MOA signed to increase coconut production in N Luzon
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BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today witnessed the signing of three
Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) that will increase the production of coconut in Cagayan Valley and increase
the income of coconut farmers in the region.
The President, who came from Pangasinan to inspect the San Roque Dam, dropped by the residence of
Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena to witness the MOA signing between the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)
and the Nueva Vizcaya State University(NVSU);PCA and the Isabela State University(ISU) and, among the PCA,
Philippine Information Agency(PIA), Rotary International District 3780 thru Rotary Club of Centennial Quezon City.
The signing of the MOAs came after the PCA has declared in a resolution, Northern Luzon or Regions 1,2 and 3
as regular coconut regions suitable for planting of coconut and other related intercrops.
The PCA, which is mandated to promote the development and growth of the coconut industry to benefit the
coconut farmers and the coconut industry, is in charge with implementing the President's National Coconut
Participatory Planting Program.
The program aims to increase the production and supply of coconut for domestic consumption and export
commitments. The Philippines is the world’s top coconut exporter.
In the agreement, ISU and NVSU manifested their willingness and capability to extend support to the program to
promote coconut culture in Northern Luzon.
The region’s two state universities agreed to clear the conveyed parcels of land, (initially 1.6 million hectares),
map the metes and bounds and construction of perimeter fence and provide seednuts irrigation, among others.
The PCA will pay P7 for every good seednut sown by the universities.
In the MOA with the Rotary Club, the universities will be paid P7 for every good seednut by the Club.
Under the MOAs, the allocation of plantable seedlings withdrawn from the nursery to the coconut farmer shall be
based on the list of coconut farmers arranged by barangays and municipalities.
The farmers shall be paid P16 for every good transplanted seedling. Moreover, he PCA shall also educate the
coco farmers on intercropping.
The signatories were: for PCA,administrator Oscar Garin; NVSU by its President Marilou Gilo-Abon; ISU by its
President Romeo Quilang and Rotary Club's Atty. rufino Mijares.
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PGMA visits plastics-free, styropor-free and smoke-free university in Quezon
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LUCBAN, Quezon -- Four years after she converted a rural college here into a state university, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has found the Southern Luzon State University (SLSU) a serous advocate of the environment.
The university campuses are smoke-free, styropor-free, and plastics-free. All buildings in the school’s main
campus in this town are painted green.
The school head said more novel ways of environmental care are in the works and there are plans to embed its
environment thrust in the curriculum for its 9,300 students. Within the 1,660 hectares of protected forests
reserved for the school at the foot of majestic Mt. Banahaw here, a flurry of environmental activities such as solid
waste management, reforestation, and vegetation protection are taking place.
A state-run institution since March 2007 (Republic Act 9395), the school has since evolved as the “premiere”
institution of learning in the province of Quezon.
Last Monday, the President visited the main school campus at Lucban town as part of her legacy tour of the
education sector. She inaugurated a new P20-million building, half of which was financed by donations from
Vietnam, which SLSU president Dr. Cecilia N. Gascon said, was in recognition of the school’s strong
environmental stance and its curriculum upgrading.
The President just came from another school visit in Camarines Norte where she reiterated before student and
parents her 3 Es program -- education, economy and environment.
Dr. Gascon said the aggressive environmental programs of the school makes it different from others. Last year,
the SLSU, in cooperation with the Lucban town government, banned in its main campus and seven other
satellite campuses in the province, the use of plastics (wrappers, cups, plates and other handy items ) styrofor
and smoking to dramatize its serious strong environmental goals.
The school has since raised the level of discipline among the students and has improved its standing in the
various national licensure examinations.
Dr. Gascon said the school’s environmental discipline also enhances similar initiatives by the local officials in
this town of 80,000 souls, famous for its yearly Pahiyas festival.
Gascon said the President Arroyo and her education programs was mainly responsible for the rise in learning
levels in the SLSU.
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DPWH sees flood-free Metro Manila
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Public Works and Highways Secretary Victor Domingo today said another legacy that President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo will leave will be the possible solution to the flooding problem in Metro Manila.
At the “Forum on Infrastructure Development” held this afternoon at the Manila Hotel, Domingo told the guest of
honor, President Arroyo, there are unsolicited proposals from the private sector to put up a dam in Marikina that
could solve the flooding problem in Metro Manila.
Domingo said the establishment of a new dam could trap excess waters such as the 4,500 cubic meters per
second of floodwaters which cascaded down the mountains of the Sierra Madre, Montalban and San Mateo at
the height of typhoon Ondoy last year.
To complement the new dam, Domingo said road dikes can also be established with trapped waters exiting to
Laguna de Bay.
To prevent flooding, Domingo said excess waters will also be released during low tides, considering that
several areas in Metro Manila are below sea level and the Pasig River can hold only 500 cubic meters of waters
per second during low tides.
Since last year, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has doubled its efforts to fast-track rural
water projects nationwide along with the repair and rehabilitation of flood control structures damaged by the
successive typhoons Ondoy, Pepeng, and Ramil last September and October.
This includes the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project, which was started in July 2009 and will
be completed in June 2012.
The Camanava Flood Control and Drainage Project has also minimized flooding in several barangays in
Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela (Camanava) area.
In his report to the President, Domingo said major infrastructure projects in the Northern Luzon Agribusiness
Quadrangle (NLAQ), Urban Luzon Beltway, Central Philippines-Tourism, and Agribusiness Mindanao are on
track.
Included are major road and bridge networks, ports, airports and the roll-on roll-off ferries now providing
seamless travel and boosting various economic opportunities nationwide, Domingo said.
Among the President’s legacies, Domingo said, are the construction and improvement of 47,773 kilometers of
roads, 289,944 linear meters of bridges, and more than 102,000 classrooms as well as the construction of
more than 294,000 government housing units.
Domingo said these accomplishments in the last nine years under President Arroyo are far better than the
accomplishments during the 14-and-a-half years of the three previous administrations combined.
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