities have inspired us to open the venue to more youth in the Philippines,” said Unilab Ideas Positive program lead Barry Barrientos. “By partnering with more youth on this cause, we believe that we’ll also be able to help more communities become healthier and more productive.”

Fifteen communities all over the country will benefit from this expansion through the social marketing programs by 15 youth teams that will all receive P100, 000 seed money for the implementation of their ideas. The groups will also be flown in to Manila, with free hotel accommodation, meals, and transportation, to attend a 3-day boot camp where they can learn social marketing approaches from a pool of experts through workshops and case studies.

Last year, the participants were trained by reputable leaders and experts which included social marketing guru Dr. Ned Roberto, CNN 2009 Hero of the Year Efren Penaflorida, and RockEd Founder Gang Badoy, among others.

One of the participants to the boot camp, Jhanette Co of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, thanked the program for giving young people like her the opportunity to be heard and make a difference.

 “Unilab Ideas Positive is a game changer by providing us with a venue to learn social marketing from experts, and more importantly, giving us the opportunity to make meaningful change in communities by bringing our ideas to life,” she shared. “It’s refreshing to see how a big company like Unilab demonstrates belief in the youth of today.”

Co and four other friends from UP Diliman won the grand prize last year for their Tuberculosis (TB) detection and prevention program for a community in Quezon City. They are currently implementing their social marketing program using the seed money from Unilab.

“Jhanette’s experience in teaming up with her friends for a good cause is, we believe, what makes Unilab Ideas Positive unique from all other student competitions in the country,” said Barrientos. “We encourage and celebrate teamwork among the youth—Bayanihan spirit, as we call it in Unilab—and not just individual excellence. Best part is, it’s teamwork for the benefit of others, for those who need it most.”

“And this year, not only are we expanding the program to cover more regions, but we’re also giving more focus on outcomes,” he added. “We’re rewarding the best teams only after they have demonstrated that their positive ideas have resulted in positive outcomes for the community.”

           

Interested college students can join by teaming up and registering at www.unilabideaspositive.com. Deadline for submission of entries is on April 16.

For more information, log on to the website or join the Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/Unilab.IdeasPositive.

“Love from Taiwan” to be distributed in Bulacan

MALOLOS CITY- Ambassador Raymond L.S. Wang, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office will visit Bulacan to lead the Rice Donation Ceremony dubbed as “Love from Taiwan” on March 15, 2012 to Calumpit and Hagonoy, the two towns most affected by the typhoons Pedring and Quiel.

Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado said that the province is thankful for the donation of the People’s Republic of China (Taiwan).

“Malaking tulong ito para sa mga talaga namang naapektuhan ng mga nagdaang bagyo, at

nagpapasalamat tayo na bagaman ilang buwan na ang nakalilipas ay patuloy pa rin ang mga tulad ng Taiwan na nagpapadala ng tulong para sa atin,” said Alvarado.

According to Provincial Administrator Jim Valerio, there will be two thousand bags of rice to be distributed to two thousand affected families from the said municipalities. Each bag contains 10 kilos of rice.

Ambassador Wang will arrive at the capitol at 3:20 pm and will proceed to Hagonoy Central School in Barangay Sto. Niño for the ceremonial rice giving with Gov. Alvarado and Vice Gov. Daniel Fernando. After this, they will travel to Calumpit Covered Court in Barangay Poblacion for the same purpose.

A short program will follow at the Hiyas ng Bulacan Pavilion for the cultural presentation and familiarization of the province.

“We’re hoping that this occasion will also further strengthen our ties with them,” the governor added.