COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A Korean businessman and ship operator visited here Monday and conferred with officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and local merchants on the prospect of establishing a regular sea route plying between Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia and Polloc Freeport in Parang, Maguindanao, with a stopover in Zamboanga City.

Jerry Hong, director of CH Construction Company based in Seoul, South Korea, said his company can provide a larger vessel to meet the demands of merchants trading in the area. The voyage was organized by the ARMM government in a bid to revive the century-old trading between Sabah and ARMM. (Ali Macabalang)

Assistance fund

MARAWI CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DSWD-ARMM) launched here its first pay off for indigent senior citizens in Lanao del Sur, starting with 39 initial beneficiaries for the first semester of this year.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr. expressed elation over the choice of his province as the launching pad for the DSWD’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Program (SPISCP) among the five provinces and two cities of the ARMM. The law prescribes the provision of R500 monthly pension to indigent senior citizens. (Ali Macabalang)

Health program

SURIGAO CITY – More than 46,000 Surigaonons already benefited from the provincial government’s “Panambay sa Barangay” (barangay medical mission) program.

Surigao del Norte Gov. Sol F. Matugas said the provincial government has already conducted the program in all the 20 municipalities and 15 villages of the province, with 21,914 clients served for medical consultation, 4,238 clients for dental extraction/consultation, 1,231 children for circumcision, and some 4,263 clients for laboratory services.

According to Matugas, the “Panambay sa Barangay” is the provinces’ all-year-round health program. (Mike Crismundo)

Export growth

ZAMBOANGA CITY (PNA) – The Agency Convergence for Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Support Services (ACCESS) program in Region-9 will be a key contributor to the economic development of the region through the creation and growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Sitti Amina Jain, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) assistant regional director and the brain behind the ACCESS project, said the DTI sees at least a 10 percent rise in this region’s export revenues, private sector investments, and jobs created as a direct result of the ACCESS program. She said at least a thousand SMEs had been identified and enrolled for support during the next five years.

Weather station

HINATUAN, Surigao del Sur – The Caraga Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) on Tuesday spearheaded the orientation of the council’s technical working group and other members of the disaster councils in the region on the weather knowledge, familiarization, status and specially uses of a Doppler Radar Station at the region’s weather station located in this town.

The orientation was spearheaded by the regional officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) at this new state-of-the art weather equipment. (Mike Crismundo)