Mayor’s proposal: Move airport to Cordova town

Korean firm presents airport expansion master plan

By Candeze R. Mongaya

Cebu Daily News

Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy yesterday offered to let his town host the Mactan international airport since Lapu-Lapu City can no longer accommodate the expansion of the facility.

His offer surprised government stakeholders and representatives of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) who attended the presentation of the master plan for the airport’s expansion.

The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) presented the master plan.

Engineer Nigel Paul Villarete, MCIAA general manager, however, said the proposal would be made an option for the expansion of the international airport.

“We willl leave it to the political leaders and the decision makers on the national board to decide on the matter,” Villarete said.

Koica presented a P1.3 million grant to conduct a feasibility study for the expansion of the MCIA.

The study began last September and would end by December this year.

The study will be used as a proposal for possible investors through Private Public Partnership.

Villarete said the Department of Transportation and Communication and the MCIAA board would coordinate with the private sector in funding the project.

The first phase of the project, which requires at least P5 billion with a target project completion by 2015, would include the construction of a new terminal building with one international terminal with additional parking area, passenger and cargo terminal, and one runway.

Villarete said the airport has a maximum capacity of five million passengers, but last year, it exceeded to 5.4 million.

“If we had done the expansion five years ago, this problem could have been prevented,” he said.

Based on the air traffic demand forecast conducted by Koica, the domestic passengers would increase from 3,841,990 passengers last 2009 to 6,260,047 by 2015.

The international passenger forecast would increase from 920,000 last 2009 to 1,472,301 by 2015.

Meanwhile, Sitoy cited the benefits of moving the airport to Cordova town—no tax suits and lesser traffic in Lapu-Lapu City.

“In Cordova we can give you immunity from lawsuits,” Sitoy said.

Sitoy was referring to the cases filed by Lapu-Lapu City against the MCIAA which has refused to pay P1.3 billion in real property taxes.

He also said that questionable land claims of other individuals over the airport would also hinder the progress of the airport’s expansion.

“The expansion of this airport in Lapu-Lapu City is impossible because it is heavily litigated,” Sitoy said to the crowd during the open forum.

Sitoy said the airport could be constructed on the 3,500-hectare area that is to be reclaimed in Cordova town.

He said a new road to link the town to Cebu City could be put up, which could lessen the traffic in Lapu-Lapu City.

He said if the airport would be moved, then the current lot occupied by the airport could be converted into a business park with high-rise buildings.

“This can be realized in the next 20 years,” Sitoy said.

Sitoy claimed that he discussed the idea with Lapu-Lapu Rep. Arturo Radaza, whom he claimed had agreed with the proposal.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña, (Cebu City south district), who attended the presentation of the master plan expressed his support to Sitoy’s proposal.

“It’s not only possible, it’s ideal. It’s the only way to go in the future,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said the master plan didn’t consider the traffic in the airport, which could be lessened if this would be moved to Cordova.

Osmeña even promised to gather investment bankers who could fund the project.

Osmeña said the reclamation project in Cordova would be easier compared to the reclamation of South Road Properties (SRP), which he initiated when he was still Cebu city’s mayor.

“Having more experience on reclamation projects, I say that it’s very very feasible,” Osmeña said.

Sitoy also cited the pending proposal of Rep. Rachel del Mar (Cebu City north district) in Congress to conduct a study to build a 500-meter underground road from Cordova to Cebu City.

Jobs, not cash grant will help people rise from poverty - study.

MANILA, Philippines - Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) believe that access to a regular job rather than conditional cash assistance would help them rise from poverty, a recent study by Social Watch Philippines (SWP) showed.

“The 4Ps respondents said that while the cash grant was useful, what would lift them out of poverty was access to regular work,” Marivic Raquiza, co-convenor of SWP said, citing a self-perception study conducted from 2009 to 2010.

