Artists promote local music, call to protect environment By Russtum G. Pelima

Artists promote local music, call to protect environment

By Russtum G. Pelima

KORONADAL CITY (May 27, 2012) – Getting ahead the local government but hoping it will take the lead next year, local artists and organizers in South Cotabato put together a music festival and art exhibit staging home-grown artists who care for the society.

The one- day event was dubbed “Musika Tulong Para Sa Kapayapaan at Kaunlaran” at the ProTech Center Saturday, May 26, with 20 local bands and some visual artists spearheaded by the Samahan ng mga Musikero ng Timog Kutabato.

“We wish to make the world know our burning passion for local talents and all we can do to change our lives for the better,” organizer Neptali Tomaro said. Tomaro is a known local composer grown in Koronadal City neighboring town Banga.

“We wish that the event will be institutionalized , making it happen every year and pave the way to the archiving and recording of originally written music, financial independence to sustain its set programs, and protection and development of members and the music artists of South Cotabato as a whole,” Tomaro said.

Organizers launched the event as an opportunity to gather relief goods from donors intended for the victims of natural calamities and displaced communities in the province for distribution by the provincial government.

Outside the main building of the center were stalls selling food and drinks for guests. Local artists and friends were present to show support to performers and exhibitors.

Fronting the stage is an array of canvasses and mixed art where visual artists displayed their masterpieces. Among them is Raul Forro Lebanan who explained how he got his artistry since he was a school boy.

“I am for advocacy,” the 49- year old artist declared. “Little ways to send the message that there is more to wastes and litters we do everyday,” he said.

Lebanan explained one mixed art abstract made of termite dung. He said it would take a few minutes before an eye to see what is inside the one square-foot full- brown board.

“That’s the message. Sometimes we have to take a closer look at things so we can appreciate them.”

Most of Lebanan’s mixed art are made of wastes and litters like brittle bottle of softdrinks, wires, plastics, slugs of wood, cloth strips, pebbles, and even some cocoons.

“I don’t sell them. I just made them whenever I feel doing so and have some waste materials around to complement my thoughts. Some of them I display at the human resource office where my wife works.”

Lebanan’s subjects epitomize life, nature and environment. He said upscaling uses mixed art as a medium to put together waste materials and form one unified whole in visual form with both aesthetic and objective value.

Dodoy Subaldo is a visual artist who excels in acrylic. One of the exhibits is his magnum opus “Idlip ng Kamalayan”. At few feet away, the canvass shows a 3- dimensional acrylic material of a tubaw accentuating a soft cloth blanketing a sleeping infant.

“This portrait suggests both physical and metaphysical innocence of one’s true self,” Subaldo explained.

Tubaw is a traditional handkerchief of the indigenous Tboli and is used as a headdress among male which symbolizes bravery, leadership and cultural affinity.

Subaldo further explained this painting was his entry to the Kalinawa Art Foundation Exhibit in General Santos city in 2010.

“I considered myself already professional when I began displaying my works in art exhibits with recommendations from other professional visual artists,” he revealed.

For collectors of acrylic arts, you can reach Subaldo in his mobile phone number 09203127863.

The art exhibit was themed “Hinalay” translated as “sinablay” and “ginahasa” in local dialects or hanged, molested and raped in English.

Samahan ng mga Musikero ng Timog Kutabato officers are: President- Caloy Bengil, Vice-President- Elmer Tomaro, Treasurer- Paul Mapa, Secretary- Nino Galo, Auditor- Boboy Catubig, PIO- Jubillee Bautista.

For more photos of Lebanan and Subaldo’s art, visit the association’s facebook  account @ SAMAHAN NG MGA MUSIKERO NG TIMOG KUTABATO.*****

          

music scene unveils as msu turns gold

by Russtum G. Pelima

GENERAL SANTOS CITY,Sept 13 (PIA)— At the Golden Anniversary celebration of the Mindanao State University System (MSUS) this year, MSU- General Santos City hints its other side of the academe: Music.

The system, founded in September 1, 1961, is composed of eleven campuses throughout Mindanao . Serving Mindanaoans for 50 years now, they are in unison with the theme: “Integrating People and Building Societies Through Quality Education in a Culture of Peace”.

At the peak of the two- week long intramurals, MSUans showcased their musical ingenuity at the Battle of the Bands and songwriting competition Thursday night (September at the campus gym. Fourteen bands across colleges joined the contest.

“Brilliant,” national artist and composer Eric Gancio exclaimed.

