T’BOLI, South Cotabato, Philippines (PNA) — With early marriage still prevalent among the tribal community here, the national government’s health caravan dubbed “Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan” (LBK) rolled out here Thursday in a bid to lessen such phenomenon as well as provide health care services.

Mayor Ernesto Manuel expressed hopes the municipality, with 70 percent of the population composed of indigenous people, mostly T’bolis, could rise from poverty with the attention such as this caravan from the national government. “In our case, we have 10, 12 year old [T’boli] girls getting married already, and so they were forced to stop schooling,” Manuel said, lamenting this as a major reason for the poor plight of many of his tribal constituents.

LGU assistance

KORONADAL CITY, (PIA) — Koronadal Mayor Peter B. Miguel Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Y. Pingoy Jr. that paved the way for the transfer of P1 million fund to the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital (SCPH).

The program tagged as “Pondo Bulig sa Maysakit (PBM) sa Emergency Room” is intended exclusively for use by the city’s indigent residents who are hospitalized at the SCPH. It was the city LGU’s response to a resolution passed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in March asking the former for financial assistance considering that about 60 percent of the patients of SCPH are from Koronadal.

Davao management

DAVAO CITY, (PNA) — The city government of Davao will apply Knowledge Management (KM) Project to analyze knowledge in terms of resources, documents and people’s skills.

Bert Barriga, chair of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Council of Davao, said Davao City will be the first local government in the country to implement the KM project which focuses on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization.

Cagayan confidence

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Misamis Oriental, (PIA) — Mayor Vicente Y. Emano has expressed his gratitude to the management of Gaisano Inc. for opening its 6th branch in the city which he said shows confidence in the city’s economy. “Another mall was recently opened in Barangay Bulua and this has positive indications to the economic growth of the city,” the Mayor said.

“Ang pagbukas sa Gaisano Mini-Mall sa Bulua usa ka positibong indikasyon nga taas kaayo ang pagsalig sa mga lokal ug langyaw’ng magpapatigayon sa natad sa negosyo sa atong dakbayan (The opening of a Gaisano Mini-Mall in Barangay Bulua is a positive indication of the high trust and confidence of the local businessmen in the city),” Emano said.