The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has confirmed the appointment of Engr. Francis A. Gianan as regular General Manager of the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO) effective Jan. 15, 2025.
The confirmation was contained in a letter dated Feb. 24, 2025 sent by NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano C. Almeda to FICELCO Board President Rodulfo B. Vargas more than two months after the board passed a resolution confirming GM Gianan’s permanent appointment effective upon NEA’s confirmation.
It may be recalled that on Jan. 15, 2024, GM Gianan was appointed to his post on the basis of a Performance Management Contract (PMC) for a year, during which two tropical cyclones impacted the island’s electrical grid in October and November.
Apart from thousands of homes either destroyed or damaged, Super Typhoon Pepito also knocked out power to more than 60,000 FICELCO consumers.
With the help of Task Force Kapatid teams from electric cooperatives from Luzon and the Visayas, FICELCO was able to restore electricity to its consumers before Christmas 2024.
In a resolution sponsored by PBM Joselito Alberto and passed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan last January 2025, it noted that GM Gianan’s leadership during the past year demonstrably improved FICELCO’s performance across key metrics: maintaining a single-digit Systems Loss, exceptional financial management, enhanced member engagement, effective crisis management, and maintaining FICELCO’s status as a Green Electric Cooperative for three consecutive quarters of 2024, exceeding NEA standards.
In the last week of January, two NEA personnel conducted a validation of the accomplishments of the FICELCO GM based on the one-year workplan that he submitted to NEA upon his interim appointment.
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The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) launched off its 2025 Tax Campaign last week via a motorcade and forum at the Capitol Dome.
A report on the event said that 200 officials and employees of the BIR Revenue District Office 69, as well as some local taxpayers, attended the event, which featured seminars and lectures on tax processes.
BIR Regional Director Atty. V C. Cadangen, Virac BIR OIC-Revenue District Officer Maria Cristina B. Yuson, Assistant RDO Modesto R. Avila Jr., and local officials headed by Governor Joseph C. Cua attended the event which featured lectures on tax processes.
It would have been very enlightening for the island’s taxpayers had the RDO presented hard data on its tax collection, broken down by type of tax, for the past three years if only to show just how much civil servants, private workers, the self-employes and businesses contributed to the national revenue collection.
A check of the BIR website shows only the total revenue collection per RDO for 2024 and back when previously it featured even the collection per type of tax, particularly Income Tax, Percentage Tax, Value Added Tax and Withholding Tax, as well as other taxes.
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THE VEGETARIAN. The leader of the vegetarian society just couldn’t control himself anymore. He just needed to try some pork, just to see what it tasted like.
So one summer day he told his members he was going on a vacation. He packed out of town and headed to the nearest restaurant. After sitting down, he ordered a roasted pig and impatiently waited for his delicacy.
After just a few minutes, he heard someone call his name, and to his great chagrin he saw one of his fellow members walking towards him. Just at that same moment, the waiter walked over, with a huge platter, holding a full roasted pig with an apple in its mouth.
“Isn’t that something,” says the leader after only a moment’s pause, “all I do is order an apple, and look what it comes with!”