WOW 1st Soccer football Tournament

Time: May 11, 2009 to May 15, 2009
Location: Magdiwang football field(MCES)
City/Town: Magdiwang,romblon
Website or Map: http://www.magdiwangromblon.ning.com
Contact Info: 00639283211468/009660554693266
Organized By: FERDINAND MORTEL/NARO DELA CRUZ/GUIA RADAN AL YOUSEEF/WOW MEMBERS


Everyone is invited to join the WOW 1st Soccer Football Tournament. Fill free to contact dinand or Naro!

Search for Magdiwang Ultimate Idol 2009!

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For more info:

Contact:

Hon. Rommel “Nonoy” Radan at 09217247914

Mr. Jomz Martinez at 09287702931

Ms. Glaiza at 09166263572

Ms. Myla at 09089971796 –Manila

Applications period for the 2009 Magdiwang Ultimate Idol will start on March 16, 2009.

Deadline for the submission of application form and other pertinent documents is on March 30, 2009.

General Screening is on April 13, 2009, 8:00 am at the Magdiwang Multi-Purpose Hall.

Big Night! Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 7: 00pm Magdiwang Municipal Auditorium.

Kapusong Totoo: Romblon tragedies

GMANews.TV

UP study warns: Romblon Island at risk of massive slide from rains!

A study conducted by the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP-NIGS) revealed that Romblon Island is at risk of landslide in the magnitude of what Southern Leyte’s St. Bernard town experienced this year if it is hit by excessive rainfall or a strong earthquake.

UP-NIGS professor Dr. Carla Dimalanta said that based on their study, a collision between the Palawan Microcontinental Block and the seismically-active Philippines Mobile Belt will affect the Romblon Island Group (RIG).

The study was entitled "Geophysical, Geological and Geochemical Investigations on the Arc-Continent Collision Zone in the Romblon, Tablas and Sibuyan Islands, Romblon Province."

"(There was an) assessment of possible geologic and other hazards (in the Romblon Island Group)," Dimalanta said.

According to Dimalanta, the group found shattered rocks in the island province, a very important factor which could trigger a landslide similar to what happened to barangay Guinsaugon, St. Bernard on Feb. 17 following days of heavy rainfall.

"Matigas ang rocks pero because of the fault and structures, naging shattered yung rocks," Dimalanta said, adding that the island province also have steep slopes which make them at risk of landslides.

She said that the group is planning to talk with officials of the province to prepare the residents against these natural disasters.

"The provincial government can incorporate (this study in) coming up with disaster mitigation plan and land use plan," Dimalanta said.

In their executive summary, the researchers said, "This study identified some potential natural hazards, which may pose risk on the Romblon Island Group. These include meteorological-, volcanological-, and seismic-related hazards, the most notable of which are rain-induced and earthquake-induced landslides, tsunamis and tornadoes.

"The appropriate mitigating measures such as a hazard preparedness and awareness program must be put into place by the provincial and local government units."

The study, said to be "the first integrated geological, geochemical and geophysical investigation of a collision-related feature," has also found that Palawan island and some smaller islands had been "separate from the Philippine archipelago" since the rocks in the other parts of the country are different from that in Palawan."

Dimalanta said that Palawan rocks are a fragment of Mainland Asia.

"This is a significant finding in the history of the country," she said.

She said Romblon Island had been included in the study since geologists believe that it is part of the Palawan Microcontinental Block.

The study, funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) and monitored by the agency’s Philippines Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD), started late in 2004 and ended last December, Dimalanta said.

The professor said that after the completion of the study, the group will analyze Romblon groundwater resources this summer while another collision aspect study will be done on Buruanga in Panay island also within this year.

The landslide in barangay Guinsaugon have buried alive some 2,000 people, including elementary pupils, last February.

Dimalanta earlier had said that Southern Leyte’s relatively loose volcanic rocks, thick soil cover, fractured and fragmented Philippines Fault Zone segment, hydrothermal alteration, and too much rain caused the landslide in Guinsaugon.

by: Madel R. Sabater

More remains from MV Princess of the Stars recovered

GMANews.TV

Battleship Musashi - Plan to refloat off Sibuyan Island

Battleship Musashi sunk by allied forces in World War II.

