Pili, Camarines Sur (13 January) -- Despite the adverse effects brought about by climate change and global economic crisis the Department of Agriculture in Bikol managed to sustain the growth of the rice sector in the region in 2009 through timely interventions of the Department of Agriculture and its attached agencies and active support of some dynamic local executives who put their stake in the sector and through sheer determination and industry of the Bikolano farmers.

Domestic visitors to Camarines Sur rose by a hefty 163 percent and foreign arrival grew by 29 percent for overall increment of 124.6 percent to sustain its stature among the most visited destinations in the Philippines as of the end of the third quarter of 2009.

Legazpi City (11 January) -- The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Albay will train its staff and teachers who will serve as board of election inspectors (BEI) for May 2010 elections, on the use of the precinct count optical scan machine (PCOS) two weeks from now.

MANILA, Jan. 15, 2010-The head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has called for a second mass collection for Haitian relief efforts. The decision was reached Friday night by CBCP President Bishop Nereo Odchimar after a consultation with members of the CBCP Permanent Council.

"Mayon, the volcano that has destroyed the coast town of Libog, and several neighboring villages in the Philippines, has aroused itself after a slumber of twenty-eight years. The eruption has not come as a surprise to students of volcanoes, because although quiescent, it was known to be active. During the nineteenth century 26 eruptions occurred, with especially violent ones in 1814 and 1897. The Philippines boast a dozen volcanoes that are classified as active, but eruptions of most of them are rare. Mayon, and its neighbor, Taal, both of which are in South Luzon, are the most energetic of the lot, though no severe eruption of Taal has happened since 1754."

FACEBOOK HAS BEEN EATING UP many people's schedules lately. Unlike Friendster which had gone boring and stale as an old loaf of bread, Facebook or FB has gotten people's attention including the bosses and the senior citizens in such large scale that I think every computer in the world has in its cache remnants of logging in to and out of FB. In my experience, this didn't spare the Filipino literary writers. The list of popular Filipino writers in my page includes national artists-Bien Lumbera maintains an FB account! Jimmy Abad, Jing Hidalgo, Jun Balde, Marne Kilates, among the seniors; and a hundred or more of younger writers.

Now that the New Year is well underway, it is best we also start defining our action agenda. Our over-arching concern this year, of course, is environment. Hence, we may consider our own muddy experience with Ondoy and other climate change catastrophes across our land vis-à-vis the annual World Development Report 2010 of the World Bank.

In December 2009 the Act on Economic Growth Acceleration passed the German Parliament. This act is a response to the world economic crisis and the intention is to reduce taxes so that people keep more money to spend on consuming. This - so the idea - should well promote the re-growth of German economy. Tax income deficiencies due to this act however are said to be at 4.63 billion Euros for the Federal Government, 2.28 billion for the German countries and yet 1.57 billion for the communities.

MANILA - Magtatapos na ang ika-sampung taon pagkapresidente ni Gloria Arroyo, at matatag ang kanyang kulturang kontribusyon. Kakaiba ang mga ito sa karanasan ng mga kamakailang presidente ng bansa. Ito ang pinakamasahol na kulturang kontribusyon ng anumang presidente sa kagyat na kasaysayan ng bansa. Lantaran naman ang gamit ng fasismo ng anumang rehimen pero ang kay Arroyo ang naghasik ng pinakabangkaroteng kulturang tahasang ginamit para sa politikal at ekonomiyang ganansya.

At the beginning of the new year, of Caceres issued a pastoral letter entitled "Hope and Wait with Perseverance" which we published in this paper. The Archbishop's letter intends to be a pastor's guide to our local communities as a preparation for the historic and critical 2010 Automated National and Local Elections.