Davao City council committee head on environment Councilor Marissa Abella said residents must segregate garbage from where it emanates, that is from their respective homes.

The residents must already classify their garbage so collection will be systematic, otherwise when sanctions will be imposed they will be spared of the inconvenience.

Abella said they will be strict this time on the city’s garbage problem, noting that the volume will continue to increase if the residents will not cooperate.

The barangay leaders must be active on this even as she said that they must play a major role as they will strengthen the information, education and communication advocacy of proper waste disposal.

City Agriculturist Officer Leonardo Avila III said towards the end of 2009, volume of garbage in Davao City was at 700 tons per day.

He said every Dabawenyo generates about half a kilo of garbage per day.

He also said that if Davao City residents would practice proper waste segregation, the use of the sanitary landfill be will be extended to another 10 years.

The P261-million sanitary landfill built on a 3.8- hectare site has component cell areas where garbage is stored and processed, he said.

He said to make it possible, all the barangays down to households should become fully responsible on managing their solid wastes through segregation. (PNA) scs/Digna D. Banzon

SM City has set a Waste Market Day (WMD) every first Saturday of each month and this December it will be on December 5 where accredited buyers of waste materials will set up a buying booth at the mall’s parking lot to receive the items from the public.  This has already been institutionalize and Dabawenyos bring to the WMD their recyclable items.

Meanwhile both organizers have intensified their campaign on environmental protection and this time they encourage the ICT sector to help address the proper disposal of eWaste.

The IT which is considered among the major pollutants are encouraged to help in reducing power consumption as this sector relies so much on electricity.

Part of their advocacy is to encourage the use of energy-saving computers and they are also campaigning especially to internet cafes to start phasing out Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or the big monitors. This, as most of the parts when not properly disposed, are major pollutants to the environment.

The public is encouraged to use computers or laptops with low energy consumption and remind the public to shut off these units when not in use.

The internet cafes are among heavy users of power with the kind of units they install in their establishments.

On the average, they use at least 400 CRTs and you could just imagine if these things are not properly handled will pause danger to the environment.

Waste materials from computers, laptops and other electronic device are collected and assessed for recycling at the WMD. Those parts that could no longer be used will be properly disposed.

The advocacies are simple ways of protecting the environment and by doing so it could help save on energy.

Talks are ongoing with other sectors in the community for them to come up with similar activities so more people could be reached for them to dispose of their eWaste during organized activities like Waste Market Day.

SM City Davao and Nokia Philippines have also carried out a program of waste disposal for defective cellphones and batteries where a booth is stationed in the mall for this purpose

DCCCII consultant for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) committee Andrei Fournier said the technology center will be set up at the DCCCII office along J.P. Laurel where IBM Philippines is donating software worth P1.4 million, while ICT Davao will also be donating three desktop personal computers.

The center could also be used by those who want to develop programs for SMEs for free as most of the basic problem of SMEs is the non-availability of software application and with the center they could develop the appropriate software for their business.

With IBM Philippines starting to move outside of Metro Manila, it has expanded to Davao City lately and their involvement in the project is a welcome development. The technology center will also be launched on November 26.

has launched its cyberzone with Philcom as its wi-fi provider.

SM regional manager for Mindanao Debby A. Go, who led the switch on ceremonies for the mall’s wifi access on October 31, 2009 said the move was to provide people in Mindanao with free access to internet.

“It will be SM’s greatest feature as it launched its free access wi-fi zone anywhere inside the mall. SM mall in Cagayan de Oro City is also a wi-fi zone,” Go said.

SM City Davao was SM’s 24th mall which provides free access to internet.

Joanne A. Abrogar, SM Supermall cyberzone operations manager, said five more malls will be equipped with wi-fi access before end of 2009.

She said by the first quarter of 2010, all SM’s 36 malls around the country would have internet access, one of the value-added services within SM malls with Philcom as their wifi provider.

Meanwhile, Jennifer D. Silan, head of Philcom Sales and Marketing, said that with six megabyte per second, the wi-fi access at SM could allow 1,500 users simultaneously.

Both Abrogar and Silan said they carefully studied the access, including the ban on restricted sites while people access the connection within SM.

