6,000 residents avail of free training program

THE local government of this city reported yesterday that more than 6,000 residents of this city have benefited from its Welding training program in anticipation of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Inc., full blast operation in coming years.

The Skill Training Program led by Mayor James Gordon Jr. and Skills Training Center Director and City Councilor Edwin Piano has initially employed 2154 trainees hired by Hanjin Shipbuilding, 103 trainees have been employed by Hanjin Construction, 240 have been hired by different investors in Subic Bay Freeport, while 200 are now working as Oversees Filipino Workers.

Piano said that the training program consist of Shipbuilding Orientation, career workshop Seminar, Flux Cord Arch Welding Seminar, Basic Computer Literacy and Shielded Metal Arc Welding level II.

Piano added that just recently around 200 trainees have passed the screening and initial interview for job opportunity in Australia.
Mayor Gordon meanwhile said that the training program is all accredited by Technical education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Animal theme park opens new gig for tourist

TRY out a new experience this summer, this time it’s the animal who will visit you personally, no cages, no fenced areas and best of all, its all in just one area.

Zoobic Safari, which brought to Subic Freeport the only tiger safari adventure in the country, is now offering a bigger, improved animal show, plus an educational camp for adventuresome kids and adults.

Want to see poodles that waltz, monkeys that dunk a basketball, pigs hurdling obstacles, or dogs dancing tinikling? Then Zoobic Safari is just the place for you, said company CEO Robert Yupangco.

Yupangco, who opened several new attractions recently in this popular theme park, said Zoobic Safari
launched early this month the “Zummer Zoobic Safari” program, with additional facilities and entertainment features that the whole family would surely enjoy.

“You can do so many things here,” Yupangco said. “You could go camping. We have a boot camp, with a course. You can learn different things like how to breed animals.”

Under the special summer program, Zoobic Safari has headlined its daily entertainment fare with an animal show, where Jenny the monkey impresses the audience with her acting skills, Vera the dog successfully undergoes a tricky question-and-answer segment, while poodles dance and show their athletic prowess, and potbellied pigs jump and fool around.

Then, a tour of the whole theme park follows, with tour guides providing trivia about the golden
pheasants, tarsiers, albino water buffalos, moon bear, camels, and other animals featured in the park.

The tour would actually take half a day, at least, as it includes a visit to the “Rodent World,” which has specimens of cloud rat, one of the biggest rodents in the world; the “Rodent Saloon,” which is equipped with small bath tubs, hair blower and shampoo for its tiny furry customers; the “Serpentarium,” which has a collection of pythons and other reptiles; and the “Tiger Safari”, where visitors ride on metal-screened jeepneys to get close to tigers roaming in their natural grassland habitat.

The tour, of course, wouldn’t be complete without going to the “Savannah,” where ostriches, potbellies, wild bears and guinea fowls roam freely; the “Animal Muzooeum”, which boasts a rare collection of stuffed wild animals and mounted animal skeletons; and the “Croco Loco,” which, of course, features live crocodiles.

The tour is capped later in the afternoon with an animal parade, where representative specimens of all the animals in the park, both wild and domesticated, are brought out in a parade that is actually a modern take of the biblical story of Noah’s ark.

Despite the overwhelming number of attractions at Zoobic Safari, Yupangco said the theme park is only about 30 percent completed.

“We have yet so much to do, and I think 50 years is not enough to accomplish all that,” Yupangco said with a laugh. “We now have 50 tigers here, but we will soon introduce white tigers. A lot of zebras and giraffes are also coming in, and yes, an elephant.”

Yupangco also mentioned plans for animal races, which include greyhounds, horses, and quite surprisingly, even chicken. This is in addition to Zoobic’s ongoing breeding program for endangered animals, and a “pit bull program”, which trains what are otherwise known as fighting dogs for the non-aggressive activity of racing.

And more is yet to come, as the management is currently working to add to the list more adventure rides, a forest camp with trailers painted in tiger stripes, as well as fishing and canoeing.

Early this month, Zoobic also broke ground for its latest project — the “Aeta’s Way,” which would enable tourists to experience how it is like to live close to nature, as the indigenous people of the Subic Bay Freeport still do.

For this project, Yupangco said that a parcel of the theme park would be developed, complete with air-conditioned cottages and first-class amenities of modern living.
This seemed ironic, as Yupangco himself admitted, but he added that the idea was for Zoobic Safari visitors to get a grasp of the Aeta lifestyle without sacrificing comforts.

www.subictimes.com to be online soon

Soon, http://www.subictimes.com/ will be online.

This new website dedicated for news around the bay area of Subic Bay freeport promises to bring you fresh and up-to-date news and information.

Although this is a new venture for this writer, i will try to do my best to update the readers.

If you have any suggestions, it will be highly appreciated, email it to abayarong@gmaill.com

Police train barangay tanods

OLONGAPO City: Around 1,000 Barangay officials and civilian volunteer organization members will train with the Olongapo City Police office to enhance their capability in maintaining peace and order in their respective communities.

Police Senior Supt. Abelardo Villacorta told The Manila Times that the four-day training will include all officials of the 17 barangays in Olongapo City.

“This is part of our efforts to help them maintain peace and order in their respective barangays as we tap them to become our force multipliers.” Villacorta said.

He added that his office initiated the program in order to augment the shortage of police officers in the city and to help in the city’s peace and order campaign.

“Barangay officials and tanods are in the forefront of peacekeeping in their respective communities and I think with this training they can help the police and the city as a whole in the maintenance of peace and order,” he said.

The four-day training will include crisis management, police security containment ring system (integrated patrol system), drug abuse control, human rights, law of arrest and seizure, barangay justice system, crime scene preservation, handcuffing techniques, police operational procedure, info gathering and traffic rules and regulations.

He added that the training would also include a brief on anti-terrorism.

He explained that the program is in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the local government of Olongapo City.

The training started on February 4 and will end on April 18.
-- Anthony Bayarong

Power upgrades at Subic address increasing demand

By Anthony Bayarong

SUBIC BAY Free port: The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) announced Wednesday that Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. will install a $420-million coal-fired plant next year while Subic Enerzone will set up a P210-million system installation and rehabilitation project to improve its service.
“These power projects are crucial to the growth of the Subic Free Port and the local economy because they will help reduce the cost of electricity in Subic, as well as address a projected increase in power demand,” SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said.
The proposed 300-megawatt coal plant to be built near the Hanjin shipyard is designed to partly address the expected surge in electricity demand in Luzon.
The project, a joint venture of Aboitiz Power Corp. and Taiwan Cogeneration Corp., is scheduled for completion in 2011, with another 300-megawatt facility set to follow three years later.
Meanwhile, Subic Enerzone that operates the power distribution system in the Subic Free Port said that power consumption in its Subic franchise area has been increasing over the past few years, which is why it has to upgrade the power system in Subic, and put up additional generation facilities.
The substation upgrade projects include restoration or replacement of switchgears, installation of new power cables, and construction of take-off and by-pass structures.