Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Lung Cancer Month / TB Awareness Day August 23, 2010


Mayor Narciso 'Boyet' Leoncio

The parade was led by the three high schools in Brooke's Point, namely: Brooke's Point Christian High School (BPCHS), Sacred Heart of Jesus High School (SHJHS) and Palawan National High School (PNHS).
BPCHS Band
SHJHS Band

Palawan National High School Band




One of the hat wore by parade participant
To increase awareness of the increasing communicable disease Tuberculosis (TB), The TB Task Force, in cooperation and full support of the Local Govt. Unit (LGU) Brooke's Point headed by its Chief Executive, Mayor Dr. Narciso 'Boyet' Leoncio, conducted their annual observance of Lung Cancer celebration and TB Awareness Day last monday, August 23, 2010.

The Parade...


Bgy. Calasaguen

The celebration kicked-off with civic parade participated by 18 Barangays that comprises the whole municipality of Brooke's Point.










Berachah Medical Clinic
This "Mobile Sound System" plays songs related to TB awareness
Leoncio General Hospital (LGH)
Sagrado Medical Children's Clinic
Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital (SPPH)
Rural Health Unit (RHU)
In line with his campaign program of government, health care is one of the priorities of Mayor Boyet Leoncio, second only to clean and transparent governance, of course.

 The Mayor gave emphasis on the importance of early detection of Tuberculosis, when diagnosed to have such, the health worker must see to it a follow-up check-up on the patient must be done in order that proper medication and treatment be applied.
Mayor Boyet Leoncio
Mayor Boyet  acknowledging the presence of  Barangay Captains


Mayor Boyet giving message to health workers
Municipal Health Officer Dr. Palileo
Ton Abengoza (The author) with RHU personnel



Friday, August 20, 2010

Newest Resort in Brooke's Point!

PALM VIEW GARDEN RESORT
Bgy. Maasin, Brooke's Point, Palawan

Oasis-like view of Palm View Garden
Taken from a hilly portion of Palm View Garden

Situated in the middle of palm tree plantation, looks like an Oasis,  this newest resort with water supply coming from a natural clean and cool spring water, you can swim all day long under heat of the sun but cold water under! 
Cool spring-water swimming pool
Reception and Information counter
A floral view
Ton Abengoza (Author) with his grandson Sven, despite of
his full-swimming gear, still, afraid of pool.
A real cool-splash!
 Palm View Garden Resort is being operated and managed by Palm tree plantation management.
Wet or Dry, you can sing your heart-out all-day!

Being  a videoke addict myself, i'm glad to tell you that one of their facilities is a videoke system which all their guests will be treated to an all-day long videoke singing free of charge! How about that?
Aside from beautiful scenery, this place provides a several cottages, rates at P150.00 ($3.00), 
Entrance Fee: P50.00 ($1.00) Children and Adult alike. Roofed Grill area also been provided and clean shower/toilet room, of course with strong water!
A naughty pose of the author, dig it?
Just to remind everybody who plans to go there, you must call them first for reservations to avoid inconvenience on your part, furthermore, they have scheduled draining of water to maintain sanitary & cleanliness of their swimming pool. It's a painful experience indeed diving on an empty pool! Hahaha!
A breath-taking view indeed!

 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Katutubong Kaalaman

Para sa mga naghahangad ng madaliang pera kapalit ng ating masaganang kalikasan, nais ko pong ibahagi ang isang mensahe mula sa isang katutubong kaalaman:
Sticker ad to promote environment protection awareness
Somebody just handed me this sticker and told me: "Ton, bahala ka na kung saan mo ididikit ang sticker na ito, sana sa maraming makakakita". When i read it, i was touched by the message in it! And you know what came first to my mind where to paste this sticker that will reach hundred people (if not thousand)... no other than here in my blogsite and to my Facebook profile wherein, you, my dear friends... my ever-loyal and caring followers and viewers! Thank you very much and i'm praying hard and hoping for your never-ending support and continued patronage for me and my advocacy- true public service. I love you all!

Entrance to Town proper

Welcome Greetings as you enter the town proper
From Puerto Princesa, approximately 192 kms away, about 4 hours by Air conditioned shuttle vans (Centro, Lexus & Daver) before reaching the Municipality of Brooke's Point.
Concrete highway going to Municipality of Bataraza
As you enter Brooke's Point, you will traverse six (6) barangays more before reaching town proper wherein you will notice a highway junction, one going to Bgy. Mainit and the other one going to Municipality of Bataraza.
Highway going to Mainit
As you enter the town proper, a "welcome billboard" will greet everyone informing they are already in beautiful town of Brooke's Point, once hailed as 2002 Cleanest and Greenest Municipality in the Philippines!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Old Lighthouse tower

Old Lighthouse Tower - Landmark of Brooke's Point
The Old Lighthouse tower

Situated near the seashore of Old Camp here in Poblacion, Brooke's Point. Its existence was in the brink of demolition when the new one was built few years ago. The contractor suggested for it but the past administration refused to agree with the idea, thus, the reason still standing proudly as ever!

Your visit in Brooke's Point will not be complete if you haven't gone to this place. Being a part of history of this town, its ironic to see that this place was a neglected one, speaking of attention, maintainance and care of it. Partly, i'm happy to know that there is a fund for this one being kept by in the bank, when one group: Ladies Circle of Brooke's Point made several fund raising project for the purpose of Rehabilitation and beautification of Old Lighthouse Tower. But since the amount they raised is not enough for this endeavor, thus the reason for the project not to materialized.
Caretaker's house at the background

Old and New Lighthouse standing tall side by side
Much-needed rehabilitation & Landscaping
Rip-rap must be done before its too late

The used fishnet serves as perimeter fence

One good news is; the new Administration under the leadership of Mayor Narciso 'Boyet' Leoncio is in full support of heritage conservation and tourism promotion in this town, in one occassion i did mentioned this matter (Old Lighthouse) to him and to my delight, he said; "i will look into that and support that project".

