Red Cross-CamSur spearheads Run for Humanity

By Analiza S. Macatangay

NAGA CITY, Aug 8 (PIA) -- Organizers connected with collecting blood are targeting to improve its blood service facility by conducting a fun run that will raise funds and at the same time, help in encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the people in Camarines.

The fun run is called Run for Humanity slated on August 12, Sunday.

Nanette Rodrigazo, PRC Camarines Sur Chapter administrator, said the Run for Humanity is a fun run/walk/road race for sports enthusiasts aged 6-year-olds and above. Runners can choose from the various categories depending on the distance they intend to engage in.

For 3-k run, registration is pegged at P300 together with a race singlet. The 5-k runners will pass through Magsaysay area, while 10-k runners will take the trail of the Basilica area going to Matiway Gas station. The 21-k route will include the Avida subdivision at Pacol, Naga City.

Runners who intend to run extra miles and bring home cash prize, can join the 5, 10 and 21K with registration fee of P350, P450, and P600 respectively. Registrants under this category will be given a Run for Humanity kit that includes a Run for Humanity singlet, race bibs, and a bronze membership for those running on the 10 and 21k division. The card bearer is entitled to a P35,000 insurance coverage valid for one year.

Students who intend to participate in the said endeavor are entitled to a P50 discount for each division.

Winners of 5k division who will grab the 1st and 2nd prize will receive P3,000 and 1,500 respectively. For 10k division winners, first prize was pegged at P5,000 and P2,500 for the second prize. The 21-k 1st finisher will receive P7,000 while the 2nd placer will receive P3,500.

All runners, including companies and organizations that have supported the fun run through sponsorship will be given Certificates of Appreciation.

Participants below 18 years of age must have their guardians sign the Run for Humanity parental consent form and submit it to PRC Camarines Sur Chapter office or to any Run for Humanity official registration booths.

Rodrigazo is optimistic that runners, including patrons and Red Cross supporters will buoy up the fun run for a cause and will extend their assistance to help the chapter raise P300,000 from this worthy endeavor.

“We are raising our appeal to every one who wishes to help the chapter raise our much needed fund for the improvement of the delivery of our blood services, including our blood service facility. Your participation and support in this endeavor will surely extend to the members of our community who are in dire need of blood services and who will be benefited with our blood programs,” Rodrigazo said in an interview.

Drinking water and First Aid stations will be provided at selected points along race route.

Race will start promptly at 5:30 a.m. Assembly time is 5 a.m. at SM City Naga grounds. (MAL/LSM-PIA5, Camarines Sur)


Catanduanes school tops in song writing, photography contests

By Edna A. Bagadiong

VIRAC, Catanduanes, Aug 8(PIA) -- Catanduanes State Colleges (CSC) bagged the top prize in song writing competition and second and third prizes in the photography contest during the Region 5 Philippine Association of Tertiary Level Education Institutions in Environmental Protection and Management (PATLEPAM) Conference on July 25-27 at Aquinas University in Legazpi City.

The conference was organized by the Bicol University headed by its president, Dr. Fay Lea Patria M. Lauraya who is also the president of PATLEPAM Region 5 Chapter and Dr. Ninfa R. Pelea, director of Bicol Consortium for Agriculture Research and Resources Development (BCARRD) and PATLEPAM Region 5 coordinator.

CSC’s winning entry in the song competition titled "Luntiang Pangarap" was a collaborative work of BSEd - MAPE majors Arjay U. Panti, Jose Z. Tria, Joseph Broz T.Tito, Mark Joyces M. Tapel, and Prof. Cresencia G. Arcilla, who also served as the trainer.

Tapel served as the vocalist and guitar player while Tito dabbled on drums, Tria on keyboard, and Panti, the violin.

The group’s clean-cut rendition of the winning song during the performance competition impressed the board of judges.

Bren Garette Z. Rivera, a third year BSEd English major and layout and graphics editor of The CSC Statesman, bagged two awards in the photography contest—second and third places—for his entry titled "Local Adaptation, Global Solution." His photo entries essay the bucolic scene in the coastal towns of Virac and Bagamanoc which portray the intrinsic adaptation of the locals to the changing climatic conditions.

Dr. Maria S. Tugano, CSC extension services director, headed the CSC participants, together with the coaches of the students, Prof. Cresencia G. Arcilla for song writing, and Gerry S. Rubio for photography.

The song and photo composition capped the three-day PATLEPAM Conference with the theme “Innovations for Environmental Protection and Disaster Risk Management." Cash prizes and certificates of recognitions were given to the top three winners.

The first and second days featured research presentations of faculty members, staff, and students of PATLEPAM member agencies which is comprised of government and private state universities and colleges, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, local government units, non-government organizations and the private sector.

Posters on disaster risk and solid waste management programs, information materials, modules and books on environmental protection and management, as well as innovative products such as coco coir and abaca silk were featured in the exhibits.

Sixteen researches from PATLEPAM member agencies which tackled innovations on environmental protection and management were presented during conference. The top three researches, dubbed "Best Innovations" were also awarded during the closing ceremonies.

