Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Manila Hotel Population & Development Congress

Two busloads of tri-media participants staying at the Lotus Garden Hotel and City Garden Hotel located at Mabini corner Padre Faura, Ermita, Manila were fetched as early as 8:00 a.m., Nov. 25, 2009.
We were brought to the Manila Hotel (a few kilometers away, along Roxas Blvd.) Centennial Hall for the congress, where we were ushered in and occupied seats around more or less 8 round tables. I was seated at table no. 90. The whole function room was filled with PopCom officials and employees from all regions of the country (Region 1 to 13, CAR, NCR, etc).
The program, hosted by DZMM station manager Angelo Palmones, started at 10:00 a.m. with an opening remarks and updates from Dir. Tomas Osias of the Population Commission.
The affair was also an awarding ceremony for best practices in Natural Family Planning-Responsible Parenthood, which was won by the Municipality of Tanay, Rizal. and two other municipalities from Visayas and Mindanao.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

4Star Joins National PopDev Congress at Manila Hotel

Participants of the three-day media advocacy workshop held last September 24-26, 2009 held at Batangas City shall once again converge at Lotus Garden Hotel in Malate, Manila starting November 24 to join the 2009 Population and Development Congress to be held at the Manila Hotel on November 25.
The Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare, Inc. (PNGOC) spearheads the gathering of tri-media practitioners from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to participate in this year's population congress.
Various tri-media articles will be presented to highlight the accomplishments of various media practitioners engaged by PNGOC for popularization of the Natural Family Planning - Responsible Parenthood program.
4STAR is the appropriate name chosen by Calabarzon and Mimaropa participants for their group, headed by Sunstar-People's Courier GM/executive editor. 4 STAR stands for Southern Tagalog Advocates of Reproductive Health. Calabarzon is composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas and Quezon while Mimaropa stands for the provinces of Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.
Expected to join the 2009 congress who already signified their intentions are the following tri-media practitioners: Monina Ann B. PeƱaflorida, publisher, The Rising South Tribune (Cavite); Dick C. Cantos, news reporter/program host, Radyo ng Bayan-Lucena City; Arbie C. Plata, broadcaster, DZAT(Lucena); Gerald Gene R. Querubin, correspondent, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Susan Crisostomo, publisher/editor, Laguna Express; Toribio Crisostomo, owner/publisher, Morning Chronicle (Laguna); Lolita Estrellado, editor-in-chief, The Southern Tagalog Herald-Batangas; Nena Estrellado Mallari, proprietress, The Herald Group of Publications (Laguna, Batangas, Quezon); Joenald Rayos, editor-in-chief, Dyaryo Veritas (Batangas); Suico R. Romero, editor-in-chief, Romblo Sun; Antonino E. Salamat, columnist, Southern Tagalog Herald-Batangas; Madonna T. Virola, free-lance practitioner; Leonila Villaflor, publisher, Ang Dyaryo Natin (Laguna); and yours truly, publisher-editor, Makiling Journal (Laguna), at the same time editorial consultant of Newskey Express (Laguna) and Dateline Weekly (Cavite). I am also currently serving as Trustee for Luzon of the Philippine Press Institute, the national association of Philippine newspapers.