Guv rallies ‘sanos to work together for greater Bohol

GOV. Erico Aumentado yesterday rallied the Boholanos in and outside of the province to “strengthen ties, move ahead and work together” for a greater Bohol. Aumentado exhorted his paisanos to link hands during the commemorative program yesterday at the newly renovated and now fully airconditioned Bohol Cultural Center of the 152nd Bohol Day.

The governor led the inaugural rites for the cultural center before the program, and prior to that, the restored Bohol Museum and the P200-million two-phase expansion of the Tagbilaran City Tourist Port for which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the groundbreaking ceremonies two years ago. In the afternoon, Aumentado again led the inaugural rites for the P20-million Bohol Diagnostic Center to rise on the site of the old TB Pavillion in Dao District, and the inauguration of the Panglao Bohol International Airport Development Project (PBIADP) Management Office at the Governor's Mansion following the conduct of the Bohol Investment Forum at the MetroCentre Hotel.

Through the Bohol Investment Promotions Center (BIPC) under Maria Fe Dominise, the Bohol Provincial Office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under Ma. Elena Arbon and the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) headed by Norris Oculam, the governor played matchmaker to some 200 investors and landowners here for them to start businesses in the province.

To the “first-timers,” Dominise, Arbon and Oculam packaged business proposals and concepts to entice them to make Bohol their base or expansion area. The investors included participants to the Tigum Bol-anon Tibuok Kalibutan (TBTK), a biennial gathering of Boholanos all over the world currently headed by Ma. Elizabeth Veloso-Garcia. Aumentado tapped his paisanos' strong ties with the land of their birth in attracting them to also do business in Bohol instead just retiring in the province. Among the attendees were Carlson Chan, son of taipan and philanthropist Carlos Chan who earlier offered to buy all the potatoes that the Boholanos can raise.

The elder Chan who inaugurated the other day the Loboc Tourism Center and broke the ground for the Loboc Children's Palace for which he is donating funds for its construction also donated P1 million for the diagnostic center. Chan also sponsored trips to China and Hongkong for the Loboc Children's Choir. They staged a concert in Shanghai for their first trip, and in Nanchang and Jiujiang cities in Jiangxi in their second trip. The Hongkong and Tianjin trips will be to join children's choir contests. For his philanthropy, Aumentado presented Chan with a Sikatuna Award during the Bohol Day program.

A posthumous recipient of the same award – the highest the provincial government gives to those who have given greatest honor to Bohol – is lawyer Zoilo Dejaresco Jr., editor-publisher of The Bohol Chronicle and proprietor-general manager of radio stations dyRD and dyZD, Father of Bohol Journalism, who went on to become the president of the Philippines Press Institute (PPI). As such, the plaque read, Dejaresco joined the league of his predecessors Gen. Carlos P. Romulo of The Philippines Herald and Don Joaquin “Chino” Roces of The Manila Times who are known pillars of Philippine media.

On the other hand, the governor conferred plaques of merit to City Mayor Dan Lim in recognition of his sterling leadership which placed the city among the Ten Investment-Friendly Cities of the Philippines and providing the culture of peace and tranquility in the City of Friendship, to Dauis Mayor Luciano Bongalos for making his town the most investor-friendly in the province. Inabanga Mayor Josephine Socorro Jumamoy who, as head of the Bohol chapter of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines , partnered with Aumentado to shepherd her fellow mayors to catapult the province to development also received one.

In a display of his “guiding light” of always building on the accomplishments of predecessors, the governor also conferred plaques of merit to the past presidents of the Confederation of Boholanos in the USA and Canada (CONBUSAC), namely: Asisclo Dano, Engr. Johnny Torralba, Roldan Sarmiento, Dr. Nicanor Lopez, Randolfo Gallardo, lawyer Bernardo Mag-aso and Lito Dano. Ma. Elizabeth Veloso-Garcia, current president of the TBTK received the same plaque for strengthening the bond of the Boholanos here and abroad. The TBTK is the only global ethnic conference of Filipinos abroad.

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