CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines (PIA) – The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI)’s Culture and Heritage unit is launching today its “Belen sa Casa Gorordo” and “RAFI @ 45” exhibits to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Casa Gorordo Museum along Lopez Jaena St., this city. Said Belen sa Casa Gorordo exhibit is one of the museum’s four-house traditions.

Every Christmas season, the museum puts on a display of the Gorordo family’s priceless 19th century collection of figurines depicting 10 scenes from Christ’s nativity to early childhood. RAFI @ 45 meanwhile traces RAFI’s history, beginning with the charitable works of Ramon Aboitiz in the early 1900s to the philanthropy of the Aboitiz family in subsequent decades in the following decades, and RAFI’s full emergence as a benchmark institution in the field of social development by the 1980s.

Gawad Saka

TACLOBAN CITY Leyte (PIA) – Alfredo Q. Roble, a 63-year-old farmer turned barangay official from Ormoc City, Leyte leads this year’s national winners of Gawad Saka, the annual search for outstanding achievers in agriculture and fisheries.

Winners were honored last Dec. 13 at Malacañang’s Rizal Hall by President Benigno S. Aquino III and Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala. Roble, who is also a barangay chairman from Valencia, Ormoc City, has managed to harvest up to 12 tons of palay per hectare from his two-hectare farm, enabling him to clinch the outstanding hybrid rice farmer award.

Kids' i-rice

ROXAS CITY, Capiz (PIA) - A government agency promoting iron fortified rice recently held a feeding program for 550 kids at Don Venancio Alba Memorial School (DVAMS) in Brgy. Bolo here. Apart from children three to five years old, the activity dubbed “NFA – UNICEF I-Rice Feeding” also catered to malnourished pupils of DVAMS, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Activity participants were made aware of prevailing price of I-Rice, and where these are sold here. I-Rice, which is part of the government’s program to fight malnutrition and vitamin deficiency, retails at P27 per kilo in various NFA accredited sellers provincewide.

Ceace VAW

SILAY CITY, Negros Occidental (PIA) - Silay City Mayor Jose Montelibano, with local officials and Silay City Hall employees, blew their whistles to halt Violence Against Women (VAW) last Monday, Dec. 12. The “Blow on Whistle on VAW” ceremony was done at the Silay Silay City Public Plaza, at exactly 8:00 a.m.

The activity commemorates this year’s annual 18-day campaign to end (VAW) which started last November 25 and ended yesterday Dec. 12.This year’s campaign focused on information dissemination about anti-VAW laws, particularly government agencies and non-government organizations’ services to address the needs of VAW survivors.

Dauin pier

DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental (PIA) - Tourist traffic in Dauin town is seen to go up next year following the recent completion of the construction of a mini-pier in Brgy. Maayong Tubig in Dauin, Negros Oriental.

The port was formally turned over by the provincial government led by Gov. Roel Degamo to the local government unit of Dauin represented by Mayor Neil Credo in a ceremony recently.

The port cost around P5 million to construct, with Gov. Degamo pouring in P2 million to accelerate its completion, said Capitol Information Officer Adrian Sedillo.