Blogging Boracay Island

Thursday, March 31, 2011

LMP partners with DOH for health programs

BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan-- The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) has officially partnered with the Department of Health (DOH) to ensure that the delivery of basic health services of the government will reach remote barangays in the country.

The LMP-DOH partnership was sealed in the just concluded three day conference held here March 28-30.

Malinao Mayor Wilbert Ariel Igoy who joined the summit said that Health Secretary Enrique Ona spoke with 90 mayors representing different regions in the country. Representatives from the Linking Initiatives and Networking to Control Tuberculosis (TBLINC) project also attended the conference.

"Among the health issues that needed to be given special attention is the government's advocacy on eliminating measles cases and TB in the country. This is part of our government response to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)," Igoy said. LMP-Aklan chapter was the host of the conference.

Meanwhile, Ona also led the ceremony upgrading the Boracay District Hospital here to expand its services for the needs of both the tourists and the residents.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Boracay Island inaugurates multi-million-peso sewage treatment plant

BORACAY ISLAND, Malay, Aklan– This island resort inaugurated Tuesday its multi-million-peso sewage treatment plant, which was constructed through a public-private partnership.

Malay Mayor John Yap said that the sewage treatment plant (STP) upgrading project was contracted by the Ayala-firm Boracay Island Water Co. Inc. (BIWC).

The BIWC was given the contract to operate the water treatment plant and sewage system for 25 years.

"The STP upgrading project which started last April 2010 increases the wastewater treatment capacity of the island by 230 percent. Consequently, this project advances environment-compliance four years ahead of the concession target," Yap said.

Last week, Yap also led the groundbreaking of the sanitary landfill in nearby Barangay Kabulihan, Malay, Aklan in cooperation with the R-II Group of Companies headed by its chair Reghis Romero.

Yap considered the sanitary landfill as a major project that would address the solid waste management concerns of the island.

"While there are indeed current actions to process and manage the island's solid waste through the implementation of Materials Recovery Facility, more comprehensive and long term solution is needed if the ecological safety and sustainability of the island is considered," Yap said, adding that he only continues the plan of the previous administration for Boracay. (photo by Alex Carlo Magno)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

James Yap leads All-Star balloting for Boracay outing

MANILA(PNA) -- As expected, James Yap emerged as the frontrunner in the early balloting for the coming 2011 PBA All-Star game the island paradise of Boracay is hosting for the first time.

Yap, the league’s two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) from Derby Ace, received a total of 7,452 fan votes to lead all candidates comprising the roster of both North and South teams for the May 18 to 23 festivities dubbed as 'Hala Bola Boracay 2011 All Star weekend.’

The former University of the East star is tops among backcourt players for the South squad that also included Talk `N Text’s Jimmy Alapag (4,338), Cyrus Baguio of Alaska (3,933), Air21’s Dondon Hontiveros (3,303) and Ronald Tubid of Barangay Ginebra (2,763).

Among the South big men (center/forwards), San Miguel’s Jay Washington leads the pack with 4,824 votes followed by Kelly Williams of Talk 'N' Text (4,194), Meralco’s Asi Taulava (3,798), Ginebra’s Eric Menk (3,240) and the Alaska duo of Joe Devance (2,997) and Sonny Thoss (2,799).

Meanwhile, Yap’s Derby Ace teammate, Mark Pingris received the highest number of votes so far among players from the North side.

The energetic forward tallied 3,807 votes to lead the list of top North big men. At second is fellow Llamados Kerby Raymundo with 3,312 and at third is Rain or Shine’s Gabe Norwood, the 2010 All-Star MVP, with 2,988.

Likewise getting the nod of the fans are Ginebra’s JC Intal (2,466), veteran San Miguel center Danny Ildefonso (2,160) and Ginebra’s Rudy Hatfield (2,124).

The popular Ginebra combo of Mark Caguioa and Willie Miller shows the way in the guard position with votes of 3,375 and 2,488, respectively.

Rounding out the other top three guard candidates for the North team are Alaska’s L.A. Tenorio (2,016), San Miguel’s Alex Cabagnot (2,007) and Paul Artadi of Air21 (1,773).

Voting, which began last February 27, is still ongoing and will only be held during game days at the PBA playing venue.

Final day of voting is on April 10.

Reserves of both teams will be chosen by the nine PBA coaches, but they are prohibited from voting for their players.

The rest of the participants in the other events will be made on the first week of April.

Members of Pilipinas-Smart Gilas team were not included in the voting as the Nationals are set to see action in the 2011 FIBA-Asia Champions Cup from May 28 to June 5 which the country is hosting.

