WHAT forum? We know you will ask.
We were elated to hear the announcement of the City Government that there was to be a forum on June 23, 2009 in a bid to stem pollution in the Iloilo River.
The Iloilo River has been a subject of our writings and we have dedicated some 10 editions of [...]

THE Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) has been with us for 36 years since Presidential Decree No. 27 ordering land reform was issued.
We have spent P200 billion for the program but there is not much to show for its success. Worse, CARP has been blamed for the widespread poverty in the countryside because it broke [...]

WHILE waiting in the hotel to meet a guest from Manila, we requested for a glass of water from the waiter.
“I am sorry, sir, we do not have a glass of water. We only have bottled mineral water,” he replied.
“Okay, bottled mineral water then,” I replied.
“That will be P30, sir,” he said.
“All we asked was [...]

MAYOR Jerry P. Treñas recently issued a Memorandum Order reminding all the 180 barangay kapitanes of Iloilo City to enforce strictly and supervise the disposal of garbage in their barangays. The mayor likewise emphasized to all residents to practice waste segregation and recycling to minimize the volume of garbage at the city’s dumpsite in Calajunan, [...]

GUIMARAS has been always known as a “mango country” even outside the Philippines, but it is also a coconut-producing province. It has 7,352.62 hectares of land planted to coconuts numbering 766,451 trees, spread out in five municipalities.
There is one coco oil mill operating in the province, the Guimaras Integrated Coconut Industry, at Brgy. Concordia, Nueva [...]

TWO major local events were recently celebrated here in Iloilo and Guimaras. We have the Semana sang Iloilo from April 13–19, 2009 centered at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol and SM City Iloilo, and the Mango Festival of Guimaras from the 12th to the 19th at the Guimaras Provincial Capitol grounds.
Both celebrations likewise marked the founding [...]

WE thought we can now move on to other topics after we wrote our last piece on the Iloilo River on March 13, 2009, but now we received additional information on the river issue in a long letter from our City Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO), Noel Z. Hechanova.
On our part, with regard to [...]

WE wrote last week of the 4th Annual World Health Tourism Congress scheduled for the first time in Manila from March 26 to 28, 2009. We asked if we are ready for Medical Tourism should some delegates to the world forum make a side trip to visit Iloilo or Guimaras.
We observed, however, that our tourism [...]

SOME 27 barangays out of 180 that we have in Iloilo City are located along the Iloilo River. One of them is Brgy. San Pedro in Molo district, just behind the bus terminal for south-bound buses to Antique.
When we visited the barangay, we were pleasantly surprised to see an ecological park built by the residents [...]

OUR column last week, The Iloilo River, was featured in Iloilo Views, and we got a reaction from one Beryong who said: “We need informative articles of public value such as yours. May your tribe flourish!”
Thank you, Beryong, for the compliment, but we wish we heard a response, too, from the civic-minded Iloilo Business Club [...]