The Ilocos Times

By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Laoag City—In preparation for next year’s midterm elections, the city’s Commission on Election office is currently holding voters’ registrations. Pursuant to Comelec Resolution No. 10392, city elections officer Atty. Julius Balbas said they began receiving filing of registration application on July 2, 2018. He added the election office is open from 8 am to 5 pm, Mondays- Saturdays, including holidays. They will accept registrations until September 29, 2018. Mr. Balbas said application for registration includes the transfer/transfer with reactivation, reactivation, change/correction of entries/ and inclusion/reinstatement of records in the list of voters should be personally filed by the applicant. The Comelec Resolution also states that the Comelec election officers (CEOs) may also conduct satellite/offsite registration of voters. Relative to this, Mr. Balbas said they have conducted offsite registration for students

These LGUs will get a Performance Challenge Fund as incentive, and will be able to access other DILG projects amounting to at least PHP200,000. (Berong Ver) By Bernard Ver Contributor LAOAG CITY—Five Ilocos Norte towns bagged the Dept. of Interior and Local Government’s 2018 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awards. They are the municipalities of Piddig, Bacarra, Currimao, Paoay and San Nicolas. DILG undertook the national validation earlier this year of those who passed the assessment criteria and qualifications in the SGLG screening. The SGLG qualifiers must attain the criteria on progressive assessment system such as: financial administration: foster transparency and accountability; disaster preparedness: prepare for challenges posed by disasters; social protection: broaden access to social services especially the marginalized and most vulnerable in the community; peace and order: protect the community from threats to life and security; business-friendli

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY—As the nation commemorated the September 21, 1972 Martial Law declaration during the time of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, some Ilocano activists mostly composed of farmers, fishermen, youth and human rights advocates from various parts of the province convened a forum today inside the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Church in this city. During the time of martial law, even the residents of Ilocos Norte were not spared from the terror that it brought. For 54-year old Antonino Pugyao of Brgy. Cacafean in Marcos, Ilocos Norte and incumbent president of the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (STOP-Exploitation) in Ilocos Norte, he said his dark memories about human rights abuses during the time of martial law still lingers in his mind. “We were forced to evacuate our land, the military burned our house, my cousin was killed and some of my barrio mates went missing during the time of Martial Law,” Mr. Pugy

GLEDCO board chair Enrico Aurelio (extreme left) explains a point during a committee hearing at the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall. ( Doms dela Cruz) By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Laoag City —After the Commission on Audit’s (COA) said in its annual audit report that all transactions between the Government of Laoag Employees Development Cooperative (GLEDCO) and the Laoag City government has “conflict of interest”, the homegrown cooperative has taken steps to rescind all its contracts with the city government. The COA reports were for 2016 and 2017 and involved at least Php66 million. The Sangguniang Panlungsod here and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan also started separate hearings on the issue. The city council has also since passed a resolution urging Laoag Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas to rescind all contracts between the city government and GLEDCO. GLEDCO board chairperson Enrico Aurelio said that they have cut their contracts with the city gov

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY—Typhoon Mangkhut [Ompong] blew off the Laoag International Airport (LIA) administration building’s roof forcing airport personnel to relocate temporarily. Operations, however, resumed on September 24, 2018 after the sole airline servicing the Manila-Laoag-Manila route cancelled flights starting September 15, 2018. Ronald Estabillo, civil aviation area 1 manager said Mangkhut is the strongest typhoon so far that caused severe damage at the airport. Before the expected the typhoon’s landfall at dawn of September 15, 2018, the airline also cancelled the evening Manila-Laoag-Manila flight on September 14, 2018. The airport was closed from September 15 at 8:00 a.m. until September 16 at 4:00 p.m. Earlier this year, the Laoag airport has been identified as one of the safest and secured international airport in the country with its new aerodrome certificate. The Laoag airport caters to domestic flights daily.

Batac Mayor Albert D. Chua leads the distribution of thousands of fertilizers as grant to the 7,409 registered farmers in the city of Batac from the city's RA 7171 share. ( Photo courtesy of Batac City government) By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Batac City —"Pabilgen ni Bataqueno, Kasapulan Dagiti Mannalon Ikalikaguman Tayo”. Those were the city’s cry as officials distributed thousands of organic, complete and urea fertilizers to at least 7,409 registered farmers here. Batac City agriculturist Merilyn Gappi said that with the big volume of fertilizers they distributed, the city government decided to divide the distribution into three batches. The first batch was on August 20 and 21, 2018 and the second batch was on August 24 and 25, 2018. The city government has not scheduled the third batch as of press time. Ms. Gappi said each registered farmer received two bags of organic and one bag each of complete and urea fertilizers for

OATH-TAKING. Lawyer Ferdinand Nicolas, President of Northwestern University, leads the oath-taking and induction of the officers and members of the Multi-Sectoral Governance Council (MSGC) of the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) on September 11, 2018. Nicolas was elected MSGC chair while Zarriedie D. Parilla was named vice chairperson of the Performance Governance System team. ( Edward Vincent Paul A. Miguel photo) BATAC CITY—After becoming the first retained hospital by the Department of Health (DOH) to hurdle the initiation stage of the Performance Governance System (PGS), the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) here is currently trailing its path towards the compliance stage of the accreditation. PGS pathway has four stages—initiation, compliance, proficiency and institutionalization—wherein MMMH&MC surpassed the first stage last February 2018. True to this, the Institute for Solidarity and Asia and