Eric Gancio is founder of the Yano Band that made its way magically to the top during the early 1990s. The Yano music, some of which are Banal Na Aso, Tsinelas, Kamusta Na, State U, Es Em, Senti, continues to live on in the societies of the young and the idealists who want change.

“We have to have a change of mentality for the positive,” Gancio said before he began his repertoire as guest performer.

He would mean, as he would always say in a usual discourse, a change of perspective. The saga of his time has his own view of nation building. He said that music wise, MSU is a nation of its own making a national celebration of its music. For Eric, it doesn’t make a difference after all to be local or national, at least as an artist.

Championing the tilt was Ninja Turtles who had uniquely prepared for the night, even using the wide screen in trying to communicate through visuals images in the campus that jive with their chorus, “MSUan ako”. Second was the Tune- Up Band, and third was the Green Republic , an all female band from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.

“We were able to compose that song because we are proud to be MSUans and we know we can do something good for the future,” Green Republic band leader Erine Dejecacion revealed.

The band’s entry “Posible” is a song depicting life in MSU as a student in search for knowledge and has the zeal to get involved.

Committee chairperson Professor Robert Pasion said it took patience to gather the bands for screening.

“I must provide them the guidance and some mechanics. This is a contest and they are bound to follow some rules. In everything else, they were on their own,” Pasion said.

Smart Telecommunications (SMART), Incorporated provided prizes for the winners. Smart has been supporting MSU in various university activities as part of its program for education. In tourism, Smart launched its Infoboard SIM in partnership with the Department of Tourism at the General Santos City Tuna Festival within the week.

On stage, Eric showed the same passion and energy no less than 15 years ago. He played until 2:25 a. m. for the students after the competition. Students had to scream to praise the Yano legacy of respect in the song Tsinelas, Erics’ reinterpretation of State U, and among others.

“Eric’s connection with the crowd was not of a Pinoy rock icon to a fan, but

rather, one of a fellow iskolar ng bayan,” co- organizer Professor George Gunay remarked.

The crowd’s overwhelming response to hearing Eric in person singing their favorite songs, along with some brave attempts to get into the stage and have their pictures taken in the middle of his song, Eric showed understanding and appreciation. That is character,” Gunay said.

“I can feel their thirst for music, for art, for identity, which they best showed in their original compositions tonight that went far beyond the theme for the celebration,” Eric said.

“They have the skills, the rift. Not just inspired but it glorified me. It’s pure innocence, and they just have to continue doing that,” he said.

Eric said there’s the same calling in music then and now, only that before, the “Ya” was implicit and the “No” was explicit. “That’s why now we have to have a change of mentality, a matter of perspective,” he asserted.

Eric plans to make a SocSarGen (South Cotabato, Sarangani, General Santos City ) tour late this year, tapping along organizers, musicians and composers in Sarangani, General Santos City , South Cotabato , and MSU- General Santos to level up and bring into the mainstream the change of mentality perspective.

When Chancellor Abdurrahman Canacan formally opened the Golden celebration for MSU- General Santos on September 1 at the Lagao gym, he said the management has always its unconditional support for student development.

The next intramurals will surely then be a better opportunity for the MSU student musicians.(MSU-GSC/PIA General Santos City/CTA)

msu launches nutraceutical laboratory

http://education.mindanao.com/2012/04/msu-launches-nutraceutical-laboratory/

http://education.mindanao.com/2012/04/msu-launches-nutraceutical-laboratory/

SARANGANI BAY FESTIVAL 2011 Catch the biggest beach party in the South

SARANGANI BAY FESTIVAL 2011

Catch the biggest beach party in the South

By Russtum G. Pelima

GUMASA, Glan, Sarangani (April 26, 2011) – With the number of guests and visitors tripling in the past three years, from 5,700 in 2007 to 17,500 in 2009, Sarangani Bay Festival is becoming the biggest beach party in Southern Philippines.

Usually held in the last week of May, SarBayFest is one of the two provincial festivals celebrating the province’s chartered anniversary which is on May 19. The other one is the MunaTo Festival and Sarangani Foundation Anniversary in November.

Remarkably last year, the province launched its tourism brand “Sarangani: Your Adventure” tagging the adventure tourism circuit throughout the province’s seven municipalities. Some of these are the white water tubing in Maitum, snorkeling in Kiamba, diving in Maasim, and trekking in Malungon.

Sarangani Bay Festival this year is on May 19 to 21.

