Hybrid rice yields more

By JUNE S. BLANCO

THE experts have spoken: Hybrid rice yields more – and commands a better price in the market – than inbred rice.

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) met rice experts, agriculture and irrigation technical persons, representatives of a government bank and rice growers as well as the businessman who had signified to buy all hybrid rice production in Bohol to take stock of their position in the wake of the regional situationer that showed the province’s rice self-sufficiency level to have dipped to 76.17% in 2011 from an all-time high of 113% in 2008-2009 even at the height of the El Niño phenomenon.

Agriculture Region 7 Director Angel Enriquez had submitted a briefer to the solon that now forms part of his monitoring system for his plant hybrid rice and fertilize now-pay later program in tandem with his rice ratooning program aimed at giving farmers in his district a crack at doubling or at least improving their yield.

The solon admits that another source has higher figures for rice self sufficiency in 2011.

The Enriquez figures and the other source factored in Bohol’s growing population and its attendant increasing demand.

But, the solon emphasized, the Enriquez figures consider solely the province’s production and excludes the buffer stock of imported rice from other provinces and even other countries that the National Food Authority (NFA) keeps in its warehouses here – which the other source included.

Hybrid rice doubles production as long as it is properly cultivated, fertilized and taken care of.

Production is further boosted with ratooning wherein Aumentado provided the fertilizers with allocations from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) at one bag of urea per hectare for participating farmers.

Ratooning is allowing the harvested rice stalks in irrigated areas to grow again, fertilizing and caring for them in order to get a second crop for the season from one planting only.

Aumentado and the participating farmers started with 540 hectares which the solon upped to 1,100 hectares the following season. The Department of Agriculture Bohol Field Office under Engineer Eugene Cahiles provides technical assistance on rice matters while the National Irrigation Administration under Region 7 Manager Diosdado Rosales provides the technical assistance on irrigation concerns.

Land Bank of the Philippines provides loans for agricultural inputs including labor while Marlito Uy of the Alturas Group of Companies buys the properly dried hybrid palay at P1 higher per kilo than the going rate. Uy added that he will buy all varieties of hybrid rice that the Bohol famers can produce – including those that Malabanan and Rosales have yet to pilot in the province.

The meeting attendees were signatories or their representatives to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the plant hybrid rice and fertilize now-pay later as well as the ratooning programs.

Cahiles, Rosales and Dr. Frisco Malabanan, technical consultant of the SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC) and the latter’s colleagues who have been developing improved varieties of hybrid rice agree that the panicles produce twice the number of grains than inbred rice.

Inspired by the success of the first two ratooning cropping seasons, Aumentado and Rosales said they will gun for 3,000 hectares in the next season – and go for all hybrid varieties that DA and SLAC will endorse.

Rico bill to give 7 years tax holiday for tree planters

tree planting

 By JUNE S. BLANCO

TREE planters should be taxed only when these are being harvested for commercial purposes.

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) introduced House Bill 5461 that aims to allow planters time to grow, nourish and nurture their trees before they are required to pay taxes and fees for them.

In his explanatory note, Aumentado said he observed that the slow reforestation effort on denuded lands is largely due to the lack of incentive from both the national and local governments.

More often than not, he explained, local government units (LGUs) impose high realty taxes on trees as they consider them to be improvement on the taxable land. He said the “exorbitant local taxation” has discouraged land owners from planting forestal or even fruit-bearing trees.

Trees are important, he pointed out, because these serve as flood control;s, typhoon breakers, and in the case of mangroves, tidal buffers which mitigate the impact of tidal action on the shorelines.

Trees also help preserve underground water, ensure the flow to rivers, creeks and streams that feed hydropower and facilities to irrigate rice lands, and in some cases, provide potable water to inhabitants.

Rampant, irresponsible and wanton cutting of trees causing denudation of forest land, private properties, idle lands and watershed areas of the public domain, however, have triggered devastating floods “causing tremendous damage to lives and properties,” Aumentado said.

He quoted internationally renowned architect Felino Palafox Jr. as saying that trees are elements of the environment, major components to flood controls as well as wind and tidal breakers, hence they must be preserved.

