The Ilocos Times

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has renewed its commitment enjoining all stakeholders to become responsible stewards of nature. Attended by about 1,500 participants from the different regions of the country, the DENR launched Tayo ang Kalikasan Movement at a hotel in this city on April 24, 2018 with a symbolic signing of covenant to take an active role in the preservation of the environment. “The aim of this movement is to improve our environmental condition. It is not just the DENR who is doing it, all of us should help each other to show that we are concern about our environment,” said Atty. Jonas Leones, DENR undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs who is also the co-chairman of the Task Force Tayo ang Kalikasan. Highlighting the movement as collaborative endeavor between the government and the people, DENR Usec. Rodolfo Garcia and chief of staff said mobilizing the

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY—The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) at the Mariano Marcos State University (PCC-MMSU) in Batac City continues to improve its organization to better serve its customers. Following a series of processes, the PPC is among the latest government organizations in the province to pass a re-certification audit by the TUV SUD PSB Philippines on April 16, 2018.   “To God be the glory,” Grace Recta, PCC director said in excitement after the successful conduct of the fifth surveillance transition audit and the PCC have satisfactorily complied to all the requirements of the standard. During the presentation, auditor Eunice Sol Pimentel-Diamante recommended that they issue PCC a certification-ISO 9001:2015. Ms. Recta said this is now the third time that they got a certification as it holds the distinction of being the first regional center of the PCC to have been ISO-certified since 2011. An ISO-certified organization conf

Piddig LGU consultant Eddie Guillen shares some good governance ideas to MinDA. (Berong Ver) Piddig , Ilocos Norte—The municipal government here recently provided ideas on good governance and convergence project for Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) in Davao City. Piddig mayor Georgina Salazar-Guillen and Piddig consultant Engr. Eduardo “Eddie” Guillen led the team in reaching out to different government officials in Mindanao. Mr. Guillen shared to them the proper way to prepare project proposals to the national government offices—leading to its successful downloading of funds to the LGUs. In the interim, Mr. Guillen introduced convergence project that serves Piddig town’s economic sustainable development. Foremost of which is the training of farmers in the rural areas to use cropping calendar to avoid wasting of yields. The MinDA) is a government agency of the Philippines created through Republic Act 9996, or the Mindanao Development Authority Act of 2010.

By Allan Biwang Jr. PhilRice The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is assisting the indigenous people (IP) in Sarangani to protect their traditional rice varieties (TRVs). “We have been waiting for this move from the government to conserve our traditional varieties. The entire IP community fully supports this project,” expressed Celito C. Terando, provincial government project manager of Sulong Tribu. As Sarangani is one of the areas most vulnerable to drought, preserving the seeds is important in breeding new climate-change ready seeds for the area. Blaan, Tagakaolo, Tboli, Manobo, Ubo, and Kalagan tribes live in its upland areas where they plan most of the TVRs. Starting this year, the locals and PhilRice’s genetic resources team will collect, conserve, survey, and document the varieties in a project, “Conservation of Sarangani Traditional Rice Germplasm (SaTRice).” The team will also evaluate the grain quality, level of resistance to pest and disease

By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Batac City —Thousands of residents here and visitors from nearby towns witnessed this year’s Farmers Festival 2018 celebration with the theme “Honoring the Pride and Delight of the Soil—The Farmers” held May 1-5, 2108. A motorcade around the city and a thanksgiving mass headed by Batac mayor Albert D. Chua and vice mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta held at the Immaculate Conception Parish thanking the fruitful agricultural blessings from Almighty kicked off this year’s celebration. During the same day, the festival’s opening ceremony featured the pre-judging of farmer’s booths and exhibits and the zanjera dance competition. The following day saw the judging of the PINAKA HVCDP, indigenous shells, aquatic foods and fresh water fish; dog show; RIC dance competition and the coronation night of the Search for Farmers Festival Queen 2018, otherwise known as the “Balasang Ti Away 2018”. The Balasang Ti Away of Magnuang, Katrina

If there’s one blogger-journalist who has hit hardest on Michael V. Fariñas, both when he was mayor of Laoag and in his tenure as vice mayor cut short by a tragic accident last night, it could be me. Over the years, I have written about him on a range of issues, nothing personal and all of public interest. Each time I’d do so, people would ask if I was not afraid. He was, after all, the leader of the city, a member of Ilocos Norte’s powerful family, and a man preceded by a certain reputation. Even my editor at The Ilocos Times —deeply concerned with the political repercussions it will have on our publisher who is now back in politics as a barangay captain—once edited out some lines about a throwback issue people today not dare talk about. Was I afraid? I wasn’t. At all. I think Sir Michael fully embraced critics like me—and here I remember my late friend Steve Barreiro who also wrote explosive columns on MVF—as an important part of a democratic city. To his credit, MVF never

By Dr. Reynante L. Ordonio PhilRice As we aim for food security, producing enough, affordable, and accessible foods for consumers is our battlecry. More to this is to ensure that these foods are of high quality, safe, and nutritious. Not only quantity but also quality We must explore and utilize a combination of different agricultural technologies and strategies to achieve food security. Among these technologies, perhaps the most powerful yet the most controversial is the use of modern biotechnology or genetic engineering. With this, we can transfer genes from one species to another to create organisms with a novel combination of genes, referred to as genetically modified organism (GMO). Because of the unlimited combinations of genes that we can integrate into an organism, genetic engineering has a great potential for use in rice research for designing plants with higher yield, better quality in terms of increased resistance to insect pests and diseases, improved t