“Each year we are improving our celebration [of the festival],” said Vic Camacho, executive committee chair.

Among journalists flooding to Gumasa white sand beaches to cover SarBayFest, the most challenging yet fulfilling event is covering the Swim-across-the-Bay from start to finish, a 15-kilometer swim relay contest from Tinoto Point in Maasim to Tango village in Glan participated in by professional groups of swimmers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The first-ever swim across Sarangani Bay on May 18, 2006, the 1st SarBayFest, was participated by six teams.

Then, Dadiangas Torpedoes team of General Santos City (official time – 04:05:18 hours) won by just two minutes over MJ Powerpines of Maasim (04:07:12 hours). The Maasim Swimming Team clocked in with 4:57:26 for 3rd place.

Then swim manager Guiseppe Chew described the race as “the longest open ocean marathon swimming competition in the country and probably in Asia.” The Swim-across-the-Bay is a brainchild of Chew who now lives abroad.

Related swimming competitions have been staged in Guimaras Strait (approximately 5km.), the body of water separating Guimaras and Panay islands. Also in Samal Strait (5km.), separating Samal Island and mainland Davao, Chew said.

For his part, Dr. Tranquilino Ruiz said what is more important about the celebration is to know the history and oral literature about Sarangani Bay. Ruiz is a known local historian of Glan, Sarangani’s oldest town.

“Sarangani is as old as our very own race, Malay. When Ruy Lopez de Villalobos happened to reach this part of the ocean in their search for provision in 1543, his chroniclers wrote Sarangani to mean ‘This is our territory’ or ‘We stop here’ according to the Indonesian language,” Ruiz said.

Sarangani Province was established in 1992 by then Rep. James L. Chiongbian, spurring the former sleepy third district of South Cotabato to development.

The province was named after Sarangani Bay. The bay was believed to have been named from Saranganing, a famous Sangil voyager who came from the coast of Indonesia and traded with the great Sultanate of Buayan, now General Santos City.

Sarangani Bay hosts rich marine resources including marine wildlife and the tuna capital of the Philippines – General Santos City.

Today, Sarangani has at least 18 resorts accredited by the Department of Tourism. Most of these resorts are the white sand beaches in Gumasa such as White Haven, Rosal, Coco Beach (09195330408), and the new Isla Jardin del Mar (09107073479). These resorts host the beach sports activities of SarBayFest.

Last year, SarBayFest kicked off in Maasim town’s Lemlunay Dive Resort with a reggae party in the evening.

The opening day is usually followed in the next two days with lumba bugsay, skimboarding, beach football, beach frisbee exhibition games, sepak takraw, beach fair, sand sculpture competition, bay bodies bikini open, and summer night beach party, bancarera, fun bike ride, beach volleyball, cheerdancing competition and concert by the bay.

Sarangani is becoming the ultimate destination for the entire Region XII and SocSarGen area in terms of tourism. It has triggered the development of beach resorts across the province particularly in Gumasa, the Boracay-like destination in Mindanao.

“The objective of this festival is to merge our efforts in promoting tourism,” Gov. Migs Dominguez said. “Second, is to use that as a vehicle to increase awareness especially in the mainstream market in terms of looking at the riches and the resources of Sarangani Bay.”

Local government units, non-government organizations and the business sector come together to celebrate and to increase community awareness in environmental conservation during the SarBayFest.

“We are celebrating the beauty and the goodness of the bay,” said Vice Governor Steve Chiongbian Solon. “Every year people will be reminded of how beautiful and how generous the bay has become for us that we should continue to preserve it.”

Last year, SarBayFest preludes with a cetaceans awareness training. Volunteer experts in marine mammals from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conducted a weekend marine mammals awareness seminar among local officials, employees and private representatives.

“The sightings of marine wildlife in Sarangani Bay such as pygmy sperm whale, whale shark, seacow, lemon-headed whale, fraiser dolphin and marine turtles signify that the bay has a rich biodiversity,” said Jo Marie Acebes.

Acebes works with the WWF and a doctorate candidate in Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Sarangani’s ECPC has documented sightings of the said marine mammals at the 215,950-hectare Sarangani Bay, a protected seascape through Presidential Decree 756.

“These cetaceans should remain in the wild. We see them all over the world’s wildlife. That includes Sarangani Bay,” Jose Marie Tan, WWF Chief Executive Officer said. Cetacean is the term applied to species of dolphins and whales.