But, he said, preservation and reforestation efforts can be encouraged only by providing incentives like the Aumentado measure.

Once approved, his proposed “Tree Planting Seven-Year Incentive Act of 2012” will take effect 15 days after its publication in at least two national newspapers of general circulation.

House commends NBI for saving kidnap boy

NBI logo

 

By JUNE S. BLANCO

 

THE House of Representatives recently commended the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for rescuing a Burmese boy from his kidnappers.

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) introduced House Resolution 2599 commending the NBI under Director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas and Deputy Director for Regional Operations Virgilio Mendez Jr. for rescuing eight-year old Reynald Chew who was kidnapped for ranson in Biñan, Laguna.

Aumentado said with clearance from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the NBI fielded an operation that rescued Chew from the clutches of the armed men who had demanded a P20-million ransom from the boy’s parents whom they had apparently mistook to be the owners of a food processing factory in Laguna.

The case, however, turned out to be one of mistaken identity. The parents, Kyi Maung Chew and Khin Khin Lin turned out to be mere laborers of the factory, and could not raise the ransom.

The kidnapers had kept the boy in Taytay, Rizal while ransom negotiations went on with the Philippine National police Anti-Kidnap Group handling the case and Chew’s parents.

But an operative of the NBI counter-terrorism division tipped off Mendez that a Chinese-looking boy was seen in the company of armed men inside a house in Taytay, prompting the securing of clearance from de Lima. Mendez led the operation that resulted in Chew’s rescue in the morning of June 26 from a house in Pinesville Subdivision.

Chew revealed that he was kidnapped in Biñan four days earlier. Mendez and his team brought him to the NBI headquarters in Manila where he was reunited with his parents.

After a press briefing by de Lima in Rojas’ office, the NBI turned him over to the PNP anti-kidnap group.

Aumentado said the feat deserves emulation by law enforcers and commendation from the House of Representatives to encourage the NBI and other law enforcing agencies and institutions to perform their job of maintaining peace and order well, and to aim for rescue operations done with dispatch and without endangering the lives and limbs of kidnap victim or victims.

Solon pushes for JBC reps from both Houses

plenary

By JUNE S. BLANCO

THE Philippines has two houses of Congress which must both be represented in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) has introduced a proposed amendment to the Constitution to allow the change to clarify any ambiguity, prevent a tug of war and hasten the JBC recommendation to the President on vital judicial appointments such as in the case of the Supreme Court Chief Justice to succeed the impeached Renato Corona.

House Resolution 2631 seeks to amend Section 8 (1) of Article VIII on the composition of the JBC to include the Chief Justice as ex-officio chair, the Secretary of Justice, and a representative each of both Houses of Congress as ex-officio members, a representative of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, a professor of law, a retired member of the Supreme Court, and a representative of the private sector.

The Aumentado move came on the heels of the controversy on the number of Congress representatives – raised to the Supreme Court by by former Solicitor General Frank Chavez.

Chavez had urged to declare as unconstitutional the membership of Sen. Francis Escudero and Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. in the JBC.

The High Court initially sustained the Chavez petition and ordered that only one ex-officio member shall represent the Congress in the JBC.

Aumentado said the Senate and the House of Representatives filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that since the present presidential form of government has a bicameral legislature, it is imperative that both chambers must be represented.

The JBC is mandated to recommend to the President the justices of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan, the Court of Tax Appeals and all judges of the lower courts.

However, the Constitutional Commission provided only one representation from Congress in the JBC as then, Aumentado said, it was of the belief that the parliamentary form of government will prevail over the presidential type.

This is the same error the Commission committed in the provision for the amendment in the Constitution where the provision is suited for a parliamentary form of government and not a presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress.

The proposed amendment aims to clarify that the House of Representatives and the Senate shall have one ex-officio member each in the JBC, consistent with the presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress.

This way, Aumentado said, the Supreme Court could not anymore flip-flop on the issue, and thus, could be guided accordingly.

Rico urges Bohol: Plant hybrid rice

ricefield

  

By JUNE S. BLANCO   

QUEZON CITY – Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) has urged the provincial government to embrace rice hybridization in order to sustain the 113% rice self sufficiency harvest in 2008 when the hybrid variety was earnestly propagated.

