Top Barangay Stories and Events This Issue

Incentives await Valenzuela City’s top-performing barangays and schools in Nestle’s plastic waste recovery program.  Nestlé Philippines and the city government of Valenzuela have signed a memorandum of understanding for the country’s first citywide program to recover post-consumer waste laminates such as sachets and used beverage cartons by sorting and collecting them for co-processing in cement kilns, or for recycling and upcycling.

Incentives will be provided to the best-performing barangays and schools. The scheme brings value to waste laminates and UBCs, thereby encouraging the collection of these materials. Training sessions will be conducted for barangays and schools, including teachers and parents, the parties said. READ MORE

Signing the MOU formalizing May BALIK! Sa PLASTIK! are (from left) Rommel Benig, president of Green Antz Builders Inc.; Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian of Valenzuela; Kais Marzouki, Nestlé Philippines chairman and CEO; and Dr. Benjamin D. Samson, assistant school division superintendent of DepEd Valenzuela.

Two barangays in Pampanga declared as “no man’s land.”  Two upland areas in this province were placed under a “no habitation zone” based on assessment made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

Host to Aeta settlements and their ancestral lands, Sitio Tagak in  Barangay Nabuclod in Floridablanca and Barangay Dias in Porac were placed under a “no habitation zone” due to their “high susceptibility” to landslides, says Noel Lacadin, chief of the geosciences division of MGB Central Luzon. READ MORE

Barangay Captain who run and lost as municipal councilor in the last elections recycles campaign materials.  Campaign materials usually end up in trash bins after an election, but a losing candidate in the recent midterm polls is determined not to let discarded billboards and posters go to waste.  Ian Andres Sevilla, the village chief of Barangay Luntad, in Palo Leyte, instead of disposing of campaign tarpaulins, decided to recycle them into bags and other accessories. READ MORE

Questionable Cebu City’s Barangay Mayor’s Offices to be dismantled. The barangay mayor’s office or (BMOs) in Cebu City’s 80 barangays, which is not provided under the law says incoming mayor-elect Edgardo Labella, will no longer be in operation under his administration.

Abella added during a recent interview with SunStar Cebu that at the very outset, this barangay mayor’s office is not provided under the Local Government Code. It is not in accordance with existing laws and rules. READ MORE

The next job for Comelec is next year's Barangay Elections. Even if the smoke from the May 13 midterm polls has not yet cleared, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now gearing up for the conduct of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls next year.

The law postponed the Oct. 23, 2017 barangay and SK elections to the second Monday of May 2018.  It also stated that the twin polls be held on the second May of 2020, giving the winning candidates only a two-year term.

After next year’s elections, the term of office of winning bets will be back to three years. READ MORE

The Supreme court tells the Ombudsman to file charges against lady barangay captain. The Supreme Court has directed the Office of the Ombudsman for Visayas to file a case for violation of Article 213(2) of the Revised Penal Code or Illegal Exactions, against a lady barangay captain in Cebu for unauthorized imposition of garbage collection fees.

The case stemmed from the complaint of a resort manager, who alleged in his affidavit-complaint that Lucresia M. Amores, Barangay Captain of Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu illegally collected garbage fees without any ordinance or statute, or any other regulation authorizing its collection.  READ MORE.

Sarangani coastal barangay frees Olive Ridley Turtle back to the sea. Coastal residents of Barangay Burias in the town of Glen in the Province of Sarangani together with environment officials joined hands in setting free an olive ridley sea turtle back to the high seas.

The turtle was saved after it was caught in a fishnet in a coastal area of the barangay.  An environment official had ordered the release of the turtle on learning that it had been in captivity for the last eight months.

The olive ridley sea turtle, also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is  the second smallest of all sea turtles in the world. It is found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. READ MORE

Photo: aquariumofpacific.org

Seaweeds send children to college in Palawan barangay. Seaweeds are the source of livelihood that helped them give their children an education, says Mardy Montano, President of the Cherish Fisherfolks Association based in Sitio Balintang, Barangay Isugod in the town of Quezon in Palawan.

Montano added that unlike in the cities where there are permanent jobs and factories, they have just the sea in their barangay. When there’s a storm, their cooking pots are empty.

Their students are pitiful whenever their fathers don’t earn anything. But because of seaweeds, they now have among their children an agricultural engineer and other professionals.  READ MORE

Nueva Ecija barangay hosts Batch 193 graduates of  SM Foundation’s Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers Training Program.  Helping to bring back hope in farming, the agricultural knowledge of farmers are updated through the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program. For 12 weeks, farmers are taught on effective backyard planting and small-scale farming techniques for fruits and vegetables. This helps improve the quality and quantity of their crops as well as provide organic food for their families. The program also assists farmers who who cooperatives by linking them to local markets and SM suppliers for a more stable source of income.

Batch 193 of SM Foundation’s Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program pose after harvesting the fruits of their labor in Barangay Daang Sarile in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. Partners of SM Foundation for this batch are Macondray Philippines, Department of Agriculture, Department of Social Welfare and Development, local government unit of Cabanatuan City, and SM Group of companies (SM City Cabanatuan, SM Supermarket and Savemore Megacenter)

ALL THE BEST to all barangay officials and functionaries as well as those who follow developments in the barangays.  Here’s hoping that you continuously benefit from the information provided by Barangay Reporter. By regularly informing you on what’s going in other barangays nationwide, this medium should help you get a good bearing on how you measure up compared with your peers in other barangays thus giving you a better perspective in approaching your work in your respective barangay.

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