More security
THE Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) said it is securing the Davao Gulf in order to entice more foreign ship owners to lay up their vessels in the southern part of the country as security threats are dampening their interest to utilize Philippine waters.
Marina Administrator Maria Elena Bautista said the agency is already crafting what they call an integrated security response action plan for laid-up vessels. Davao is one of the largest and virtually typhoon-free lay-up sites in the country. But with the terror threats caused by groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and other extremist groups, vessel owners are shying away from that part of the country.
Peace center
Because Mindanao has been highlighted by the national and international press as an island of mismanaged conflicts, it should now be the center of all peace-building initiatives in the Philippines, and even in Asia.
Rep. Ariel Hernandez (Anak Mindanaw party-list) said this could be done through the establishment of the Peace in Mindanao Academy (PMA) “to strengthen and hasten the ongoing peace processes in Mindanao, in the country and in the Asian region, by a combination of academic inputs, field-based learning and community-based initiatives.”
Constitutional
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 16 Judge Emmanuel Carpio ruled as constitutional the order of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) revising some rules and guidelines in relation to the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), saying that the department, through Secretary Jesli Lapus, “did not act arbitrarily nor capriciously when he issued DO (DepEd Order) No. 54 as the Court finds the revised guidelines governing parents-teachers associations at the school level reasonable and fair.”
The petition to nullify the DepEd order was filed last June by Davao City National High School PTA president Mae dela Rosa who argued against its legality because it was issued without prior consultation with the concerned PTA members and was not published prior to its effectivity.
Completed
MOST of the big-ticket projects for Mindanao have been completed, Mindanao development in-charge Jesus Dureza aired his assessment of President Gloria Arroyo’s accomplishment in an interview over a local morning television program.
Dureza, who used to sit as head of the Mindanao Economic Development Council before serving as the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and later as press secretary, believes that Mindanao got a substantial share of the infrastructure projects implemented during President Arroyo’s administration.
Crackdown
The Metro Davao Taxi Operators Association (MEDATOA) lauded the Land Transportation Office for their continuing crackdown on “colorum” vehicles in the region.
MEDATOA president, retired Col. Hermenegildo Marante Jr., has assured newly-designated LTO head for the Davao Region, Atty. Jesus Joseph Zozobrado III, of the association’s full support for the agency’s campaign against “colorums” or unregistered motor vehicles, particularly those plying as public utilities.
