Nine beauties of CCC- UNP Candon branch vied for the Miss Earth CCC- UNP crown.

The winners were Cherry Jadormeo ( Candidate no. 2 ) Miss Air, Corazon Sonio ( Candidate no. 1) Miss Water, Joanna Marie Friala ( Candidate No. 5) Miss Fire and the grand winner was Phoebe Ann Eugenio ( Candidate no 7) Miss Earth CCC- UNP 2009. (thank you to JhaJha Habab for giving us the results)

See some of the photos of the competition held at their gynmasium recently.

The City Treasury Office of Candon earned a coveted Certificate of Recognition by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for its frontline services.

The CSC handed the City Treasury Office the Public Service Delivery Audit ( PASADA award.

The recognition is CSC’s pro-active mechanism installed to address the problems of inefficiency of the government’s first line of contact with the citizenry.

PASADA provided a scheme through which the performance of government frontline services can be systematically checked and evaluated. The program operated on a simple strategy by sending a pool of volunteers that will check and test out public frontline offices.

“ We are very grateful with the recognition. Our efforts in rendering services were appreciated,” City Treasurer Bernardita Mati said.

The awarding ceremony was held on September 2, 2009, which was one of the highlights of the celebration of the 109th Philippine Civil Service Anniversary with the theme “HONORING OUR HEROES IN REPUBLIC SERVICE- Responsive, Ethical Public Servants with Vision, Impact, Commitment and Excellence”.

The services of the Treasury Office had been tested and simulated by three groups of PASADA volunteers posed as ordinary customers availing of government frontline services on three (3) separate occasions from October to December 2008.

CSC Assistant Director Bienvenida Ragucos said that among the factors considered during the audit are behavior of the employees manning the counter such as courtesy, responsiveness and professionalism; the quality of service such as speed of the queue and clear guidelines: and the working condition or set up of the office.

Mati said they were really surprise with the recognition because they were not inform of such CSC program.

“We were really clueless about it. Again we are happy that we got positive reports on our works,” Mati said.

Mayor Allen G. Singson congratulated the City Treasury Office for their dedication to public service delivery and as the first recipient of award for frontline services.

“It is an added honor to the city and a positive reflection of the excellent services provided by our employees at the City Treasury office,” Singson said.

(contributed article by HRMO Doris Manzano and LBJ)

Ikkis Ti Candon: Marso 25, 1898

Virgilio S. Naungayan
Darapidap, Candon City

Lumabas dagiti tugot iti lanitok dagiti basnot
Iti panawen ti kullayot umukuok nga ut-ot
Rienda ti dangkok alimpatok ti kinarungsot
Gabsuon a tuok nagtalimudok a nakasiglot.

Nagumok dagiti dingraw, kumaw ken bakulaw
Iti ili nga inagaw ginamsaw pati kinapanglaw
Timek ar-araraw nagtagawataw a dung-aw
Nagintek ti am-ammangaw kimmubawbaw ti aligagaw.

Kutkutiman a dagensen nariing dagiti nakem
A kemkem iti gemgem buneng a natadem
Aneng-eng awan buteng nabibinigen a saem
Wayawaya allangonen inadipen ti panawen.

Yaalsa nairubbuat iti lab-at dagiti tagbat
Ilalasat iti tay-ak nasiglat a mannakigubat
Ridaw nanarpaak nasigpasigpat dagiti gabat
Nalettat dagiti sigkat tallukap dagiti batibat.

Iti temtem nayatang kampilan ti sanaang
Nagalipaga ti beggang kaipapanan ti dangadang
Nagkulpa ti darang naganggagang ti dangadang
Init nagparang iti kaunggan ti kaltaang.

Mabukra a lagip maikunukon lukong kadagiti barukong
Rambak a puon mataginayon a panaguummong
Talna ken dur-as maibungon nagtipon a bendision
Ikkis ti Candon: daton iti sidong ti agnanayon.

(Editor’s note: the poem was read by Mr. Naungayan during the celebration of Bannawag diamond tree planting at the City Plaza)

Mass Blood Donation project:
Dr. Singson thanks blood donors and sponsors

It was for cause, many responded and the most so far
The Saint Joseph Institute batch 1984-88 led mass blood donation program produced 45 blood donors.

The donors were led no less by the group’s President Dr. Ericson Singson.

