Month: January 2010

There’s no letting up for “Tour of Hope” bikers in informing the public that there is a way to defeat cervical cancer.

If last Wednesday’s launch is to be an indication of this year’s Tour of Hope, participants are in for an exciting, enjoyable, meaningful cycling event once again come March.

Tour of Hope is a cycling event which aims to increase awareness of cervical cancer premised on the belief that being informed is being armed and empowered to fight the disease which is the second most common cancer worldwide (first is breast cancer).

This year’s Tour of Hope which has adopted the theme “Fighting Cervical cancer in Full Circle” will traverse Tarlac, Dagupan, La Union, Dagupan and Baguio on March 20 to 24.

This is a project of BraveHearts, a multi-sectoral coalition led by the Cervical Cancer Prevention Network (CECAP, the Philippine General Hospital Cancer Institute Foundation (PGH-CIF), Team David Salon, whose cyclists will lead the tour, Rockwell Powerplant Mall, and GlaxoSmithKline.

We will write more about this as the Tour of Hope nears.

Meanwhile, last Friday was another joyful event for anti-cervical cancer advocates. CECAP, in its objective to raise the level of quality of services of support networks, gave out Best Practices Awards. Muntinlupa harvested a lot of awards to the delight of Leah San Pedro, wife of Muntinlupa Mayor Aldrin San Pedro.

Muntinlupa is an example where officials, Rep. Ruffy Biazon (Liberal Party) and San Pedro (Lakas) do not allow politics to get in the way of the their service to the people.

Awards won by Muntinlupa include Best Mobile Service; Best in Political Commitment and Sustainability; and Best Audio Visual Presentation.

This one would warm the hearts of advocates of woman power: Special Awards were given to the Leah San Pedro and Trina Biazon, wife of Ruffy Biazon, for the extra-mile that they did in pushing their husbands for CECAP as a flagship program.

CECAP also gave awards for legislatures who are active in promoting ant-cervical cancer programs. Aside from Ruffy Biazon, CECAP recognized the efforts of Rep. Cynthia Villar and Senator Pia Cayetano.

The municipality of Tanza, Cavite was cited as the Best Site;

Cagayan de Oro (Xavier University-Community Health Care Center) got the award for Promising Regional Center; Best in Infection Control and Best Poster.

The municipality of Minglanilla, Cebu, which got the grand prize, was also best in Documentation.

Award good personnel performance were also given. Best Health Provider was Gloria Llegunas and Best Municipal Health Officer Dr. Ruth Punzalan, prize. Extra Mile Award were given to Dr. Ruth Beltran and Dr. Belinda Panares.

CECAP appreciate the contribution of media and gave awards for Best Feature Article to Rowena Bautista Alcaraz and Best TV Feature to Unang Hirit by GMA 7. Inquirer’s Rina David was cited for here articles on cervical cancer.

I’m thankful to CECAP for appreciating my articles about their efforts to fight the killer disease.

CECAP also recognized the contribution of support group such as The Cervical Cancer Support Group led Professor Josefina dela Cruz Brave Hearts for raising the public’s level of awareness about cervical cancer through the Tour of Hope.

Prizes include cash, cryotherapy set, sterilizer, clinic kits and instruments, Zoe models, Laptop computers and gift certificates.

Captions:

1. PGH, CECAP staff with broadcast journalist TJ Manotok.
2. Broadcaster Trisha Chiongbian, model and beauty expert Abbygale Arenas and biker Jeena Lopez and her twins: Sabrina and Isis.
3. PGH, CECAP staff with Abbygale Arenas.
4. David Carlton of David Salon with Dr, Cecilia Llave, chair of the PGH Cancer Institute.

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Malaya editorial

Our favorite “pa-pogi” guy in government, Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture, is at it again. In the face of soaring prices of sugar, he directed the National Food Authority to make available 150,000 kilos to poor families through NFA’s “Tindahan Natin” outlets in Metro Manila.

The volume of 150,000 kilos translates into 150 tons of sugar. At an estimated nationwide consumption of 6,000 tons a day, the volume the NFA has been directed to inject into a market represents 2.5 percent of consumption. The volume will last about half an hour assuming people buy sugar round the clock during a 24-hour day.

(And, yes, we know that in doing the pencil-pushing exercise above we might be accused of intentional misrepresentation. The 150,000-kilo infusion is limited to Metro Manila, hence, we should not have used the nationwide consumption figure as the denominator. But we deliberately did so to show the silliness of Yap’s announcement given the obvious gap in demand and supply situation.)

