CEBU CITY, Philippines – Expecting incidents of fire during the New Year celebration and the Sinulog festival, the Cebu City Fire Department has mapped out plans to ensure the immediate deployment of fire trucks during distress calls.

Cebu City Fire Marshal Anderson Comar said fire personnel are barred from taking personal leaves starting last December 15 to prepare for these two events and for possible onsets of fires.

During the New Year’s Eve, Comar said a firetruck will be roving around the city while other trucks will be put on standby in various fire stations and substations within Cebu City for immediate deployment.

Comar said fire personnel are currently equipped with fire fighting attires, helmets, coats, boots, and delta uniforms that are used by fire-penetrating personnel.

The city’s fire personnel have also been placed under constant training to make them ready in answering alarms. (Mars W. Mosqueda, Jr.)

BETTER YIELD SEEN IN 2011

ILOILO, Philippines (PIA) – Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo said in a radio interview that production is most likely to be better with the sustaining mild La Niña expected to extend next year.

“With the cooler weather, rice production is seen to grow higher, picking up from good yields this last quarter,” Toledo said.

Toledo said production in September surpassed the 3.5 metric-ton production target per hectare in the province.

He said rice production in the province was “good” despite infestation and drought that hit the province in early 2010.

Toledo added that the good production can also be attributed to the efforts of farmers in planting hybrid rice, which the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) advocates as a measure sustaining sufficiency in between cropping.

In Iloilo, two farmers, Patricia Arceta and Mario Puga from the town of Leganes said during a Farmers’ Field Day there that with the more than seven and eight metric tons of hybrid rice they produced, they earned about P44,000 and P54,000 per hectare, respectively.

SAFE TRAVEL DURING HOLIDAYS ASSURED

PALO, Leyte, Philippines – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Eastern Visayas has assured the public of safe and comfortable travel during the holidays.

Engineer Angel Sia Jr., Chief of the Maintenance Division of the DPWH 8 Regional Office here, said the regional office and all the district engineering offices in Leyte and Samar are with a skeletal personnel which will respond to the needs of the travelling public during the holidays.

Sia said such skeletal force has been created in the regional office and the DPWH’s district offices after they got hold of a Department Order issued last December 24, 2010 by DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson to effect the creation of such force in all DPWH offices during the holiday season.

“We immediately disseminated to all district offices the Secretary’s order to help ensure safe and comfortable travel of the general public here," Sia said.

He said this is the same skeletal force that the regional office and the agency’s district engineering offices creates to respond to problems of the travelling public on the national highway during the Holy Week and All Saints' and All Souls' Day in November.

Sia asked the public to report to the nearest DPWH office any problem they may encounter on the road so that the agency’s personnel can immediately come to their aid. He also made an appeal to the public to stop burning used tires or anything on the road during the New Year's eve revelry to prevent accidents. (Nestor L. Abrematea)