4 host bets shines at kayak festival
BY: FRED C. FUERTES

MARIBOJOC – The PSC conducted 1st Maribojoc intensive Sports Skills Enhancement Clinic (ISSEC) held here last May 15-18, this year is gaining positive results.

Four neophyte contestants, including a PNP officer, made it to the championship Saturday last week beating their more experienced opponents in the Mini Adventure Relay. The watersports tilt was one of the highlights of the 2nd Kayak Festival and the 1st Dragon Boat Racing contest held at the Abatan River.

The four adventurous bannering Team Gakajo, pocketed the top prize money amounting to P3,000 at the expense of their rivals- Team Bangan, Team Bora, Team Virgin and the PROCESS-Bohol team.

Pantalan-born Rene Boy Dumandan initially paved way to victory when he out-swam his opponents braving the fast current of the once treacherous river. Reaching way ahead his rivals the mainland on the other side of the river, Dumandan handed the baton to PO1 Maximino Macua who dashed thru the Abatan Bridge going back to the starting point where the first paddler – Jerome Iyas was waiting. The last kayaker, Heracleo Eleana Jr. who is also a seasoned fisher like Iyas and Dumandan completed the race way ahead of their closest rival – Team Bangan which included Provincial Board Member Ae Damalerio.

The Pantalan fishers dominated anew the individual kayak race. They handily romped away the first; second and third prizes under this event. The top paddlers and their respective wins were: Justice Alcala – P1,500; Jerome Iyas – P1,000; and Heracleo Eleana Jr. – P500.

Finally, in the Dragon Boat Racing the Maribojoc Paddlers headed by fishermen Felix “Loloy” Dumandan and DepEd Mentor/Maribojoc Sports coordinator Mike Turco outpaddled townmate team B to clinch the top prize of P2,000. The extreme Guys, a selection of the participating out-of-town kayakers, landed in the third finish.

Earlier after the opening rites, Bagani Evasco, illustrious son of Mayor Leoncio Evasco Jr., supported by Maribojoc PESO Officer James Mabilin, delivered a Power Point presentation of the mechanics of the Dragon Beat Sports.

Mike Turco and Loloy Dumandan, on the other hand, furnished the practical application of the theories dished out by Evasco and Mabilin. The two sports leaders did an actual demonstration of dragon boat saddling exercise to the members of the Divine Word Outdoor Club.

In the opening program that preceded the contest proper, Mayor Evasco welcomed the participants and guests, while Vice Mayor Gabino Redulla, the vice chair of the Abatan River Development Management Council (ARDMC) declared the festival opened.

Board member Alfonso Damalerio II, president of the Bohol Sandugo Jaycees, guested the opening salvo. He also pinchhitted House committee on Tourism chain Cong. Edgar Chatto who had an earlier  commitment at Talibon to grace Apostolic Nuncio Bernardito Auza’s thanksgiving mass.

The da-long water festival was sponsored by the Bohol Sandugo Jaycees and the Abatan River Development Management Council, in coordination with the local government unit of this coastal, historical town.

Chatto, Evasco, Liga move for brgy leaders’ scholarship
By FRED C. FUERTES

MARIBOJOC- First District Representative Edgar Chatto reiterated Wednesday his concern for educatin during the special meeting of the Liga ng mga Barangay here with key officials of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and Central Visayas State College of Agriculture, Fishery and Technology (CVSCAFT).

With Chatto were his chief of staff, Isabelito Tongco and his political affairs officer, Anthony Damalerio. Education is one of Chatto’s program thrusts where LIFE-HELPS stand for Livelihoods, Infrastructure Food, Education Health, Environment, Legislation, and Public Service.

Prior to the meeting, Mayor Leoncio Evasco Jr. delivered the State-of-Government Address (SOGA) before a jam-packed audience at the Maribojoc Cultural and Sports Center here.

Chatto’s latest move was on House Resolution 6, seeking an investigation in aid of legislation by the Joint Committees on Higher Education and Technical Education, Local Government and Appropriations on the implementation of Section 393, Paragraph 4 of the Local Government Code of 1991 which provides for the study grant program for barangay officials and their legitimate dependents.

CHED earlier issued an order giving CVSCAFT and other tertiary schools, the power to regulate the educational privileges long enjoyed by the barangay councilors and their siblings, including Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairpersons nationwide. The controversial CHED directive earned the ire of the leaders of about 42.000 barangays in the whole country.

True to his pro-people stance, Mayor Evasco recently sent a strongly-worded letter to Boholano CHED boss Romulo Neri, questioning the legality of the CHED head to alleviate the sad plight of the rural leaders.

The Maribojoc ABC followed suit by attaching to the EVASCO appeal, attaching to the EVASCO appeal, a resolution on the same subject. In the same forum, Chatto bared the palliative Congressional Barangay Scholarship Program which mandates the granting of P2,500 assistance per semester to each student, pending approval to his house resolution.

