Prices of bread to remain stable throughout summer

The Asosasyon ng mga Panaderong Pilipino (APP) over the weekend assured that the prices of bread and other flour-based products would remain stable, at least for summer. In an interview, APP president Lucito Chavez said suppliers of raw materials have given their assurances that the prices of bakery inputs would remain unchanged for the rest of the second quarter.

He noted that the series of bread price increases during the last quarter of 2022 until early this year was driven by a brief inflation surge, which, in turn, drove up the prices of flour, sugar, milk, and shortening, as well as diesel.

Diesel is important to the bakery industry because it fires up the ovens used in the mass production of bread, Chavez added.

It was noted that both community and commercial bakeries implemented a series of price hikes in just more than three months, which saw the prices of

On the joint operation of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI 11) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 11 (PDEA 11) to closely monitor bars in Davao City for possible illegal drug activities:

“All the bars are monitored because of this operation. We are checking them one by one. This is to give a stern warning to the bars na operating illegally such like this kasi we will not tolerate and we will be conducting now and then the same we conducted in particular months. We are checking all the bars because of this incident since there are many minors in the bar at the time we conducted the operation.”

Consultant

The Philippines has about 7,641 islands scattered throughout the country. The three main islands, however, are Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, which are personified by some scribes as Luzviminda.

Of the three main islands, Mindanao seems to be left out. Most people from the other two islands described Mindanao as “war-torn island.” This is the place where battles are common: Christians versus Muslims and communist fighters against military troops. Not to mention kidnappings and massacres.

Some of these may have happened but all these events aren’t true in all parts of Mindanao. If only those who have not been to Mindanao could only visit our very own island, they will definitely change their thinking.

Battles, kidnappings and massacres also happen in other parts of the country. But it seems some media are only highlighting the bad side of Mindanao. Only very few reports about the good things going on here.

But in recent years, this thinking seems to have changed. This is particularly true when Rodrigo R. Duterte, the former mayor from Davao City, became the 16th president (2016-2022) of the Philippines.

Some government agencies

have already identified the possibility of making Mindanao as the primary mover in terms of economic prosperity. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is one such agency.

“The DOST recognizes the massive potential of Mindanao as a prime mover of socio-economic development,” stressed Dr. Anthony C. Sales, the DOST XI Regional Director, during the Mindanao Regional Scientific Meeting held at the Acacia Hotel in Davao City recently.

This is manifested in DOST’s continuous promotion of the thriving research and development (R&D) ecosystem in Mindanao and by mapping out sound programs, projects and policies that will aid in the increase of R&D investments and human resources, and enhancement of R&D capabilities.

In recent years, the country’s second largest island (after Luzon) exhibited agricultural advancements in the form of the development of new crop varieties, improved plant nutrition, disease detection and management, and the production of climate-resilient crops, among others.

One good news: The DOST has just completed its 2023 Call Conference, which discussed the agency’s thrusts and priorities in line with the upcoming call for

R&D proposals, with the goal of boosting innovation in the Mindanao region.

The following DOST Councils – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology (PCIEERD), Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), and National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) – will be accepting proposals aligned with the research areas and priorities of each council until May 31, 2023 as part of DOSTs continuous efforts to create a nurturing environment for the science community and support the national economic agenda.

During the Davao scientific meeting, several R&D initiatives were mentioned. Foremost is the Mindanao Renewable Energy Center (MREC) in Ateneo de Davao University. It aims to catalyze and support the conduct of R&D on renewable energy technologies to reinforce energy policy, and utilization and commercialization of technologies.

The MERC is highly relevant, especially with the foreseen increase in energy requirement in Mindanao, particularly in industrialized cities like Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Butu-

Named after the aging Mactan leader of Cebu who ordered his men to attack the visiting Spaniards in 1521, Lapu-lapu Street, in the sixties, was as rustic as any thriving suburban set-tlement one can envisage. Its length, then and now, spans the stretch between Santa Ana Church on the south, and J.P. Cabaguio Avenue on the north.

At the time, Rafael Castillo Street was not yet a figment of imagination.

Though situated two kilometers from the town proper, its was a gravelly path. On week-days, students living in peripheral areas, mostly informal settlers of Bangoy, Soliman, and Agdao and enrolled at Holy Cross of Davao, then an all-boys school, pounded the road regu-larly. Without the auto calesa and the trikes negotiating the street, it was strictly a dirt road. Occasionally, mo- torbikes and bicycles, usually carrying items on the carriage, were using it.

