Archive for category Sarangani
Ladol Beach on Digital Detours
I HAD an affair with Ladol Beach last summer. With my cellphone camera, I attempted to capture its natural beauty.
I’ve only been able to upload the pictures today so I posted them right away on my photo blog.
Ladol teems with life
Get to know Ladol on Digital Detours.
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One Great Summer
IT’S BEEN sooooo looooong since I last posted here because I took my vacation seriously. And I tell you, my summer was one of my most memorable.
Just what did I do this summer of 2009?
After my students’ graduation day, I wanted to make my family feel that I am really LIVING WITH THEM, I spent a few days at home, did the cooking, played with my nephews and nieces (there’s abunch of them), and, you know, just lingered around. In the afternoon, I would bike, and at times, jog to the beach to get rid of the fats I have accumulated from graduation treats and birthday parties. On the beach, I would watch the sun as it sets down the horizon and the sea waves as they rush to the shore.
Biking to Ladol Beach, Alabel, Sarangani Province
Sunset at Ladol Beach
After the Holy Week, I started taking part of the Sarangani Big Brother Program by facilitating the SBB Volunteer Training and Leadership Camp. It was a great experience–meeting new friends, going to many places, and, of course, somehow being part of social transformation. I went to Maasim, Kiamba, and Maitum. Alongside facilitating trainings, we had a great time snorkeling in Maasim’s beautiful beaches.
A small-group session youth volunteers in Maasim, Sarangani Province
I was not able to join the SBB Facilitators in other municipalities because I had to attend the Training for Physical Science Teachers of Regional Science High School at the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education Development (UP-NISMED) in Diliman, Quezon City.
With the Director UP-NISMED and one of our Facilitators
After the training, I spent a few days to meet my friends who are now working in Metro Manila. I feel nostalgic looking at our pictures. And oh, I was able to use my TimeZone Powercard at last (Geesh, I can’t remember how much I had spent at TZ).
Before going back to Mindanao, I paid my Ate Edna and Ate Marissa a visit in Bulacan where they now work.
With Pathways Friends at the MOA
When I returned here, I was sent to another training on the Teacher Induction Program at the Notre Dame of Marbel University. It was another great experience, where I met nice fellow participants who treated me like their younger brother. I also met with my old friends in Marbel and had our usual bowling session.
After a few days, I attended another training at Lun Padidu National High School, Malapatan, Sarangani Province on Improvization of Laboratory Equipment with Concept Integration where I learned how to saw, solder, and, well, utilize recyclables to build instructional materials for my classes.
In between these activities, I had target shooting with Board Member Aniceto Lopez III, swimming with Mayor Lopez, eyeballs with GenSan and South Cotabato Uzzapers (haha), bowling and drinking sessions with yuppie friends, and long hours of sleep.
It was one great summer, don’t you think?
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Sarangans Collaborate to Help School Children to Read
Posted by ayel in Blogging, Current Events, Features, Leadership, Mindanao, Sarangani on April 13th, 2009
NOT ALL school children can read. That is a sad fact about the current education situation in many parts of the country. They are called frustrations readers. This problem hinders kids from getting the most out of their daily lessons, which is deemed to have a great impact to them as they progress on their journey of education.
Grade one pupils from Alabel Central Elementary School and SPED Center receive books from the Alcantara Foundation last year. *Image from QUEST
To help solve this problem, the Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation Inc., the Office of the Provincial Governor of Sarangani, the Provincial SK Federation (PPSK), the Local Government Units of each municipality, the Department of Education, and the Ayala Foundation, Inc. joined hands in the Sarangani Big Brother Season 2: Reading is Fun, a reading program.
Sarangani Big Brother, which started last year, is a volunteer-based reading program that runs for 15 days during the summer. Volunteer school teachers will extend their services to the identified frustration readers. Youth volunteers, the Ate’s and Kuya’s of the paraticipants, are also mobilized as teacher aids that will help ensure that the participants obtain optimum learning in the program.
Tomorrow, April 14-16 is the first round of the training of the teachers and the youth volunteers in Maasim, Sarangani Province. That will be followed by the other six municipalities of Sarangani.
Ayala Young Leaders Congress alumni, together with other volunteers from PPSK and the units under the Office of the Governor, will facilitate the training.
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Being the senior AYLC alumnus in the group, I was tasked to talk on Servant Leadership. I am both honored and pressured because this is the topic that I think our Mentor, Sir Monch Mossessgeld, has the credibility to deliver. Haha. I think I will just borrow his words.
