BAGUIO FULL

BAGUIO CITY (PNA) — The more than 60 hotels and inns in this mountain resort 250 kilometers north of Manila registered more than 93 percent occupancy rate in the past three days as an estimated close to one million visitors spent their Christmas holiday here. The estimate was based on information furnished by the hotels and restaurants as well as ocular inspections of all parks and other public places where observers likened the holiday crowd similar to the main highlights of the city's flower festival every February. Gabriel Keith, tourism operations officer of the City Tourism Office (CTO), said that many of the visitors have gone out of Baguio since this morning "but many are also arriving for their observance of New Year's Day here."

TOUR CANCELLED

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY  (PNA) — Nearly a thousand visitors spending Christmas Day at Sitio Sabang, Barangay Cabayugan were disappointed to learn on Tuesday that all boat trips to the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) were cancelled due to strong winds and waves. James Mendoza, the manager of the underground river park management told local radio DZIP that they cancelled all boat trips going to the PPUR because waves were unusually tough and the winds were intense due to the effect of tropical storm "Quinta" (international name Wukong). Although, Puerto Princesa is not directly on Quinta’s path, its strong winds were felt yesterday in some coastal areas, including Sabang, the home of the underground river.

BATAAN FAIR

MARIVELES, Bataan — The Freeport Area of Bataan (FAB) gave the public the opportunity to check out its export quality products during the FAB Fair ’12 which was participated by over 60 companies and enterprises selling export-quality clothes, shoes, and various items at factory prices. With the theme “Building Connections,” the fair was held up to December 23 in the FAB grounds in Mariveles town. Participating companies include Sui Style (ladies’ dress); MedTecs (fabric, bed sheet, linen); Essilor (free eye lens and eye checkup); SS Venture (shoes); and DeskTop Bags (leather bags and wallets).

MILD QUAKE

SINAIT, Ilocos Sur — A mild earthquake of 3.5 magnitude in the Richter scale rocked some areas in Northern Luzon last Tuesday evening but didn’t cause any damage, a report from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said here. The 3.5 magnitude quake occurred at 8:02 p.m. Tuesday with epicenter located 9 kilometers northwest of San Manuel, Pangasinan with a depth of 33 kilometers. De Peralta said the quake was felt at intensity 2 in Baguio City. Phivolcs said the quake was tectonic in origin but no aftershock to be expected. (Freddie G. Lazaro)

B.S.P. CAMPAIGN

LUCENA CITY, Quezon — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) office here warned the public, especially traders to be aware and scrutinize the money they received to avoid being victims of counterfeits. Rogel Joseph del Rosario, BSP deputy director-Lucena branch, said the new generation currency has new security features as protection against counterfeiters.  The BSP is conducting an information campaign about the new currency and on “clean note policy” to educate the people on proper handling and care of Philippine money. The information campaign aims to teach traders and the public on how to distinguish between the real counterfeit currency. (Danny Estacio)