The study involved 160 respondents equally distributed in the rural area of Sibagat, Agusan del Sur, and in the urban area of Riverside Tramo, Pasay City.

She said the study was supported by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It also involved interviews with officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd) and World Bank (WB).

In another study conducted by Raquiza, she found that by simply linking 4Ps beneficiaries to the DSWD’s livelihood assistance programs Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) and Self-employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (Sea-K) programs, “is problematic.”

“The highly ‘micro-ized and project-ized’ nature of Kalahi-CIDSS, examples of which are construction of road opening, day care centers, water system and class rooms, has generated, at best, localized impact on poverty reduction such as the opening of a road has made it easier for farmers to bring their produce to the market,” she said.

“But it has not made a dent on reducing over-all poverty. In one case study, the data showed that poverty incidence even rose in a municipality where a Kalahi-CIDSS project was implemented. Research has shown that SEA-K activities revolve around mostly low-value trade and commercial activities,” Raquiza said.

The conditional cast transfer (CCT) or 4Ps provides monthly cash grants amounting P1,400 to poor eligible households on the condition that lactating or pregnant mothers and young children avail of preventive health care and that school-aged children regularly attend school.

The program is now on its mid-level target of reaching the 4.6 million poor households identified by the National Statistical and Coordination Board (NSCB) by the end of 2013, according to the DSWD.

The SWP study also stressed that education does not guarantee access to the jobs market, citing that 4.6 million are unemployed, nine-tenths of which are reasonably educated, 44 percent are high school graduates or undergraduates, and 43 percent are college graduates or undergraduates.

“The need for job creation and to improve existing work acquires greater resonance in the context of both complementation and exit strategies of the 4Ps,” said Raquiza.

She said health and education performance outcomes of the CCT are limited and inconclusive.

“The experience of the most established CCT programs – those in Mexico and Brazil – show that educational achievements of student-beneficiaries were dismaying as they scored either the same or worse compared to non-beneficiary students. This was also true of an evaluation of CCT in Cambodia where higher enrollment rates of CCT beneficiaries were not accompanied by improved learning outcomes,” she said.

According to her, the evidence is that learning and health outcomes either stay the same, or may even worsen, as increased demand puts additional pressure on education and health infrastructure that are of poor quality to begin with, and from inadequate personnel.

Raquiza said the UN Research Institute for Social Development argues that in many developing country contexts, improvements in education and health indicators might be better achieved by investing directly in the supply of these services.

The SWP urged the government to put employment at the center of its development strategy.

Established in 1997, the SWP is an advocacy group with over 100 civil society groups and individual members that aims to increase people’s awareness and participation in promoting social development concerns with government.

Last week, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the 4Ps program significantly improved the health, nutrition and education of children of low-income families, citing studies conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Ateneo de Manila University.

The unsinkable Filipino

By: Marian Regina M. Layug

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Stranded: The Cabason and Martin families find refuge on the roof at the height of “Ondoy’s” flood

Amaris Cabason, 23, daughter of  Marivi Martin-Cabason, has a recurring nightmare. In her dream, she is on the rooftop of their house in Provident Village, Marikina, shivering and wet under lashing rains. She gazes in horror as filthy floodwaters creep up higher and higher around her feet. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Two years after typhoon “Ondoy,” this dream still haunts her.

In 2009, “Ondoy” cut a swath of destruction across 25 Luzon provinces and brought the worst flooding in Metro Manila in 20 years. For the first time since Marivi and her husband Alex settled in Provident Village, Marikina in 1990, the flood waters rushed into their elevated driveway. It was about 11 a.m and Alex called to his four children to run to the two-story house of his brothers-in-law Manny, Luis and Daniel who live in the same compound.

Wading back and forth in the muddy water, Alex and the children carried to the second floor whatever they could haul, including a newly bought TV set. But the onrush of water was too fast. Alex recalls, “When I came back for the fourth time, that was just in 25 minutes, the water had risen from the driveway almost to the top of the front door.” Last to climb to the second floor in neck-high water was Luis, who is six feet tall.

