116th Anniversary of Philippine Independence

I have been invited to deliver a message for the 116th Anniversary Celebration of Philippine Independence Day of the Province of Leyte on June 12, 2014 at 7am. Unfortunately, I am in Manila. Had i been informed earlier, I could have booked a flight. Anyway, there is always another time. Maybe next year. Thanks for the invitation, Mr. Onie Balintong.

I was part of the Independence Day celebration for the province of Leyte last year.

EASTERN VISAYAS GAWAD SAKA AWARDEES

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE EASTERN VISAYAS GAWAD SAKA AWARDEES!

Despite the devastation that Yolanda wrought to Eastern Visayas, the Agriculture sector has proven its resiliency as manifested during the recent awarding of the Eastern Visayas Gawad Saka winners.

Topping the awardees was Dr. Jose I. Bacusmo, President of the Visayas State University (VSU) at Visca, Baybay, Leyte who was adjudged as this year’s Outstanding Agricultural Scientist.

The Maasin Rural Improvement Club (RIC) Federation bagged the Outstanding RIC Award while Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin D. Gerona and Family of Sogod, Southern Leyte won as Outstanding Farm/Family. 

Mr. Arnulfo Buzon of Brgy. Juaton, Ormoc City was cited as Outstanding Sugarcane Farmer while Ms. Gliceria Emoylan of Tabon-tabon, Leyte was chosen as Outstanding Rural Woman.

Commendations were bestowed to Ormoc City former Mayor Eric Codilla, owner-proprietor of AOG Farm, as Outstanding Agricultural Entrepreneur and to Ormoc City’s Independent Component City Agricultural Fishery Council (ICCAFC) as Outstanding AFC. 

Moreover, the Outstanding Barangay Food Terminal (BFT) Award went to BFT Tomas Oppus of Southern Leyte for the LGU category and to Our Lady of Remedies Parish Multi-Purpose Cooperative of Baybay, Leyte for the non-LGU category. 

The Outstanding Small Animal Raiser was awarded to Mr. Patricio A. Arradaza of Ormoc City and the Outstanding Rural Woman by Ms Anna Lebite of Allen, Northern Samar.

Rice Achiever Awards were also given to various outstanding rice farmers and Agricultural technicians from the provinces of Biliran and Southern Leyte.

As posted in the DA Regional Field Office website, the VSU Horticulture Department was also cited for showcasing Urban Gardening and Landscaping Technology at the DA-8 Plant Nursery which is now an attraction at the DA-RFO 8 compound. 

The Regional Gawad Saka winners will represent the Region in the national search.

The Gawad Saka, the search for outstanding Filipino farmers, is an annual undertaking of the Department of Agriculture which aims to give due recognition and pay tribute to dedicated individuals and institutions whose exemplary accomplishments contributed to the country’s agricultural development. opt

WARAY-WARAY WIKIMEDIA: 1st Asian Wikipedia to hit 1-M articles, one of top 10 Wikepedia in the world

EASTERN VISAYANS who speak Waray can make research at the Wikimedia in their own tongue. Yes, through the Waray-Waray Wikipedia by logging on to war.wikipedia.org.

The Waray-Waray Wikipedia a Visayan version of the open-source online encyclopedia,  is currently among the top ten wikipedias in the world in terms of the number of articles, Mr. Butch Bustria of Wikipedia Philippines, the umbrella organization of Wikipedia projects in the country, said. It has reached over 2.9 million page views in April alone. 

The Waray-Waray Wikipedia was activated on September 25, 2005, by Harvey Fiji from Tacloban. The contributors held their first local meet-up in January 2013 at the Leyte Provincial Capitol, Tacloban with the help of PIA Regional Director Olive Tiu.

As of this writing, it contains over 1,003,000 articles. 

The Waray-Waray Wikipedia, which is run by the global Wikimedia Foundation has now at least 2,098,833 pages, 77 active users, and 4,987,588 edits. 

The Waray-Waray Wikipedia has already surpassed one million articles. It reached the 1 million mark last June 8 with the distinction of being the first Asian Wikipedia project to do so.  

Other Philippine tongues with their own Wikipedias include: Cebuano, Bicol, Chavacano (Zamboanga City), Ilocano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Tagalog. opt