Maitum and Kiamba had both passed municipal ordinances declaring barangays Old Poblacion and Suli as nesting grounds for marine turtles respectively.
In 2006, then Board Member Rommel Tomas Falgui passed a resolution at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan institutionalizing the celebration of the Sarangani Bay Festival each May. (SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Sarangani reverses educational trend with SBB

Sarangani reverses educational trend with SBB

Russtum G. Pelima, MA Ed

ALABEL, Sarangani (April 26, 2011) – Sarangani Big Brother (SBB) “Reading is Fun” started its 4th season Monday (April 25) among elementary schools in the province.

SBB, a summer reading program, is implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd), Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST), Alcantara Foundation, Sangguniang Kabataan and youth volunteers.

QUEST pre-test and post-test results show a 55 percent increase of the pupils’ reading level from “frustration readers” (36%) to the right reading level (91%) and are ready to enter Grade III last year.

“We are very happy to inform you that every year, we are improving the reading skills of our pupils because of our intervention,” Kawas Elementary School teacher Grace Labustro said. Labustro teaches Grade III in her school.

In Malungon, Alkikan Elementary School teacher Patrick Neil Eresma said among his 30 Grade III pupils who were “frustration readers”, three received honors at the end of the school year after finishing the SBB last year.

Teacher Mary Jane Amar of P. H. Millona Elementary School in Malapatan said even without looking at the post-test results, she can testify on the improvement of the pupils during the school year.

SBB this year has 537 youth volunteers who are the big brothers and big sisters, and 224 province-paid teachers and 107 DepEd teachers.

“We required our provincial school board (PSB) teachers to participate in the program to maximize the learning process of the pupils,” QUEST program manager Annalie Eday said.
The 15-day remedial reading program from April 25 to May 13 was designed to assist the DepEd in improving the reading skills of the incoming Grade II and Grade III learners identified as frustration readers. (SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

The 6th Sarangani Bay Festival and Bombo Radyo’s bancarera

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (April 27, 2011) – One of the most exciting and breathtaking events in the yearly Sarangani Bay Festival is the bancarera organized by Bombo Radyo-General Santos.

Bancarera is a motorized small boat racing competition manned by a single racer dazzling an oval-shaped track race about a hundred meters away from the coastline.

“The oval track race gives total excitement to the spectators because they can see the whole race from start to finish unlike the straight race,” Bombo Radyo General Santos station manager Dan Caliosan said.

“It’s an exciting race by the sea with colorful bancas speeding up to 100 kph (kilometer per hour),” Caliosan said.

“Racers’ maneuvering abilities at the oval track race curvatures show their expertise in handling their modified racing machines,” Caliosan said.

Racers are required to use a 13 to 16 horsepower marine engine. Last year, 30 racers joined the race held at White Haven Resort in Gumasa, Glan.

This year, the bancarera will be held at Coco Beach, also a white sand beach resort next to White Haven and Rosal.

Bombo Radyo started the bancarera competition in General Santos in 1998 as a project.

“It’s not just a competition. We try to value the source of livelihood of marginalized fishermen in the city which is the Sarangani Bay, adding recognition to General Santos as the tuna capital of the Philippines,” Caliosan said.

“It’s a tribute to both the bay and our fishing communities which later turned out to be a tourism event.”

Last year’s Sarangani Bay Festival bancarera was won by a racer from Maasim town against 29 other racers from General Santos City, Sarangani and Compostela Valley province.

This year’s prizes are P15,000 first prize, P10,000 second prize, P5,000 third prize, and P1,000 consolation prize for each racer who qualified the screening.

“For Sarangani Bay Festival next year, we are planning to include special prizes like the most attractive or best designed banca,” Caliosan said.

Bombo Radyo will conduct a pre-screening for the open competition on Sunday (May 1). Registration is for free. (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

The swim across Sarangani Bay 2011 competition

The swim across Sarangani Bay 2011 competition

GLAN, Sarangani (April 29, 2011) – The first-ever swim across Sarangani Bay was on May 18, 2006, the first Sarangani Bay Festival, which was participated in by six teams.

“Now the event is on its 6th year in celebration of the Sarangani Bay Festival,” organizer Nemrod Butil said.

The province will celebrate the Sarangani Bay Festival on May 19 to 21, with the swim-across-the-bay on the second day (May 20) from 5:00am.

Swim-across-the-bay is a relay competition with team members both professional and amateurs swimming a distance of 15 kilometers from Tinoto Point in Maasim to Tango village in Glan.