When water started flowing into the second floor at 2 p.m., the group crossed one by one on a plank from the second floor window,  stepping on the branches of a mango tree onto the roof of Alex and Marivi’s one-story house. The flood waters crept steadily over the edge of the roof. Helpless and pelted by the relentless rain, the family could only pray. Alex notes wryly, “The faster the water rose, the faster we prayed the Our Father.”

They stayed on the roof for three hours and decided to return to the big house through the mango tree plank, breaking through a plywood wall into the attic. There they stayed until morning when the waters receded and help came with a Red Cross rescue boat.

The damage to their homes was so extensive that they had to embark on a massive rebuilding, mainly of the now warped ceilings and floor. They would have left Provident Village but for financial constraints. Taking out several bank loans, Marivi and Alex had home repairs done at a cost of P100,000. They shelled out another P40,000 for repairs to their battered car. Manny and Luis spent P300,000 to replace with cement the wooden flooring on their second floor and install a window in their attic. Luis explains, “Now we’ll be able to see the weather condition and the flood water from the attic.”

“Ondoy” affected not just the homes and finances of the couple and the brothers, but also the health of their family. A week after “Ondoy,” Luis, who was unable to stock up on his medication during “Ondoy,” suffered a heart attack. Now he makes sure he has extra medical supplies for his heart condition. Shortly after “Ondoy,” his niece Amaris suffered amebiasis. Since then, Marivi has used only bottled drinking water for the family.

Two years later, memories of “Ondoy” flared again when typhoon “Falcon” dumped rains that pushed the level of the Marikina River to 16 meters. This time, the Cabason and Martin families of Provident Village were ready.

Last year, Marivi and Alex built what they call a three-story emergency structure on their compound, with design features intended to withstand another storm of “Ondoy” proportions. The second floor alone is 14 feet above the ground, higher than the highest level of the “Ondoy” flood waters. The second floor has an area of 3.5 by 8 meters. The third floor has an area of about 4 by 8 meters. The structure is made entirely of cement, including the ceiling, to prevent water seepage. On the third floor, the family has stashed their most important documents, encased in plastic bags and water-proof plastic boxes. Alex adds, “If the worst happens, we can still go to the roof.”

The second level of the building is almost adjacent to their old house so that the Cabasons can easily jump from one structure to the other.  It is also near enough Manny’s and Luis’ house to enable the brothers to cross on a plank from a second-floor window.

The family has fashioned two makeshift rafts made of liter-sized softdrink bottles lashed together. They have made other rafts from pieces of styrofoam bound in plastic trash bags as flotation devices. The shelves in the second floor are filled with supplies of water, canned food, rubber boots, flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, flatware, dinnerware, utensils and whistles. When the store of food is depleted, it is immediately replenished. During “Ondoy,” the househelp managed to grab the rice cooker and some food, so the family was able to eat until morning. They were even able to throw some food over to nearby hungry neighbors stranded on rooftops.

Like other Marikina residents, Alex now monitors the river’s level during heavy rainfall. The Marikina government has issued guidelines for residents. At each critical level, a siren sounds to alert the people.

Explains Alex: “If the level is 12 to 14 meters, people living near  the river in Malanday, Nangka and Tumana are subject to forced evacuation. These are the lowest parts of Marikina. They have to heed the forced evacuation signal.  Here in Provident, if the water reaches 17 to 18 meters, there’s forced evacuation.”

The entire Cabason family has strict instructions for future disasters. In heavy rainfall, all members are to stay where they are. Outside the home, this means the school or the office. If they have cell phones with enough power and load, they are to contact their closest relatives in Pasig and Quezon City. Their first place of refuge is my home in Antipolo, about 6 kilometers away. If possible, they are to use landlines to save on cell phone power and load.