Abrogar said that as part of SM’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) it paid particular attention of banning strictly restricted sites.

She said SM had set up a monitoring system even as she encouraged the public to report to SM management any suspicious sites being used.

She said this was a free access and they encouraged the cooperation of everyone in order to maintain continuous connectivity.

Bert Barriga, vice president of Davao Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Council said that the move of SM to align with ICT sector was a milestone and with that in itself was a manifestation that SM was the key to push for community development.

He said with a bandwidth that runs faster, this is already an advantage and we need to capitalize on this by using it to good use.

He said this was also an opportune time as Davao was now a global player, considering that many business process outsourcing companies eyed the city as expansion area.

Part of the launch activity was a photo blogging seminar workshop by Davao’s first female web designer and free lance journalist Jojie Alcantara.

Alcantara said visuals were important in any website but with everybody now into blogging, it was also important that bloggers know some journalism ethics.

“Other than sharing with the participants techniques on photo blogging it is best for them to know that there are ethics to follow because ethics in the formal media also applies in the internet,” she said.

She said this is part of my advocacy to let people understand and learn some media ethics.

Russel D. Alaba, group brand manager for SM Visayas and Mindanao and brand manager Jay J. Mandulara also graced the cyberzone launching.

Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) chair Simeon Marfori II said they support the effort of the present administration to promote entrepreneurship and the Go Negosyo is a way of strengthening the Philippine economy.

The forum is a learning experience for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs and students and offer networking venue for them. It will promote and enhance the role of Davao City SME Center in advocating for entreneurship in Davao City.

The Go Negosyo Davao launch will be held on December 3 and 4 at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with an exhibit that will showcase Davao’s best products. An exhibit will also be held at SM City Davao.

The forum is also intended to provide insights to owners of existing software companies and small and medium enterprises with concens about growth, capitalization and tapping global markets. The Software as a Service (SaaS) Entrepreneur Camp will also be held at the Event Center of SM.

Among the topics to be discussed during the forum are the Ayala Technology Business, Growing and Capitalizing your Software Company – How to Build and Capitalize your Company (The Market Opportunity, Philippine Industry – Associations, Incentives and Advantages), Funding & Capital Sources; International Marketing – How To Market your Products and Services Internationally – Developoing a Target Market, Getting Above the Noise, Maximing the Exposure.

After the workshop, the participants are required for the final submission of updated prototype business concepts.

Also part of the event is the showcase of products of the Most Outstanding SMEs in Davao Region, the One Town One Product of the Department of Trade and Industry, Small Technology Upgrade of the Department of Science and Technology, the Davao Branding Program and the Davao City Government’s Beneficiary of Mag Negosyo Ta Day Program.

The Davao Go Negosyo event is implemented by DCCCII in cooperation with SM City Davao, Davao City SMED Council, Information Communications and Technology (ICT) Davao, Inc. and Philippine Software Industry Association.

Three of the successful entrepreneurs in the country already signified to join the launch including Julie’s Bakeshop while Chamber already talked to Presidentiables Gibo Teodoro, Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar to share their experiences in businesses.  “They might be in government but they have some experiences in business that they could share to the people.

Ed P. Bonoan, senior general manager and head for sales and marketing division, during its First Epson Davao Convention recently held here, believes that there is a lot of potential in the area, but the company has not maximized its presence.

Bonoan said Mindanao only contributes five percent of its total market share and they would like to increase their growth here by tapping not only individual but also corporations.

He said they introduced a different approach of reaching out to their clients from distributors, resellers and end-users.

“Epson feels the need to educate the market. We introduced a more personalized approach through convention and briefing in this way, they could build rapport and follow ups and provide regular updates to clients,” he noted.

Bonoan said they want their clients to fully understand their product and use its full potential.

He said they should also know that their units are being manufactured as environment-friendly to include its energy star compliant and energy saving features, among others.

Bonoan said they also follow waste recycling in their manufacturing practices.

He said the Philippine market is doing good maintaining a double-digit growth.

Bonoan attributed this to the recovery of the economy and their sector is among those that was spared from the impact of the recession.

