BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The municipality of EB Magalona continues its winning streak in environment competitions by winning three more major awards during the 2nd Awarding Ceremony of the Provincial Environment and Management Office (PEMO) at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City on November 24.
EB Magalona was adjudged 2nd Best Managed Local Conservation Area (LCA), a major category of the Negros Occidental Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award (NOGCAA).
The award, which came with a plaque and P30,000 in cash prize, was in recognition of the municipality’s “exemplary contribution in environmental conservation, protection, and rehabilitation” of its LCA called the EB Magalona Blue Crab and Bird Sanctuaries and Mangrove Reserve.
This LCA, encompassing 209 hectares of protected area, has 20 hectares of Strict Protection Zone (SPZ) or No-Take-Zone. Part of this LCA is the Tomongtong Mangrove Eco-Trail, an eco-tourism site in the coastal barangay of Tomongtong.
In addition, EB Magalona was also one of the six LGU-recipients of the Abanse Negrense Good Environmental Governance Award (ANGEGA)-Sustainability Level 2. The award came with a plaque and P25,000 in cash prize.
The Municipality was also one of the recipients of the 2022 Best Localized Environmental Thematic Events Celebration, in recognition of its various events and activities in line with environmental protection and sustainability.
Representing Mayor Marvin Malacon at the awarding ceremony was Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer (MENRO)-designate Jojo Vargas. He was accompanied by MENRO – Solid Waste Management Program focal person Archie Derick Diel and MENRO staff Don Salvador Salcedo.
On the other hand, a total of 2,137 indigent senior citizens of E. B. Magalona received their social pension for the 4th Quarter during the simultaneous distribution programs in all 23 barangays of the municipality on Nov. 23 and 24.
Distribution for Barangays 1, 2, and 3 was held at the Public Plaza, while the distribution for the other 20 barangays were held in their respective barangay covered courts.
Indigent senior citizens – those without pensions from GSIS or SSS – receive a stipend of P500 per month, or P1,500 per quarter, from the DSWD to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.*
