2 Bicolanos qualify in 2012 Rizal Model Students

By Shannah Marie O. Montales

LEGAZPI CITY, Dec. 24 (PIA) -- Two Bicolano students have successfully qualified in the top 20 finalists for Jose Rizal Model Students of the Philippines as announced in the 50th National Rizal Youth Leaders Institute Conference last December 15 in Teacher’s Camp, Baguio City.

They are Emil P. Lim of Divine Word College of Legazpi and Javier Leonardo V. Rugeria of Ateneo de Naga University.

Lim, a graduating Management and Accountancy major, is the current chairperson of the College Student Executive Board, the supreme student council of Divine Word College of Legazpi. He also served as a Philippine Student Ambassador under the Japan East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youth program last May 2012.

Rugeria, a fourth year student taking up Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Foreign Studies and International Relations, is the secretary-general of the AdNU-SSG Student Tribunal and an officer in AdNU’s Philosophy Society (PHILOSOC). He is also a musician in a band which performs in gig areas and has front acted in concerts of True Faith and The Bloomfields in Naga City.

Lim and Rugeria bested hundreds of student-nominees from public and private colleges and state universities from across the country during the paper screening. The submitted papers listed their basic profiles, academic achievements and extra-curricular endeavors.

The two, along with the other finalists, will undergo a final interview with prominent national figures on December 28 in the Knights of Rizal Building in Manila. From then, only top 10 students will be chosen to become the 2012 Jose Rizal Model Students of the Philippines.

The 10 winners will be awarded with a cash prize, medal, trophy and certificate and will be conferred by the Knights of Rizal on December 29, 2012.

The annual awarding ceremony, which has been successfully conducted for the last 25 years, aims to recognize the Rizalian qualities and exemplary performance of the Filipino youth in academic excellence, leadership skills and sustained involvement in extra-curricular activities on campus and in the larger community. (MAL/SMOMontales-PIA5, Albay)


Barangays in Legazpi City cited for good solid waste management

By Marlon A. Loterte

LEGAZPI CITY, Dec. 24 (PIA) -- The city government here has cited with honors and cash incentives 10 of the city’s 70 barangays that showed outstanding performances in ecological waste management this year.

“The success of the implementation of our solid waste management program is a luminous symbol of Legazpi’s identity as a strong, modern city that maintains healthful and environment- friendly communities,” Mayor Geraldine Rosal of this city said as she handed certificates of commendation and cash rewards to the awardees.

The urban villages of Sabang, Cabangan East, and Pigcale were top three of 10 villages under the small barangay category of the city’s Search for Outstanding Solid Waste Management Program implementers which received P 50,000 each.

Fourth and fifth placers were barangays Bañadero and Tamaoyan, which got P15,000 each as consolation prizes.

For the large barangay category, barangays 33-Peñaranda, Bagumbayan, and Gogon were the top three placers which also received P50,000 cash award each while the two runners-up, barangays Puro, and Arimbay were given another P15,000 each.

The awardees were adjudged best among the city’s 70 villages in ecological solid waste management in a yearly search being initiated by the city government to encourage local communities to observe proper disposal of garbage.

In congratulating the winners, Rosal urged all the city’s barangay chairmen and ecological protection workers to perform aggressively for the proper disposal of household and commercial wastes to maintain the cleanliness of their communities while preventing garbage from clogging canals and esteros that results to flooding during rainy days.