News: New Dinagat province installs first police director

The first provincial police director here was installed on Monday in this newly created Pacific Ocean-facing Dinagat Province in Northeastern Mindanao (Caraga region).

The installation was witnessed by the interim provincial officials, seven municipal chief executives, Sangguniang Bayan (SB) members and other local officials led by Rep. Glenda Ecleo.

Chief Supt. Antonio D. Nanas, regional director of Northeastern Mindanao Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13), personally installed Senior Supt. Leonardo Manalo as officer-in-charge of Dinagat Provincial Police Office (DPPO).

The provincial command is located at the heart of San Jose, the capital town of this new province. Read more...

News: Mining industry to earn $2B this year, $10B a year by 2012

East Coast Mineral Resources Co. Inc. to be operated by Cagdianao Mining Corp., one for nickel, cobalt, chromite and iron development in Loreto, Dinagat Island, and another project involving the same minerals in Libjo, Dinagat Island.

Moves like those lately done by DENR are intended to persuade the Filipinos to invest in mining and awaken it from its decade-long slump. Industry players, especially the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CMP), have consistently reaffirmed its partnership with the government. Romualdez had once said that “mining done right can give the Philippine economy a much-needed boost, while providing the Filipino people tangible benefits through job generation and the trickle down effect of mining-related activities, like the construction of roads, schools and health centers at mining communities.” Read more...

More Motoracing Photos

Someone is asking me..so where is the rest of the photos? I just said we were just waiting for the details. It’s just so frustrating Libjo is not that huge place that everyone knows everyone and here comes an event and nobody knows anything. No one knows who’s in the game. And not even the winner. All we know we have one entry from Libjo and that is Lordan Llamera Jr. in the beginner’s category. The rests are from Davao City, Surigao and some from Capital San Jose. Hint... click on the photos and look closely. You will notice people are watching the race on top of the roof and on trees. (Photos courtesy of Melody Llamera.)

Libjo Motocross Competition 2007

Where are all the people go? It’s fiesta day and nobody is in town. What happened here?
This is what happens when hosting a one of a kind event. Some sort of magnet, attraction gathers people to the place and nobody is left in the house to celebrate fiesta (I mean to prepare food and entertain guests.) Racetrack is located kilometer away from the downtown. So when the game started most of the people is in the race watching.

I talk about this before this is Habal-habal country. Kids even ladies knows how to ride a motorbike. That brings excitement to everyone if event like this happens.

The only thing is … Muthja is so busy she missed to get the names of the riders and who win the competition. (Photo by Melody Llamera)

Libjo Fiesta Bunting Contest 2007

Photos from different Purok entry in bunting competition.

Mayors Message for the Town Fiesta Celebration

Republic of the Philippines/Province of Dinagat Islands/Municipality of Libjo/OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
Greetings to the Libjoanon, guests & visitors! Today mark the 109th anniversary of our Independence and out town fiesta celebration. This symbolic occasion is significant to every Filipino and every Libjoanon. No less the president, Her excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo challenge our local leaders to uphold the nation to become a strong republic. We can contribute to the pursuit of this national goal by making sustained development in our countryside. We have just finished the electoral process peaceful and orderly. Now, we move on to deliver quality basic services to our people. In closing, may I extend my thanks to those who endlessly support, cooperate, give time and money to make this affair a success. To the guests and visitors, welcome to the beautiful town of Libjo and may sweet memories linger.

LAMBERTO T. LLAMERA, JR./ Municipal Mayor

Libjo Annual Fiesta Celebration Program

Libjo, Dinagat Islands Theme: "Sama-sama tayo tungo sa pag asenso" 109th Independence Day and Town Fiesta Celebrations

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES

Activites -June 11
Pentakasi - Libjo Cockpit Arena whole day morning

Activities June 12
Arrival
Flag Raising - Municipal Park ....... 8:30AM
Bunting Contest/Inspection - ATT (Pob.) ....... 9:00AM
Basketball Tournament - CNavarro Gym ....... 9:00AM
Flat Track Motorace - Libjo Race Track, Guinumbayan ....... 9:30AM
Parade - ATT ....... 1:00 PM
Independence Program LALS Gym ....... 2:00PM
ABC Night LALS Gym ....... 6:00PM

Activities June 13
Diana ...........4:00AM
Pealing of Church Bells ....... 6:00AM
Motocross Racing Libjo Race Track,Guinumbayan ....... 8:30AM
Basketball Tournament CNavarro Gym ....... 10:00AM
LGU Officials & Employees Night LALS Gym ....... 6:00PM

Activities June 14
Baranggay (Pob.) Night CNavarro Gym ....... 6:00PM

News: Botika ng Barangay outlets 50 percent Cheaper

SURIGAO DEL NORTE (June 8) -- The Provincial Health Team (PHT) here bared recently sixty seven (67) Botika ng Barangays (BnB) installed in the municipalities of Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands.

