LBP offers no-collateral loans from P27-M fund
By Jennifer C. Tilos
DUMAGUETE CITY, June 28 (PIA) -- The local Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) called on cooperative member-entrepreneurs to avail themselves of the P27 million Credit Surety Fund (CSF) offered to micro, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
LBP officer Gerry Kinilitan encouraged qualified co-op members in Negros Oriental to access the funds for any business expansion without collateral.
Kinilitan said applicant for CSF loan has to be a cooperative member with initial deposit equivalent to 10 percent of his desired loan amount.
The loan application will be submitted by the cooperative representative to any participating banks here such as the LBP, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for approval.
Banks that offer CSF loan grant lower interest rates to beneficiaries.
Land Bank helped secure the loans of cooperatives and MSMEs by committing P5 million for the CSF program.
For the provincial government of Negros Oriental, more than P7 million has been put in as counterpart funds for the Cooperative Surety Fund program to boost up the cooperative movement in the province.
Kinilitan said the participation of local government unit is integral to the CSF program because they are mandated by law to help the development of cooperatives and MSMEs.
The CSF program derives its funds from the pooled contributions of cooperatives and the counterpart contributions of the provincial government and donor institutions.
The CSF program is part of the government's support for MSMEs, according to BSP statement.
An initiative of the BSP, CSFs serve as trust funds used to guarantee loans to enhance the credit worthiness and borrowing capability of the MSME borrowers. (JCT/PIA 7, Negros Oriental)
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NegOr, Dumaguete City observe World No Tobacco Month celebration
By Jennifer C. Tilos
DUMAGUETE CITY, June 28 (PIA) -- This year’s culmination of World No Tobacco Month and Blue Ribbon Awarding ceremony will take place on June 29 with a street parade in Dumaguete City.
The activity banners the theme, “Stop Tobacco Industry Interference,” based in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3
The following concerned agencies Negros Oriental Tobacco Control and Smoke Free Advocates Alliance (NegOrTocSa), Department of Health Center for Health Development-Central Visayas, Negros Oriental Integrated Provincial Health, and city government of Dumaguete are spearheading the said event.
According to Dumaguete City Administrator William Ablong, the activity will be highlighted with a city street parade at 2 p.m. on Friday, from the Rizal Boulevard as the starting point and it will end up at the Freedom Park at Capitol Ground to be followed by a program and live band concert.
Joining the parade, Ablong said, will be contingents from the cities and municipalities with smoke-free ordinance, health officials, students, city and provincial officials.
Assistant Secretary Dr. Enrique Tayag of DOH will be the keynote speaker and Dr. Lashmin Legaspi, DOH Assistant Regional Director, will give the rationale of the World No Tobacco Month Celebration, while Dumaguete Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria and Governor Roel Degamo will also give their messages.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke.
Unless we act, it will kill up to eight million people by 2030, of which more than 80 percent will come from low- and middle-income countries, he said.
World No Tobacco Month celebrations will educate policy-makers and the general public about the tobacco industry's nefarious and harmful tactics and WHO will urge countries to put the fight against tobacco industry interference at the heart of their efforts to control the global tobacco epidemic.
Blue Ribbon Campaign Awarding of Recognition, also be given for those cities and municipalities whose effort continues for the implementation of the smoke free ordinance and to be followed by the live band concert to culminates the program. (JCT-PIA 7, Negros Oriental)
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Dumaguete eyes mechanisms for waste management at brgy level
By Rachelle M. Nessia
DUMAGUETE CITY, June 28 (PIA) -- The city government here is eyeing measures to spur local barangays to initiate pollution management in the villages to reinforce the local government’s current waste management system.
This was revealed by City Administrator William Ablong during a meeting with representatives from Silliman University’s Dr. Jovito Salonga Center for Law and Development (SLCD) held June 14.
One of the said measures is the establishment in each barangay of a material recovery facility (MRF) and a composting area.
Ablong said the move is borne out of the city government’s efforts to identify a specific location for its planned sanitary landfill.
In the same meeting, Lloyd Patrimonio of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Albert Aquino, president of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) here, both stressed the need for a system of waste characterization and for this to be adopted in the households as well.
They pushed for the enhancement of the garbage collection procedure of the city to ensure waste segregation at source continues until the dumpsite.
Meanwhile, in the same gathering, a four-point action plan was drafted with the aim of boosting the solid waste management program of Dumaguete City.
Silliman University Director for Information and Publications Mark Raygan Garcia said, one of the action plan’s priorities is capacity-building geared towards a more efficient identification of solid waste management opportunities.
The four points are: (1) to conduct a workshop on waste streaming (industry analysis) to identify the waste sectors, generators and users involved; (2) to conduct another workshop on waste segregation with the 22 barangays, excluding the poblacion areas; (3) to intensify efforts to locate viable landfill sites for metro Dumaguete and (4) to explore alternative options to landfill. (RMN-PIA7 Negros Oriental, with reports from SU-OIP)