250,000 more trees to grow in Koronadal on June 29

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250,000 more trees to grow in Koronadal on June 29

Fresh from the success of the 2011 Tree Growing Festival, on June 29, the City of Koronadal will again set a remarkable record of planting 250,000 trees in one day covering 1,000 hectares of land within the Quezon Mountain Ranges in the barangays of San Jose, Esperanza, Mabini, Cacub and Topland.

The city government, in its ardent effort to create a culture of caring for the environment and to intensively campaign for the restoration and preservation of forest areas, targets to double the figure from 131,028 forest and fruit trees planted in 522.78 hectares last year to 250,000 in 1,000 hectares of land this year.

City Mayor Peter B. Miguel takes on the advocacy himself and appeals for cooperation and volunteerism among all Koronadaleños to be concerned of Mother Earth. “The Tree Growing Festival is just one among the major efforts of this City in its environmental advocacies. We know how important trees are if we are to preserve and protect our environment.” Mayor Miguel said. “This year, the 2^nd Tree Growing Festival will be bigger and will cover more areas for us to send a concrete message that we are very serious in addressing our basic environmental concerns,” he added.

From about 30,000 individual volunteers last year, the Mayor now calls for more support from all employees of the city government, regional government offices, non-government organizations, civic groups, academic community, business establishments and residents of the city to do their share by taking part in the said undertaking. Volunteer can register at designated sites such as Ace Centerpoint, KCC, Gaisano Grand Mall of Koronadal and at the City ENRO for this activity.  

The Tree Growing Festival is among the major priorities of Mayor Miguel under the Masaganang  Kalikasan Program . This program is also in support to the celebration of the Environment Month (June) and to the National Greening Program of the Aquino’s administration. It also aims to increase the forest cover of the city.

Meanwhile, what makes this activity more significant is that the city government purposely dubbed it as “tree growing” to ensure that more trees would survive by hiring community extension workers to monitor their growth. Likewise, commitment to nurture and take care of the trees planted will be strengthened through the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the City Government and the landowners during the event. To ensure the sustainability of the program, employees of the City Government through the City Environment and Natural Resources Office will take the lead in the program implementation with the active involvement of the community.

Given that this year’s target demands for more seedlings, the organizers also seek to encourage donations of seedlings (forest and fruit trees) or in kind from the general public.

By: Caroline G. Mariano

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CITY OF KORONADAL BIDS TO HOST
2015 PALARONG PAMBANSA

The City of Koronadal manifested its intention to bid for 2015 Palarong Pambansa. In an interview during the city’s regular radio programs “Koronadal Boom…Boom…Boom” and “Kanami Koronadal”, City Mayor Peter B. Miguel said that he had already submitted to the Department of Education his Letter of Intent this early when he attended the recently... concluded Palarong Pambansa 2012 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

The city needs an ambitious activity like this as a way of promoting the City of Koronadal itself and the province of South Cotabato as a whole according to the mayor. He added that it was very timely to let the people coming from all walks of life know that the city, the capital of the province of South Cotabato, is one of the happiest and peaceful places in Mindanao and especially now that it has become the seat of Region XII, the city is positively fast progressing as well as expected.

PBM believes that the city has the capacity to host such a big event owing to the success of two (2) same sports events held here before. It must be recalled that the province first hosted the Palarong Pambansa in 1996 during the administration of former South Cotabato Governor Hilario de Pedro III and the latest was in 2007 during the administration of former City Mayor Fernando Q. Miguel.

Further, PBM also expressed his confidence that with the support and close coordination with the provincial government of South Cotabato, Palarong Pambansa 2015 here in the city would prove even better than the previous ones given the chance to prepare this early.

Meanwhile, Miguel was in Lingayen, Pangasinan during 2012 Palarong Pambansa to show his personal support and to give financial assistance to the athletes and coaches coming from the City of Koronadal and to personally hand in his letter of intent for the city’s bid to host said event in 2015.

By: Bic F. Manato

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540 BPATS to undergo Skills Enhancement Training

Koronadal City Police Office under the leadership of Police Superintendent Michael Lebanan, Chief Of Police, will conduct a 2 -day seminar training through its Police Community Relation Office to 540 BPATS (Barangay Peace Keeping Action Teams) tentatively scheduled on May 22-23, 2012 at El Manggo located at Barangay Concepcion.

This is the second time that the BPATS of 27 barangays in the city will be retrained to fully equip them with skills and knowledge in helping the PNP maintain the peace and order situation in their respective barangays  and to be more effective and efficient in responding to various incidents that may happen  in the performance of their duties.

