Tagbilaran City Bohol Philippines

Putting a premium on people rather than on projects still highlights city Mayor Dan Lim's plan for the city in his last three years. 
Lim, who spoke before a huge crowd during his inauguration said "obviously, we will have more of the cornerstone programs that form the nucleus of our development thrust. More than ever, we put premium on people over projects.

He stressed that people should be the beneficiaries of all efforts, not mere collatilla to any grandstand project.

Considering however the difficult times engulfing the country, he argued that putting up health and education subsidies would be the city's provision when people are forced to prioritize food clothing and shelter.

Pioneering multiple intelligence for pre-school children and now hoping to adopt it in elementary education, Lim said Tagbilaran would continue implementing the novel teaching approach which redefines the way people understand intelligence.

Since school year 2005-2006, we have reached 3,540 children, he said, hinting that the program would still mold city preschool mindsets in the next three more years at least.

Convinced that the program works even if "its too early to see the results", he presented Philippine Jaycees awardee in 2009 for implementing the novel approach to stress his point.

He also said the city follows on its schoolchildren assistance program for elementary school pupils, one it has done in its seventh year.

The City school children assistance program gives free uniforms and school supplies to elementary kids in an effort to help parents send their kids to schools.

"A total of 57,012 pupils have availed of our freebies. Hopefully, from here on, the succeeding administrations will see to it that every public elementary school pupil in the city will be a beneficiary of this program," the mayor who will have used up his full term said.

Admitting the city's limited resources, he promised to continue giving tuition fee subsidy of P5,000.00 per semester to college scholars.

This subsidy program is available for students whose gross family income is not more than P120,000.00 annually.

Ubay Bohol Sea Port

Forty-eight hours away from walking out of the palace, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo still had her hands full.

In a brief visit to Bohol after leap-frogging from Manila to Ilo-ilo and then to Ubay, Bohol, the working president still needs to let people know that the government is not just coasting to a stop until the next administration picks up the speed. 

With time running short and still instilling the government's dream for Bohol, PGMA used two persons' help.

Instead of speaking the benefits of the rehabilitated Ubay Roll-On Roll Off (RORO) Port in Bohol's northeastern side, a construction worker and a businessman did it for her.

William Tadle, a heavy equipment operator of the construction company rehabilitating the P364M port said he had fed his family and found the work he needed to get through life decently.

Ubay port construction phase 1 was done when the country suffered from fiscal scrimp brought about by collapsing world economies in early 2009. 

The project, contributed immensely to the government's comprehensive livelihood and emergency employment program by allowing local employment, said Ubay town information Officer Virginia Dupa. 

Tadle and many other workers constructed the port back up area, reinforced concrete pier, roll on roll off ramp, dredging and disposal, port mooring and fendering systems installation and port lighting facilities installation.

In fact, even after phase I, Tadle was still hired to lend heavy equipment support for the construction of additional back up area and thus make a 1.7 hectares more of port working area, according to Marra Builders, the winning bidder for the mega infrastructure project.

On the other hand, Ruben Hamili, a Cebu based agri food supplier said the port helped in getting their hog-lines and poultry feeds supply in time to their outlets in Bohol.

Then, the shipment of stocks from Cebu to their outlets in Bohol takes about four to five days, now its two days or even overnight, assuring their customers of the freshest products, he said in Cebuano in front of the President and some crowd of 3,000.

With the construction of a wider back-up cargo storage areas, businessmen like Ruben Hamili now have the option to transport goods right at their customers doorsteps or have them stocked at the port storage areas to cut on transport costs, says a project media briefer. 

The Philippine Ports Authority funds Ubay Port, a component of the country's Strong Republic Nautical Highways and makes travel by goods and people across the islands fast and affordable while allowing the growth of local tourism.

Ubay Port serves RoRo vessels plying the Ubay-Hilongos, Ubay-Maasin and Ubay-Bato routes, while it opens the possibility of Ubay-Dinagat, Ubay-Nasipit and Ubay-Baybay.

The President, who was not expected to speak in Ubay engagement, gamely took the microphone and asked the two guys to tell the people their stories. 

Going out of the palace on Wednesday bearing a stain of criticism for corruption, records would show that the Arroyo Administration has built more that two pervious administrations combined, states Ganito Tayo Noon material printed in major national dailies late last year.