TAGAYTAY CITY, Cavite, Philippines — It's all systems go for the Valentine's celebration in this ridge city starting this weekend. It will be busy days for the local administration as the city will be celebrating the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes on Feb. 11 (Saturday) and the Our Mother of Fair Love Day, aside from the Feast of Saint Valentine, on the 14th.

Mayor Abraham N. Tolentino has ordered the city public safety management, police and other concerned authorities to secure the city for the celebrations as early as last Monday. Tagaytay, a second-class city with 34 barangays and a population of more than 63 thousand, is a prime tourist destination nearest Metro Manila. (Anthony Giron)

Korea Jobs

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan — Hundreds of job-seekers gathered here early Wednesday morning to get a chance to land a job in South Korea as the registration for the 8th Employment Permit System-Test of Proficiency in Korean (EPS-TOPIK) kicked off in six venues, including the Bulacan Capitol Gymnasium.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado said this program will give an edge to aspiring Bulakenyo workers to get a job in South Korea. The Philippine Overseas Employment Association (POEA) said those who are interested to pursue employment in South Korea must have an active registration status in order to be included in the manpower pool for South Korea. (Freddie C. Velez)

Skills Olympics

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan (PIA) — Banking on its “drive for pride” to top six other provinces in the region, Bulacan triumphed as overall champion in the 2012 Central Luzon Regional Skills Competition held in different locations in the province. Bulacan bagged nine gold, six silver and four bronze medals to seal the competition dubbed as the “Olympics of blue-collar jobs” which was revived after a six-year hiatus.

“This win shows that Bulacan shines not only in Central Luzon but also worldwide. They are globally competitive,” said Dang Sagum, supervising technical education skills development specialist of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-Bulacan. Bataan placed second with six gold, seven silver and five bronze medals, followed by Pampanga with three gold, four silver medals.

Health Insurance

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro (PIA) — The provincial government under Gov. Alfonso V. Umali, Jr. has provided free life health insurance coverage of P20,000 to barangay officials of Pag-asa in Naujan town. The insurance coverage complements the provincial government’s health program for barangay officials of the province.

The insurance has a duration of 20 years. In an earlier visit of the governor to the Mangyans of barangay Benli, Bulalacao, the indigents in the area were provided free medical mission, Philhealth insurance and free registration of birth certificates at the local civil registrar.

Batangas Housing

SAN JUAN, Batangas (PIA) — The provincial government of Batangas has launched a housing project worth P1 million under the Balay project intended to help families living in shanties along disaster-prone areas.

Beneficiaries of the project are about 40 families in Barangay Balabag who were selected through the poverty threshold.

The beneficiaries were chosen as a result of the community base monitoring system conducted by the provincial government which aims to identify the needs of communities in the province.