Nata de coco maker selling shabu in Bulacan

by Ramon Efren R. Lazaro

A nata de coco manufacturer based in Santa Maria town has found bigger profit by selling methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Jose S. Gutierrez, Jr. identified the suspect as Chua Kian Cheng, alias A-Pe Chua, 40 years old, owner of a food manufacturing business in Sta. Maria, Bulacan that is engaged in processing nata de coco.

In a statement, Guitierrez said the suspect claims that he is a native of Xiamen , China and  holds a tourist visa and renews it every three monthsfor the last two and a half years.

. “Coordination is being made with the Bureau of Immigration to verify the claims of the suspect as he could not present his passport,” Gutierrez added.

The suspect was apprehended when operatives of PDEA, supported by elements from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), conducted a buy-bust operation.

A poseur-buyer was able to transact business with Chua for the purchase of  100 grams of

shabu worth P400,000.00 on April 30 wherein the suspect agreed to rendezvous with the poseur-buyer along Balasing Street , Barangay Pulong Buhangin in Santa Maria town.

 Upon the pre-arranged signal, joint operatives of PDEA and PAOCC apprehended the suspect who has in his posession 100 grams of shabu.

“Chua has the capacity to deal up to 5 kilos of shabu per transaction. We could have entered into a bigger transaction to nail him deeper, but we were constrained by our limited resources,” Gutierrez said.

Guiterrez added that Chua is a member of the Li-Chua Drug Group and has been under the surveillance of PDEA. From 2009, a total of 15 members of the Li-Chua Drug Group have been arrested, including Chua.

The suspectis presently under the custody of PDEA and shall face charges for selling dangerous drugs in violation of Section 5, Article II, Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Gutierrez explained that the Li-Chua Group has operations in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces in Regions 3 and 4A and based on intelligence reports, the said group used to operate two shabu clandestine laboratories dismantled by PDEA in the past two years.

One was the mini-laboratory in Caloocan dismantled in February 2011, and the other one

was in Las Piñas dismantled in August 2010.

Records show that from 2002 to present, a total of 247 Chinese were arrested by PDEA and other law enforcement units for violating RA 9165. This comprises 53 percent of all the foreign nationals arrested for involvement in illegal drug activities in the country.

This year alone, 11 Chinese have already been apprehended: five were involved in operating the Ayala Alabang clandestine laboratory, the otherswere involved in bulk-selling and possession of shabu.

Bulacan holds jobs fair today

CITY OF MALOLOS— Fresh graduates and job hopefuls will have better employment opportunities through the conduct of Job Fair by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in partnership with the Provincial Government of Bulacan headed by Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado.

Alvarado said this will be held at SM Event’s Center in Baliwag and Marilao   in line with this year’s nationwide Labor Day Celebration today, May 1.

According to Provincial Youth, Sports, Employment, Arts, Culture, and Tourism Office, participating companies from various industries include cyber services, banking and finance, and service crew jobs from four to five companies for overseas employment and at least 20 for local.

Applicants are advised to bring credentials or all the necessary documents for job applications such as resume with pictures, certificate of trainings, etc.

“For the jobseekers, don’t miss this event wherein you could be matched with productive opportunities as well as possibility to be hired on the spot,” the governor advised. 

Earlier, in a news report, DOLE Regional Director Raymundo G. Agravante disclosed that more than 10,000 job vacancies are up for grabs for jobseekers in Central Luzon and a display of livelihood products of the DOLE’s various beneficiaries will likewise be showcased in the DOLE Regional Office 3’s simultaneous Job and Livelihood Fairs that will be held at familiar venues all over the region.

Vehicular accident exposes suspected illegally cut lumbers in Bulacan

By Ramon Efren R. Lazaro

CAMP ALEJO SANTOS, Bulacan --Speculations of unhampered illegal logging operations in Bulacan were raised after illegally cut lumbers were confiscated in Santa Maria town.

            Report reaching Senior Supt. Fernando Mendez Jr., provincial police director of Bulacan, said a Mitsubishi Fuso Aluminum closed van with license plate number UTU-491 loaded with 51 pieces of illegally sawn lumbers with an approximate volume of 1,204 board feet was accidentally discovered when it met an accident in Santa Maria town.

Investigation conducted by the personnel of Sta. Maria police station showed that the van accidentally bumped a concrete fence located along Macaiban Street in Barangay Tumana Friday early morning.

Supt. Lailene Amparo, Santa Maria police chief, identified the driver of the van as Robert Uy 66 years old and a resident of 610 Raja Bago Street , Tondo, Manila , and has no pertinent document for his lumber cargo.