Sugar is now retailing at a high of P60 a kilo, from less than P40 last year. Clearly there is a shortage, probably because a sharp decline from the 2.45 million tons of production in 2008 (the latest year for which data is available). A global drop in output must have also contributed to the drop in availability of sugar in the local market. While a portion of the local output is earmarked for the United States under the US quota system, we would not be surprised if some stocks are smuggled out by enterprising traders to countries other than the United States.

In response to the price spike, the government has come up with a knee-jerk reaction in the form of imposing a price ceiling (the DA recommendation is a suggested retail price of P52 a kilo). It’s par for the course, lurching from one crisis to another. But why has no effort been undertaken in the nine years that the Arroyo has been in power to reform the highly inefficient sugar industry?

To show how inefficient the industry is, the tariff on imported sugar is 28 percent. What kind of business is this that needs the protection of a 28 percent penalty against competition from overseas? Only the tariff on rice at 40 percent is higher than that on sugar.

Something’s terribly wrong with the productivity of the farms. Two years ago, the country was hit by a rice crisis. Today, the supply of rice is again not enough to carry the country through the dry season. Now comes the sugar shortage.

“Ganito kami noon, ganito pa rin kami ngayon,” whatever else the government recent spate of advertisements about Gloria Arroyo’s legacy say.

Kahit na pangit ang nangyayari ngayon sa Senado, mabuti na rin dahil lumalabas ang tunay na kulay ng marami sa kanila.

Kung hindi sila nagbabangayan, di hindi sana natin nalaman ang mga behind the scenes na ginawa ni Sen. Manny Villar katulad ng pakiki-usap kay Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile na parang ang dating daw ay nag-aalok ng tulong kapalit ang favorable na report tungkol sa C-5 road extension na proyekto.

Nalulungkot lang ako sa nangyari kay Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. na malaki rin naman ang kontribusyon sa ating demokrasya sa kanyang paglaban sa diktaturang Marcos.

Maiinit ang balitaktakan sa Senado noong Lunes nang ni-report na ni Enrile ang report ng Committee of the Whole kung saan pinaggalitan si Senator Manny Villar at ipinababalik ang sobra P6 na bilyon na kanyang kinita sa ma-anomalyang C-5 project.

Ito ang kanilang sagutan ni Sen. Mar Roxas:

Roxas: No, Mr. President. My name was mentioned in the context that we were gunning up, that this was all political, that we were using insertions–when he said in a blanket statement–that there were insertions, others had insertions. Well, I say no. I have no insertion on any matter. In fact, I have no insertion, period because we were in the minority. Let alone an insertion for a road to pass through any such property.

Pimentel: Well, I’m sure that after your marriage you’ve had some insertions…

Roxas: Mr. President, I demand that that be removed from the record. That is an affront on my wife!
Pimentel: Mr. President, I remove it immediately.

Noong Martes, sa dasal bago masimula ang session, humingi ng paumanhin si Pimentel sa kanyang mga nasaktan.
Sa “Strictly Politics” na talk show ni Pia Hontiveros sa ANC, sinabi ni Pimentel na hindi niya intensyun na bastusin si Korina Sanchez, asawa ni Roxas, dahil wala namang kasalanan yun sa kanya.

Siyempre, hindi basta-basta matanggap ng marami lalo pa ang mga supporters ng mga Aquino-Roxas na ticket.
Sa aking Facebook, kung saan binabatantan si Pimentel, nagpaliwanag si dating Environment Secretary Jun Factoran, na kasma nina Pimentel at Sen. Joker Arroyo na lumaban kay Marcos.

Sabi ni Factoran, hindi naman talaga “trapo” si Pimentel na katulad na maraming “trapong” alam natin. Ngunit sang-ayon naman siya na sumobra na si Pimentel noong Lunes. Sabi niya pa, nadala na siguro ang dalawang matanda. Baka raw kasi sa ganitong edad, masyadong mahalaga sa kanila ang pagkakaiibigan. Ngunit mabuting tao daw ang dalawa.

Nagkumento naman si Anna Leah Sarabia: “Although i would say the two oldies are old traditional men, i.e. macho pa rin ang mga biro. and i do think that many watchers are really thoughtlessly jumping into the bandwagon — gaya-gaya kasi.”

Inamin naman ni Factoran: “You are right there Leah. Iba lang kasi ang kinagisnan namin. Talagang hindi sensitive sa gender differences. Parang laging nasa locker room. I apologize for my generation. We should have known better. I do not understand myself how we could possibly so piggish in our jokes involving the female gender, and yet be so respectful and admiring of our mothers. Kulang sa education kami noon. Dapat nga lang pag nasa public life ka, medyo matuto ka kaagad ng tama at mali.”

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