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LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 16 -- The Commission on Election (Comelec) in Bikol assured the public that no failure of election will happen during the May polls as alternative measures are in place in case the automated computer machines fail.

Lawyer Zacarias Zaragoza, Comelec regional director, said he is confident that there would be no failure of election in Bikol.

IRIGA CITY (18 February) - ABOUT 400-HECTARES of grass-lands and some forested areas in the territorial area of six barangays in Mt. Asog were razed by spreading grass-fires about 2:00 P.M. of 17 February, the City Mayor's Office in this locality reported today.

It was not certain how the grass fires started, but the PAGASA warned over radio-broadcast that the increasing warm weather in Cam. Sur province brought by the El Niño dry-spell has brought risk to small fires commonly done by farmers to clear fields.

MANILA, Feb. 18 - A special task force organized by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to oversee the conduct of peaceful and credible elections in Masbate province was launched on Wednesday morning at the Masbate Coliseum, a Philippine Army official said.

LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 17  - An early election in Masbate province is very unlikely, this according to the Commission on Election (Comelec) Bikol regional office.

Comelec Bikol regional director Zacariaz Zaragoza said on Wednesday that holding an election in Masbate ahead of the May 10 general election will not materialize without legal basis.

"The law provides that general election is on May 10, this means that holding an election ahead is illegal unless the Philippine Congress will enact another law," Zaragoza said.

LUPI, Camarines Sur, Feb. 16 -- Some 31 residents of Barangay Colacling here benefited from the multi-livestock production training and dispersal program of the Program Management Office (PMO) of the Bicol River Basin and Watershed Management Project (BRBWMP) recently.

Assistant Secretary Tomasito B. Monzon, BRBWMP program director and concurrently the presidential Assistant for Bicol, said that initially some 83 heads of piglets, goats and chicken were distributed to poor villagers in partnership with the Barangay Council of Colacling led by its chairwoman, Josephine Fandino.

LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 16 -- Operatives of Task Force Masbate (TFM) on Sunday collared a village chief with a cache of high powered assault rifles at his residence in Placer town in Masbate, a police official said to PNA, Tuesday.

Operatives of TFM arrested Antonio Deocampo, village chief of Barangay Daraga, Placer, Masbate.

The arrest of the suspect brings to four elected local officials in Masbate nabbed for violating the Commission on Election (Comelec) gun ban at the onset of the May polls.

Jaypee S. Sayson, a BS Architecture student of the University of Northeastern Philippines (UNEP) bagged the top prize in Literary Graphics, English category during the recently concluded 9^th Luzonwide Higher Education Press Conference held from February 8-10 at Lingayen, Pangasinan.

VIRAC, Catanduanes, Feb. 17-- Intel Philippines, through the Adopt-A-School program of the Department of Education (DepEd), has donated 20 units of Classmate notebook computers to Virac Pilot Elementary School (VPES) here, the biggest public elementary school in the province.

Classmate is a portable, internet-ready and user-friendly information technology (IT) notebook for children; it comes with Microsoft Office, a seven-inch screen and two-gigabyte flash memory.

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.

An piniling tema kan satuyang Santo Papa ngonyan na Cuaresma iyo an tema nin "Hustisya". Ini gikan sa inspirasyon kan Surat ni San Pablo sa mga Taga-Roma:  "An Kasuripotan nin  Mahal na Dios ipinahiling huli kan pagtubod ki Jesu Cristo"(Rom. 3: 21-22)

Ano an boot sabihin kan hustisya?

While Naga City Councilor John Bongat is entirely entitled to his opinion regarding the absence of any "controversy" between the Naga City government and the local church regarding the manner in which the Peñafrancia Fiesta has been and is to be celebrated, we however disagree with his nonchalant dismissal.

It is „half-time" in Germany. The academic year has reached Carnival and Ash-Wednesday, the time where German students receive their reports on their performance so far. All exams are written, all grades are completed, all documents are submitted and now they all hold in hands the report about how the first half of the year went for them. We all pause for a number of days and breathe.

"ITO ANG PANATA KO: TAPUSIN ANG KAHIRAPAN." (This is my avowed mission: to end poverty.)"

To this Manny Villar's opponents quickly raise alarums given his multi-million peso advertising campaign vis-à-vis the C-5 controversy: all that money would be recovered through presidential influence, if not outright corruption. Hence, the joke now about "C-5 at Taga" as against his "Sipag at Tiyaga."

The power of the media is immense and vast, that is has also the capacity to take away from us proper sensibilities. This is the danger of public perception. When Joseph Estrada was ousted by the so-called second EDSA People Power, Joseph Spaeth of Time magazine predicted that ousting a leader would be a vice in the Philippines. Now it is indeed a vice, and the media is greatly involved in its success.

It is with gratitude to God that the movie-project is finally set to start shooting this coming March 3, 2010.  The movie is written and directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya, a multi-awarded film maker and director.  Lead roles will be played by Judy Ann Santos, Ryan Agoncillo, Marvin Agustin, Christopher de Leon, Vivian Velez, and a boy-a newcomer in the industry-

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.