“I express my heart felt thanks to the blood donors. I hope they will continue doing it. I also thank the sponsors of the project,” Singson said.

The project is a joint sponsorship of the office of the Deputy Speaker, city government led by City Mayor Allen Singson, the city health office, Philippine Red Cross- Ilocos Sur Chapter and Saint Joseph Institute Class- 1984-88 (elementary- high school).

Helping out are the members of the Citizen’s Involvement and Service ( CIS), the association of Punong Barangays and radio station DZTP for the information dissemination.

“We support this endeavor because of the positive impact particularly concerning health concerns,” City Mayor Singson said who also came over to personally witnessed the procedures.

The one-day mass blood donation project produced the most number of blood donors so far in the city compared to the recent blood letting projects done in the city according to the PNR- Ilocos Sur chapter.

Dr. Singson said that the massive media campaign, the support of the government and belief of the donors for the cause of the program made it successful.

He also explained the benefits of donating blood.

“It will stimulate the production of new blood cells. It will refresh our circulatory system and reduce the excess iron in our blood,” Singson said.

Singson was helped by his elementary and high school classmates who wore red-shirts.

Also helping are the officials and staff of the City Health Office led by City Health Officer Dr. Narcisco Ramos Jr and Assistant City Health Officer Dr. Joy Villanueva who personally led their staff in assisting the team of the PNR- Ilocos Sur Chapter in the blood letting project.

The bulk of the donors came from the SJI 84-88 led by Singson himself; the members of the AFP, PNP BJMP and BFP; and CIS.
(LBJ)

The month of July is marked as Nutrition Month. Nevertheless, the city of Candon usually starts a bit earlier than the nationwide commemoration. Candon City usually kicks-off with it with a tree planting activity, coincide with the city’s celebration of its Fiesta ti bantay (feast of the forest) every June 30th of the year.

Different exotic fruit trees were planted at the area adopted by the City Nutrition Council at the watershed development and reforestation project in barangay San Andres.

“ALLEN” as this year’s nutrition battle cry coined by our City Nutrition Action Officer; Nimfa P. Pascua was jibed in context with this year’s nutrition theme: Wastong Nutrition ang Kailangan, Lifestyle Diseases Iwasan.” “ALLEN” spells for Air we breathe, Liquid we imbibe and Lifestyle coupled with regular Exercise and proper Nutrition, It is an expression of City Mayor Allen Singson’s total advocacy on city nutrition program.

The celebration was formally opened with the launching of weight management program, which was highlighted by weighing and waist measurement of enthusiastic city employees and nutrition counselling conducted by our city nutritionist in coordination with the City Health Office.

The city nutrition office infused by the influx of enthusiasts and support given by the city government of Candon leave no stone unturned to carry-out with its activities queued for the month. The said office took the happenstance an apt opportunity to bring its program closer to the countryside by conducting its advocacy to the different barangays of Candon City.

The penultimate activity of the nutrition month was climaxed by a fun walk participated in by city employees, school teachers, barangay nutrition scholars, barangay health workers and participants from all walks of life. It was wrapped up with activities/events such as “hataw in the park” forefronted by the DepEd, free nutrition
counselling for all ages, lectures on healthy lifestyles given by Dean Malou Gandia of NLAC and food fares.
No less than Director Victoria Mañez graced these culminating events.

Indeed, some good activities never last, that nutrition month has to wind up this year. But the city of Candon through the office of the City Nutrition Action Officer bowed to keep the torch of nutrition program ever flickering from now and onwards. (Eric Gacutan).

This is it: the real Kandong Tree

The City of Candon search of the real kandong tree is over. The Kandong Tree search team led by Spm Oseas Diasen upon the instruction of City Mayor Allen Singson found it and this time with all evidence to prove it.

Kandong trees mean much to every Candonian because it is the most widely believe origin of its name.

Kandong as locally known to Candonians belongs to the family Melastomataceae. Recent research being conducted by the City Agriculture Office says that Melastomatacea is an Ironwood wood family.

It is believed that its lumbers were used to build our first cathedral.
As it is said to be a premium kind of tree species, superior in tensile strength, exceptional quality and outstanding texture. But all these were just mere myths to us present generation.

No one alive now could really single out what does the tree really looks like. Only few descendants of charcoal makers can give only but mirage hints as to the description and information about the tree.