The event also featured plenary talks of regional and national environmental champions such as Iliac Diaz, executive director of My Shelter Foundation, Justino Arboleda, engineer and chief executive officer of Cocotech Corporation, Raul Burce, David David, and Gilbert Guadamor of World Wildlife Fund Donsol Sorsogon, a representative of the local government of Sorsogon – Butanding Ecotourism, Ramon Cabria of the local government unit of Sto. Domingo, Albay, and Christopher Pacardo of Bicol University Information Technology Service Office. (MAL/EAB-PIA5, Catanduanes/GSR-CSC)


Operation Smile launches medical mission

By Analiza S. Macatangay

NAGA CITY, Aug. 8 (PIA) -- Aptly dubbed “ The Journey Home,” organizers of Operation Smile, an organization dedicated in transforming the lives of children born with cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities by sponsoring reconstructive surgery went back to its first medical mission held in Naga City after 30 years to launch its homecoming medical mission come November 2012.

The first medical mission held in Naga in 1982 was followed by successful medical missions and has since inspired the conduct of similar activities which benefited hundreds of children affected with the lip deformity.

On August 3, Operation Smile Philippine Foundation, Inc. journeyed home to Naga City to celebrate its 30th year of changing the lives of its beneficiaries.

Couple Dr. William P. Magge Jr., and his wife Kathleen, a nurse, – the founder of the foundation, was represented by its President and Operation Smile Philippines (OPS) Executive Director Roberto “Bobby” Manzano.

Naga City Mayor John Bongat expressed his appreciation to the gesture done by the organizers.

”We will always be appreciative of the Magee couple, the volunteers and the supporters of Operation Smile all over the world, for all the help they have extended not only to the people of Naga but also to the Filipinos in general. I find it very touching that this mission is out to help patients, specifically children here in Naga. Everything happens for a reason and I am really happy that they found the reason to help our unfortunate children here,” Bongat said in a statement.

The Journey Home, which will serve as highlight of Operation’s Smile 30th Anniversary, aims to mark the said celebration by going back to where it humbly started its mission that has become a global medical charity organization.

After the launching, “The Journey Home countdown will officially start the date towards the realization of 10 medical missions to be conducted in various parts of the world for three weeks. Here in Naga, the activity will be held from November 8 to 18 at the Bicol Medical Center (BMC).

The local government of Naga acknowledges the said endeavor is one of the best examples of public private partnership (PPP) which aims to help the community, particularly the indigents to avail of expensive medical treatment via private partners.

PPP is one of the President's flagship program which aims to encourage private-public business venture. (MAL/LSM-PIA5. Camarines Sur)


Salceda elected Asian rep to the first-ever Green Climate Fund Board

By Rhondon Ricafort, PGA

LEGAZPI CITY, Aug 8 (PIA/PGA) -- Albay province Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, also chairman of the Regional Development Council in the Philippines, has been elected to represent the developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund.

The Fund is designed to help channel up to $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

However, the fund is an empty shell after last year's U.N. climate talks failed to make progress on sources of finance and the global economic crisis has left rich nations reluctant to commit cash, prompting fears the money may not emerge in time.

The board's first meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on August 23 to 25 and will start work on the board's organization and operations and the fund's first workplan, an official at the fund's interim secretariat confirmed on Thursday.

"We are ready and set to go for the first board meeting in Geneva," Henning Wuester, senior manager at the fund's interim secretariat, told Reuters.

"We hope to have at least one more meeting before Qatar," he added, referring to an additional board meeting which could take place before a major U.N. climate conference in Doha starts on November 26.

One of the key issues for the board this year will be selecting the fund's host country. Germany, Mexico, Namibia, Poland, the Republic of Korea, and Switzerland have all made official requests to host the fund.

A decision on which country will be the host will be presented to the Doha meeting at the end of the year, the interim secretariat said in a statement on Thursday.

Disagreements about who should sit on the fund's governing panel have delayed its first meeting to five months later than it was originally planned.

Originally set to take place in April, the meeting was postponed three times as regional groups of countries threshed out which nations would represent them on the board, which will have 24 members and 24 alternatives coming equally from both developing and developed countries.

There were fears that any further delays in the board's organization could slow the process towards the fund's launch, which is expected in 2013, as well as run the risk of undermining U.N. climate talks in Qatar.

The meeting was first pushed back until the end of May after European Union countries disagreed over the allocation of seats to its member states. Thirteen countries requested a seat, wanting to ensure they have a say in the funding decisions.

The meeting was then delayed a second time in May and finally pushed back to the end of August after the fund's interim secretariat awaited nominations from the Asia, Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions.

"The secretariat finally received the last of those nominations on August 1, 2012" Wuester said.

Governor Salceda was endorsed by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to the Dr. Mohammad Salim Al Sabban, Coordinator of the Asia Pacific regional group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on March 26, 2012.

Prior to his seat in the Green Climate Fund, Salceda is also a member of the National Economic Development Authority Board Regional Development Committee, Member of Council of Advisers of League of Provinces of the Philippines and Member of the Philippine Delegation to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2006 to present. He received an award as the First UN-ISDR Senior Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change. (MAL/RR-PGA)