The first few things to be done are as follows; make rip-rap that will sustain strong waves in time of bad weather to maintain remaining land area around the old/new Lighthouse and perimeter fence to secure and  protect the place and landscape that will be done after the first phase of the rehabilitation process.

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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Local Govt. Unit (LGU) serious on drive against illegal fishing!

Phil. Navy Fast Craft Patrol at Brooke's Point wharf
2 Navy Patrol boats helps against illegal fishing

Brooke's Point once a haven for fishermen, with its many coral reefs, fish were really abundant then!
But lately, local fisherfolks have to go to nearby municipality, Bataraza, and up to Balabac group of islands to catch fish, sometimes, reaching as far as boundary of Philippine waters and Malaysia to catch fish, pity on them!
The culprit for all of these?
Dynamite fishing (killing fish of all sizes, thus depriving small fish to grow) Cyanide fishing (resulting to massive coral reef destruction!), fishing on prohibited areas (below the 10.1 Nautical miles from shoreline) for troll fishing, hulbot & likom way of fishing. Thus, resulting to diminishing volume of fish here. This is not the time for "pointing fingers" for whom to blame but rather "what to do" to enforce what is mandated by law, "kahit sino pa ang masagasaan"(no matter whom will be affected) to bring back the good old days that Brooke's Point once a fishing haven!
 With these reason, the Local Chief Executive, Mayor Narciso "Boyet" Leoncio must act to save our marine life!
In the past two (2) weeks, LGU-Brooke's Point showed in its seriousness in dealing against illegal fishermen in this town. It caused an uproar among the fisher folks considering that fishing is the only livelihood they knew... one said that: "para niyo na ring pinatay ang pamilya namin!"
Apprehensions and several illegal fishing equipments were seized by the local police, like the compressor machine. Since at the moment, LGU have no speed boats to guard and protect the shoreline and its municipal waters, Mayor Boyet Leoncio tapped the services of Philippine Navy's Fast Craft (Patrol Boat) to assist the Bantay Dagat-Brooke's Point to go after those illegal fishermen! Its fortunate that the Commander of Phil. Navy here is so much cooperative and expressed their willingness to help the Local Chief Executive in its drive against illegal activities.During a short conversation with him, he told me that he salute Mayor Boyet for his strong "political will" to implement what is right and punish for those doing otherwise!

The result? Chaos for the fishermen's respective families! They only live on day-to-day basis.
An immediated dialogue between fisherfolks of 18 Barangays ang Mayor Boyet must be done which Mayor himself set an appointment with them last Friday afternoon, August 13th (jinx #?) to settle the issue.
BFAR Chief, Maritime OIC, Coastguard OIC  & Chief of Police

The guests: Chief of Police, Officer-in-Charge Coastguard, Maritime Police Chief and  Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR) OIC.

In opening his message, Mayor Boyet Leoncio told almost a hundred fishermen (others represented by their wife) that he is not going aginst them but he is after the protection of the marine life, in which, at the end, the fishermen themselves are the beneficiaries.He was saddened to know that they are going in far places just to catch, leaving them to cough more for additional diesel fuel, well in fact can be avoided by   abiding to existing laws & regulations.

The fishermen beg not to implement the law at the moment, (most of them cite their children's tuition needs being examination time next week) but rather be allowed fishing below 10.1 nautical miles prohibited area a period of time or look for other livelihood. This drew reactions from authorities present in their favor, a great consideration indeed!
Open forum time



Mayor Boyet listens intently to a wife of a fisherman
Chief of Police Ronnie Osia sharing his view
 
The fishermen are given 5 months to comply and secure proper papers/documents like Mayor's Permit (in 2009 there are 120+ fishermen secured their Mayor's Permit compared to only 12 this 2010!), as agreed upon, all duly accredited fishermen of Brooke's Point will be issued individual Identification Cards (ID) and mus bring it with them to avoid apprehension by the local police (PNP/Maritime/Coastguard/BFAR) , in this way, outsiders fishermen can be identified and warned not to fish in prohibited areas. All these things were accepted by the fishermen with great delight!

Hadji Pisingan Isnain sharing his thoughts

A Mayoralty candidate himself, ran against Dr.Boyet Leoncio then, Hadji Pisingan Isnain, showing a true gentleman, said that politics is finished, the people had spoken, we already have a new Mayor and in order this new administration succeed, not only himself, but all of us must get involved. He emphasized the proper way of fishing and he knew very well and understand the plight of fishermen because he had been once.




Hadji Pisinga Isnain addressing to fishermen
Mayor Boyet, Hji. Pisingan, Ton Abengoza & Danny Chan
Hadji Pisingan, Ton Abengoza (Author) & Danny Chan (Ex-vice-Mayor)
Hadji Pisingan & Danny Chan

To end, Mayor Boyet Leoncio, asked favor from the fishermen to help him also to implement the law and in order to achieve this, they (fishermen) must police themselves, report any illegal activities being done by their colleagues or outsiders, "para naman hindi madamay ang walang kasalanan", which answered by a loud promise: "Opo, Mayor" (yes we will, Mayor).
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