PHT Prov’l Team Leader Dr. Adriano Suba-an said all these Botikas are selling selected medicines at cheaper prices. He added that Surigaonons can now avail of safe, effective and quality medicines in their locality following the mandate of President Arroyo in providing low cost medicines for the people.

Some of the medicines and vitamins currently sold at the BnBs include amoxicillin, cotrimoxasole, paracetamol, mefenamic, loperamide, ketoconazole, ascorbic acid and multivitamins. Quality medicines sold at BnBs are 50 percent cheaper than those being sold by commercial drug stores. Read More ... (PIA-Surigao del Norte)

Inviting All Bikers to the New Libjo Race Track

In celebration of the Town Annual Fiesta this coming June 12 and 13, 2007 Libjo presents a new kind of sports competition - Libjo's First Motocross.

June 12 - Flat Track Scooter type competition
June 13 - Motocross Competition

Category is open for beginners, novice and expert. And prices includes a trophy and up to 30 thousand cash. This event will be held in the newly constructed Libjo Race Track.

For more information email us muthja@yahoo.com . Come join and be here.

Congratulaltions Reinhart Dan Reyes!

Congratulations to REINHART DAN M. REYES for passing the CPA Board Exam!!! Check Manila Bulletin for the list http://www.mb.com.ph/BDPR2007053094946.html of the new CPA board passers. If you could recall Reinhart is also the regional champion for CARAGA 2002 PSQ an annual contest designed to test first-year college students’ knowledge of statistics.

B.S. Accountancy
St. Paul University System
San Nicolas Campus, Surigao City
High School Graduate of Albor National High School
Albor, Libjo, Dinagat Island

Libjo's Watermelon Production

Watermelon is now one of the major produce in Libjo. Summer is harvest time for watermelon. It is now being transported in huge numbers, in hundreds of tons. If you could imagine before a stock file of Chromite, that is how huge is the file for watermelon harvested in Libjo. It is now becoming the preferred plant after coconut. Appears to be like Coco Copra trade in the old days.

Watermelon is both a fruit and a vegetable and plant of a vine-like (climber and trailer) herb originally from southern Africa and one of the most common type of melon.

Fresh watermelon may be eaten in a variety of ways and is also often used to flavor summer drinks and smoothies. A one-cup serving of watermelon will provide around 48 calories. Watermelon is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, with one serving containing 14.59 mg of vitamin C and 556.32 IU of vitamin A. Watermelon also provides significant amounts of vitamin B6 and vitamin B1, as well as the minerals potassium and magnesium. Pink watermelon is also a source of the potent carotenoid antioxidant, lycopene.

Join our team in LibjoLIVE!

I am pleased to announce our new addition to LibjoLIVE! Lot Lisondra. He’s also from Dinagat and now presently working in Riyadh, KSA. He went to elementary in Dinagat, high school in St. Paul in Surigao, finished college in University of Cebu, and went to graduate school in University of the Philippines. His actual field of work is Accounting but he’s into programming and web development. For you Lot, Mabuhay!

And you too, if you enjoy creating articles about Dinagat Island either you are from here or just love to be part of the team, just let us know by sending us email to muthja@yahoo.com. Help us make LibjoLIVE a truly an online community for all of us. Or join our effort to put Dinagat into the map, promote Dinagat Island as a destination not just for tourist but also for business. Hopefully with this shot we can create more jobs and improve lives of our fellow kababayans. Thank you.

Global Warming in Dinagat Island

Growing population and advancement of technology always has effect on environment and news is there to let us know. If you could remember not too long ago we have the Y2K experience. The computer bug result of the transition of the year from two digits ‘99’ to four digits ‘2000’. News made us aware of what will happen if time will go backward instead of going forward. We were told to make sure our computers comply with the requirements. Companies updated software; firmware and all time related programs and we prepare extra food in our shelves. That was eight years ago. But before that we also heard of Acid rain. As pollution get worse, rain will fall in a form of acid. Rain is undrinkable. Then, holes in the ozone layer that cause cancer. All related to population and industrialization. And what’s the latest? Global Warming.

