Time to review AFP strength and recruitment – Chiz

LEGAZPI CITY, October 24 (PIA) -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should conduct an immediate and total review of its actual troop strength versus its troop ceiling in the wake of the separate deadly clashes between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Basilan and Zamboanga Sibugay this week, Senator Chiz Escudero said.

The Basilan bloodbath last Tuesday claimed the lives of 19 soldiers and six more in the latest encounter in Zamboanga.

Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said it is high time for the AFP to review its present number of warm bodies and the vacancies for new recruits that need to be filled to strengthen the military.

“While we commend the gallantry and bravery of our troops for going head on in the battle field, we bewail the fact that they were outnumbered and outsmarted in a terrain most familiar to the enemies. Without adding anymore pain to our troops, we now beg the question what is our military's optimal force? Are we also filling in the yearly quota for military recruitment?” Escudero said.

The senator underscored the importance of this assessment to maximize the strength and potential of the troops in the frontline and readjust it to meet certain existing standard operating procedures in terms of troop augmentation and recruitment.

“We need to fill in the yearly quota for recruits so that yearly our forces get stronger and that our soldiers are not left out there like mice caught in a mouse trap, outnumbered by its enemies. As the country's guardians of democracy and Constitution, we need to give them enough physical, material and arsenal support to keep and improve their morale and efficiency,” Escudero stressed.

Escudero said that the AFP is in a better position to know the situation in the battlefield need and should be able to refine its protocols given the blatant and bold moves by rogue elements against government troops, particularly in Mindanao.

“I urge the AFP and also the PNP to aggressively go out there and fill the yearly quotas for new recruits. Spend the budget intended for hiring new personnel. Don't let the old system prevail again where the allocation for hiring new personnel is scrimped on so that the amount can be converted into savings and diverted to line the pockets of some unscrupulous individuals. This has already cost so many lives and has orphaned thousands of wives and children,” Escudero said. (MAL/Office of Sen. Escudero)

Multi-Agency task force to curb illegal fishing organized

by Ed de Leon


LEGAZPI CITY, October 24 (PIA) – In the wake of a mounting clamor for the government to more seriously go after illegal fishers in the Bicol region, the Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC), Sub-committee on Fishing and Marine Environment Protection, has organized a multi-agency task force to go after commercial and small fishers who persist in pursuing their illegal fishing practices in the rich fishing grounds of Bicol.

The task force is to be headed by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional office and its members will be drawn from the personnel from the Police regional office, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Maritime Police, the Philippine Army, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Interior and Local government (DILG) and from the concerned local government units.

It may be recalled that nine Bicol based bishops wrote a letter of appeal to President Benigno S. Aquino dated last Septmber 5, 2011 appealing to President Aquino to immediately order the enforcement of the law banning commercial fishers from operating within the 15 kilometers of the shoreline of Ragay Gulf in Camarines Sur and Burias Pass in Masbate.

The Bishops also asked the President to compel and enable marine and coastal resources authorities to go after and prosecute commercials fishers who violate the law covering municipal waters, as well as, small fishers who practice illegal fishing activities.

The Bishops also ask the President to order the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and BFAR to expedite the formal demarcation of municipal water boundaries as stipulated by the Fishery Code of the Philippines (R 8550).

Chief Supt. Cecilio B. Calleja, Bicol Police regional director, said that the task force will pool together available resources and assets of member agencies of the task force to be able to conduct a successful operations against the illegal fishers.

He said the newly created multi-agency task force is currently preparing its operational plan on how best to operate to blunt the operations of illegal fishers.

Police Senior Supt. Eduardo G. Chavez, police regional intelligence chief reported that from the period January to September 2011, a total of 665 persons were arrested for illegal fishing which resulted in the confiscation of seven fishing vessels, 44 fishing boats, 29 motor boats, nine bancas, 17 compressors and 1,846 kilos of assorted fish and the filing of 70 cases. (MAL/EDL, PIA V)

Kasanggayahan Children’s Day highlights storytelling, visual art workshop

by Irma A. Guhit

SORSOGON CITY, October 24 (PIA) -- Tomas Leonor, advocate for cancer stricken children through his famous one-man walk all over the country, was one of the key storytellers in the Read Along Program for kids here, an advocacy program for literacy awareness through reading of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

With Leonor was Councilor Rosalia Laganzo Enerio from Sorsogon as main story tellers.

The children’s day activity included the Doodle Earth Visual Arts Workshop where children were exposed to the opportunity of creativity using water color and and water soluble paints for mask making, face painting, environmental art and basic painting for kids know-how.

The read-along event formed part of the Kasanggayahan Festival 2011 Children’s Day (KFCD) Visual Arts Fair which held at the Aemilianum Gymnasium here last Saturday, Oct. 22, according to Sorsogon Arts Council spokesperson Joseph John Perez .

Isabel Gile, events coordinator of the KFCD explained that the facilitators in the activity were Sorsoganon Fine Arts students of the University of the Philippines together with the Sorsogon State College architecture students.

Gile said that these students would also like to share their talents to the children to signify the enhancement of visual arts appreciation for children.

Performances from pre-school pupils were also shown while food chain mascots here performed magical tricks for children.

Gile and Perez said that this year’s KFCD will promote the literacy campaign of PDI, Eugenia Duran-Apostol, founder of PDI being a true blue Sorsoganon and would like to make Sorsogon a province that will spearhead this advocacy.

Meanwhile, the Red Roots Artist Cooperative’s Doodle Earth Workshop according to Perez is more on the enhancement of environmental awareness for children expressed through visual art.

Hundreds of children from the province participated in the activity. Parents lauded the organizers while observing the transfer of knowledge the children gained from the fun activities presented. (MAL/IAG, PIA Sorsogon)