Environmental award
winners named

Winners of the 2012 Negros First Environmental Award, Natural Resource Management Champions tilt and the DILG Most Outstanding Local Government Unit on Environmental Management were recognized at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City recently.

Bago City won the Model Solid Waste Management LGU for city category with a P75,000 cash prize, while P50,000 was awarded to Sipalay as second prize winner. E.B. Magalona, topped other LGUs in the town category, and Moises Padilla in the second spot, also received similar cash prizes, a government press release said.

The Rita Lovino Elementary School in E.B. Magalona won P30,000 as first prize winner in the 2012 Negros First Environmental Award, followed by the Florentina Ledesma Elementary School in San Carlos City and Moises Padilla Elementary School, that received P6,000 each as finalists.

Sipalay City’s Environment and Natural Resources Office was named Best Performing ENRO; San Carlos City’s Bantay Dagat Task Force as Most Outstanding Community-Based Enforcement Group; Nabuswang EcoPark Mangrove Planters Association in Binalbagan as Best Community-Based Mangrove Reforestation; To-og Tree in Bago City as Best Grown Indigenous Tree Species; and Hinobaan’s Eco-Tourism and Watershed Project as Best Protection Forest Trees Plantation in Public Lots, the press release also said.

San Carlos Mayor Gerardo Valmayor Jr. was named the Natural Resources Management champion and won P100,000 cash prize. The city also made it to the Hall of Fame of the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Most Outstanding LGU on Environmental Management.

Other winners of the DILG award are Bago, champion; Kabankalan, first-runner up; and Cadiz, second runner up in the city category; and Moises Padilla, champion; Binalbagan and Pulupandan as first and second runners up in town category.

The awarding rite highlighted the 20th Provincial Environment Week celebration in Negros Occidental that was attended by representatives from LGUs, schools and national government agencies, the press release added.*

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GMA stars joining 2012
MassKara logo unveiling

The unveiling of the 2012 MassKara Festival logo at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Bacolod Government Center will be attended by four GMA TV personalities, festival director Eli Tajanlangit said in a press release.

Ryza Cenon, Mike Tan, Jaya, and Mark Bautista will hold a show after the presentation of the MassKara logo and the artists, Dado Tan, assistant program manager for regional GMA TV, said.

The launching of the logo is in partnership with the television station, Tajanlangit said. MassKara 2012 is set from October 1 to 22.

Charlie Co, head of the creative team for the project, will officially present the logo and the nine artists to Mayor Evelio Leonardia, members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, and the public. The unveiling will be capped with a fireworks display, Tajanlangit added.

“This is by far the biggest creative collaboration we have done for a logo, and I think MassKara is the first among Philippine festivals to do something like this,” he said, adding that the artists who did the 2012 logo has three creative consultants.

“We want this to set the tone for this year’s festival in terms of scale and substance,” Tajanlangit said. “The logo is our statement on how Bacolod and Negros Occidental are fast becoming important art destinations in Asia”.

In keeping with a tradition started in 2004, a Bacolod artist is commissioned to capture the year’s MassKara theme and creative impulses in its logo and trophies.

Among those who had created the logos were renowned filmmaker Peque Gallaga, visual artists Barry Cervantes, Lee Santiago, Raymond Legaspi, and Bamboo Tonogbanua, and multimedia artist Daryl Jimenea.

Tajanlangit said the Silver MassKara Festival Organization is proud to present the 2012 logo as a collaborative work of Bacolod’s young visual artists, who collectively represent the future of art in this city and province.

The SMFO will launch more art-related projects that will tap the vast artistic pool of Bacolod and province to sustain the momentum of our positioning as an art destination, Tajanlangit added in the press release.*

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‘Relieving Hunger’
program on

The Bacolod City Host Lions Club launched its “Relieving the Hunger Program”, a year-long feeding activity for undernourished school children of Pahanocoy Baybay Elementary School in the city recently, its press release said.

The launching was attended by Lions district governor Faustino Yuson, vice district governor Araceli Regalado, cabinet secretary Noel Guillergan, cabinet treasurer Roman Penaranda, past district governors Em Ang and Reynold Iledan, immediate past president Marxlen de la Cruz and other club officials.

Principal Lani Boscas thanked the Lions for choosing the school as the adopted site of the club’s global service action program. A twice-weekly feeding will be conducted for 115 malnourished pupils of the school, the press release also said.

The program aims to fight hunger in depressed communities, while raising awareness of the global problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nearly one billion people worldwide go hungry every day; a child dies from hunger-related diseases every five seconds; and one of four children in developing countries is underweight.

“Organizing the project gives us a chance to help indigent families who don’t have enough to eat or can’t afford to buy nutritious food,” the club said in the press release, adding that aside from the feeding program, the club also holds medical missions, eye camps and reading and literacy activities.*

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Barristers’ Club
elects officers

Rey Cordero, a junior law student of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, was elected president of the Barristers' Club on Saturday, a press release said.

He succeeded Angelica Rojas, who led various activities of the School of Law, particularly the Barristers' Night held at East View Hotel, and the month-long bar operations activities in Manila last November.

Other elected officers were David Dadivas, vice president; Grace Sealmoy, secretary; Suzi Ann Quinones, treasurer; Diana Fe Tan, auditor; Rico Santotome Jr., business manager; and Russel Marvin Olado, public information officer, the press release also said.

Cordero appealed to his fellow officers to work together to make a difference and eventually, a change for the Barristers' Club of UNO-R, with the school's recent success in the Bar that produced 10 new lawyers in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City.

The club will hold its annual acquaintance party on July 28, with dean John Paolo Villasor of the School of Law and other professors, alumni members and students expected to attend and welcome 79 freshman UNO-R Law students, the press release added.*

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