monday, march 17, 2014
NorthMIn News
499 Out-of-school youths in Ozamiz benefit from SCALA B y R utchie C abahu g Aguhob
OZAMIZ City, Misamis Occidental – At least 499 members of the Pag-Asa Youth Association of the Philippines (PYAP) benefited from the Sharing Computer Access Locally and Abroad (SCALA) Project in the city. Of this number, 328 were females, 171 were males, of whom eight were persons with disabilities (PWD), Ludie Salud A. Raras, City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) Officer, said. Likewise, 322 of them, 193 males, 129 females and a PWD, are already working, 96 have gone back to formal school while the rest
are seeking for jobs in other places, Raras, said. She also said most of the SCALA graduates have been hired as Encoders of the Community-Based Information Management System (CBMIS) of the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO). Others have been referred to the different government agencies, such as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Public Employment and Services Office (PESO) for job opportunities. Implemented by the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) of Canada and the
Local Government Unit (LGU), the SCALA Project is handled by the City Youth Information and Communication Technology Training Center for Out-of-School Youths (OSY) and Youth With Disabilities (YWD). Under the SCALA Project, an OSY-beneficiary undergoes a 10-month training program in computer operations that would prepare him/ her for job opportunities, not only for domestic employment, but also abroad. Meanwhile, she said the SCALA Project receives an annual budget of Php320,000 from the LGU for the operations of the training center. (RCA/PIA10-Misamis Occidental)
Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo O. Parojinog, Sr. being flanked by City councilors, Ocatavio Parojinog, Jr.(right) and Michael Tagal (left) expressed his support to the cadastral survey project, “category B” (political boundary survey) and thanked DENR Secretary Ramon JP Paje for bringing it to Ozamiz City. He also called on the local media not to give negative impressions on the purpose of this project. (m. paragas/rpao 10)
Mindanao Daily 5 NEWS northmin . westmin . caraga . davao Your Mindanao-wide Community Newspaper
IT IS UNFAIR TO BLAME US - STEAG CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - Some quarters have been assailed for its unfounded claim blaming Steag in the February 27 blackout. It is for this reason that the power company issued a statement to media and the public on March 14. STEAG State Power Inc. (SPI) President and CEO Dr. Bodo Goerlich, said he expressed surprise over reports that the massive blackout in Mindanao last 27 February 2014 was caused by or stemmed from Steag. Based on the sequence of events few minutes prior to the collapse of the Mindanao grid, SPI’s power generation output gradually reduced. While the gradual reduction will affect the electric supply condition, it is not expected however to cause a cascading failure and tripping of other power plants and the collapse of the entire grid. “The fluctuation of the load of power plants happens from time to time and the over-all effect is managed by adjusting either the supply or demand of the grid. We have in the past experienced such a situation and it did not cause a massive blackout and total collapse of the grid” Dr. Goerlich explained. Steag said it Units 1 and 2 are offline since February 27 after its turbine-generators sustained damage. SPI experts estimate that barring any complications,
Unit 1 is expected to be restored on 4 May 2014 and Unit 2 on 1 June 2014. Each unit has a net generating capacity of 105 MW. Dr, Goerlich said that SPI employees have been working round-theclock to restore the units back to the grid noting the volatile power supply condition of Mindanao. “We empathize with those that are affected by the Mindanao power supply shortfall and rest assured that we are doing our best to restore the units back to the grid and help alleviate the island’s precarious power supply condition” Dr. Goerlich said. “We are also carrying out all maintenance activities on other systems of the plant that were originally planned/scheduled for August 2014. Thus, there will no more outage in August 2014” he added. SPI is cooperating with the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Power Corporation (NPC), the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and other stakeholders of the Mindanao power industry, in addressing the situation. “While our priority now is the repair and restoration of the units, we are also working closely with the DOE and other industry stakeholders in finding means of improving quality and reliability of power supply services in Mindanao” Dr. Goerlich added.