ZAMBO DAILY WIRE

HEALTH AND PEACE. Dr. Remus Dayrit of Basilan General Hospital checks on one of the nearly 1000 beneficiaries served during the Health, Education and Livelihood for Progress (HELP) Humanitarian Caravan held recently in Basilan. Coordinated by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the HELP Caravan is a convergence of various government agencies and non-government organizations geared at providing immediate assistance and livelihood support to families affected by armed conflicts, particularly Basilan and Sulu. OPAPP

BASILAN PROVINCE (OPAPP/ JAN. 31, 2008)--- Over a thousand families in Basilan have recently received various forms of assistance from the combined efforts of government and non-government organizations through the Health, Education, Livelihood for Progress (H.E.L.P.) Humanitarian Caravan. Following the successful launch of similar undertaking in Sulu days earlier, the inter-agency caravan, armed with medicines, books, scholarship grants, and livelihood packages, including feeding programs for the children, trooped to the towns of Tipo-Tipo and Sumisip to mount humanitarian offensives. "We thank the national government and partner organizations for the conduct of this humanitarian undertaking," says Basilan Governor Jum Akbar. "This is something that our people in Basilan have longed for and something that we hope can help make way for peace." Coordinated by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the H.E.L.P Humanitarian Caravan is a

Kabataan Partylist warns President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo not to revive the anomalous and overpriced Cyber Education Program in tomorrow's Education Summit at the Manila Hotel. Kabataan Partylist president Raymond Palatino is worried that Arroyo, who will be the keynote speaker in the summit, may use the ocassion to resurrect the controversial education project. The Education Summit will be convened to tackle solutions to the crisis of education. But Kabataan Partylist believes the summit will be a convenient venue for Arroyo to force the implementation of education programs which will exacerbate the problem of Philippine education. Palatino expects Arroyo to defend the cyber education program, the lifting of tuition cap, use of English language as medium of instruction, reduction of subsidy for public universities, and deployment of soldiers in campuses. Palatino advised the organizers that if they really want to improve education, they must make first make Arroyo accountable for

ZAMBOANGA CITY (CITY HALL/PR) - - Citing as “grossly unfair,” this southern port city joined 119 other cities across the country in the protest of the conversion of 16 municipalities despite of not meeting the requirements. The conversion brought the consequent Internal Revenue Allocation (IRA) reduction effective this year. Mayor Celso Lobregat said the impending decrease by P115 million in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of the city this year due to the conversion of 16 municipalities into cities, will greatly affect the delivery of services including the implementation of infrastructure projects. Zamboanga City is the third hardest hit by the IRA reduction at P114.971 million. Supposedly, the city would receive P1.166 billion in IRA share this year but this was reduced to P1.051 billion after the conversion of the 16 municipalities. As compared to the 2007 figure of P1.015 billion, Zamboanga City’s IRA increase was supposed to be P150.8 million but after the conversion,

MANILA (OPAPP/JAN. 17, 2008)- A collaborative effort of government agencies and various non-government agencies to address the immediate health, education and livelihood needs of communities affected by conflict through the convergent delivery of social and economic services dubbed as the Health, Education, and Livelihood for Progress (H.E.L.P) Humanitarian Caravan is set to start in Sulu today January 18 and January 23 in Basilan. Created by virtue of Administrative Order 192, the H.E.L.P Caravan is spearheaded by Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) in partnership with various government and non-government agencies, specifically established to respond on the recent crisis in Basilan and Sulu as well as in other areas in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). According to the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, H.E.L.P is a mechanism designed to address the needs of communities in crisis due to the prevailing conflict in the a