In fact, he said, in the three manufacturing sites that Epson maintains in the Philippines in Lipa City, Laguna and Cebu, they continue to recruit personnel where total manpower accounted to 4,000 Filipino workers.

He said their company believes that closer customer engagement entails being responsive to the different needs and requirements of every customer, city, province or region.

“We adjust our business practices and deploy more people to touch base with our key growth areas such as Davao and we are prepared to support businesses and customers based in this city to help them achieve success with the use of our global technologies,” he said.

He said through the innovation of its core technologies –the Micro Piezo print technology and 3LCD technology– Epson serves to deliver what the industry and customers demand in digital imaging.

Epson’s corporate presence in the Philippines commenced in 1998 and it grew rapidly into a billion peso company in a span of few years from its establishment due to its client-oriented approach to its business management style and innovation.

In the Philippines, it has an extensive network of 72 Authorized Service Centers nationwide with more than 78 dealers and more than 500 shops across the country.

The Philippines also houses the company’s 2nd Solution Center in the South and South East Asian region.

Cristie S. Angeles, project director for outreach program of SM Foundation who led the launching of its 15th batch of “SM Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers Training” said about 130 farmers are participating in the 2nd batch training, the first was composed of 100 farmers held in a farmlot in Marilog, this city last year.

She said this project is to empower farmers through season-long training on improved and doable agricultural technology conducted by Harbest Agribusiness Corporation (HAC) in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture and the City Agriculture Office.

Actual training started on July 21, 2009 up to October 2009 where the trainees completed 12 sessions and their training was capped with a Harvest Festival of selling the vegetable that they grow at the SM mall area.

Arsenio Barcelona, president of HAC said their partnership with SM had already trained some 1,500 farmers that they conducted in the different parts of the country among them in Cebu, Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Batangas, Iloilo City and Pangasinan.

He said it is a step by step training where farmers are taught the proper way of growing vegetables that could produce not only more yield but quality crops.

He said they will grow the “pinakbet and chopseuy” varieties of vegetables namely squash, tomato, eggplant, onion, ampalaya, pechay, lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, watermelon, etc.

The farmers are also taught commercial planting he said and this include giving them knowledge on management and marketing.

Barcelona said 80 percent of the fertilizer they use in the training are organic even as he said that they will also teach farmers the controlled use of pesticides.  They will also be taught how to harvest the crops, he added.

Meanwhile Angeles said the farmer’s produce will be sold during the Harvest Festival also at SM grounds where a “tiange” will be set up.

She also said they are looking into how these trained farmers could move up into supplying the market of good quality vegetables.  “We will be organizing them and find out how they could sustain the production,” she said.

Barcelona on the other hand said that 40 percent of the first batch of trainees in Davao are already into commercial vegetable farming and are now regular supplier to vegetable distributors of the city.

“Our objective really is to help these farmers bring these produce to the market in that way their quality of living  would also improve,” he said.

Bonifacio A. Apura, regional executive director of DENR XI said they had introduced the technology to different sectors in the community saying that it generated good results although a lot of work still has to be done.

With the volume of garbage that is being produced and using the technology he said these waste products could be converted into charcoal of better quality.

He said the DENR charcoal is a solid fuel dervied from carbonized leaves, twigs, stem and other farm and urban wastes and compacted into briquettes.  The charcoal is easy to ignite and burns completely in at least 50 minutes.

He said with this charcoal it can lessen wood charcoal consumption of poultry farms, households and other domestic businesses. Every year these charcoal users consume about 5.4 metric cubic meters of fuel wood from the forest and woodlands or an equivalent of 1.35 million metric tons of charcoal.  And for every ton of briquettes produced, about 88 trees are conserved.

Citing comnparative analysis of the type of charcoal required per household he said for a day’s cooking of three meals would need 3.5 kilograms of ordinary charcoal, 2.01 kg of DENR non-crbonized charcoal and 1.69 kg of DENR carbonized charcoal.

Part of the plan is the setting up of P2 million fund for the acquisition of eight complete set of charcoal briquettor that will be deployed in the different provinces of Davao Region although Apura did not give details yet as to how this will be carried out.

But he said they are looking at the volume of waste for instance in Davao City for durian shells that during peak season just go to the garbage pile. These waste materials when carbonized and converted into charcoal could supply the demand of charcoal here.