The solon made the appeal after receiving the report of the Department of Agriculture Region 7 (DA 7) that Bohol registered a rice self sufficiency of 76.17% only in 2011.

In a text message to Gov. Edgar Chatto, the legislator said, “ Pare, I am sad per DA report during my meeting with the regional directors last week in Cebu, Bohol’s rice self sufficiency was 76.17% due we concentrate more on inbred rice seeds instead of hybrid. I wish we can work together to sustain our 113% rice self sufficiency in 2008. I am pushing SL8 AND SL11 in the 2nd district. Please call me when you are in Manila so we can discuss collaborative effort for the good of Bohol.”

He followed up with another text message saying: “Do not believe in canard I am running for governor. My interest now is to help the Aquino mantra against corruption, and good governance thru the righteous path and your administration attain rice self sufficiency and success for the good of Bohol.”

Chatto was reported  to have responded by way of thanking the congressman and that he is validating data with agencies who provided him the 2011 figures earlier of Bohol’s rice self sufficiency.

To note, Administrator Antonio Nangel of the National Irrigation Administration is also pushing for the rice hybridization program Aumentado’s district through the “plant hybrid rice and fertilize now, pay later and the rice ratooning” program initiated by the solon to boost the country’s rice production.

In 2008, the rice self sufficiency in Bohol reached a high of 113%. It dropped to 108% in 2009 due to the El Nino phenomenon.

Since the 2nd district is the main beneficiary of the Bohol Irrigation Project Stages 1 and 2, the Capayas and the Ilaya Small Reservoir Irrigation Facilities, the solon launched the two rice production boosting projects involving the private sector and government agencies in a collaborative effort.

Aumentado started the ratooning program with a subsidy from his Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF) in 540 hectares of rice land in 2011 and increased the area to 1,100 of rice land being subsidized with urea fertilizer.

The target in 2013 is about 3,000 hectares of rice land to be ratooned with an outlay of P3 million from his PDAF.

Meanwhile, it was learned that Rep. Arthur Yap (3rd district, Bohol) has also pushed for the hybridization of rice production in his district. In fact, he piloted the high yielding SL8 and SL11 hybrid rice in Lila town where he sponsored a rice festival during the last harvest season.

Aumentado files House resolution in anticipation of possible charter change

sample photo only

By Marlon Balmadrid

QUEZON CITY – Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd district, Bohol) has filed House Resolution No. 2603 that seeks to amend Section 1(1) of Article XVII of the Constitution on amendments or revision.

The solon said the 1987 Constitution provides for a presidential form of government with a bicameral Congress, and the mode of amending or revising it under Section 1 (1) thereof is proper for a unicameral parliamentary form of government.

Thus, he said, the manner of voting in any amendment to or revision of the Constitution has become a serious contentious issue between the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Seeking to remove such issue and all doubts in the interpretation on the voting by both Houses of Congress, the solon said his proposed amendment “has become imperative and mandatory.”

Under the proposed resolution, Section 1 (1) of Article XVII would now read:

     The Congress, in a joint session assembled, by three-fourths vote of all the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives voting separately, may propose amendments to this constitution.

The proposed amendment, he said, can correct the seeming error of omission by the Constitutional Commission which drafted the present Constitution.

Aumentado filed the bill in anticipation of a possible charter change as initiated by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Aumentado pushes Information and Communication Technology

turn-over of computer to schools

 

AUMENTADO PUSHES ICT. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (4th from right), son and chief of staff of Rep. Erico Aumentado, leads  the distribution of sets of computers costing P30,000 each to the principal, head teacher or school in-charge of 20 elementary and integrated schools all over Bohol’s 2nd District as part of his program on Building Excellence thru Education and Information Technology. The internet-ready computers have Intel Core i3-550 processors, 3.2 GHz, two gigabyte memory, 640GB SATA hard drive, Windows 7 Professional Basic operating system purchased from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The brand new sets have three-year warranties on parts and on-site labor. CONTRIBUTED FOTO