International container port eyed in northern Aurora

CASIGURAN, Aurora, February 9, 2011-The Philippine government and the South Korean government eyed an international container port inside the Freeport zone of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO) here to accommodate the export products of five (5) provinces in the boundaries of Central Luzon and Northern Luzon.

APECO deputy administrator Ramon Fernando told newsmen here that the Korean Export-Import Bank has already commissioned a consortium composed of the Dasan Engineering and DY Engineering companies to do the feasibility study for three (3) months for the international container port through the extension of a $300,000 or roughly P15-million grant.

Last month, Fernando said that a high-level team from the consortium led by project coordinator Shan Sheonghan Kim conducted an ocular inspection of the site of the container port project in Pagas Point in Barangay Dibacong along the Casiguran Bay.

Kim was accompanied in the trip by Korean engineering coordinators Se Wook Yeo, Ji Hoon Lee and Hyuk-Yoon Kwon where the delegation was very much impressed with the potentials of an international container port in Casiguran.

“Bidding of the project was already conducted last December in South Korea,” said Fernando, adding that with the presence of an international container port, products for export will no longer have to pass through the container port in Manila and the container port project will accommodate produce in the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino. (Jason de Asis)

Environmentalists lauded PNoy’s EO to fight illegal logging

BALER, Aurora, February 9, 2011-The environmentalist group Noble Blue Falcons International lauded President Benigno S. Aquino’s order declaring an indefinite log ban all over the country, saying that amidst a series of landslides and flooding in many areas of the country due to the La Niña phenomenon the issued Executive Order 23 last week implementing the indefinite log ban and creating an Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force where the group claim incessant logging further aggravated the situation.

The Blue Falcons, represented by National Chairman Prof. Joseph Beatriz Usita, declared their support to the issuance of the executive order calling it PNoy’s fulfilled promise and a “triumph of environmentalists who sacrificed so much to save our remaining forest cover”.

In his statement, it stated that as defenders of Aurora's Forests, the Noble Blue Falcons International, Environmentalists, Peace Crusaders supports E.O.No.23 of President P-Noy declaring a logging Moratorium nationwide.

The group also called for a stop in the “conspiracy of power and greed” and personal enrichment at the expense of the environment.

“Let us end the corruption among inept government personnel,” Usita furthered.

The Blue Falcons started in 1996 and has around 8,000 “green armies” in its personnel that continue to press for reforms and fight for a stop in illegal logging especially in Aurora province.

“Nagsimula tayong makibaka noong 1996, wala kahit anuman maliban sa bitbit na malinis na simulaing ipagtanggol ang kalikasan,” the Blue Falcons exclaimed-we started the fight in 1996, carrying nothing but a pure resolve of fighting for the environment. (Jason de Asis)