A Japanese group visited yesterday Sibuyan Sea off this island province as it bared a plan to refloat a big Japanese warship that was sunk in the area on Oct. 24, 1944 during a great naval battle between the allied forces and the Japanese Imperial Navy in World War II.

The Japanese, group headed by Kiyoshi Goto of the Japanese government and Toshihiko Suzuki, chief executive officer of AIPAC (Asian Countries and Islands Optical Fiber Communication and Philippines Property in Asia), made yesterday an offer to the Philippine government to refloat the sunken Japanese warship in the Sibuyan Sea.

The Japanese offer calls for the conversion of the warship into a tourist attraction which could be made a symbol of friendship between the Philippines and Japan.

Goto and Suzuki, who arrived the other day in the country from Japan, said that their group would shoulder all the expenses for the refloating of the warship.

The two Japanese executives came all the way to this historic island to drop flowers and sprinkle champagne at the area in Sibuyan Sea where the warship was sunk during World War II.

The group is proposing to develop the area into a tourist destination for the benefit of the Filipinos and the Japanese, particularly the relatives of the crews of the sunken warship.

As this developed, Gen. (retired) Dominador C. Resos Jr., president of the Romblon Cultural Heritage Association Inc. (ROCHAI), is inviting foreign dignitaries, including US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and top Japanese Embassy officials, to witness and recall once again the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, which is described as "the greatest and deadliest naval battle ever recorded in the history of World War II," that took place on Oct. 24, 1944.

"Join us in our return to this tragic chapter of World War II when the blue waters of Sibuyan Sea turned blood red, caused by the mixture of blood shed by the international soldiers led by the protagonists, American and Japanese soldiers, and their respective allies," General Resos said.

Dubbed as "the world’s biggest battleship," Japan’s Musashi with 1023 of her crew sank to her watery grave in the seabed of Sibuyan Sea. One hundred or more warships and aircraft also sank and gave company to Musashi on the ocean floor.

Shortly after the furious naval battle, historians say, some 2000 bodies of soldiers floated in the Sibuyan Sea waters.

Some of the bodies drifted to coastlines and beaches, including those of Boracay Island and Carabao Island.

Resos said that old folk, fishermen, and amateur "ghostbusters" had claimed that Sibuyan Sea is full of mysteries, saying "it is haunted and enchanted.

Recovered bodies from ‘Princess’ now at 36 - Coast Guard

The number of bodies recovered from the capsized MV Princess of the Stars rose to 36 after divers retrieved the remains of three more victims as retrieval operations continued on its third day.

A radio dzBB report quoted Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo as saying that as of Tuesday afternoon, the number of bodies recovered on Tuesday alone rose to 16, raising the total number of bodies retrieved from the capsized ship to 36.

Divers from salvage group Harbor Star and counterparts from the Coast Guard had been searching the ship since Sunday for remains of more than 500 passengers trapped inside.

Tamayo said he has instructed the divers to search all accommodation spaces, including other decks of the ship, for remains.

"Ginagawa natin ang lahat na paraan (We are doing all we can)," Tamayo said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He also said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has a team on standby to identify bodies that will be retrieved from the capsized vessel.

The Sulpicio Lines-owned MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon last June 21 at the height of typhoon "Frank."

Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV

Survey of Princess of the Stars for bodies starts

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has started surveying the M/V Princess of the Stars off Romblon to locate the bodies of passengers who were trapped when the vessel sank at the height of typhoon “Frank” last June 21.

PCG commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said, “We have already met with the officials of Sulpicio Lines Inc. and the salvaging firm Harbor Star and when they said they were ready to conduct the survey operations, we told them to go ahead.”

But Tamayo said there is no definite timetable for the retrieval of the bodies.

Earlier, salvors removed 400 packs of the toxic pesticide endosulfan as well as Bayer Crop Science products, and siphoned off 176,000 liters of bunker fuel from the sunken ship.

At least 33 people survived the sea tragedy. More than 200 have been confirmed dead, while 515 others were listed as missing.