The BPATS will be re-oriented on their duties and responsibilities and or topics concerning unarmed patrolling, self defense, traffic management, basic police intelligence and others. The said training will cover a series of lectures, discussions, and practical exercises regarding their role as "force multipliers"

Lectures will be given by resource persons from PNP, the Local Government Unit and from other related government agencies.

Police Supt. Lebanan said in an interview that the first batch shall be composed of BPATS of 13 barangays namely:  Assumption, Avancena, Cacub, Caloocan, Esperanza, GPS, Mabini, Magsaysay, Mambucal, Morales, Namnama, Carpenterhill and Concepcion and the 2^nd batch shall be attended by BPATS from the remaining 14 barangays namely: New Pangasinan, Paraiso, Rotonda, San-isidro, San Jose, San Roque, Saravia, Sta. Cruz, Sto.Nino, Topland, Zone 1-4. The culminating activity for both batches will be on May 24, 2012 in the morning at the City Hall Lobby.

The BPATS project is an initiative of the Philippine National Police Director for Police Community Relations (DPCR) as a strategy to involve the community in the fight against criminalities at the barangay level. It is therefore imperative to clothe them with knowledge and skills to effectively perform their tasks.

By: Airyn B. Sucion

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180 STUDENTS GET JOBS THROUGH SPES

Job hunting this early?

No worry for the 180 beneficiaries of the Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) now employed by the City Government of Koronadal.

SPES grantees were divided into two batches. The first batch was accommodated from April 2 until May 3, 2012 while the second batch started their contracts on May 4 and to end on 31st this year with a rate of PhP271.00/day.

According to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Manager Judith L. Marmonejo, out of 290 SPES applicants who filed their applications, only 180 were hired this year after considering the qualifications set, compliance with the necessary requirements and the results of the given examinations and interviews.

Since the SPES beneficiaries were considered as part of the city government’s employees, the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) spearheaded by City Government Department Head 1 Hazel A. Lebanan gave them orientation before they started their employment with the city for them to understand the different functions and roles of every office and other matters pertinent to the performance of their tasks and duties as well. During the said orientation, the importance of the 8 Core Values in forming one’s self was also presented by City Population Officer Nancy Adalin.

SPES beneficiaries also participated in the various programs of the city such as the Environmental Leadership Seminar conducted by City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) personnel. The seminar aimed to educate them in preserving Mother Earth as one of the campaigns of City Mayor Peter B. Miguel. Along this line, they were enjoined to plant trees along the national highway as part of the tree growing program. They were exposed to the demo farm and helped bag seedlings through the Environmental Management Specialist II Domingo Samilin. They also played a part as back-up performers in Showtime, a noontime show of ABS-CBN last April 12, 13 and 21, when the City of Koronadal was featured with Koronadal Ground Zero dancers joining the contest.

The first batch of the SPES beneficiaries had already received their 70 percent salary from the city government last May 9, 2012 while 40 percent of it is expected to be downloaded to their ATM accounts by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region XII anytime next week.

The City of Koronadal has been diligently implementing SPES every year in compliance with the Republic Act (R.A) 7323 promulgated for the purpose.


By: Bic F. Manato

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CITY OF KORONADAL BIDS TO HOST 2015 PALARONG PAMBANSA

The City of Koronadal manifested its intention to bid for 2015 Palarong Pambansa. In an interview during the city’s regular radio programs “Koronadal Boom…Boom…Boom” and “Kanami Koronadal”, City Mayor Peter B. Miguel said that he had already submitted to the Department of Education his Letter of Intent this early when he attended the recently concluded Palarong Pambansa 2012 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

The city needs an ambitious activity like this as a way of promoting the City of Koronadal itself and the province of South Cotabato as a whole according to the mayor. He added that it was very timely to let the people coming from all walks of life know that the city, the capital of the province of South Cotabato, is one of the happiest and peaceful places in Mindanao and especially now that it has become the seat of Region XII, the city is positively fast progressing as well as expected.

PBM believes that the city has the capacity to host such a big event owing to the success of two (2) same sports events held here before. It must be recalled that the province first hosted the Palarong Pambansa in 1996 during the administration of former South Cotabato Governor Hilario de Pedro III and the latest was in 2007 during the administration of former City Mayor Fernando Q. Miguel.

Further, PBM also expressed his confidence that with the support and close coordination with the provincial government of South Cotabato, Palarong Pambansa 2015 here in the city would prove even better than the previous ones given the chance to prepare this early.

Meanwhile, Miguel was in Lingayen, Pangasinan during 2012 Palarong Pambansa to show his personal support and to give financial assistance to the athletes and coaches coming from the City of Koronadal and to personally hand in his letter of intent for the city’s bid to host said event in 2015.

By: Bic F. Manato

Read more »