CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan – Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado congratulated Bulacan players Saturday for once again emerging as champion for the fifth consecutive time both in the elementary and secondary division of the Central Luzon Regional Athletic Association (CLRAA) 2011 regional meet.

Cheers reverberated at the grandstand of the sprawling Bulacan Sports Complex in Barangay Sta. Isabel here when Feliciano Lambus, chairman of technical records management committee, announced that Bulacan topped the overall ranking both in the elementary and high school level in the six -day regional sportsfest. (Freddie C. Velez)

Mountain Province rises
BONTOC, Mountain Province – The province will no longer be included in the next phase of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNICEF)-funded Country Program for Children (CPC) following the significant gains in the efforts to improve the health of the children in the province.

The two-year extended partnership of UNICEF and the local government of Mountain Province through CPC VI ends this year. Mt. Province UNICEF focal officer Dr Martha Cayad-an, in her meeting with key program implementers here, said UNICEF will channel its fund resources to provinces that still have high poverty incidence and still belong to the Club 20 poorest of the poor. (Dexter See)

Arbor Day law backed
BAGAC, Bataan – The Sangguniang Kabataan leadership has expressed its support to the proposed Arbor Day, a national law being crafted by the Senate.

Gabz del Rosario, national president of the Sangguniang Kabataan National Federation (SKNF), personally expressed his support when he was invited to the Senate recently.

This developed after Senators Antonio Trillanes and Manuel Villar filed Senate Bills Numbers 382 and 2448 respectively for the proposed declaration and celebration of Arbor Day, an act for the protection of the country's dwindling environment. (Mar T. Supnad)

Pampanga has new village
MEXICO, Pampanga – Officials of the Central Country Estate Incorporated (CCEI) led ground-breaking rites on Friday of a new village at The Lakeshore estate here.

Nestor Mangio, CCEI president and chief executive officer, along with Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Jim Jimenez, led the groundbreaking of the Aiola South Village in Mexico town.

According to Mangio, the Aiola Village is an upscale community with a mansion-themed clubhouse and pool, and a four-hectare village exclusive for discriminating property buyers. (Franco G. Regala)

Retired cop turns farmer
DOLORES, Abra – After 30 years in government service, retired Police Inspector Reynante Talingdan of Barangay Kimmalaba, Dolores, Abra has ventured into banana plantation.

Talingdan established his lakatan plantation in 2009 in a two-hectare lot which had been lying idle.

He procured his initial stock of tissue-cultured lakatan at P15.00 per shoot. For two years now, he had been yielding an average of 200 kilos of banana fruits per week. He sells his produce in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur at P35 per kilo. (Dexter See)