To qualify, swimmers must be 14 years old or above. This year’s swimmers are mostly from Davao, South Cotabato, Koronadal City, General Santos City, Polomolok and local swimmers from Siguel and Maasim.

“This year, a new team from Kiamba (Sarangani) will join,” Butil said.

The idea to conquer the bay by human prowess was a brainchild of then swim manager Guiseppe Chew.

Chew described the race as “the longest open ocean marathon swimming competition in the country and probably in Asia.”

In the Philippines, related swimming competitions have been staged in Guimaras Strait (approximately 5km.), the body of water separating Guimaras and Panay islands, and in Samal Strait (5km.), separating Samal Island and mainland Davao.

Sarangani Bay’s biodiversity is twice richer than Carigara Bay in Northern Leyte, Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte, Bais Bay in Negros and Illana Bay in Northwestern Mindanao.

Sarangani Bay has been the passage for trade, businesses and social contacts with the Philippines’ Southernmost tip and neighboring countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei for hundreds of years.

But in particular, the bay provided a safe route to Sangils of Northern Indonesia and established trade and social relations with the Blaan natives of Glan some five hundred years ago.

“Sarangani is as old as our very own race, Malay. When Ruy Lopez de Villalobos happened to reach this part of the ocean in their search for provision in 1543, his chroniclers wrote Sarangani to mean ‘This is our territory’ or ‘We stop here’ according to the Indonesian language,” Dr. Tranquilino Ruiz II said. Ruiz is a known local historian of Glan, Sarangani’s oldest town.

Among journalists who have been covering Sarangani Bay Festival, now becoming the biggest beach festival in Southern Philippines, the most challenging yet fulfilling event is covering the swim-across-the-bay from start to finish.

Prizes for this year’s swim are P50,000, P35,000, P25,000 for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes and trophies for major winners.
All teams finishers will receive P5,000 with medals. (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Resorts, bay bodies and more at Sarangani Bay Festival 2011

Resorts, bay bodies and more at Sarangani Bay Festival 2011

Russtum G. Pelima

GUMASA, Glan (May 1, 2011) – It’s nine in the morning and Isla Jardin Del Mar, tipping the queue of white sand beaches in Gumasa, was as quiet. Naturally, the sea was calm this time of the day.

It was a bright summer day. The sun heated up the pebbled white sand along the resort’s 750-meter shoreline. Yet the resort’s maintenance staff didn’t mind as they were busy sweeping some dry leaves.

The resort was obviously landscaped. Other resorts in Gumasa have canopies at their shores, but Isla Jardin has this young coconut trees lined up a few meters away from the shore to screen the sunlight over air-conditioned cottages to the right, there are twenty of them, a score of suite rooms and a couple of rows of open cottages to the left. Well, a restaurant and a huge convention center in the middle of the resort is more than the idea to offer food and information. It’s conspicuous, too, for a view of the bay and the two volleyball courts.

Supervisor Gil Cortes said the resort built the convention hall only recently designed to accommodate 250 guests. Obviously, the resort is getting ready for this year’s most awesome party revolution in this part of the country – the Sarangani Bay Festival – on May 19 to 21.

About an hour later, organizers Rain Ramas and Cheng Espinosa of the Bay Bodies Competition arrived at the resort with their hunks and babes for a day’s photo shoot. Suddenly, the quiet resort turned into a playground as the contestants got ready for their sexiest shots.

This year, the Bay Bodies competition is open for online voting at Sarangani Province’s facebook account (www.facebook.com/sarangani.info). See the hot babes and hunks’ names and photos and click “like” to vote for your favorite contestant! Awarding will be in the evening of May 20.

For some beach hoppers, Gumasa’s white sand beaches are a must-see destination. Surprisingly, city-grown Marie Angelie Francisco has been here two times yet. Angel is born-General Santos City girl. Her first visit to Gumasa was four years ago.

“I like the place this quiet. It’s really beautiful here, no overcrowding people around and the resorts are really clean. I haven’t seen yucky dirt messing over the place,” Angel explained. Angel is a third-year architecture student from UP-Diliman and Rain Ramas’ intern in interior design.

The models now have moved to Brod Louie Resort and Spa to continue the shoot. This time, they posed with the jetski and banana boat rented by the organizers from another resort. In Isla Jardin, the contestants posed at the rocky side of the beach, in the sand, and with a green kayak.