By the way, the search for the real Kandong tree started from a plain discussion to local flocks.

It started out as just one of the topics brought out during our siesta time after a fulfilling boodle fight lunch prelude by a tree planting activity at the Watershed Development and Reforestation Project.

A certain Victor Bay-ongan and Eddie Barillo of barangay San Andres; descendants of earlier charcoal makers, related how kandong trees used to grow along the versants of the said barangay. Drifted by solicitous curiosity, the same group proceeded to the area where the two informants were saying to have a few stand of the said tree. Leaf and wood samples were then obtained for further study.

It was in this context that the City Agriculture Office launched sort of a re-search of the said tree. The team has gone as far as Santiago Island of Bolinao, Pangasinan, Aurora Province, Tabuk in Kalinga and San Emilio, Ilocos Sur. Two of the cited places recognized and identified the same kandong tree.

No less than Mayor Lorenzo “Boy” G. Bragado of San Emilio, Ilocos Sur and several residents of sitio Maguinudua of barangay Lancuas confirmed the presence of Kandong tree in their locality.

Bragado was quote saying “kandong was one of the oldest hardwood tree species we used as lumber and house construction materials before”.

“It used to lush our forest as one of the endemic tree species but because it was one of the most preferred wood for lumbers, it became rare” Mayor Bragado added. In Santiago Island, KASAMA; one of the most noted successful associations in buricraft making use kandong leaves as dye material. The team then tapped the expertise of two (2) foresters/dendrologists from the Agroforestry Department of the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University at Bacnotan to identify the said tree in Bolinao.

To further the search and do not end up to just another fallacious hearsays, technical assistances were sought from the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP), Manila and from the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) at Los Baños, Laguna.

In effect, NMP sent Dr. Domingo Madulid; Scientist IV-Curator and Forester Danilo Tandang of its Botany Division in order to make an ocular evaluation, study and documentation of the tree the City Agriculture Office allegedly claiming as the real kandong tree. Dr. Madulid and Forester Tandang took foliage samples of the tree and compared it with the voucher specimens available at the NMP herbarium.

As a result, the NMP in a sort of initial report, after careful morphological examination identified the tree scientifically as Memecylon lanceolatum, which has a common name in Dendrology (study of trees) as Kandong. The National Museum of the Philippines is the repository and guardian of the Philippines’ natural and cultural heritage which includes flora and fauna. Its Botany Division is tasked primarily to make a systematic inventory of Philippine flora and vegetation.

It maintains the national herbarium which is the reference collection of the different kinds of plants found in this country. At present the collection contains approximately 170,000 specimens.

The search still didn’t stop there. Wood samples were submitted to FPRDI for further recognition via wood physics evaluation. The Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) is one of the line agencies of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

It is the center of scientific breakthroughs and applied technologies on the utilization of forest-based products in the Philippines in response to the need for information and technology on the utilization of timber resources as well as non-wood forest products.

Again, wood samples which were taken from the tree taken from barangay San Andres matched with the seven (7) wood samples kept at the FPRDI archives obtained from seven (7) different provinces which call it kandong.

In order to arrive at impeccable logical deduction as basis for us to institute and establish in our locality through a city ordinance that the said tree is our long lost and the real Kandong tree, we would like to be one-hundred percent sure that it passes through painstaking scientific wood tests, evaluation and verifications.

The city agriculture office has now subjected the tree to wood (cross section and longitudinal examination), leaves, and floral evaluation; seek advices and technical expertise from legitimate scientists, foresters and botanists.

The National Museum of the Philippines is only waiting for the fruit specimen that will be matched up to the specimens at their herbarium before issuing the certification of authentication. Then the never ending search for the real kandong tree will be over. ERIC A. GACUTAN

Search for Kandon Tree Team:

Chairman : Spm Oseas I. Diasen
Project Leader : Elmor L. Leaño
Researcher : Eric A. Gacutan
Documentors : Leoncio G. Balbin Jr.
Arlon Serdenia
Danilo Antalan
Geoffrey Barredo

References/Advisers:
Dr. Domingo Madulid, Phd
Scientist IV-Curator
Botany Div., National Museum of the Philippine

Danilo Tandang
Forester II
National Museum of the Philippines

Fernando Petarque, Jr.
Chief, Anatomy and Dendrology Section-MPED
FPRDI, UP Los Baños, Laguna

Ramiro P. Escobin, PhD
Supervising Sci. Res. Specialist and Scientist I
Anatomy and Dendrology Section
FPRDI, UP Los Baños, Laguna

Dr. Orlando P. Almoite, PhD
Chancellor/Forester
DMMMSU

Mario Cadiente
Professor/Forester
DMMMSU

Ronald Estoque
Professor/Forester
DMMMSU

Another 1000 bags and school supplies for Candon City Grade I pupils

Another year another more than 1,000 bags and school supplies for Grade I pupils of Candon City.