Amparo immediately coordinated with Alex Esber and Roderick Vertudes from the Bulacan environmental and natural resources office for assistance in the investigation concerning the suspected illegal lumbers.

Environmentalists believed that the illegally sawn lumbers were poached from either the Ipo or Angat watershed areas.

The suspect is currently detained in Santa Maria police station and the van and its cargo is temporarily under the custody of the local police.

150,000 Bulakeños to receive free PhilHealth

MALOLOS CITY- Guaranteed health benefits await thousands of Bulakeños after Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado announced that 150,000 sponsored PhilHealth Cards will be given to beneficiaries wherein 40,000 of them will be sponsored by the Provincial Government of Bulacan (PGB), another 40,000 will come from the local government units and 70,000 will be sponsored by the national government.

This was confirmed after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the PGB headed by Gov. Alvarado and PhilHealth headed by President and CEO Dr. Eduardo Banzon in providing quality and attainable health services for Bulekeños.

“Isang katotohanan na ang kalusugan ay kayamanan kaya naman sa mga hindi inaasahang pagkakataon ng pagkakasakit, upang lapatan ng pangmatagalang tulong pangkalusugan, ito po ang inaalok natin sa ating mga kalalawigan lalo na sa mga walang kakayahan. We should make the health care system more affordable and more accessible,” said Alvarado.

According to PhilHealth Regional Vice President Rodolfo Balog, 2,133,990 or 75 percent

of the total population of Bulacan are registered PhilHealth members who currently enjoy its benefits. These include members from different categories such as employed, OFW, sponsored, individually paying and lifetime.

Some of the benefits that a member can avail from PhilHealth are discounted room rates, medicine, and surgery.

Dr. Banzon on the other hand encouraged those who are enrolled in the sponsored category but are now capable of paying their own contributions to give their slot of sponsorship to others.

“Importante sa ating bayan ang universal health care, ‘yung access sa quality care. Pero hindi natin kayang i-enroll ang lahat ng Pilipino mula sa nasyunal kaya naman mahalaga ang gampanin ng mga lokal na pamahalaan, para sa mga mahihirap nating kababayan at para naman sa mga kaya, tulungan n’yo po kaming hikayatin sila na maging miyembro din ng PhilHealth, ito naman po ay para sa atin,” explained Banzon.

PhilHealth also donated 2.7 million capitation fund for the improvement of rural health units and purchasing of medicines.

Also present in the said event were PhilHealth Branch Manager Dr. Roberto Reyes, Leo Liwanag of PhilHealth Malolos, Zenette dela Vergas of PhilHealth Sta. Maria, mayors and vice mayors, municipal health officers, department heads of the PGB, and volunteer workers in the province.

Alvarado receives 2012 Father Neri Satur Award

CITY OF MALOLOS- Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado was awarded the 2012 Father Neri Satur Award for Environmental Heroism during the awarding ceremony held at National Broadcasting Network, Quezon City last April 23, 2012 for his Angat Dam reservation development program.

The awarding ceremony is one of the highlight activities for the Earth Day Week Celebration with the theme, “Year for Sustainable Energy and Cooperatives.”

Under the Disaster R¬¬¬isk Reduction and Management category, Angat Dam management was recognized for modeling anticipative prevention that rehabilitated and fortified damaged structures to mitigate and reduce disaster risks from impending natural calamity like flood.

“Alam kong marami pa ang dapat gawin. But this award will inspire all of us para lutasin ang anumang suliranin na darating sa aming lalawigan. Ito ay hindi lamang aking karangalan kundi karangalan din ng buong Bulacan. We are very thankful that they recognized our advocacy on the preservation of the environment,” Alvarado said.

Also from Bulacan, the Baliuag University (BU) received the same award for Reducing Carbon Footprints: Green Building and Energy Conservation (educational system) category.

The first energy efficient building in Bulacan, the four-storey Information Technology (IT) building in BU runs on renewable energy, specifically solar power, providing 85 percent of building electrical needs and  a rain water harvest facility to self-sustain its water needs. Further, the air cleaning paints reduce air pollution and within its surrounding area.

Awardees were given the AbdulMari Imao specially designed trophy from the organizing committee co-chaired by Earthsavers Founder and Climate Change Commissioner, Heherson Alvarez and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary and UNESCO Commissioner, Ramon Paje.

“The 2012 awardees is a group of men and women, institutes and corporations who have truly made a difference in the quest for a greener environment and in the struggle against climate change,” Paje said.

The Fr. Neri Satur Award for Environmental Heroism is a program of the Climate Change Commission, UNESCO, the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts, (NCCA), and the Earthsavers Movement. It is named in honor of the late priest, environmentalist and deputized forest ranger killed by suspected illegal loggers in the forests of Bukidnon, Philippines in 1991.

