Al Gore lauds Bacolod NGO
for climate change solution
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A Bacolod-based foundation that has perfected sustainable energy technology in Negros Occidental that has brought clean water to 15,000 people in 68 remote hillside villages in the Philipines, won the second prize in an international green energy tilt in London Thursday evening.

Auke Idzenga from the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. in Bacolod City received the second prize of 10,000 pounds for Education and Welfare for developing ram pumps at the 2007 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy at the Royal Geographical Society in London that was addressed by former US Vice President Al Gore, Aladino Moraca, AIDFI Executive director, told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

The Bacolod group represented by Auke Idzenga, a Dutch development worker who has lived in the Philippines for 16 years and heads the AIDFI's Appropriate Technology Department, was one of 10 finalists from around the world, Moraca said.

Candoni Mayor-elect Cicero Borromeo yesterday showed the DAILY STAR a Bureau of Immigration identification certificate stating that he is recognized as a citizen of the Philippines, pursuant to the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003.

The Bureau of Immigration certification signed by Commissioner Marcelino Libanan debunks claims of outgoing Mayor Liberty Manzano that he was not eligible to run and be mayor of Candoni for being an American, Borromeo said.

Borromeo stressed that he was a Filipino when he filed his Certificate of Candidacy and won in the May elections and is confident the COMELEC will dismiss a petition filed by Manzano for the cancellation of his CoC and for his disqualification.