Vol 5, issue no 7

Volume V

KALIBO, Aklan, (PIA6) -- There are now more women leaders than men as far as managing the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations (ARBOs) in Aklan is concerned, based on data from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) here.

The leadership skills of Aklan women were highlighted by DAR-Aklan as it celebrated Women’s Month March of this year, contained in reading materials and brochures it produced as part of the agency’s activities. DAR-Aklan said that of the 18 functional ARBOs, 15 are managed by women, and for the 204 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) managing enterprises, 73% are women.

For women’s participation in land ownership per DAR-Aklan data, it was revealed that out of a total of 25,362 ARBs as of end of 2016, 48% are women beneficiaries. DAR also provided other assistance to Aklan women ARBs. In terms of legal aspect, 65% of women out of 136 clients were assisted. In the field of education, of the 40 graduates of President Diosdado Macapagal Agrarian Scholarship Program, 24 were girls. In Micro-Finance Services, of the the total amount of P3,355,000.00, 79% of the amount were accessed by women, while for agri-credit, 54% women were involved out of the 282 ARBs. The strong performance of Aklan women ARBs is guided by DAR mandating Gender and Development (GAD) Mainstreaming in the executive on agrarian reform and contains procedures for ensuring the recognition of rights of women as ARBs. For instance, in land entitlements of Women and Men ARBs, DAR mandates that both spouses or common law partners who each possess the qualification to be ARBs, shall have equal rights in the process of identification, screening, and selections of ARBs. DAR provides that “in no case shall exclusion or subordination be made in the screening and selection on account of gender or relationship status.

In order to recognize the rights of

Issue 07

April 1—15, 2017

KALIBO, AKLAN, (PIA) – A birth certificate is not a public document and therefore not everyone is allowed to get the birth records of another person.

Peter S. Mangilog, information officer of Philippine Statistics Authority here, clarified during the Philippine Information Agency-Aklan’s Kapihan sa RMN-Kalibo, that birth records of a person are considered confidential information.

“This nondisclosure of birth records is stated in the Article 7 of the Presidential Decree 603 or the Child and Youth Welfare Code,” explained Mangilog adding that the said decree is not only applicable to PSA but also to all local civil registry offices in the country.

According to Mangilog, the decree also provides exemptions, wherein PSA could grant the issuance of birth certificate if the requester is the owner himself/herself; parent; spouse; direct descendant; legal guardian; or institution in-charge if the person is minor.

“Other than the aforesaid persons,

PSA will not release the document; unless he or she could secure an authorization letter from the owner plus a valid Identification of the owner and the requester,” he said.

Per Article 7 of PD 603, any person violating the prohibition shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of at least two months or a fine in an amount not exceeding five hundred pesos, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Meanwhile, in a press release Provincial Statistics Officer Antonet Catubuan said that other civil registry documents such as certificate of marriage, death and no marriage records are considered public documents, thus, can be requested by anyone provided that the requester knows the information asked in the application form.

She added that civil registry documents can be requested in any PSA Serbilis Outlet nationwide regardless of where the record was registered. (JCM/ SQP-PIA Aklan)

KALIBO, AKLAN, (PIA) – Tourist arrivals in the island of Boracay in the first quarter of 2017 reached 511,471, up by 4.63 percent from the same period last year.

Data from the Economic Enterprise Development Department, an extension office of the Provincial Tourism Office in Malay, Aklan, showed that from January to March this year, foreign tourists listed were 284,878; while local tourists were 211,169; and the Overseas Foreign Workers at 15,424.

In this year’s first quarter, the month of February registered with the most number of tourists the island received with 174, 183; followed by January with 169,843; and March 167,445.

Among the foreign nationalities that arrived in March, Korea topped the tourism market with 27,231 arrivals.

China came in the second spot with 25, 127 arrivals; followed by Taiwan 4,164; United States of America 2,820; and United Kingdom 2,221.

Other countries in the island’s top 10 markets this March were: Malaysia 2,119; Russia 2,096; Australia 1,903; Germany 1.732; and Saudi Arabia 1,187.

Last year, the world-renowned island accommodated 488, 829 tourist, of which 283,468 were foreigners; 190,344 and 15,017 were locals and OFWs, respectively.(JCM/SQP/PIA Aklan)

farmer spouses, the names of both shall appear in the Certificate of Land Ownership (CLOA) and shall be preceded by the word ‘spouses’. In the case of a common-law relationship, the names of both parties shall likewise appear in the CLOA with the conjunctive word “and” Continued on page… 03

PIA AKLAN BALITA

Vol. No. V Issue No. 07

PAGE 02

DTI Aklan is gearing up for its Piña and Fiber Festival which will be held at the Trade Hall, Capitol Grounds, Kalibo, Aklan on April 21-26, 2017from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Anchored on the theme, “Greening Local Products towards Competitiveness”, the trade fair will showcase the various products of Aklan, specifically, environment-friendly products of local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), such asnatural dyed abaca and pinafabrics, mood lamps made of scrap woods and coco shells, virgin coconut oil, etc.

