The Ilocos Times

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter Piddig Mayor Eddie Guillen Piddig , Ilocos Norte—A 2,500-square meter shaded area of a hilly village in Cabaroan serves as an ‘open university’ for local farmers here who are interested to venture in organic farming. Set up by the local government unit of Piddig through a regional convergence initiative program back by multi-line national government agencies, research and extension activities, the farmers’ training school caters to everyone who wants to learn vermicomposting and diversified farming. Vermicomposting is the process of turning out wastes into organic fertilizer with the aid of friendly and hardworking African night crawlers while diversified farming leads the way how farmers can cope with the high costs of farming inputs by producing organic fertilizer on their own and not relying solely on a single but multiple crops that complement each other in times of need. For a P5,000 worth of livelihood package exclusive

BARANGAY  Ranger Officers (BRO) of Laoag help in clearing operation of water lilies at Brgy. Caaoacan this city for better flow of water. There are 61 BROs in Laoag from the coastal barangays hired by the provincial government purposely to maintain the coastal environment and in planting mangroves. The project of the provincial government is a livelihood program aimed at bettering unemployment rates in the province. Each BRO is paid P3,000 per month with a renewable contract every 3 months. (Doms dela Cruz)

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By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Laoag City —Relatives of murdered teenager Donna Mae Doña have offered P100,000 as reward for anyone who can help in pinpointing the mastermind/s of the grisly crime. Donna Mae was found dead at the Talingaan Sand Dunes in this city on May 25, 2015. The reward money was put up after the victim’s interment. Originally, the victim’s uncle, identified only as “Berlin” offered P50,000 as reward for the capture of the victim’s killer/s; he later doubled the reward money to P100,000. Donna Mae is from Brgy. Casili in this city, was 17 years old and was enrolled for this school year. Reacting to this, Laoag Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas said she will confer with Laoag police chief P/Supt. Jeffrey Gorospe on whether the reward money is a “wise” option. She explained that the city government has so far not offered any reward for any case since “ Masol-solvar met dagitay kas-kaso ”. She however stressed that she would rely on the

WE need to develop this sense of the eternal because that is proper to us. It’s not a luxury, and much less is it an exercise in fantastic, delusional futility. It is a necessity. Without it, we would be lost in this great and largely uncharted ocean that our world is.   As human persons with a spiritual soul, we are not meant to live only in time. We just don’t have a temporal, mundane life, governed only by temporal and worldly values. We are meant for the eternal life with eternal laws governing it. It would be good that we cultivate an abiding sense of the eternal, for that would give us the whole picture of our life and would provide us with the ultimate standards of our life by which all our mundane affairs and concerns ought to be related and assessed. We should not be contented with merely human and natural criteria as we live our life here on earth. No matter how indispensable they also are, they only have a relative value, effective only when organically related

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By Michael T. Esmino Managing Editor The United States Sec. John Kerry released the 2014 Country Reports on Human Rights practices where it was detailed that although the Philippines has continued to investigate and prosecute human rights abuses, concerns about impunity remains. The Human Rights Report is an annual requirement for the US state secretary which he gives to the United States Congress with “ a full and complete report regarding… the status of internationally recognized human rights.” Additionally, the yearly report also describes the status of internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in countries around the world. This year’s report was officially released on June 25, 2015, In the report, it stated that the US government continues to assist the Philippine government in addressing a wide range of human rights challenges, most notably through assistance directed