Last year the North All Stars edged out South, 133-132, during the All-Star game held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. (photo courtesy of pinoytayo.com)

CONFLICT IN PARADISE

Tess Lapuz-Lardizabal-Journal Tonight

GEOPHYSICIST Jesse Liam Cannon, 26, has faced the most vicious pirates. He has survivednatural disasters. And he has been up close to highly toxic elements. Yet the UK national never thought his life could be changed by a more corrosive evil -- a group of swindlers in what used to be paradise, Boracay. Cannon, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, NorthIreland and Australia, instantly fell in love with Boracay when he visited the Philippines in Feb. 2010. “I definitely thought Boracay was the most beautiful place. I saw it as a paradise where I could have a nice relaxing life, set up my home and invest.”

The exploration and research geologist browsed the Internet and came upon boracayluxuryhomes.com, a website of Boracay Luxury Homes (BLH).

“BLH offered me condo Unit 304 at Villa Sofia in Fairways & Bluewater Resort in Boracay Islands for P6 million. I was asked to pay a reservation fee of P100,000,” he revealed.

In April 2010, Cannon formally bought Unit 304. The contract to sell, dated April 15, 2010, was signed by him and Sumit Khanna, BLH director of operations and marketing.

In June 2010, after paying the down payment and three installments totaling P3,712,360.25, Cannon was told by Sumit that Unit 304 was no longer available and that BLH would just sell him Unit 303. The complainant again signed another contract to sell also dated April 15, 2010.

In August 2010, Cannon received an email from a certain Raffy Cooper who revealed that Dolora Khanna, BLH CEO, and Sumit Khanna had not been furnishing the unit he had paid for. Cooper also revealed that BLH could not actually sell the subject unit.

Cooper was a former agent of Dolora and Sumit. He allegedly left the couple as he couldn’t stand how they reportedly verbally abused employees and other people.

Upon verifying with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, Cannon discovered that BLH does not have a license to sell any condo unit in Villa Sofia at the Fairways and Bluewater Resort in Boracay Island or at the alleged Catalina Building at The Cliff, Boracay Island.

Cannon later learned that the respondents had been trying to sell to him a non-existent property located at an area in Boracay called The Cliff.

The Fairways and Bluewater Resort has also stated that it did not issue an authority to sell the units of Sofia Condominium to Dolora and Sumit.

On Nov. 12, 2010, Cannon filed charges for violation of Section No. 5, in relation to Section No. 39, of Presidential Decree No. 957 against BLH officials Dolora “Dolly” C. Khanna, CEO; Sumit Khana, director of operations and marketing; Rochelle Fender, director of international sales; Darrel Girdner, general manager; Joseph Rose, director of finance; Rex Carlson, director of finance; and Julie Rose, marketing and business development consultant.

The case was filed before the Department of Justice.

In order to warn more unsuspecting buyers and to prevent the respondents from victimizing more investors, especially foreigners, Cannon also sought the help of People’s Tonight. This is his story.

“These criminals are really professionals. They know what they’re doing. They’re experts at twisting the facts against the victims. I can’t describe the flood of lies that they’ve been feeding. They put people under an illusion. They put on convincing appearances. It’s a nightmare in paradise,” said Cannon.

Cannon fears that more foreigners, who transact business on the Internet like him, would fall prey to such a “scam.” “I hope I could get justice. The overwhelming feeling in Europe is that the Philippines is becoming the place to go. This incident has been very traumatic. I really put everything into it. I want the Philippines, the justice system to do me good in the end. I want my life back.”

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COMMENT OF MR. SUMMIT KHANNA
Raffy Cooper was a former employee of Fairways and Bluewaters but left that group because of he claimed that he wasn’t being paid his salary. BLH originally hired him as a sales/marketing but unfortunately was too meek and shy to bring in any sales.

Instead of laying off Raffy, BLH felt sorry for him so they found Raffy a place in their newly built BLH office located within Fairways and Bluewaters. BLH was brought into Fairways to finish constructing and sell the remaining Sofia Condo units, buildings 8&9, and develop the Third Cove. Cooper simply was hired to open and close the office and was paid a substantial amount to do just that and nothing more. The rest of the day Cooper would sometimes take messages or play around with his Facebook account.