Thanks to the continuous efforts of the city government headed by City Mayor Allen Singson to further help the education sector which is one of the top priorities of the city government.

“We will continue distributing bags and school supplies because it is one way of encouraging pupils to pursue their education especially at the start of their educational climb,” Singson said.

Singson accompanied by City Vice Mayor Nestor Itchon, City Councilors Rhodana Abrero and Rosario Villalobos distributed 1, 219 to 29 primary and elementary schools in the city.

Aside from the bag, school supplies are included like notebooks, papers, pencils, scissor and eraser.

The bag distribution program started in 2005.

The city has now distributed a total of 5, 746 bags.

The bags are designed and made by members of the Alay sa HanapBuhay, a non-governmental organization in Candon with most of the members are housewives. (LBJ)

Candon City Survives Pepeng Wrath

Like other provinces in Northern Luzon, typhoon Pepeng devastated the Candon City as it stayed for more than a week.

The city for a while was engulfed with water and at the mercy of the strong wind. After three strikes of Pepeng, it left behind millions of damages on properties.

Heading the list of damages were infrastructure and agriculture.

More than 100 individuals were evacuated at the city hall which served as the main evacuation area of the city.

The City Disaster Coordinating Council and the newly formed Emergency Response Team were the frontliners of monitor, rescue and relief operations.

Medical check ups were also provided at the city hall for the evacuees as many of them were children.

Candon City is prone to flooding because of the existence of two rivers, Bucong and Oaig Daya, that pass through the city.

The city government needs millions of pesos to build the enough infrastructure safeguards like the river controls and others.

The City funds can not fund all because of the huge project cost.

The city officials made already numerous representations and appeals to the national government but remain unanswered.

Photos below are scene during Pepeng’s strike, rescue and monitoring operations and the medical check up done.

“Attention: SJI Classes 1955 / 1956 / 1957″

Another Reunion is being planned for January or February or March 2011.

Please contact the following:

Class 1955 – Ester Gadia Guirnalda, Candon City, Ilocos Sur,
Elsa Franche Delarosa, Richmond, TX-281/545-8865
Glenda Escobar Pascua -Evanston, IL – 847/864.0881
Adora Abaya Carbajal, Novaliches, Quezon City

Class 1956 – Myrna Martinez Bandril,Chino Hills,CA- 909/393-3280. danmyr@yahoo.com
Serafin/Fely Consolacion Imperial-Las Vegas,NV, 702/562-6938, impersera@cox.net
Joe Pajarillo- Villarica, Candon City, ISur
Virgilio Borje, Candon City, ISur
Teresita Gambito Sia, Candon City, ISur

Class 1957 – Linda Crisologo Gocho, Candon City, ISur,
Boy Feraldo, Candon City, ISur
Ignas Falgui – Winnipeg,Canada, 204/489-1784, lifalgui@mts.net
Dodong/Susan Fabros Abaya, Lambertville MI, 734/856-3924, dsabaya@bex.net
Amelia Abaya Retodo,Hayward CA, melyretodo@yahoo.com

Feel free to contact the above for inputs and suggestions. We’ll keep you posted on
additional information as it progresses. Please provide your email addresses to the
above contacts for quick updates. No one will be denied attendance for any reason.
All are welcome!

We look forward to another grand and memorable reunion. Thanks for all your
support and cooperation. Good health and may the good Lord bless and keep you all!

Until we meet again in Candon City- 2011.

Note to Contacts – Please excuse the inclusion of your names above before contacting you.
They wanted to send an early announcement of the planned reunion in 2011, so that
attendees can plan well ahead in a timely manner. My apologies!

Susan Abaya

Comedian/actress pokwang announced in wowowee the upcoming International Candonian Reunion (INCARI) on Oct 9-11, 2009 in Las Vegas, USA. view it