If they are at Provident, they are to evacuate once the Marikina River level reaches 17 meters. If evacuation is impossible, they must flee to the emergency structure. Each family member has three days’ worth of clothes packed in bags. During “Falcon,” Alex drove his family to my house and then parked the car on Katipunan Avenue. Manny parked his van in front of my home.

As a Martin sibling, I now officially have a part in the Cabason and Martin family disaster preparedness plan, a plan which, I must say, they executed with admirable speed and calm during typhoon “Falcon.”

Other families in Provident and flood-stricken areas in Luzon have put in place similar contingency measures. Some have taken condo units or a second house, or made arrangements for evacuation with families and friends. Others have built their own emergency structures. My friend Jackie Maniquis, whose family has lived in Provident Village for decades, has life vests on standby, while her next-door neighbor and cousin has a boat.

The lessons of “Ondoy,” learned amid such pain, death and destruction, have brought out the ingenuity and the resourcefulness of the Pinoy. Indeed, the Pinoy spirit remains unsinkable.

When in Cebu City, please visit gregmelep.com for your retirement and real estate needs.

US babies learn ‘self-rescue’ from drowning

Agence France-Presse

Photo taken from Infant Swimming Resource

DALE CITY—Some see it as a potential life-saver, others as tantamount to child abuse: controversy is brewing in the United States over “self-rescue” classes to prevent babies from drowning.

Victoria timidly floats on her back in a swimming pool not far from the US capital, Washington. If she moves too much she will swallow a mouth full of water. Victoria is 10 months old.

Wearing a pink one piece swimsuit, the little one comes to Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) meetings Monday through Friday to learn a controversial method of drowning prevention for children as young as six months old.

“At the beginning, she was a little fussy, but she got used to it very quickly,” said 31-year-old Sara, whose daughter can now turn herself over in the water and float flat on her back. “It takes a lot of dedication but it is definitely worth it. I know she can save herself.”

Each day, mother and daughter drive two hours to the Dale City pool in Virginia, where Katie Smith teaches the technique during 10-minute courses spread over four to six weeks.

The “self-rescue” method, designed to teach a child who accidentally falls into the water to roll onto his or her back and float, is taught in the United States and 11 other countries, according to company website infantswim.com.

At 20-months-old, Evan can swim underwater and kick his feet to turn face up and breathe. “The first times he cried but because he was doing something new. Now, he cries when he gets out of the water!” said his mother Wendy.

“I still watch her, but if I turn away I am not so nervous,” said 37-year-old Amy, mother of four-year-old Gaby.

But the method has its detractors.

Risks with infant swimming

“Some of the techniques that anyone can see on the Internet right now could and should be viewed as, at the very least, child abuse,” said Jim Reiser, an instructor who preaches a gentler approach to child swimming.

Reiser was appalled watching the YouTube video “Lincoln in ISR“, which shows an instructor letting a one-year-old repeatedly sink into a pool, pulling himself up and catching his breath between swallowed water and tears.

“I had to turn it off,” Reiser said. “I was in tears and sick to my stomach. Imagine what the child was thinking but couldn’t verbalize because he was too young. If the teacher was doing that to an adult, the adult would think the guy was trying to kill him.”

When AFP contacted the mother of the child featured in the video, Jennifer Feagans, she said 4-year-old Lincoln now “adores” the water. “I know that video of Lincoln is hard to watch but he is an amazing swimmer now,” she said.

Richard Lichenstein, a pediatric emergency medical physician at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore, Maryland, does not recommend the method.

“The technique does not teach a baby to swim nor can it be conclusively proven that it teaches an infant to survive,” he said. “Worse it may give a parent the false sense that their child will not drown or knows how to swim.

“Infants can become hypothermic from exposure, get water intoxication from swallowing water and develop gastrointestinal and skin infections. There are risks associated with infant swimming,” Lichenstein added.

In 2007 there were 525 accidental drownings among infants from one to six years old, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.