Ex-Liwayway Editor-in-Chief writes 30

Former Liwayway Magazine Editor-in-Chief Bienvenido "Ka Bien" Ramos of Malolos City, Bulacan passed away on Tuesday, April 24.  He was 82. Ka Bien as he is fondly and reverently called retired from Liwayway in the early days of Martial Law, but continue to write for Mabuhay, a local weekly publication.  He is also a prolific short story writer and has won numerous awards and recognitions.  His remains lies in state at their house in Brgy. Sto. Cristo, Malolos City.  He will be interred on Sunday, April 29 at the Legacy Memorial Park in Malolos.

Damaged irrigation dike impedes water flow to 500 hectares of rice lands

by Ramon Efren R. Lazaro

BOCAUE, Bulacan –At least 300 hectares of rice lands in this town were deprived of irrigation supply this dry season and some 200 hectares more received minimal water due to clogged and damaged irrigation dike of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Farmers here noted that the rice self-sufficiency program of the Aquino administration that is being bragged by agriculture officials to be attainable by next year is a very big failure in their locality and that future scenarios for dry season cropping for the 500 hectares of the farmlands in their town are bleak unless drastic rehabilitation measures are immediately implemented.

These were the conclusions on the recent joint ocular inspection made by NIA personnel, farmers leaders from Bocaue and Pandi together with its municipal agriculture officers on why farm lands in Bocaue have been receiving only a minimal amount of irrigation water for more than 10 years.

Precioso Donato Punzala, assistant operations engineer of the National Irrigation Administration Region 3 Bulacan – Aurora – Nueva Ecija Irrigation Management Office (NIA-BANE IMO) said that the damaged dikes are located in the Lateral D of the south zone of the Angat-Maasim Rivers Irrigation System.

Punzalan said one of the reasons why the flow of water at the said irrigation system is being impeded is due to the dumping of garbage on it and made worst by growth of weeds, kang kong and quiapo plants on the waterway.

He added that a back hoe from NIA-BANE IMO is provided to Linaw na Bukal Irrigators Association, that was awarded a contract by NIA for the maintenance of the irrigation canal, to remove the debris clogging the said irrigation but some problems cropped up and the issues were forwarded to the legal services department in the central office of NIA.

It was also found out that there was something wrong in the cementing of the irrigation canal bottom that was only one and one-half foot deep instead of two and one-half foot deep that causes the impediment of the irrigation water flow downstream going to Bocaue that was done during a road widening that was made a few years back in Barangay Bunsuran in Pandi town, specifically on Lateral D Station 7+100 of the irrigation system        

Punzalan said that the group agreed to make a letter to the Department of Public Works and Highway for it to review the design of the bridge over the irrigation canal and make appropriate rehabilitation of it so as not to impede the flow of irrigation water under it together with the bridge located in Station 6+100 in Barangay Bagbaguin also in Pandi that has the same problem.

Seepages of water in the irrigation canal dikes that flows to drainages and creeks were also noted in Station 2+150 in Bagbaguin, Pandi; Station 2+900 in Manatal, Pandi; Station 3+250 and Station 4+250 in Masagana, Pandi.

Punzalan estimates that the volume of irrigation water that’s been loss through these seepages is enough to irrigate the 500 hectares of farm land in their service area in Bocaue.

Punzalan said the seepages are widely believed to have been cause by the burying of janitor fishes in the dike’s embankment and added that it needs concrete linings of approximately 200-300 meters fronting the creek.

Besides the problem on rehabilitating the dikes, Punzalan said that the constructions of houses by informal settlers along the dikes and on top of the irrigation canal in the towns of Pandi and Bocaue pose a very serious problem on the flow of irrigation water.

To address these problems, Punzalan said that it is imperative that local government units—provincial, municipal and barangay levels-- NIA, irrigators associations, concerned government agencies, farmers’ groups NGOs and media join forces together to find appropriate solutions to the problems.

Manolito Diaz, municipal agriculture and fishery council chairman of Bocaue said the problems on the diminishing irrigation water supply to Bocaue were constantly being reiterated in their meeting with their municipal agriculture personnel for more than 20 years now.

From two cropping seasons, Bocaue farmers particularly in barangays Caingin, Wakas, Bagumbayan, Sulucan and Bambang are now only capable of planting during the wet season, Diaz lamented and explained that the situation brings economic hardship to farmers’ families.

He also noted that large tracts of irrigated farm lands were already converted for other purposes in these villages and added that it is about time that local agriculture personnel  provide farmers with alternative livelihood projects, like teaching them on how to raise vegetables or livestock.