Skip to main content

About Bohol

By
 
 
Bohol, in the heart of Central Visayas, is the 10th largest island in the Philippines.  It is comprised of 48 municipalities with 15, 14, and 19 municipalities composing the first, second and third congressional districts, respectively (Green, et al 2002). The productive force of Bohol is almost 58% of the total population, of which around 89% are engaged in farming and fishing.  Agriculture remains the biggest sector in the province in terms working population and land use (PPDO 2006).

In 2000, poverty incidence was very high in the province - 50.2% in terms of population (NSCB 2000), affecting mostly farmers and fisherfolk (PPDO 2001). In the same year, the province was one of the poorest twenty in the country (18th out of the 82 provinces) using monetary measures as criteria (NSCB 2000).  The alarming thing was that the poverty incidence increased by 27% as compared to the 1997 base figure (ibid). Also, the United Nations Development Program ranked Bohol as 7th in its list of 20 poorest provinces in 2001 (GPF 2006). 

 Bohol, since then, has become a leading example of how one province can lift itself out from poverty.  Bohol is no longer one of the top poorest provinces of the country.  Economically, the province relies on tourism, more particularly on its white sandy beaches, rivers, forests, caves for economic growth and development. It has been argued that this significantly altered Bohol's growth trajectory.
 

Popular posts from this blog

5 Things To Love about Joseph Gara's Songs

By
- Full disclaimer here – I am a huge Joseph Gara fan. I saw him for the first time in a wedding party of a dear friend, unmindfully singing as guests were entering the ballroom of a hotel. Apart from his guitar, he was his own prop, tucked neatly at one side of the stage, almost unseen as a massive bouquet of giant white lilies and carnations stood beside his guitar stand.   Right there and then I thought that this guy would go places, because it was quite clear that he liked his music, and while he sang covers of popular acoustic ballads, he seemed to claim them as his own, making the music sound fresh, and the words as if they were freshly minted.   I am an avid spectator of his shows – at South Palms Resort ,   one of our favourite staycation spots in Bohol, where he seemed to be a regular; at the many weddings that he was contracted to serenade; at the many cultural events in the province where he was a part of or was the sole reason for its convening.   I also follow
Post a Comment
Read more

Bohol opens up further, but are we ready?

By
March 3 marks the beginning of the Provincial Government of Bohol’s restrained abandonment of strict entry measures to incoming travellers. The lengthy text of the policy that you can find here relaxes the several requirements imposed in prior months regarding travellers entering the province.   Very briefly,   it just means less stringent protocols for visitors and returning residents to allow the economy to recover.         I agree that the economy has suffered significantly.   Our research , even when it only covers the city of Tagbilaran, the provincial capital, indicates that at the height of the implementation of strict community quarantine protocols, at least 5,154 jobs were either temporarily or permanently lost.   Undoubtedly, this figure was higher province-wide.   The visual signs are also evident. If you go to Tawala , that tourism strip in Panglao Island, on a Friday night, the area resembles a ghost town of dark and closed buildings, save for a few establishments which
Post a Comment
Read more

3 Reasons Why I am Worried about Education During this Pandemic

By
  The last four weeks or so, we have seen how the delivery of basic education has shifted significantly from face-to-face to a myriad of forms, masked by fancy labels as synchronous (e.g. fully online, virtual classes), blended (e.g. a mix of online and face to face instructions allowed only in specific contexts), and distance modular (e.g. learner-paced learning based on scheduled learning modules, done either through paper or web-based learning management systems). There have been significant apprehensions from different people, including parents such as myself.  Firstly, there is the problem of weak internet connectivity.   We all know that the technological infrastructure is not ready for a fully online learning delivery. There have been serious complaints in the past three years on the inability of telecommunications companies to deliver on their promised connection speed.  Based on statistics, our country has one of the slowest internet speed across the Asia Pacific .  Second, we
Post a Comment
Read more