Let me tell you a story. According to Popoy Dinagat Island is just floating and is carried by an old bearded man. (Gipas-an lang daw ning Dinagat). As this man is getting old he’s getting tired. There comes a time when Dinagat will sink to the bottom. I told my brother about the floating tale, he said it is really true. Really? Yes, since all land is just floating in melting magma. Maybe not.

One time I watch a show in PBS (public television) about Tuvalu. Remember the domain name dot TV? It is actually taken from the nation of Tuvalu not from the word ‘Television’. In the show some New Zealand residents visited their home land Tuvalu to see the Island one last time before it will sink. They believe if carbon emission will not be controlled this land will disappear in the future. This island in the pacific found this pot of gold from the registration of the top Internet domain name dotTV. They use part of this assets supporting United Nation fight against Global Warming.

Global warming will cause seawater to rise. And water rising is cause of the melting of polar ice and the warming of the temperature. Now back to Dinagat, unlike Tuvalu Dinagat has mountains. But except San Jose most of our towns is located next to the shoreline. Will this affect us too? Will this soon become like Y2K and acid rain an issue from the past? What if the old bearded man really gets tired? What will we do?

News: Korean Loses Mayoral Bid

South Korean Sangkil Ham Park, who ran for mayor in Basilisa town in Dinagat Islands province, lost to re-electionist Mayor Juan Digal Jr.

Park was frustrated in his dream to make a little difference in the lives of more than 20,000 residents of the island town of Basilisa, which can be reached by a one-hour boat ride from Surigao City.

The Basilisa board of canvassers proclaimed Digal and his running mate re-electionist Vice-Mayor Cesar Taguctoc Borja as winners Sunday. Read more ..

News: Vote Commerce - Buying and Selling

Why go out and buy votes when voters themselves come knocking on the candidates’ doors to sell them?

“It was vote-selling and vote-buying combined and we want to correct the media and NAMFREL reports that it was vote-buying only when it was, in fact, vote-selling to the hilt,” they said.

In Dinagat Island, buying was allegedly pegged at P200 to P500.

“If we will not do it, others will do it for their benefit and look what happened to local bets who did not resort to vote-buying and selling, even if they are qualified and dedicated, they all lost,” the bets justified.

“Everything now has its price tag,” Plaza said. Read More..

Working Abroad with Multi-Cultural Colleagues...

It's always been a dream of most if not all Filipinos to travel anywhere around the world, be it for vacation, immigrant or be an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).

There comes a time in all our lives where we needed changes or our financial status and for a lot of people, that change is moving to another country to work and counted as one of the many Filipinos whom our countrymen called "Modern Day Heroes".
Working abroad isn't that easy specially for the first-timer like me where adjustments be part of your struggle in first few weeks. I've learned to be firm so as to fight homesickness for all my love ones left behind in our country, not to mention the close ties I had with my family while am still there in our homeland, Philippines.

One major adjustment that one needed also to consider in working abroad is the flexibility of one's personality specially in dealing with your colleagues. Taking my case, am currently working in an Accounting & Finance Dept. of one of the Group of Companies here in Riyadh, KSA and in our department alone, we are compose of different nationalities (Bangladeshi, Indian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Pakistani, Sudanese & Saudi Nationals) and working with all those races entails self-confidence and competence so as to proved to them that Filipinos indeed are "world-class professionals". From them, we are bound to encounter interesting characters and lifestyles.

Whether we set off to work abroad with the help of mediation organization or well-established recruitment agencies or with the intention of living by our wits, still gradually we will learn the essence of knowing and considering the multi-cultural differences of different people and inevitably realized that there will be some surprises along the way. Masalama! (Arabic term for good bye).

Time to Reconcile and Move-on

I really enjoyed the part of the election when we have a chance to go to the barangays and met some of the local people, handshakes, welcomes, jingles and most of all riding my motorbike with my girlfriend :-).

Indeed Libjo has a peaceful election. With about 70 percent turnout from more than 10 thousand voters is a good figure.

