This town of the famous river boat cruise and the internationally-acclaimed Loboc Children Choir is rolling the red carpet to President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo and members of his official family for their weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Loboc Mayor Leon Calipusan is leaving to stone unturned to make the Cabinet meeting a resounding success. As host, the municipality will also accommodate hundreds of local officials led by Gov. Erico Aumentado. It was to the credit of Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap that the Cabinet meeting is held in Loboc. The DA boss has become Loboc his second after he married a Lobocano, a daughter of the Gaw-Varquez clan. What makes the meeting significant is a political event featuring Sec. Yap who is expected to run for the third Congress seat now occupied by neophyte solon Cong. Adam Relson Jala.
The political affair takes place when Sec. Yap will take his oath as new member of the Lakas-Kampi CMD. With his affiliation to the new party, Sec. Yap will practically alter Bohol 's political landscape with the influence of the three congressmen in the ruling party slightly affected. All three solons—Cong. Edgar Chatto, Roberto Cajes, and Jala belong to the dominant Lakas-Kampi-CMD. The three political musketeers has made their slogan “all for one, one for all”, a rallying cry for unity, come hell or high water. With the elder Jala left out in the cold, will he be forced to join other parties leaving behind his two cohorts? If at all it happens, other parties are seen to be more than willing to accommodate Jala knowing his clout in the third district.
Despite Yap 's vaunted war chest, Jala is said to still maintain a retinue of third district mayors after enjoying the benefits of his generosity in terms of projects or otherwise when he was at the helm as three-termer third district lawmaker. Even during the incumbency of his son, practically all towns of the district also enjoyed projects spread out to more than half a billion pesos. The young legislator, however, is giving way to his father who is eyeing a comeback bid of the seat he used to occupy for three terms. Municipal mayors from the district, their vice mayors and barangay captains are invited to attend the Yap oath taking.
All presidents of barangay captains' federations in the towns in the first and second districts were also invited to witness the Yap induction to Lakas. The affair will be held at the Joventino Digal gymnasium. According to Mayor Calipusan, there's no definite venue yet for the Cabinet meeting. The mayor was informed that it could be held at the Loboc's Children's Palace or aboard a floating restaurant. Dubbed as a meeting of the National Disaster and Coordinating Council and the National Economic Development Authority (NDCC-NEDA) the Loboc meeting will tackle the issues of disaster risk management and climate change.
This was learned from the Office of the Press Secretary where the Post was trying to get in touch for details of the Loboc meeting. The Loboc Cabinet meeting on Tuesday is the President's third visit in Bohol . The last was last July during the 122 Bohol Day celebration. On Tuesday, the President is set to preside over the Cabinet meeting. Emmanuel Caberte, chief of staff of Gov. Aumentado presided over the first coordination meeting at the Capitol last Friday to discuss details of the President's visit. Key officials doing the usual legwork for presidential visits attended the meeting to discuss the usual visit activities for security and logistics. “Schedules are still loose, but by Sunday, we can have a clearer picture of the President's schedule after her advance party shall have met with the local officials handling the visit details,” Caberte assured.
For reasons of security of the President and her Cabinet members, the governor's aide refused to divulge the possible venues of the meeting. s close to the mayor said the port extension is another commitment of the present administration for Loboc development, through the Department of Agriculture. The port extension also forms part of the P 42 Million DA projects implemented under the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority. Separate sources have also speculated that the President would breeze through and greet the gathering of the Liga ng Mga Barangay Bohol Chapter meeting at the nearby Joventino A. Digal Gymnasium at the Poblacion of Loboc town. The Office of Board Member Concepcion Lim, Liga Bohol Chapter President has confirmed that they have invited the President on their separate affair. Moreover, in Bohol the President would be greeting one of the youngest cabinet members on his 44th birthday. Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Cua Yap celebrates his birthday on the same day.
CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE
The issue of climate change when tackled during the Loboc Cabinet meet came at a time when the country suffered the devastation wrought by the three recent strong storms. As a consequence, President Macapagal-Arroyo last week enacted into law a bill establishing the Climate Change Commission that will draw up an action plan against global warming. Arroyo signed into law the Climate Change Act of 2009 before a crowd of Congress leaders, foreign dignitaries, government officials, and environmental advocates at Malacañang's Rizal Hall. “The signing into law of the Climate Change Act ushers in a new era in the way the Philippines will tackle climate change in both the short and long terms, for the benefit of Filipinos today and for Filipinos yet unborn” the President said in a statement. The signing came as Metro Manila and northern Luzon reeled from the trail of destruction left by Tropical Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” that killed hundreds of people, and destroyed millions of dollars worth of crops and infrastructure. Weather officials had blamed climate change for the extremely heavy rainfall dumped by the storms which inundated a vast swath of the metropolis and triggered heavy flooding and landslides in the rest of Luzon .
Republic Act 9729 seeks to set up the Climate Change Commissions, whose main job is to map out an action plan to mitigate the effects of climate change, and to integrate climate change in the formulation of government policy. Some P50 mullion form the President's contingent fund will be appropriated as initial operating fund of the commission. The law allows the body to accept foreign grants to finance its programs. The body will have three commissioners who will be appointed by the President and serve for six years. Within six months, the body, to be chaired by the President, will formulate a framework strategy on climate change, a sort of a road map to combating the advance of climate change.
The commission will have an advisory body composed not only of Secretaries of different departments, but also the heads of the League of Provinces, League of Cities, League of Municipalities, Liga ng mga Barangay, representatives for the academe, business and non government organizations. With its creation, the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change and the Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change are abolished, and their functions absorbed by the commission. After a year, the commission will map out a national climate action plan that includes an assessment of the impact of climate change, specifically on the poor, women and children; identification of vulnerable localities, and identification of strategies to lower greenhouse gas emissions, chief contributor to warning temperatures, among others. “It's sad that Ondoy and Pepeng had to happen before this adaptation to climate change law is given attention. But I'm happy we have a permanent commission that will implement programs against climate change,” said Sen, Loren Legarda, one of the principal authors.
In her view, the body's crucial role lay with providing technical and financial support to local governments to better understand effects of rising sea levels, changing landscapes, droughts, floods and storms. The commission is tasked with main-streaming climate change in the development plans of the government in “synergy with disaster risk reduction”; coordinating programs of national government, including disaster risk reduction, and recommending relevant legislation, among others. But most importantly, it will represent the country in climate change negotiations. “The new law important in the sense that it will help pull together a lot of disparate efforts to address climate impacts'” Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan of the Worldwide Fund for Nature said in an interview. “It sets the stage for climate change to have a prominent impact o the way government plans are made.” (With reports from PIA)
|
