There is a strong likelihood that the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) would be moving back to its former compound along Moonwakl road inside the Catanduanes State University campus.
According to an agency official, a request for the return of PhilFIDA has been sent to CatSU President Patrick Alain Azanza, who is expected to have the same considered by the Board of Regents.
It may be recalled that during the term of the previous university president, PhilFIDA personnel had to vacate the compound upon the expiration of its usufruct agreement.
It looked for a suitable office, eventually renting an apartment in San Roque near the ARDCI Corporate Inn where it has stayed until now.
It was former Congressman Leandro Verceles Jr. who secured funding for the construction of the office as well as the attached tissue culture laboratory and two-storey farmers center, all of which survived previous super typhoons including Rolly in 2020.
The agency’s departure meant the laboratory had to close, depriving abaca farmers of their source of disease-free plantlets and suckers for use in replanting their farms.
The compound underwent renovation shortly after Pres. Azanza began his term, with the project about 90 percent completed, including a big greenhouse built in front of the former tissue culture laboratory.
Upon completion, the university’s Abaca Technology Innovation Center (ATIC) now headed by Dr. Abelisa Evangelista will move in.
If approved by the BOR, the memorandum of agreement would allow PhilFIDA to occupy the two-storey building that was used as technology resource building for local abaca farmers.
This would also pave the way for the agency and ATIC to work together for the benefit of over 12,000 abaca farmers in Catanduanes.
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For lack of space, two articles on recent incidents in Virac were not published in this issue and in the previous edition.
Thursday last week, elements of the Catanduanes 1st Police Mobile Force Company led by Pat. Daren Teves, together with Virac MPS officers, arrested two men in a raid on an illegal cockfighting or “tupada” in Igang.
In arresting construction worker Orlando Violata of Igang and Gil Gregorio of Casoocan, the team also recovered nine dead roosters, three live ones, a gaffing knife with scabbard and bet money amounting to P2,227.
The two men will be charged for violation of Presidential Decree 1602.
A week earlier, the Virac police successfully mounted an entrapment operation against a suspected theft of motorcycle helmets.
Prior to the arrest, the victim, Jomar Valenzuela, said he lost his helmet, a picture of which the suspect posted online for sale.
He immediately contacted the police, which laid the trap that caught Edmark Tating, 27, as soon as he received payment for the stolen helmet from the officer who posed as buyer during the operation that went down in Valencia last March 28.
The police were still determining if he is responsible for similar helmet thefts in the capital town pending the filing of charges against him for violation of PD 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Law.
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THE TIMEKEEPER’S PROBLEM. A time keeper at a factory is in charge of blowing the whistle for the lunch break at noon. When it’s almost noon she looks at her watch and right when it strikes 12pm, she blows the whistle.
One day she bumps her watch against something and she fears that it is a little off. Wanting to make sure that she can do her job correctly she decides to go get her watch set by a professional clock maker. The woman goes to the shop and has the clock maker set her watch to the correct time.
She tells the clock maker what she does for a living and that it is important that her watch keeps correct time. The clock maker tells her that she needn’t worry because he set his watch by the clocks in the back and that he can be sure that they’re on time because he sets them every Sunday when the church bells ring at 6am.
The woman leaves the shop satisfied… but starts to ask herself… “How does the church know exactly when it is 6am?”
So she goes to the church and finds the bell ringer and asks him how does he know when to ring the bells and how does he make sure that he has the correct time.
The bell ringer tells her that he rings the bells right when his watch strikes 6am. “I’m sure my watch is accurate.”
He reassures her. “I check it every day at noon when the factory goes on break.”