|
“Organic farms produce
expensive veggies, rice”
Capitol’s desire to shift to organic farming in response
to the rising prices of chemical fertilizers
may prove to be an unwise idea after all since the
products that can be derived from these farms
would be expensive than those produced using
chemical fertilizers.
Governor Emilio
Macias II fears that due to
high cost of farm inputs, primarily
chemical fertilizer,
farmers will stop growing
rice and shift to other crops.
He ordered the Department
of Agriculture to intensify its
promotion for the use of organic
fertilizer, which according
to Provincial Agriculturist
Gregorio Paltinca
would be cheaper and practical.
However, Marciano
Kho, a leading rice trader,
thinks otherwise saying that
from his observation, buying
vegetables and rice produced
using organic fertilizer
are quite expensive and
is “more of a luxury.”
He reasoned that while
chemical fertilizer has
reached an average of P2,000 per bag, yet it
can produce more than
what a bag of organic fertilizer
can because the
former is “fast acting.”
In fact, Kho claims that
“Ifugao rice, a product of
organic fertilizer, is sold in
the market at P 1,065.00
per 25 kilos or P 2,130.00
per bag (50 kilos) compared
to just P 1,850.00
per bag of Silver Cup produced
using chemical fertilizer.”
P3M mini-hospital
on NORSU’s 4th Yr
Blessing of the ”mini-hospital” that costs close to
three million pesos of the College of Nursing
and Allied Health Sciences (CNAHS) was one
of the highlights of the celebration of the 4th
Charter Anniversary of Negros Oriental State
University (NORSU), Wednesday, June 25,
2008.
Four years ago, through
Republic Act 9299, the then
Central Visayas Polytechnic
College (CVPC) was converted
to a state university.
The law was signed by
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo.
NORSU President Dr.
Henry A. Sojor gave an inspirational
message relating
to the celebration’s theme,
“NORSU:
Benchmarking for Global
Standards and Practices.” Vice
president for academic affairs
Dr. Victoria P. Dinopol gave the
Welcome Address during the
First All University Academic
Convocation held at the
NORSU Cultural Complex,
immediately after the Thanksgiving
Mass. Heads and faculty
members from the two main
campuses in Dumaguete City
and its satellite campuses in
Guihulngan, Bais, Pamplona,
Siaton, Bayawan-Sta. Catalina
attended the charter day celebration.
CNAHS Dean Dr. Dalisay
M. Dumalag said the mini-hospital
equipped with different
hospital gadgets and equipment
as well as mannequin-patients
has surgical or operating room,
labor and delivery room, medical
room, and nursery/pediatrics
room. There are also pharmacy
and medical conference
rooms.
The mini-hospital is
housed at the third floor of the
new building in front of the
NORSU Main Gate near the
Provincial Capitol. The office
of the dean, faculty and lecture
rooms are located at the second
floor of the same building. It
also houses the College of Law,
Security, the Office of Planning,
Extension and International
Linkages, and the Office of the
Central Visayas Consortium for
Integrated Regional Research
and Development (CV-CIRRD)
– where NORSU is the base
agency.
The cutting of ribbon for
the mini-hospital blessing was
done by Dr. Henry Sojor, Mrs.
Joy Sojor, CNAHS dean Dr.
Dumalag and CNAHS assistant
dean Novalisa A. Leon.( JOY
PEREZ.)
“Lone ranger” opposes
expensive dads’ phones
Lawyer and Westpoint graduate
Kagawad Alan Gel
Cordova otherwise known as
the “lone ranger” stood pat on
his decision to oppose the resolution
passed by his colleagues
in the city council to purchase high-end phones ostensibly to make
them more efficient in coming up
with better crafted legislation.
The resolution, which was sponsored
by Kagawad
Chiquiting Sagabarria provided
that each councilor,
the vice-mayor and members
of the body’s Secretariat
will be entitled to a
brand new N82 cellular
phones priced at P
24,000.00 each.
It would have been one
major occasion when councilors
of all stripes cross
partylines to see a resolution approved immediately,
quite a rarity in an august
body where battle lines are
often fixed. Yet, Cordova,
who ran and won as an independent,
stood up to express
his dissent. He believes that
it is wrong to use public
money to purchase expensive
cellular phones for the personal
use of city councilors
and staff.
He reminds his colleagues
that they can still be
effective legislators without
these top of the line phones.
However, some of his colleagues,
who complain that
they are “using their own
money to communicate with
their constituents,” scored
Cordova for “grandstanding.”
They claim that the neophyte
councilor has already heartily
agreed to the proposal
when it was first presented.
RICE prices to drop as
traders lose war vs. NFA
Rice traders admit they are losing hordes of costumers
to their traditional rival in the market: the
National Food Authority. However, except their
small time counterparts, they are not in danger of
closing shop.
| full
story
“Business has slowed
down and NFA has been doing
well in its bid to force
the prices of commercial
rice to remain low,” says
Danford Sy of New Bian
Yek Commercial.
He adds that the big rice
traders are hurting but “surviving”
especially those
whose businesses also involve
other commodities
and items.
Businessmen also disputed
suspicions that the socalled
rice crisis is being
made worse by rice hoarding
because “there is no reason
for any trader to do
that.”
But Sy reminded the
government that it cannot
dictate prices for they are
driven primarily by market
forces like the hike in oil
prices.
“Flooding the market
with cheap NFA rice is just
a band-aid solution that does
not address the root causes
of the problem. Ultimately,
it is still the public that will
bear the cost of subsidy
through taxes,” stressed Sy.
However, it is predicted
that by next week as the harvest
season begins the prices
of the staple will go down
with increased supply in the
market.
The prevailing market
prices per bag range from P
1,800.00 to P 2,000 from
just P 700.00 to P 1,400.00
eight months ago.
|