Organizer Cheng Espinosa owns Brod Louie in Taluya, Glan. She said the resort has been undergoing renovations for its two-storey air-conditioned house for guests, the viewing cottage, a receiving hall and two open cottages. Three years ago, spectators and marine life experts from the provincial Capitol rushed to the resort for a sea cow, locally known as dugong, sighting a few meters from its shore.

Sarangani Bay Festival is a yearly tribute to the bay and its bounty led by the provincial government. Thousands of communities living in coastal areas from the province’s six coastal towns depend on fishing for livelihood.

Essentially, when former Board Member Rommel Tomas Falgui passed a resolution for the institutionalization of the festival each May, the purpose of the celebration is to raise awareness for the preservation and protection of the bay.

With beach sports such as volleyball, football, skimboarding, waterball and windsurfing, sand sculpture, bay fair, the historic 15-kilometer swim-across-the-bay, frisbee, fire dancing and all the fun-by-the-bay you like, the Integrated Eco-System Resource Management orientation program by the provincial government’s Environmental conservation and Protection Center is a significant part on the day-2 of the celebration.

For the businessmen and the busiest professionals, the party by-the-bay is the true meaning of recreation.

For the artists, the lovers, and the journalists, Sarangani Bay Festival is inevitable as nature.

The shoot team packed up for home before sunset. As we leave, I still see at least two more ladies, Jane and Angel, I wondered did not join the shoot.

At least Angel enjoyed herself, took a short dip into the water before heading home. Jane was contently watching the horizon as it begins to explode with the colors of the setting sun. (SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Archbishop urges Malacanang for rehab of Mindanao River Basin

August 27, 2009, 03:04 PM

Sarangani Gov. Dominguez thanks Sec. Teodoro

Source: Philippine Information Agency

Posted: August 28, 2009

 

Archbishop urges Malacanang for rehab of Mindanao River Basin
by Russtum G. Pelima

Alabel, Sarangani (August 26) — Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo on Tuesday (August 25) urged and thanked Malacanang for “a sense of urgency, drive for immediate action” for the rehabilitation plan of the “Mindanao River of Peace”.

Quevedo, chair of the Presidential Task Force-Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development (PTF-MRBRD) Project, presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Cabinet Secretaries a consolidated report and recommendations during its 11th regular meeting at Isla Parilla Resort Hotel here where the Cabinet also held its 33rd regular meeting.

Right there and then, President Arroyo approved a P50-million project study for the project’s master plan. The Mindanao River Basin is the country’s second largest river basin with an area of 23,170 sq. kms. where major rivers Banga, Ala, Pulangi, Mindanao, Simuay and Tamontaka meet.

“I would like to commend all the government agencies, including the military and the police, for the equipment and personnel who assisted thousands of evacuees from Cotabato City, Region XII and ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao),” Quevedo said.

“The response of the President is always very good for the task force,” Quevedo said. “Though it takes sometime in going to the bottom of its implementation.”

The immediate causes of flooding that destroy various main bridges connecting provinces and municipalities in the region are the continuous heavy rain over Bukidnon, Agusan, Davao, Lanao, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

Such heavy downpour dislodged hectares of grass and water hyacinth covering large portions of the Mindanao River Basin and pushed them down river. Dredging and bridge inactivity compounded the siltation of all the rivers to and from the basin.

Quevedo’s report also noted the accumulation of sand, mud and sediments brought about by water flowing from various parts of the area, and inappropriate land practices.

The PTF-MRBRD lined up 18 recommendations in a 10-year plan or a total of P1.180 billion for the complete rehabilitation of the basin.

“I pray that our action and documentation for the release of funds and the deployment of equipment and personnel will be similarly passed for the implementation of the project,” Quevedo said.

President Arroyo said the first recommended action by the task force which is the channelization and bank protection at Simuay River is now on-going. Simuay River is one of the major egresses of all river flows from the Mindanao basin to the sea or Illana Bay.

Typhoons Frank (2008) and Cosme caused P1.2 billion worth of damages in infrastructure, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways, and agricultural livestock. Typhoon Jolina caused 95,000 internally displaced persons.

The provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, South Cotabato and Cotabato City had declared a state of calamity due to heavy flooding.

In Sarangani, Governor Migs Dominguez admitted the adverse effects of flooding to the province’s agriculture and infrastructure.

“In Sarangani, all our needs were addressed. Thanks to Secretary Teodoro who gave attention to our complaints,” Dominguez said.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro has been visiting the province particularly Maasim town for school rehabilitation and construction, with additional infrastructure projects.