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Frequent Blackouts: Proof of Power Shortage?
Posted by ayel in Blogging, Current Events, Features, Sarangani on March 23rd, 2009
I WAS about to take my exam last Saturday at Mindanao State University but it was cancelled due to a sudden power outage. A week before that, several brownouts caused the delay in the submission of our reports on student performance. It doesn’t end with that. There are bigger problems, too, like your cellphone and laptop going empty and you couldn’t connect to your plurk buddies anymore. Seriously, the greater problem is, are we facing power shortage already?
In November last year, Archimedes Flores, general manager of Aboitiz Energy Solutions presented a briefing paper to the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce that projects an 84 MegaWatt shortage next year and 174 MegaWatt shortage by 2011. (Source: GMA News)
On the daily basis, the SocSKSarGen area requires about 150 MW of electricity and this is expected to increase by about 150 MW when the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) begins its operation in 2011. At present, the are is sourcing its electricity from NAPOCOR and from two diesel power plants located in General Santos City and Alabel, Sarangani Province. The two power plants produce electricity at only 104 MW. (Source: Edwin Espejo)
The continuous development in the area, such as the rise of new establishments, also increases the power requirement. Now, how are these problems being addressed? For sure, as most activities that people do today involve electricity, we could not afford to deal with brownouts everyday.
CONAL Holdings proposes an answer to this with its plan to build a 200-MW coal based power plant in Kamanga Maasim, Sarangani Province. CONAL Holdings is a venture between the Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (Thailand) and the Alacanta Group, which also operates the Southern Philippine Power Corporation and Alsons Aqua Resources Company in Sarangani Province. (Source: Industrial Info)
Although, Kamanga Power Plant General Manager, Gregorio S. Gonzales, claims that the company will employ technologies that are compliant to Philippines Laws that protect the environment, the people cannot be blamed if they would rise up against it as it still pose danger to Massim, nearby towns Kiamba and Maitum, and even the city of General Santos.
The major drawbacks of coal-fired power plants include emissions of greenhouse gases that are said to contribute to global warming, inroganic aerosols that can damage the ozone layer, and fly ash that can pollute the air and water systems. (Sources: GSA, ORNL, Wikipedia)
Now it is a question of how much are we willing to put at risk for the sake of development?
Public Hearing on the proposed Coal-Fired Power Plant in Maasim, Sarangani Province (Photo by Cocoy Sexcion)
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The Huge Flag
Posted by ayel in Blogging, Current Events, Features, Sarangani on February 26th, 2009
I THOUGHT we were to witness a historic event when we were invited to the unfurling of the largest flag of the Philippines at the Sarangani Provincial Capitol Complex this morning. To my dismay, what we witnessed instead was a large-scale disrespect to the nation’s emblem. Or so I thought. Just yesterday, the students and teachers of our school were advised to proceed to the capitol grounds for the unfurling of the largest Philippine flag. So we all went there this morning.
Lying on the ground was a huge lump of wet cloth spanning the length of the lawn in front of the capitol building. (That is roughly 200 meters long, I estimate.) The colors of the cloth were familiar so I recognized right away that it was the flag that was to be unfurled. White, golden yellow, red, blue, brown, and gray. Brown and gray? Does the Philippine flag have brown and gray in it? Something was very wrong about it. (Thanks to Joanna for this photo)
I grew up with a sense of respect to the flag. During my grade school days, when we were tasked to hoist the national color, we would always see to it that we handle it with care and that it would always be flown with the blue color on top, not red. During flag retreats, we would fold it without allowing it to touch the ground. I also learned that we should not raise the flag anymore when its colors have faded or when it already looks weathered. (The Flag Law)
I looked at the large piece of cloth on the ground again. It looked like a huge mess to me. So I decided, it wasn’t the Philippine flag at all but rather, just a huge cloth that looked like the Philippine flag.
Students, government employees, and men in uniform drag the edges of the flag
Why would you create such a huge flag if you don’t know how to treat it well? If you really value the national flag, why would you allow it to just lie on the ground overnight and be drenched by the rain? (It is just made of cloth, for God’s sake! Sun and rain can make it vulnerable.) And if it is sacred to you, why would you allow it to be trampled upon? On second thought, doesn’t that huge flag depict our country today, disrespected and broken apart?
Gov. Migs Dominguez and representatives from various sectors mend the flag as it needed stiching from previous unfurling.
The Woman Behind the Huge Flag
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