In Cebu City, meanwhile, acting Mayor Michael Rama gave assurance that the bodies that would be recovered will not be brought to Cebu unless they are cleared of contamination by toxic substances carried by the vessel.

Rama said the bodies will first undergo thorough examination by the Department of Health to ensure that they do not pose any public health risk.

Dr. Renato Bautista, head of the National Bureau of Investigation-Disaster Victims Identification, also promised to preserve the remains in their best possible form to facilitate easy identification.

Rama also echoed the call of authorities for the families of Princess of the Stars passengers still listed as missing not to go to Cebu unless they are contacted and once the recovered bodies are processed at the mobile morgue put up at the Cebu International Port.

from: www.philstar.com

The Battle of Sibuyan Sea

I read in another newspaper about a plan to re-float the sunken Musashi, the largest battleship in the world, and convert it into a tourist attraction and a symbol of the friendship between the Philippines and Japan. I don’t know about the symbolic part, but I do agree that it would certainly become a major tourist attraction for the Philippines. After all, the Battle of Leyte Gulf may have been fought between the Japanese and the Americans, but this greatest of battles happened right in our backyard.

The Musashi was the flagship of then Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet, who took over the command on April 18, 1943 when Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was ambushed by a squadron of Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and crashed in Bougainville, the Solomons.

Allow me to refresh the memory of our faithful readers who may have forgotten who Admiral Koga is as we wrote his story sometime ago. This story is about the highest-ranking Japanese officer ever captured in the entire Pacific War. He was captured some 35 kilometers south of Cebu City on April 1,1943 by Cebuano guerrillas under Col. James Cushing.

On March 31, 1943, two Kawanishi “Mavis” flying boats carrying Admiral Koga and his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, flew from Korkor, Palau to Davao as they were transferring their headquarters to Mindanao 600 miles away. But the two seaplanes ran into a violent storm and got lost and eventually separated somewhere between Leyte and Cebu.

Admiral Koga’s plane vanished, while Admiral Fukudome’s plane crashed at sea off San Fernando, Cebu where he survived with his crew and they were captured by guerrillas. A guerrilla also found in the flotsam the so-called “Koga papers,” the secret Z-Plan or Sho Plan for the defense of the Philippines. The Koga papers were sent to Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia via the submarine USS Crevalle. Because of this secret information, Gen. MacArthur decided to change his invasion plans and advance the date of invasion to October 1944 in Leyte instead of Mindanao in 1945.

I’m writing about the super battleship Musashi because it is the 64th anniversary today of the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, which was the opening act of the famous Battle of Leyte Gulf, the greatest naval battle in the world. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was Japan’s counter-attack because of the invasion of Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944. Both super battleships Yamato and Musashi (they carried 18-inch guns, while the US Navy’s battleships only had 16-inch guns) were under the command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita and sailed from Brunei on Oct. 23, 1944, then through the Palawan passage and into Sibuyan Sea on Oct. 24, 1944.

When the battle started, the Yamato was hit by dive-bombers and immediately withdrew to Palawan, while her sister-ship, the Musashi, was hit by Hellcats from the USS Intrepid (this carrier is now a museum docked in New York City), the USS Bunker Hill and other carriers of Task Force 38. But the deadly blow came from the USS Enterprise, which hit Musashi with a total of 20 torpedoes and 17 bombs, with 18 bombs hitting near her bow. The Musashi sank in Sibuyan Sea (I guess this is not far from the site of the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars) with her 2,399 men on board. Only 1,023 survived the sinking, while Admiral Kurita retreated to San Bernardino Strait.