He also said that tons and tons of buko shells are also being thrown as waste and the excesses of bananas including the trunks could also be a good source that are abundant in Davao del Norte.

Meanwhile Engr. Santiago R. Baconguis, chief science research specialist of DENR Manila who talked on Fueling Biogas during the 9th Recyclable Collection Event held Tuesday at SM City Entertainment Plaza revealed that for a day’s barbecue about 2 million trees are cut to supply the charcoal requirement.

“Using charcoal briquettes for barbecue will save us from cutting of trees and these happens in December where the demand of these kind of food including lechon manok is high,” he said.

He admitted that although charcoal briquette is now produced in the Philippines, these products are not yet patronize domestically even as he said that big groceries are already selling the product.

The supply he said is not that big locally because most of our producers export their products to international market in Korea, Japan, Bruneir, US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.

In the export market it is sold equivalent to P40 to P50 per kilo while locally it is sold at P25 per kilo and this could already meet the cooking need of a household for one day.

Banconguis also said that there are eight exporters in Davao for the charcoal briquette while total number of exporters in the country numbered to about 20.

On the other hand a non-government organization in General Santos City has adopted the technology where it produces charcoal briquette and supply the product to the local market.

Jeryl G. Andraje, holistic development facilitator of Share An Opportunity Philippines (SAOP) said that one worker could produce 60 to 70 kilos per day and the supply is being distributed within General Santos City and South Cotabato.

He said the local market there are already aware of the product and in fact they got orders from local buyers of not less than 100 kilos per week per client.

He said what they like about the livelihood opportunity is that it can reduce waste and at the same time help preserve the environment.

Jovani Tomale traveled to Reno, Nevada in May to present a computer program that detemine the sex of a Philippine Eagle and took home 2nd Special Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA).

Tomale, now an SM Foundaion scholar and studying accountancy freshman of the Ateneo de Davao University, formulated the computer software during his senior year at Davao City National High School with the supervision of Aristoniel Cabonilas, research consultant and Vladimer Jobayashi of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao.

He said he learned during one of their field trips at the conservation breeding facility in Davao that the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) had a problem determining the sex of Philippine Eagles.

He designed a computer program which systematically determines the sex of a Philippine Eagle using the eagle’s weight, height, age, etc. using the data from the PEF as basis for the program.

PEF research coordinator Jayson Ibanez said data from eagles whose sex are already determined were entered into a software and the results were promising as it did not return a single incorrect finding,

Tomale’s software competed against the works of more than 1,500 exceptional high school students from more than 50 countries.

He said he hopes that his study helps the Philippine Eagle Foundation on increasing the dwindling number of Philippine Eagles.

The software is yet to be adopted by PEF and has not been tested on a newly hatched eaglet even as Ibanez said that Tomale’s work is a welcome addition to the PEF’s variety of tools on its conservation work.

PEF biologist Ana Mae Sumaya said the tool is really a big help in their conservation considering that they just estimate whether the eaglet is male or female but failed on many occasions.  The other method is for them to wait for the eagles to reach sexual maturity which is at five years for female and seven for males by then the sex of the eales is easily detemined by observing breeding behavior through males mount while females ift their tail feathers to allow copulation.

Right now there are 35 eagles at the PEF conservation site with 17 females and 18 males.

PEF communications manager Tatit Quiblat on the other hand said one Philippine Eagle occupies 7,000 hectares of forest but with the status of our forest now there is not enough for everyone because based on data they gathered the country is losing about 270,000 hectares of forest and this is an alarming figure.

She also said the Philippine Eagle is in the global list of endangered species and PEF’s aims to get the bird delisted.

“This is our indicator for success and we want to increase the population of the eagles,” she said.

She said they embark an Adoption Program and right now they have 17 benefactors even as she said that the eagles in the wild also need to be monitored.

To adopt an eagle would cost a benefactor P100,000 each year whether in captivity or in the wild saying that they need to monitor also eagle’s nest and put protective measures as well like supporting forest guards and others.

She urge the public to help in saving the eagle and the forest as well by reducing the threats in the environment.