Lapu-lapu Street, in contrast to today’s landscape which hosts an amalgam of establish-ments, was a lonely track.

Going south from where the road links with Castillo Street, specifi-cally on the left side, was Gotamco, the city’s busiest sawmill. Next to it is Agdao public mar-ket which, at the time, did not include the section that now houses government-owned struc-tures. To the right of the road, the queue of shanties was indisputable to passersby.

From the intersection connecting Francisco Bangoy and Nicasio Torres streets to the Catholic church at the south end of the road, the setting, in today’s context, was a pictur-esque landscape out of an Amorsolo painting. There were residences and there were no an, Cotabato, and Zamboanga.

Other Mindanao projects mentioned were the Center for Applied Modeling, Data Analytics, and Bioinformatics for Decision Support Systems in Health led by the University of Philippines Mindanao in collaboration with the Mapua Malayan Colleges Mindanao.

There is also the R&D Center for Maternal and Child Health in Mindanao at the Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc., which deals with primary health problems of women and children.

There are also different R&D centers which focus on commodity products that are naturally abundant or proudly produced in Mindanao. Then, there is the Seaweeds R&D Center in Mindanao State University in Tawi-Tawi, which is poised to strengthen the R&D for one of the most common and important resources in the southernmost province of Mindanao.

During the forum, however, some concerns were raised by some scientists. Despite the strides in R&D, funding and procurement remains to be a problem, they claimed.

“Tanggapin natin ng maliit ang funding, mahirap kumuha ng funds. Kung makakuha ka man ng funds, ang hirap gumastos,” observed Fernando P. Siringan, a professor at the University of the

Philippines, Marine Science Institute and an Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).

He was talking from experience. The project he is doing for MSI is already running for one year, “yet the things needed weren’t yet procured.”

Siringan said that, on many occasions, even on television, they have already raised their concerns on these issues on funding and procurement. He hopes that the representatives in Congress and at the Department of Budget and Management will address these problems.

“Kasi ay nakakapilay talaga sya sa research, at yung procurement process natin na sana ay makakuha tayo ng maganda at mura ay hindi naman talaga ganoon ang nangyayari. Ang nakukuha natin yung madaling masira at mahal,” Siringan added.

Despite some shortcomings at the national level, Mindanao succeeded in integrating its R&D efforts towards inclusive growth, and closely engaged their stakeholders from the academe, industry, government, civil society organization, and the media to keep their approaches aligned with various frameworks. (With additional report from Geraldine Bulaon-Ducusin, S&T Media service)

two-story structures.

To the right section going south was Castillo Sawmill, next to the Ybañez fishpond that occupied both sides of the road up to Porras Street. The project, which hosted the voracious tilapia, was home by a lonely lagkaw, a small hut strategically built at the center of an em-bankment that divides the pond where the caretaker would take shelter while sniping for naughty children who were angling fish. There was no such feature, though, on the other side.

Young as they were, elementary students had their way of escaping the attention of the caretaker. In the morning, on the way to school, they placed bantaks, fish traps made from bamboo, that were half-buried at the ledge of the pond’s dike, just enough for them to trace when they go home from school. Always, without fail, the snares had their intended catch.

In some instances, when classes were cut short by faculty meetings and special events, the children, after dismissal from class, would take time to discover clams buried in the rivulet just beside the road. Using sticks and twigs, they disturb the mud or poke small holes to find the crustaceans. Occasionally, there were small crabs also to harvest.

Beyond the pond, in an area now blocked by Porras and Sobrecarey streets, at the time when trash was not yet collected and hauled, was a dump site. The pit, its contents left rotten to the elements, emitted only a slight odor but the pupils, after class, especially after heavy rain the night before, made it a fun activity to scour the mountain of garbage where the ba-nana trunks were disposed of and to look for mushrooms or scavenge for reusable items.

What made Lapu-lapu Street even more bucolic then is the sight of white herons or egrets scrubbing the pond for food when its water level, just after harvest, has been drained low. The maya, a Eurasian tree sparrow once the country’s national bird, also abounded in the ar-ea, perching on the leaves of pliant thickets and enjoying the whistle of the wind.

Of course, six decades later, the traces of the sawmill, the pond, and the dumpsite are gone. Well-paved and fully developed, the thoroughfare now hosts a long stretch of commer-cial buildings, and a coterie of businesses such as convenience store, wholesale supplier, ap-pliance center, budget hotel, medical clinic, printing press, and motorcycle dealer, among others.