Briefs

GRASS OWL RESCUED

A grass owl was turned over to the Protected Area Wildlife Coastal Zone and Management Services (PAWCZMS) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office for safekeeping by two men who found the bird. The grass owl (Tyto longimembris) was turned over by Olivar Ardemer and Stephen Ardemer last Sept. 29, said DENR 7 spokesperson Dr. Eddie Llamedo.

“Nahadlok sila kay basin dakpon sila ug taga DENR (They were afraid that if they keep the bird, they might be caught by DENR),” Llamedo said.

Grass owls are ground-dwelling birds. Its upper parts are dark brown, buff and yellow-orange, with fine silvery spots. Grass owls have long legs and normally lives in tall grasses.  /Reporter Joy Cherry Quito

DSWD-7 TARGETS 1M POOR HOUSEHOLDS

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development in Region 7 has increased the coverage of the National Housing Target System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) to one million poor households.

NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies and assesses who and where the poor families are.

The second round assessment will identify around half a million poor and nearly-poor families in the province of Cebu.

In the first round of their assessment, the program was able to survey 781,572 households and identify 314,654 poor households in the region.  /Correspondent Joy Cherry Quito

CEBU CITY HALL TO GIVE P16M TO COMELEC

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday announced that the City Government will be giving P16 million to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Cebu City Office as financial assistance in the October 28 barangay elections.

This, after the Comelec warned barangay councils of election violation if they fail to provide the P10,000 counterpart fund mandated by the Omnibus Election Code.

Edwin Cadungog, election officer of the south district welcomed Rama’s announcement. He said they need P14,778,000 to conduct the barangay elections in Cebu City. The bulk of the amount will be used to pay the Board of Election Tellers (BET).  /Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita