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Despite
being a major rice-milling center for
Central Luzon,
Bocaue in Bulacan isn’t humming with as much activity as
last year.
For one,
this could be traced to less palay from Nueva Ecija and
even Isabela being milled before being shipped to Metro
Manila. Also, Bulacan traders who buy the milled rice
and who naturally have warehouses filled with rice
haven’t been compensated by the government when their
warehouses were, uhm, inspected and their cavans of rice
confiscated.
****
After 20
years of managing the
Quezon Memorial Circle,
the nongovernment Quezon City Parks Development
Foundation Inc. was informed by letter last month that
the city government of
Quezon City
will take over the park middle of this year.
It seems
Mayor Sonny Belmonte has found P500 million to redevelop
the park, truly a significant budget increase from the
less than P50 million that the foundation has spent over
the past 20 years.
As
everybody knows, the memorial circle is the property of
the Philippine Tourism Authority while the pylon, which
also serves as the tombs of Commonwealth President
Manuel Quezon and his wife, Aurora, is owned by the
National Historical Institute. The city government
manages the park although that was contracted out from
the start to the privately owned foundation, which
included among its incorporators Judy Araneta-Roxas of
the Araneta Commercial Center, journalist Ernie Evora
Sioco, media entrepreneur Menardo Jimenez, banker turned
insurance man Arsenior Bartolome III, and former Social
Security System administrator Rene Valencia.
****
Did you
know 1:
Overseas workers headed for the Middle East have to pay
an additional $50 per seat to get a confirmed ticket.
You see, each of the five airlines that fly directly to
the
Middle East normally allot only 50 percent of their 300 seats for Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs). Since about 1,500 OFWs head for the
desert every day, this means OFWs who want to leave as
soon as possibly are willing to pay more for their air
fare.
Did you
know 2:
Demand
for ninja (Japanese assassin) masks is very much in
demand, particularly among the college and young working
adults crowd.
The idea
here is to hold ninja parties, where invited guests
(dressed in all black, of course, can link up and, well,
do their thing without the possible morning-after
embarrassment. Real names are optional.
Did you
know 3:
A
biotechnology company called Servac Phils. has developed
an antirabies serum from the antibodies of horses. The
serum will be commercially available by end-2008.
****
An
American company is eyeing the country as a supplier of
malunggay-based biodiesel feedstock. The amount of
feedstock required translates to about 500,000 hectares
planted to malunggay.
As
everybody knows, malunggay, which has higher Vitamin C
levels than citrus fruits and carries more calcium than
milk, is readily available as edible-moringa oil. |