Meanwhile, the US also lost the carrier USS Princeton in that battle, but she was scuttled east of Luzon, while the USS Birmingham and many other American Navy ships were badly damaged. The following day, the other battle of Leyte Gulf commenced and this was the Battle of Surigao Strait, one of the turning points in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. But then that’s another great history that someday I would also write about.

from: www.philstar.com

Salvaging of M/V Princess of the Stars to start Sunday

from: GMANews.TV

The Mystery of Pier 12

In the aftermath of the MV Princess of the Stars maritime disaster, the blame culture once again reared its ugly head in the local maritime industry as accusing fingers flew all over the place. Sulpicio Lines even had the nerve to put the blame on PAG-ASA for its erroneous weather bulletin on typhoon Frank. Why? Does PAG-ASA own the typhoon that it really does not have control of? It’s a lot different in the case of Sulpicio Lines because it owns MV Princess of the Stars and it has full control of its ship whether it wants it to sail in bad weather or not. Officials of the company said that they left the discretion to sail with the captain. Yeah right! Tell me about it. If the captain did not sail because of bad weather, do you think the management would be very happy losing a couple of millions in that Manila-Cebu trip? Then, there’s the brewing issue between Sulpicio Lines and Del Monte over a chemical shipment. While all these make up for ‘newsworthy’ items in today’s media, these only obscure the real issue at hand.

*******

Without meaning to make a parody of the tragedy, the real issue is getting to the bottom of the mess so that appropriate actions can be take n to minimize, if not prevent, future maritime disasters. How can we minimize sea tragedies if the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) only gives culpable parties mere slaps on the wrist? Did you know that Sulpicio Lines was not meted a fine for the MV Doña Paz - MT Vector collision on December 1987? Did you know that the owner of MT Vector was fine a meager P5,000 for the accident? Is that the worth of the more than 4,300 lives that perished in the world’s worst maritime disaster in the last 21 years? Did you also know that Sulpicio Lines was never fined by the BMI for the sinking of MV Princess of the Orient in September 1998?

*******

As a seasoned marine engineer and having inspected a number of domestic passenger vessels in the past and discovered glaring deficiencies in the process, I strongly recommend that the BMI should start unmasking the mystery of Pier 12, if only to get to the bottom of the spate of maritime disasters that seems to have found a home in the turf of Sulpicio Lines. Consider this fact: MV Doña Paz, MV Princess of the Orient, and MV Princess of the Stars were actually the flag ships of Sulpicio Lines at the time they sank. A flag ship is usually the biggest in the fleet and something that the shipowner is proud of because it is the company’s ‘signature’ ship. Those ships of Sulpcio were big ones. MV Princess of the Stars was in fact, the biggest domestic passenger ferry in the Philippines, before it capsized off Sibuyan Island.

*******

Doesn’t anybody from BMI or anybody who has the right shipping intellect find it mysterious when a 23,824-GRT ship can easily go into North Harbor and berth at Pier 12 without running aground? About eight years ago, Enrique Aboitiz Jr. was saying that it would be very difficult to berth a 15,000-GRT ship in North Harbor. Obviously, because the draft or the depth of the water will not allow bigger ships to go in, much less berthed alongside any of the piers. But how come Sulpicio Lines managed to do so with the significantly bigger MV Princess of the Stars some two years after Aboitiz made the pronouncement? In getting to the bottom of the issue, we also need to get to the bottom of the ship, where the ballast tanks are located. And here lies the answer to the mystery of Pier 12 and Sulpicio Lines’ spate of maritime disasters, whether the company’s management admit it or not. Their flag ships were not ballasted at all. Because if the ship’s ballast tanks were only pressed, that would have ensured stability and trim to those ill-fated vessels, Sulpicio Lines would not have been able to operate those vessels in North Harbor. The deeper draft of their big ships would only allow them to stay at the anchorage because going further to the pier would mean taking all the silt under North Harbor’s murky waters all the way to the berth. In fact, during the BMI probe following the sinking of MV Princess of the Orient in September 1998, the vessel’s chief mate admitted in his testimony about his lack of awareness about the ship’s ballast tanks or even how to press it.