BLH management gave Cooper many cash advances that we never deducted from his salary. Cooper pawned off a BLH company phone and neither the money nor the phone was ever returned. BLH also paid the medical bills for Cooper’s wife to undergo a Cesarean Section of his new born child. Cooper was also given as a present an authentic DKNY stainless steel watch and laptop. Cooper did not resign but instead was laid off due to the closing of the BLH office in Fairways. Raffy was very upset that the office was closed and his very simple job of opening and closing the office was gone. Raffy took a turn for the worst when BLH did not re-hire him so thus began the slander and libel against BLH by Mr. Cooper. In addition, Raffy tried contacting numerous clients of BLH to turn them against BLH and was successful with Jesse Cannon.

Jesse Cannon’s purchase went sour due to internal problems within the Fairways and Bluewaters group and was not the fault of BLH. BLH felt out with Fairways & Bluewaters and explained to Jesse that they don’t feel confident that Fairways will complete and deliver the unit as promised. BLH offered Jesse a more expensive unit for the same price he was paying at Fairways to make things fair for everyone. Jesse agreed to BLH’s offer because the community and views offered truly surpass the virtually non-existent views from the Sofia building. Jesse’s unit is almost finished and will be completed well in advance than his July deadline. The BLH group of attorneys headed by Attorney Justice Manuel Lazaro, Atty. Lorna Kapunan, and Matt Hachuela has verified with the DOJ and there are no cases filed against any persons from the BLH group at this time.

Why am I not surprised to see you posting lie after lie again about BLH?

So, you allegedly left the couple as he couldn’t stand how they reportedly verbally abused employees and other people?

I did not know that someone paying for the hospital bill of your wife for her to able to leave was abusing people. Good Dolly was there to take care of that!
In the so called article: “BLH does not have a license to sell any condo unit in Villa Sofia at the Fairways and Bluewater Resort”

So what were you doing in Fairways everyday? What office were you? Are you saying that BLH had not right to sell but:
- build up an office next to the bar/ restaurant
- people from fairways were coming to the office to give the keys,
- management of fairways were going to that office
- that they started a project, which means bringing materials and workers who cannot access without ID inside Fairways
Then: “The Fairways and Bluewater Resort has also stated that it did not issue an authority to sell the units of Sofia Condominium to Dolora and Sumit.”

Wait! Fairways gave the keys of the unit to you, Raffy, shower enclosure were installed, so Fairways were letting BLH do that without authorization or to scam them after, like they did with the windows in the office when BLH DEICIDE to stop with Fairways since they saw what was going on!

Should we continue the list? Or this is enough to expose your lies. You are still so sad to not be in that nice office doing facebook all day long, that you need to post lie all around the internet?

You are defending those foreigners that have been scammed? I think they’re having great time in their house, so where is the scam? What about what does foreigner have done last October? Supporting Filipino being hostages? What do you have to say about that as a Filipino?

Business group registers opposition to casino

BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan- The Boracay Foundation Incorporated (BFI) has registered its strong opposition to the proposed operation of a casino in this resort island.

BFI president Loubell Cann said their opposition was based on the survey they conducted recently even if some of their members are favoring the casino operation.

Recently, the Malay council had endorsed the Fairways and Bluewaters Corporation for the operation of the casino but they need to get accreditation from the Philippine Amusement Games Corporation (PAGCOR) before they could start the gaming facility in their resort.

Aside from Fairways, an undisclosed Korean firm also wants to operate a junket casino operation here.

"We are opposing the casino because once the casino started operation in this resort island, it would create a precedent for other resort owners to follow suit. Thus, Boracay would indeed become a gambling haven. For several years, we have tried our best to promote Boracay as a family tourism destination," said Cann.

The Catholic church currently leads in opposing the casino operation in this island resort of Boracay.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Team Azkals join fun run

BORACAY ISLAND, Malay, Aklan- The Philippine Azkals team will be joining Malay Mayor John Yap in the first fun run in a bid to preserve the white beach of Boracay.

Elena Brugger, environment consultant of Yap for Boracay said that the awareness campaign will be held on April 23 in this resort island.

The fun run will start from Boracay station three to one towards the Eco-Villages.

"At least 5,000 both tourists and locals have already signified their intention in joining the fun run," said Brugger.

Categories of the said fun run will be 2.5 kilometers, five kilometers, ten kilometers and 21 kilometers. The run will also not focus at the beach front but also at the back street.

Its theme is "Sali Ako Diyan (Count Me In) I care for Boracay, I will run for Boracay.

Organized by Unlimited Events Inc the project is also in partnership and supported by non-government organizations in Boracay such as Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and Municipality of Malay, Aklan. The project also aims to raise funds for the activities to preserve the white sand of Boracay.

After the fun, run, there will be a special beach football tournament match to be participated by national team Azkals.