Fund lack dims Ecija town’s bid to revert to old name

GEN. TINIO, Nueva Ecija – The municipal government’s once-determined  bid to revert to its old name Papaya has dimmed due to lack of funds.

          Vice Mayor Ferdinand Bote said they need P2.5 million to push through with a referendum on the proposal to rename the town. “We have no money to conduct the referendum so this proposal is almost gone,” Bote said.

          Bote was referring to a six-year-old proposal seeking to have the town renamed into Papaya. The proposal was contained in a resolution passed in 2008 by the previous municipal council chaired by Bote and approved by Mayor Virgilio Bote.

          The resolution was forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan by the Bote administration.

          Mayor Bote said that for over 166 years of the town’s recorded existence as a community, its people and those from other parts of the country and even abroad affectionately refer to the town as Papaya and its citizens as Papayanos. He said it is sovereign upon the citizens of Gen. Tinio to adopt a name fitting and appropriate which relates to “our hearts, customs and traditions, and which embodies our aspirations, hopes and dreams.”

          This town, named after the great Novo Ecijano General Manuel Bundoc-Tinio, was originally known as Barrio de Papaya of the nearby town of Peñaranda. In the bell of the old Catholic Church, the words “Barrio de Papaya 1875” were inscribed as well as in the oldest written biography of Mamerto Ramos Padolina who was born in the town in 1845.

          The barrio was officially declared as the municipality of Papaya on January 7,1921.

          In 1957, then-Nueva Ecija second district Rep. Celestino Juan sponsored in the Third Congress House Bill 4692 changing the name of the municipality into Gen. Tinio in honor of the general, who took part in the 1896 Revolution against Spain. On June 20 of that same year, Papaya was officially renamed General Tinio by virtue of Republic Act 1665.    

          The proposal to rename this town into Papaya first came out during a joint executive-legislative meeting on  January 14,2008 by the municipal government. During the meeting, presided by Mayor Bote, development plans were laid out, including the possible conversion of the town into a city in 10 years.

          On October 13,2008, the Sangguniang Bayan passed Resolution 117 recommending to the SP to revert the town’s name into Papaya.

          The issue stirred a controversy in 2010 after the resolution got stalled in the SP, prompting Mayor Bote to assail his ally Vice Gov. Jose Gay Padiernos and other SP members, accusing them of sleeping on the job. He subsequently resigned as president of the provincial chapter of the League of Municipalities and as a member of the Unang Sigaw Partido ng Pagbabago of Gov. Aurelio Umali and Padiernos allegedly over the SP’s foot-dragging on the issue.

          Padiernos denied sitting on the proposal, saying there were processes to be followed in the approval of resolutions emanating from the respective municipal and city councils in the province.

          Vice Mayor Bote said m,uch as they would want to push through with the referendum, one of the requirements by the Commission on Elections before it could revert to its old name, there was not enough resources to do so. (Manny Galvez) 

Jinggoy: PHL must use UN resolution to advance Filipinas’ rights abroad

MANILA-The United Nations’ recent adoption of a resolution on women migrant workers fosters an enabling environment for better international labor diplomacy, which the Philippines must thus maximize to advance the rights of the more than one million Filipinas abroad.

 

This was underscored by Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, chairman of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources Development, as he lauded the UN General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 68/137 on violence against women migrant workers last December 18 during its 68th plenary session.

 

The resolution seeks to protect women living and working abroad, underscoring the promotion of their rights and privileges as well as the cooperation and shared responsibility of countries of origin, transit, and destination to create an environment conducive to their welfare.

 

It urges all countries to grant women migrant workers access to gender-sensitive and transparent mechanisms for airing their problems pertaining to status of contracts, working conditions or labor issues, and advises governments to encourage those concerned, especially the private sector and job agencies involved in recruitment, to focus on funding support for women migrant workers.

 

All governments are likewise urged to consider permitting women migrant workers who are victims of violence to apply for residency permits independently of abusive employers or spouses, and to eliminate abusive sponsorship systems.

 

It welcomes the entry into force on September 5, 2013 of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers and encourages States to ratify it.

 

The resolution was initiated by the Philippines and Indonesia and was co-sponsored by 53 countries from all regions of the world.

 

Also approved during the UN session were the following resolutions that benefit women: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Improvement of the situation of women in rural areas; and Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

 

Based on records, there are about 1.03 million female Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and more than 100,000 of these are domestic workers. Over the years, there have been numerous reports of Filipinas getting exploited and abused abroad.

 

“I understand that our government has been encountering some difficulties in negotiating with other governments for ample protection and better working conditions for migrant Filipina workers. The UN’s adoption of Resolution 68/137 as well as the other women-oriented resolutions will greatly help us in this effort,” Estrada said.