But results in my mind are not just simple as looking at the numbers. There is something more. Beyond the figures I can tell lots of things we can relate. It reminds me of my favorite download website. Where I can sort files by size, highest user ratings, price (if for sale), date added, A to Z (in alpha) and by popularity. In the same manner I can also sort our election result in; how much friends did I make during the campaign and foes? How much money did I spend or otherwise? Did I make people happy during the campaign? Did I enjoy it myself? How many votes did I get? Cause I could be popular and nobody remembers me in the ballot because I have no party. And that is what is party is all about, shared resources and shared campaign. That includes distribution of sample ballots.

A different candidate has different tactics and styles. Each has its own way of doing “tili-tili” or vote buying; each has its own “plataporma” or plan. Some monopolizes transportation “habal-habal” in there advantage, some played Robinhood to get more votes and some just asked voters “singit lang” insert their names in the ballot.

Sad to say I have two high school teachers that were not included in the magic 8. One who taught me how to build poultry and one who once told me after I answer his geometry question, "there many ways to kill the dog, but this time the dog will kill you." Not to add insult to injury but this people I'm telling about helped mold me of what I am today. And just wished there could be 10 open positions to fill.

"Ug na hulog ang laing tabil ning atong sugilanon" in just plain english - end of the story. Congratulations to all who won the election and its time to reconcile and move-on for the brighter future.

Election 2007 Result Update

Official Result from Board of Canvassers for Libjo, Tubajon and Loreto. We still have no data from Basilisa, Cagdianao, Dinagat and San Jose at this point.
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Libjo Result -
Gov. Jade E. Villaroman-5154
Vice.Gov- Elvis Dela Merced-4969

Board Members:
Merlinda Lagroma-3550
Gracelyn Ecleo- 3249
Domingo Torotoro-3736
Rolizabeth T. Ladaga - 3116
Ukem Ecleo - 3540
Marmito Lutgardes - 2211
Stalin Tan -2061

Mayor: Lamberto Llamera-6360

Vice Mayor:
Romy Villarosa-3528
Ali Cabajes - 3207

Councilors:
1. Roger Magpatoc - 5576
2. Frank Areglo- 4263
3. Jack Llamera- 3714
4. Junior Dacles - 3540
5. Lourdes Creencia-3294
6. Ebong Cabajes- 3230
7. Jimmy Taasan-2664
8. Cuay Simbajon-2629

Dodo Edera - 2537
Aurora Pertos - 1819
Liezl dela Cruz - 1720
Amy Baynosa-2563
Boy Dellera-2550
Kawit Conales - 2405
Luz Bua - 2531
Nick Oriat - 1592
Pedring Malbacias- 2171

==========================================================
Tubajon Result -
Mayor: Ronald Luib
Vice Mayor: Romeo Vargas

Councilors:
Maura Lasco
Jorvie Agbo
Charlemagne Vargas
Benjie Manto
Sandy Tan
Glenn Anover
Boilito Torotoro
Nacencia Llamera

==========================================================
Loreto Result -
Mayor: Doandre Bill Ladaga
Vice Mayor: Dario Pelismino

Councilors:
Absalon Colandog
Reynaldo Elan
Pretsy Semorlan
Ali Adlawan
Alfonso Gajol
Jacint Gulles
Ricardo Aspirin
Andreson T. Ladaga

News: Aide of mayoral bet in Dinagat Is. killed

BUTUAN CITY - A supporter of Lakas mayoral bet Doandre Bill Ladaga was killed while another was seriously wounded in a shooting incident in San Juan village, Loreto town, Dinagat Islands, Thursday evening.

Police identified the fatality as Mansueto Cuadra, a municipal employee and a resident in the area. His neighbor Francisco Gahol sustained gunshot wounds on his body.

Initial reports showed that at 9:45 p.m. Thursday, unidentified men armed with .45 caliber pistols opened fire at them.

The attackers then fled toward the municipality of Tubajon aboard a blue XRM Honda motorcycle allegedly driven by certain Climaco Sio, alias Entong, supporter of another mayoral candidate James Gupana. Read more.

News: Politicians Extend Term, Perks with New Turfs

Last December, most of Surigao del Norte voters approved the creation of Dinagat Island into a province. Although only 45 percent of the registered voters voted--with the “yes" votes winning by a mere 6,000 margin--the results practically handed the island to the Ecleos on a silver platter.

The Ecleos have established a fiefdom in the island since the 1960s through Ruben Ecleo Sr., the family’s patriarch and mayor of Dinagat town for 24 years until his death in 1987.

Twenty years after his death, the clan is still thriving. More so after the island became a province. Read more