Other speakers during the meeting were CVSCAFT – CHED Coordinator Luz Fuertes Gamas, TESDA Provencial Director Francisca Opog and Engr. Celestio Adlaon of DPWH. Adlaon bared his department’s programs and projects for this coastal municipality.

Evasco bares progress after one-year service
By FRED C. FUERTES

MARIBOJOC – Dramatic as it was, the State of Government Address (SOGA) delivered Wednesday last week clinched with the saying “Don’t walk in-fort of me. I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me. I may not lead. But walk beside me. Let’s walk hand in hand.” After a year in his first term, Mayor Leoncio Evasco Jr. delivered on July 2, the State of Government Address (SOGA) before a large crowd of constituents at the Maribojoc Cultura and Sports Center here.

Earlier, Evadco renewed his committee to service by taking his oath or renewal before ABC President Marcelino Dapiton. “We have encountered a lot of obstacles along the way. But most of these are coming from ourselves,” the fearless mayor said. Evasco had led PNP men in raiding drug dens, apprehending illegal fishers with Bantay dagat wardens, and confiscating illegally cut tress, said earlier.

“In as much as we would like to do more with the limited resources that we have, the challenge is for us to go beyond ourselves and outside our comfort zones. We are called to serve and commitment is to the people first,” according to the mayor, who had served as an executive in Davao City in the past.

Evasco stressed that” political plurality is the essence of democracy. And political ambitions are most welcome in the intent to sincerely serve our constituency. Much is still to be done. We have barely scratched the surface.

In the field of governance and administration, Evasco has created an impression of citizen’s participation. This was manifested in his conduct of clustered consultations among barangay officials upon assumption into office. To ensure his attendance to barangay assemblies, the workaholic town executive re vamped the schedule of monthly barangay assemblies.

In a bold move to reorganize the bureaucracy, he created new offices such as the General Service Offices; Mlunicipal Environmental and Natural Resources Office; Municipal Eco-Heritage, Tourism, Culture and Arts Office; Municipal Man power and Placement Offices; Eco-Tourism, Culture and Arts Council; Maribojoc Trees for life Management Council; and Management Information System Office.

The creation of the Electronic Tax Revenue Assessment and Collection System (E-TRACS); Batch Request Entry System (BREQS); Geographical Information System (GIS); and Biometric Identification System (BIS) formed the component in Evasco’s desire to retool the different offices. Political will resulted to sound financial management. While in the past, collecting water bills was a factor of inefficiency, Evasco wield an iron hand even to his political lieutenants who were delinquents in paying their monthly dues.

As a result, the municipal coffers enjoyed savings by Christmas time. While casual and job order employees received a measly P200 cash gift in the previous administration, the dynamic town leader played Santa during the yuletide season by giving them cash gift worth P2, 000 each. In consideration that peace and order played a vital role, Evasco’s administration transformed that the PNP office, which once looked like a prison cell, into a better one.

Evasco was among the idealistic citizens who joined the forces in the hills to protest the infamous Marcos conjugal dictatorship. It was his capacity that led to his friendship with City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who was then his prosecutor. Acquitted of the rebellion charges, but not spared of military brutality the political prisoner, Evasco turned into a political strategist and paved the way for the first political victory of his former prosecutor.

In all the political exercises that Mayor Duterte emerged the winner, Evasco played the role of planner and executor. Unmindful of his safety, Evasco patrolled regularly walking with his trusted men. In a bold move, he ordered the transfer of the TV set in the PNP office and ordered the local police to conduct a nightly foot patrol.

The pro-people stance of the mayor, who was also a priest in the past, was manifested when for the first time in the history of this deeply religious town, all fiesta activities last May were give free to the Maribojocanons and their visitors and not a single centavo, came out from the municipal coffer’s to fund the fiesta shindigs, Solicitation did wonder.

The last two fights of Filipino boxing icon Manny Paquiao afforded townspeople to see live Paquiao demolishing opponents through the facilities of Pay-Per-View catered at the huge Maribojoc Cultural and Sports Center courtesy of the municipal government.

Aware of the devcom concept that performance plus reporting equals public relations, Evasco, through the municipal public information office reports to the Maribojocanons world wide his performance. That is made possible through radio facilities of the stations DyRD-Worldwide and DyTR Worldwide.

These also gained the prominence in the print media as weekly activities after the SOGA. Evasco’s SOGA was heard around the world. Maintaining a good working relation with the local media, Tagbilaran by Night, Cuentas Claras and Inyong Alagad facilitated the international reporting when the anchormen interviewed the out spoken mayor after the SOGA.

Economic development included the rehabilitation of the public market, strengthening the agri-fishery ventures, the Himsog nga Panano-Himsog nga Katawhan Program; livestock and poultry activities and cottage industry.

At the start of the historic event, Assistant Parochial Vicar Johnson Ente led the invocation, while DepEd Pricipal Milueda led the singing of Lupang Hinirang, Awit saBohol and awit Maribojoc, and Executive Chief of Staff Oscar Valles delivered the statement of purpose.

Engr. Maria Nenita Reyes Chiu, the municipal planning and development coordinator closed the curtains of the event.