CEBU CITY, Cebu (PIA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 7 (DSWD FO-7) is preparing its visually impaired masseurs and masseuse for a massage therapy licensure examination on January 2013. The ongoing rigorous review and training is initiated by the Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center II (AVRC II) maintained and operated by DSWD-7. Recently accredited by the Department of Health (DOH) as a Training Institution for Massage Therapy, AVRC II is in line with the Presidential Decree (PD) 856 or the Code on Sanitation of the Philippines. 

O.M.B. ACTION  

VICTORIAS CITY, Negros Occidental — The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) has suspended for six months Victorias City Mayor Severo Palanca and his executive assistant and chief of the city’s license and permission division for their alleged irregular issuance of a business permit for the operation of a jai-alai betting station here. In a 22-page decision signed 21 November 2012, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales found Palanca and Panes,  guilty of simple dishonesty liable to be suspended without pay. One James Francis Anthony Garcia earlier complained the respondents “conspired, confederated, took advantage of their public positions and helped one another in falsifying” a permit to Gaudencio Corona as  operator of Dalisay Amusement Games and Recreation Station, which Garcia alleged  does not exist. (Jun Ramirez)

S.B.M.Q.A.T. MEETING

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte (PIA) — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Sagip Batang Manggagawa Quick Action Team (SBMQAT) held a learning session Thursday, December 13, 2012 at Candy’s Function Hall, Barangay Abgao, this city. Some 40 SBMQAT participant-members from the Philippine National Police, municipal/city social welfare officers, provincial fiscal, women/children’s desk officers, Philippine Ports Authority, Coast Guard, Public Employment Services Office, and Philippine Information Agency tackled such topics as Anti-Child Labor Law; Responding information in Child Labor Cases: The SBMQAT Approach; indicators in selecting child labor-free barangays toward identification of pilot areas in Southern Leyte; and issues and concerns relative to child labor program implementation.

N.G.C.P. TAPPED

TUBIGON, Bohol (PIA) — Tubigon town in Bohol has tapped the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to bring tap water to households of its four "waterless" mountain barangays. Tubigon Mayor William Jao and NGCP’s head of corporate affairs Nelson Cabangon signed a memorandum of agreement to co-fund a P1.8 million project supplying 24-hour water service to Brgys. Bunacan, Cawayanan, Libertad and Buenos Aires. Jao said the project is part of the town’s second phase project of a P50 million overhaul plus expansion activities of its local waterworks system.

CAPIZ EXPO

ROXAS CITY, Capiz (PIA) — The recent expo and garden show of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs and cutflower growers in Capiz netted some P900,000. Information Officer Ken Queenie Cuñada of the Capiz Department of Trade and Industry said the four-day Capiz Product Expo posted gross sales of P642,356.50, with furniture and other crafts accounting for 66 percent of the total sales. In addition, she said the week-long Capiz Multi-Purpose Cooperative Garden Show was able to generate P234,927 in sales. The food and wellness products group gained 44 percent of total gross sales in said expo.