*******

Following the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy, I also joined a team from MARINA led by Administrator Vic Suazo to inspect the vessels of Sulpicio Lines in Cebu on June 27, 2008. I only boarded one ship and I noted a number of deficiencies already particularly with regards to lashings and cargo stowage. I did not bother inspecting the other ships because it would just be ‘same difference’ as I would say. BMI should consider this premise: ‘A non-ballasted ship combined with improper lashings and stowage of cargo, plus possible alteration of the ship make the perfect recipe for a maritime disaster.’ Now it’s time for the BMI to pursue it to the end and make the culpable parties pay the price of gross, albeit intentional, negligence.

by: NELSON P. RAMIREZ

Most Outstanding Marine Engineer Officer, PRC, 1996
Most Outstanding Student, ZNSAT, 1970
Outstanding Achiever of the Year, Province of Zamboanga del Norte, 2006

SIBUYAN EXPRESS

Sibuyan Express was offering fast and reliable Express Courier and Money Remittance service throughout the Province of Romblon. This company was founded in the late 2000. This company was owned by Ms. Lina Regala of Cajidiocan, Sibuyan Romblon.

Sibuyan Express
Zacarias G. de Guzman St., Quiapo Manila
landline: (02) 736-3551/(02) 4883627
mobile: 0918-2132659 / 0928-7557146

Sibuyan Express carries on advancing and fulfilling its mission to reach out to the Romblo manon community that will ultimately help every kababayans.

Sibuyan folk ready to help in retrieval operations

MANILA, Philippines - Residents of San Fernando town in Sibuyan Island in Romblon province have started setting up a command post to help in retrieval operations on the capsized MV Princess of the Stars.

DZBB's Carlo Mateo reported Wednesday that the command post would prepare handle at least 700 bodies expected to be recovered from the vessel.

San Fernando mayor Nanette Tansingco said the command post would be set up one kilometer away from Ground Zero, near the command post of the Coast Guard's oil spill response team.

Tansingco said the post would extend assistance to Titan Salvage, the firm contracted by MV Princess of the Stars owner Sulpicio Lines Inc., to retrieve the bodies.

Titan would also retrieve a shipment of endosulfan, a toxic pesticide, from the vessel that sank last June at the height of typhoon "Frank."

Meanwhile, a team of doctors and toxicologists from the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital is due to arrive in the area on Aug. 22.

The team is due to analyze the water at the 5-km radius around the capsized vessel.

from: gmanews.tv

Fishing in San Fernando, Romblon allowed outside 5-kilometer radius

GMANews.TV

Magdiwang Romblon Network

Hi guys! I created a network for everyone specially for all Magdiwangons all over the World. You can sign-up here.

Deal or No Deal?

from: inquired2008

Bodies Recovered along Sibuyan Island!

GMANews.TV

Outcry of Disappointment

I’ am deeply saddened for what happened to M/V Princess of the Stars. Many lives where lost because of this accident. Some of them are nowhere to be found. This tragedy causes panicked not only for the families and friends of the victims, but also for the people of Sibuyan Island.

Why?

Fishing is one of the main sources of income for Sibuyanons. According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), there is a possibility that fishes could have fed off from the bodies inside the vessel. The water could have been contaminated from the septic waste and other chemicals that might have spilled off into the water.

My brother used to have 3 fishing boat in Magdiwang (another town in Sibuyan Island). This kind of tragedy can ruin his business. Some of his buyer will hesitate to buy from him.

Belinda Raymundo, chief of the BFAR product testing laboratory, advised people to thoroughly rinse and take off the internal organs of all the fish they would be buying from the market.

She also said the best way to prepare fish dishes is to have the fish deeply fried to ensure that bacteria are killed.

There are many questions, which needs an answer. Who will be punished this time? Sulpicio Lines? Coast Guard? MARINA? PAG-ASA?

Hmmmm!

Sign of Hope from Magdiwang

As of 2:00 PM on June 23, 2008, my cousin Alvin texted me from Quezon City, about the situation in Magdiwang. He told me that his father called him up (from Silum) around 1:30 PM. According to him, typhoon "Frank" is the strongest typhoon that hit Sibuyan Island , many trees fell down, houses were damage and there is no supply of electricity all over the Sibuyan Island. The supply of electricity well restore after a month.

M/V Princess of Stars

Please pray for all the passengers of M/V Princess of Stars.

Sulpicio Lines releases passenger manifest, list of survivors from there website:

http://www.sulpiciolines.com/

video courtesy from even demata.