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"Yellow" fever hit thousands of Bikolanos on Tuesday as yellow ribbons lined roads and highways in Camarines Sur as the campaign period for national positions officially started.

Clad in yellow shirts and donning streamers on their vehicles, hundreds of presidential aspirant Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's local supporters embarked on a day-long motorcade across the province's towns, ending in a political rally at Naga City's Plaza Quezon.

NAGA CITY, Feb. 10 - Three Philippine Army soldiers in Bikol were recipients of the Globe Telecommunications education grants in a recently held Philippine Army 9th Infantry Division Service Awards ceremonies held at Camp Elias Angeles, Pili, Camarines Sur.

The awardees were First Lieutenant Wilbert Basquiñas, Private First Class Rene Belga, and CAFGU Active Auxiliary Mark Apollo Perias of the 9th Infantry Division.

Each received P20,000 education grant from Globe to support the education of their dependents.

Tito Genova Valiente, a Bikolano public anthropologist and columnist of Vox Bikol, is one of the three speakers invited to deliver the keynote address in the 2^nd National Art Studies Conference on Feb. 18-19, in the Tambunting Hall of the National Museum. The other two speakers are Prof. Eufracio Abaya of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and Prof. Judy Freya Sibayan of the De La Salle University.

LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 12 -- The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) warned climbers, tourists and guides against entering the six-kilometer radius permanent danger zone of Mayon Volcano as it still poses danger under alert level two.

NABUA, CAM. SUR (9 February) - THE CHIEF OF POLICE in this Rinconada town has been under fire from reporters, after reportedly excluding the name of the town Mayor of Bato in an apprehension report on the conduct of gun ban checkpoint in San Roque, Nabua, the other day.

Nabua Police Chief Insp. Roderic Campo was unclear in a report to the Cam. Sur Provincial Police Office on the apprehension of three individuals, two of which were identified as Gilbert Osea, a former policeman, and Marlon Nieva the driver of the Starex van reportedly owned by Bato Mayor Janette Bernaldez.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Bikol (KMP-Bikol) and the human rights group KARAPATAN-Bikol condemned the illegal arrest and detention of the 43 health workers in Morong, Rizal last Saturday. The health workers were in a Luzon-wide health training of the Council for Health and Development (CHD) and the Community Medicine Development Foundation (CMDF).

LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 11 -- The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said civil and electrical works will start for the rehabilitation of the Legazpi Airport runway lights which was destroyed by Super Typhoon Reming in 2006.

CAAP has released some P12 million funding to finance the rehabilitation works with the installation of runway lights at 2.2 kilometers stretch of the Legazpi airport runway.

Daet, Camarines Norte (12 February) -- The province of Camarines Norte notched the overall championships in the Palarong Bikol 2010 held here last week.

After the 7-days sports and literary competitions, Camarines Norte has obtained 519 points, followed by Camarines Sur with 510.5 points claiming first runner-up, second runner-up Naga City, 244; third runner-up Legazpi City, 236.66; fourth runner-up Albay, 236; fifth runner-up Masbate, 207; and sixth runner-up Catanduanes gaining 192 points.

While Iriga City is rejoicing for the successful holding of the annual Tinagba Festival, dubbed as one of the hottest celebration in the region, the University of Northeastern Philippines (UNEP) also has reasons to celebrate with the new list of their graduates  now turned registered nurses, adding up to the rooster of health professionals in the country.

LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 10  - Land Transportation Office (LTO) Bicol regional director Ramon Roco is pushing for the inclusion of driving and traffic lessons in the curriculum specifically in elementary level.

"This is in order for our children to learn about the right traffic rules and policy at the early stage," director Roco said.

He explained that traffic accident in the country continues to occur due to undisciplined drivers despite training and orientation given by the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

The LGU Guarantee Corporation recently granted Philippine Veterans Bank a P1.0 Billion Automatic Guarantee Line (AGL) for Qualified Local Government Unit Debt Instruments. The AGL will be used initially by PVB in its recently arranged LGU bond and loan facilities to attract prospective co-funders.  LGUGC and PVB are working further to enhance its cooperation and partnership in order to strengthen the credit market for the LGUs. 

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) registered strong business volume and revenue growth in 2009.  Full year unaudited income rose to P8.5 billion, 33% higher than 2008 and equivalent to a 13% Return on Equity and 1.3% Return on Assets.  Correspondingly, net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was 7% better than 2008.

The endeavor of the Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation to introduce and establish another form of gambling through betting stations of its "virtual numbers game" in the province of Camarines Sur and in the City of Naga had been reported to have met with little success so far.

Mrs. B is Mrs. Edita Tronqued Burgos. Mrs. Burgos is the mother of Jonas Burgos. An activist, Jonas Burgos was abducted on April 2007 and up to now there is no trace of him at all. In Ever Gotesco, where the abduction took place, a guard served as the only witness. The guard saw how five men and a woman dragged him out of the mall as public as our own poverty.

PART 2 of 5. This is a five-part lecture delivered on 28 January 2010 on the occasion of the Ateneo de Naga University's Philosophy Week: Philosophy and Philippine Politics.

In the discussion of media corruption, there are two words necessitating an etymological and contextual scrutinies-first, the term media, and the second, corruption. Such looking up of the origins of these two apellations may give us a deconstructed and definitive clarity of what the fusion of the two, media and corruption, or media corruption, is all about.

"KUNG WALANG CORRUPT, WALANG MAHIRAP." (If no one is corrupt, no one would be poor.") This is the central theme of Noynoy's presidential bid to be the opposite of GMA and her administration which has been mired in corruption scandals. It also appears to be a dig at Manny Villar's rising star, given the allegations of corruption or at least impropriety as to the C5 extension project.

MANILA - Even when the official campaign period for the position of president was yet to begin last February 9, one could already feel the campaign heating up. The people are already barraged with television ads disguised as infomercials and the proliferation of posters - minus the "vote for..." of course, lest the candidate be charged with electioneering.