Maniolas

A LEADING meat processor in northern Mindanao recently opened its plant to produce more quality and bigger, in volume, products to supply the need of consumers in the island. In its grand plant opening in Barangay Alae, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, Slers Industry Inc.(SII), the maker of the famous ham, and other breakfast meat products, said that with many other brands of processed food flooding the market in the country, it opted to supply only the Mindanao consumers, a business decision that the company said makes more sense. Mercedes Pelaez-Mejia, SII managing director, said that they want their products sold in Mindanao rather than compete in the Luzon and Visayas markets where it is more capital-extensive. The new SII plant, at present, processes five tons of pork a day, producing ham, tocino, logganisa, bacon, sausage and pastrami, a beef by-product. Slers employs about 150 workers at present. The Pelaez family started the business in 1969 when their mother Fely sold her homemade ham to neighbors at P1 a kilo in Camp Philips, Bukidnon, where her husband Raul worked with Del Monte Philippines.It was by word of mouth that Fely Pelaez’s ham was known to customers coming from different parts of the country. Orders are received anytime of the year, but most especially at the start of the yuletide season. Mejia said the brand name Slers came about when the Pelaez siblings started expanding the ham business in 2006 and produced other meat products. Slers stands for the names of the Pelaez Read More …

THE Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC) reported that Mindanawons can expect around 580 megawatts (MW) of additional power by 2015. According to their accomplishment report for 2013, the bulk of the power supply will be coming from the Therma South Inc.’s 300 MW Coal-fired Energy Project in Barangay Binugao, Toril, Davao City and Barangay Inawayan, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. The plant is expected to begin commercial operations within the first semester of 2015. By the third quarter of 2015, the first unit of the Sarangani Energy Corporation’s 200 MW Southern Mindanao Coal-fired Power Station, located in Maasim, Sarangani, will go online supplying 100 MW to the grid. Also, in the same quarter, the Puyo Hydroelectric Power Project of the First Gen Mindanao Hydropower Corp. in Jabonga, Agusan del Norte is expected to generate 30MW. Lastly, the first unit of the 300MW SMC Davao Power Plant Project of the San Miguel Consolidated Power Corporation in Malita, Davao del Sur will be supplying 150MW to the grid by the end of 2015. “The completion of committed power projects by 2015 would bring availability of excess supply including contingency reserves in Mindanao for the first time since 2009,” the MPMC said in their report. The MPMC also reported that by 2016 an expected power supply of 720MW will go online and another 550.6 MW by 2017. “Now it can be said, that while Luzon braces for a precarious power situation next year…Mindanao, on the other hand, is starting to generate enough,” said Read More …

LAST August 28, as the feast of St. Augustine Cathedral came to an end, DFI came up with a spectacular Pyro Musical Show at Duaw Park. Sponsored by Centrio Ayala Mall, the dancing lights flew to the sky to the beat of ‘What Makes Beautiful,’ ‘Let it Go,’ ‘Titanium,’ and ‘Starships’. “Centrio Mall wanted the Pyro-Musical Show to be as festive as it is. So we picked these songs, popular songs that became hits in the past months blending with the colors of festivity and some fan shapes that when exploding to the sky create shapes,” said Orvi Plaza of Dragon Fireworks CDO. Seen in different angles were lights that shaped into festival headdresses, angels, and other objects that represent the fiesta spirit. Plaza revealed that preparing for a Pyro-Musical Show is not an easy task. “For at least three months, we already started discussing and preparing for the show. Prior to the Pyro Musical, there’s the brainstorming for the music, the shapes, color, we make it too, because our fireworks are custom – made, then we have a trial show to test the fireworks, and all the other preparations,” he added. Witnessed by City Mayor Oscar Moreno, some of the city officials and passersby who flocked under the Ysalina bridge upon seeing the sky lighted up with pretty lights, the shouting of the people is enough to tell that the pyro-musical show went on successfully despite the pouring rain. ‘Behind the pretty lights’ “Why paint the town red, when Read More …

INDEED, when will the US ever learn? Hardly had the ink dried on the piece we wrote last week about the subject, than news of ISIS militants killing American journalist James Foley came out. In the irony of ironies, Foley was supposedly executed—Jihadi style—by a British-born militant; a person born to a country with the closest of ties to the US. Is there anything else to blame for this, apart from the United States’ way of dealing with international crises? At the risk of some foreign policy expert already coining the phrase, the best way to describe it is the “expediency doctrine.” By this, I mean the foreign policy equivalent of “the means justifying the ends.” Arguably, the threat of ISIS would probably not have surfaced, had the US done its homework in Iraq. But it decided to cram on exam day instead. With all the about-turns it has done with Iraq, the US looks like a schizophrenic college kid who could not make up his mind—deciding to become a doctor one day, only years later realizing he really wanted to play the piano instead. Against the Iranians, the Americans supported the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein. Once that conflict ended, Saddam became a pariah to them, and they decide to invade the country to get him out. Once they had the man out of sight, they duly support corrupt local politicians to rule the nation. And as the people rebelled in the streets against their crooked and inept leaders, Read More …