DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental (PIA) - Some 80 US military and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) personnel and non-government organization representatives are set to kick off 'Operation Pacific Angel 2013 on March 4 in Negros Oriental. Now on its sixth year, Operation Pacific Angel is a joint and combined humanitarian assistance exercise led by Pacific Air Forces which includes medical, dental, optometry, and engineering programs as well as various subject-matter expert exchanges. A U.S. Embassy statement said AFP doctors and engineers will work alongside their U.S. counterparts to provide medical, dental, optometry, and engineering assistance.
FIRETRUCK DONATION
BAYBAY CITY, Leyte – The Baybay city government recently received a new Rosenbauer TLF 400 tanker fire truck truck from Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II. Mayor Carmen L. Cari received said fire truck at the grandstand of the Philippine National Police Headquarters in Camp Crame, Q.C. earlier this week. Cari lauded Roxas for choosing her city as the only beneficiary of the new fire truck in Eastern Visayas. She said with the new fire truck, the Baybay Fire Station will now have three fire trucks for use by local firemen in their firefighting activities. (Nestor. L. Abrematea)
2013 SPES
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo (PIA) – The Department of Labor and Employment in Region 6 (DOLE-6) is targeting 8,443 youths in Western Visayas to take part in this year’s Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES), mandated by Rep. Act. No. 9547 to help poor but deserving students pursue college education by providing them with income or augmenting their income by having them employed during summer and Christmas vacation. The SPES is open to all qualified high school college, technology or vocational students or drop-outs and interested employers.
UPDATES DISSEMINATION
MANDAUE CITY, CEBU, (PIA) – The Commission on Elections here is asking city and municipal officers to help disseminate procedural changes on the conduct of this year’s national and local elections. Mandaue Election Officer Atty. Ann Flor Grujilde said information officers play a vital role in spreading changes related to the May elections. Some of the changes include local absentee voting for members of the police force, fire, and military and local teachers and media members to be conducted on April 28, 29 and 30. Grujilde represented Cebu Provincial Election Commissioner Atty. Eddie Aba as main guest in the first gathering this year of the Cebu Association of City and Municipal Information Officers (Caocampio) held in Mandaue City recently.
MANI-MANI PLANTING
PALO, Leyte (PIA) – The Department of Public Works and Highways in Eastern Visayas (DPWH-8) has introduced the planting of peanut grass or “mani-mani” on mountain slopes along the national roads to control soil erosion. Planting mani-mani may prevent possible landslides that could block roads in a heavy downpour, said DPWH director Rolando Asis who said a seven-kilometer stretch of Daang Maharlika, also known as Pan-Philippine Highway, along the Tacloban – Baybay road section in Leyte province has already been planted with peanut grass initially aimed as slope erosion control measure but, as it has turned out, is also a beautification measure as well.