At least 77MSMEs and LGUs will participate in this trade exhibitwhich will officially start on April 21, 2017 at 2:00PM. The fair will feature products from different sectors, such as, processed food, home style and wearables, bamboo, coconut, health and wellness, among others. This year’s trade event aims to generate P5.250M of sales.

Aside from the local consumers in Aklan, members of various industries such as thetourism sector and institutional buyers are invited to visit the

trade fair.

Alongside theFiber Festival, DTI has lined-upa series of programs and activities through its Negosyo Center, which include a) One-on-one consultation with national government agencies, business development service providers and industry associations; b) Product Development Clinic and skills demonstrations; c) Orientation seminar on Branding; d) Business Financing Fair; e) Training Workshop on Souvenir items and Fashion Accessories; and f) Cacao Techno Forum. These activities will run in the duration of the fair.

This marketing event is a publicprivate partnership project of DTIAklan, Provincial Government of Aklan, HugodAklanon Producers Assn.Inc., Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority and Aklan Piña and Indigenous FibersManufacturers and Traders, Inc. Participating MSMEs with Most Innovative Product, Best Product Collection, and Best Boothwill be given awards during the trade fair.

DTI enjoins all Aklanons to visit the Fiber Festival, and avail of the programs and services of the Negosyo Center. (DTI-Aklan)

Gone are the days of pen and paper!

The Philippine Statistics AuthorityAklan has shifted to using tablets instead of paper-based questionnaires as they start to conduct the Labor Force Survey (LFS) this April.

LFS is a nation-wide quarterly survey which is the major source of employment data in the country.

According to Provincial Statistics Officer Antonet B. Catubuan, the used of tablets in data collection aims to improve the efficiency of field operations, and provide timely and accurate statistics.

“Undeniably, the use of pen and paper in survey is quite taxing because all accomplished questionnaires should undergo manual editingbefore data are encoded,” PSO Catubuan said.

With the use of this technology, she said, the flow of data processing has been shortened, which saves a lot of time and effort, as well as ensuresthe accuracy of information.

Tablets used by PSA field workers were installed with a program known as Computer Aided Data Collection System (CADaCS), and a GPS to check

the location of sample households interviewed by data collectors.

The Labor Force Survey gathers data on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population based on a “past week” reference period.

It aims to provide a quantitative framework for the preparations of plans and formulation of policies affecting the labor market.

Of about 45, 000 nationwide sample households, 196 were taken from Aklandistributed in 24 barangays or enumeration areas.

PSA urges respondents to support the survey by giving truthful information to interviewers.

Responses to this survey are held of three women featured in the “Women strictly confidential as provided for by Inspiring Women” Panel, who spoke on law. (PSA-Aklan) empowerment of women, especially those in agrarian reform.

Aklan women…

Together with her in the panel were From page 01 Ms. Jindra Linda Demeterio, Retired between their names.”

Regional Executive Director of DA ReDAR-Aklan is currently headed by gion 6 and current President of the ProProvincial Agrarian Reform Program vincial Council of Women, and Ms. GabOfficer Ma. Theresa Valencia, who is the rielle V. Calizo-Quimpo, former Confirst-ever woman to head DAR-Aklan. gresswoman and former Vice Governor At the Women’s Month celebration of of the Province of Aklan. (JCM/VGV the province in March, Valencia was one PIA6 Aklan)

19thAklan

The province’ inflation rate continued to grow as it hits 2.3 percent in March 2017 according to Philippine Statistics Authority-Aklan.

While inflation went up by 2.0 percent in February 2017, it is lowercompared to -0.1 percent a year ago.

Higher annual mark-ups were posted in the indices of the following commodity groups: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (6.4%), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House (4.9%),Food and Non-Alcoholic Bever ages (2.5%),Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas (HWEG) and Other Fuels (2.3%), Transport (2.0%), Recreation and Culture (2.0%), Clothing and Footwear (1.3%), and Restaurants and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (0.7%).

The rest of the commodity groups had slower annual add-ons.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in Aklan moved up at a slower pace of 0.1 percent in March brought by increments observed in Clothing and Footwear with 0.3 percent, HWEG and Other Fuels, Recreation and Culture, Transport, Restaurants and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 0.2 percent, respectively.

The uptick in price index across heavily-weighted food items is attributed to higher price adjustments noted in meat (2.9%), fruit (2.1%), oils and fats (1.5%), food products NEC (1.5%), vegetables (0.3%),non-alcoholic beverages (0.2%), and other cereals, flour and related products (0.1%).

According to Provincial Statistics Officer AntonetCatubuan inflation rate is the annual rate of change or the year -on-year change in consumer price index (CPI).

CPI, on the other hand, is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by the households relative to a base year.

(PSA-Aklan)