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Volume XI, No. 118
AS OF 6:00 PM MAR. 16, 2021 (TUESDAY)
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Briefly Automated grid THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said Monday that it will start testing a central control and monitoring system (CCMS) that will automate parts of the transmission network. In a statement, the NGCP said that it is staging pilot tests in its Cagayan de Oro and Cebu substations. By 2025, it hopes to equip 21 substations with the CCMS. The CCMS contains real-time monitoring software which will collect and analyze power data and equipment conditions. Using a CCMS-equipped facility will allow the NGCP to remotely operate unmanned substations and improve the operational performance of transmission facilities.
Housing crisis A HOUSE committee approved on Wednesday a resolution declaring a housing crisis and called the housing units that will become available next year inadequate to address the shortage. The House Committee on Housing and Urban Development approved House Substitute Resolution No. 1458, with its members urging the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) to focus on providing housing to the poor. Legislators said the DHSUD needs to better utilize idle government land and expedite its socialized housing program in partnership with the private sector. The Department of Finance and the Philippine Guarantee Corporation were also asked to create a housing finance system that will attract private sector participation.
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Agsur rice farmers to bar traders, middlemen Thank you for trusting us!
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By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN, Contributing Editor
RENTO, Agusan del Sur – Agrarian reform farmers in four towns of this province will no longer sell their palay at the lowest farm gate prices to exploitative traders and middlemen.
This was realized after the P21 million Rice Processing Plant was formally inaugurated here on Tuesday (March 9) where the cluster of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) groups will process their harvested palay into high grade commercial rice and sell it directly to the market. Leomides R. Villareal, Deparment of Agrarian Reform (DAR) regional director, said the farmers will be liberated from the cudgels of middlemen and unscrupulous traders since they will no longer sell their palay at the lowest farm gate prices and instead become
productive rice entrepreneurs. The 21-million plant— fully equipped with facilities like a multi-pass rice mill, warehouse power supply, recirculating mechanical b atch dr yer, f ive s olar dryers and mist polisher— is a DAR project under the Convergence of Value Chain Enhancement for Rural Growth and Empowerment (Project ConVERGE). DAR S ecretar y John Castriciones who graced the inauguration also distributed P16-million farm machines and equipment to the different farmers organizations of the province. FARMERS/PAGE 7
RICE MILLER. Jamil P. Amatonding Jr., Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II of Agusan del Sur showed Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones the milled rice from the multi-pass miller. The milled rice will be transferred to to a mist polisher to produce a high grade commercial rice letting farmers command a higher market prices. chris v . panganiban
Lumads back BTA extension By FROILAN GALLARDO, MindaNews
L ANTAPAN, Bukidnon – Drawing support from their years of friendship, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) asked the support of indigenous peoples
as they seek for a three-year terminal extension in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). BTA Parliament Member
SACRIFICIAL OFFERING. Members of the Talaandig tribe eat the food used for sacrifice during the ritual to commemorate the 10th year of Moro-Indigenous People friendship in Songco, Lantapan town, Bukidnon on Monday. Drawing from that friendship, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao got the support from the Lumads for a three-year extension until 2025. mindanews photo by froilan gallardo
and Minister of the Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Timuay Melanio Ulama recalled their ties with the Lumads during the 10th year celebration of the Moro-IP-Settlers Kinship. “Ten years ago we bonded together and today I asked again for that support,” Timuay told a gathering of Lumad elders in the Talaandig community in Barangay Songco here. Tarpaulins indicating their support to the BTA proposal were all over the Talaandig village on Monday. “We support the extension of the Bangsamoro transition,” reads one of the signs. Other streamers congratulated the renewal of the Moro-IP-Settlers kinship. Talaandig chief Datu Migketay Saway Victorino said the kinship between the three groups is being put to test again. Victorino said like what EXTENSION/PAGE 7
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