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GREAT Women Project Launch
By Jacqueline L. Ong
IN LINE WITH the city’s thrust in seeking to harness novel tourism markets, a Cebu City official has outlined the city’s plans and projects directed at elevating Cebu as an attractive destination for community-based heritage tourism.
“We are aware of the benefits of heritage tourism to the city. We also see it as another new addition to other tourism genre such as sports tourism and medical tourism,” declared Cebu City councilor Arsenio Pacana, chair of the tourism committee.
First and foremost is the upgrading and beautifying of the city’s heritage and cultural sites in order to preserve Cebu’s priceless past and distinction as the oldest city in the Philippines.
“The Fort San Pedro, the country’s oldest fort, was handed over quite recently by the Philippine Tourism Authority, or PTA, to the city government,” Pacana related in a forum on Community-Based Heritage Tourism held in downtown Cebu.
However, he recommended that a private foundation or an NGO oversee the fort’s operations for better property management and to maximize the fort’s true value as a tourism must-see in Cebu.
Playing huge roles in the community-based heritage tourism aspect are the PROPEL, or Promoting Regional Opportunities for Enterprise and Livelihood Development; the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or CCCI; the city officials of the barangays of Santo Nino, Ermita, and Pari-an; and their respective homeowners associations.
A project of Sen, Kiko Pangilinan, the PROPEL project aims to assist target communities to become competitive by providing them with entrepreneurial skills and capabilities; LGU/barangay, chamber and institutional capacity-building; and local development partnership initiatives. |
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ONE ENCHANTED PARTNERSHIP. Enchanted Kingdom, the Philippines’ premier theme park has strengthened its marketing presence in the Visayas by appointing Selrahco Management Services as its representative. Enchanted Kingdom, a 16-hectare theme park in Sta. Rosa Laguna, offers seven unique themed zones such as: Victoria Park-which takes you back to Victorian Era; Portabello-which offers wet and wild adventures; Brooklyn Place-provides a sentimental journey down the streets of Brooklyn, New York; Boulderville-a prehistoric zone; Space Port-a new dimension experience; Jungle Outpost-a mysterious and adventuresome zone and Midway Boardwalk-a colorful and carefree zone by clowns. For bookings, reservations and inquiries, call (032) 231.7673 or email at starhtel@mozcom.com here in Cebu City. Picture shows Mr. Dennis Cruz, EK’s Vice President Marketing and > Business Development for Enchanted Kingdom sealing the partnership with Selrahco president Mr. Charles Lim with a handshake recently in the presence of Enchanted Kingdom’s mascot and show characters.
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Local Eye for the Foreign Guy
By Lex Ledesma
Real Gaming
Next to Christmas summer is one of the most anticipated vacations of Filipino children. Summer break usually starts mid-March and ends in the last week of May. During the two month summer season, many privileged kids get to go abroad or visit some of our spectacular beaches. Those who are left behind busy themselves by learning a new skill by enrolling in special classes like ballet, joining basketball clinics, taking up art lessons and the like.
Other children prefer to stay at home developing blisters from pushing the buttons of their PSP. However, there are others that I like to call “real gamers” that don’t need to rely on electricity and modern technology to keep themselves occupied. These kids spend their summer in a more austere way – they dawdle along village streets or eskinitas (narrow alleys) to play traditional children’s games like luksong tinik, patintero or taguan to name a few.
Luksong Tinik derived its name from the Filipino words lukso (to jump or hop) and tinik (thorn). It is played by having two teams with equal number of players. The leader of each team is usually the highest jumper. During the first round, one team serves as the obstacle or tinik (thorn). To do this, two players face each other. Both sit on the ground with one leg tucked, the other extended, touching the others’ sole.
Each member of the other team runs from a designated starting point to gather momentum and jump over the formed “human hurdle” without touching the base players’ legs. On the succeeding rounds, the hurdle gets higher by stacking the other leg, one arm, then the other and so on. In case one of the jumpers “gets caught” by the thorn (by making contact with the stacked arm or leg), the teams exchange roles.
Like Luksong Tinik, Patintero is played by having two teams with equal number of players. However, Patintero is a bit more convoluted than Luksong Tinik and can become more and more complicated depending on how many players each team has and how much playing area there is.
It is actually like the game tag, but the “it” team or taya in Filipino (the team who will chase the running team) is positioned in a certain area. The simplest way to play patintero is to draw two parallel lines using chalk or charcoal on the ground. The distance should be a little more than the average arm’s length of the players. This line marks the station of the “it” players. They can move, block and tag any way they want as long as at least one foot is stepping on that line. The running team’s goal is for all of them to get past through the stationed “its” without getting tagged and get back “home,” the safe area where they started. If one of the runners gets tagged while traversing the obstacles, the game ends abruptly and teams switch places.
Taguan is more commonly known as hide-and-seek. It is best played at night so it is harder for the seeker (“it” or taya) to find his hiding playmates. In choosing who will be the first seeker, children form a circle and the leader recites a famous “taguan” Filipino chant while pointing at each player with every beat. When the song ends, the player pointed at is “out,” meaning he will not be the seeker. It is repeated over and over until one kid is left standing to be the “it.”
On a designated home base (like a tree or wall), the taya covers/closes his eyes and counts 1-20 or more until his playmates find a place to hide. Once the seeker spots a playmate, he calls out the playmates name and they race to the homebase. If the hider reaches the base first, he shouts “SAFE!” and the others will remain in their hiding places. But if the “it” outruns the hider, they exchange places, everyone comes out for the new “its” countdown and the rest hide in a new place.
These are just some of the many conventional games children play during summer or when they’re bored. At this day and age where technological advancements are usually the default amusement source, it’s good to know that kids can still have fun with these simple games that can be done for free.
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US Tax Time: Choosing a tax preparer
Finding a good tax preparer has never been easy. But the growing complexity of the tax code has made it even trickier, says Wall Street Journal columnist Tom Herman in Tax Report.
More than 60 percent of all US taxpayers used paid preparers last year, up from 46 percent in the mid-1980s. Many more are likely to need professional help next year unless Congress does something to curb the rapid growth of the alternative minimum tax, a highly complex parallel tax system that ensnared about 3.5 million people last year.
Nobody knows for sure how many paid preparers there are. Cono Namorato, a former Internal Revenue Service official who now is a partner at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, estimates there are 1.2 million to 1.6 million. Among them are highly trained tax lawyers, certified public accountants and enrolled agents — who are private-sector specialists licensed to practice before the IRS. The list also includes seasonal workers at national tax-preparation companies, as well as small storefront and shopping-mall operations.
Yet relying on even the most experienced tax pro is no guarantee of getting a bulletproof return — or even saving money. Indeed, armed with a good software program, you may well be able to do your taxes on your own.
So how do you find the right preparer, should you decide you need one? The answer depends on many factors, such as how complex your tax situation is and how much tax-planning advice you want.
To be sure, millions of people with relatively straightforward returns probably can handle their own returns, either on their own or with the help of software such as Intuit Inc.’s TurboTax and H&R Block Inc.’s TaxCut.
Many other taxpayers comfortable with tax issues probably could do the job themselves even if they itemize – as long as they’re patient, willing to wade through dense IRS instructions and have relatively routine situations.
But it doesn’t take much to drag taxpayers into surprisingly deep water. That’s particularly true for people whose personal situation has changed.
Living Overseas as an American offers certain tax advantages including a two month extension to the usual April 15 filing deadline, plus a USD 2,400 increase in the amount an individual can make without paying taxes while working abroad, currently at USD 82,400; however new tax codes have made things tougher for individuals in higher tax brackets.
To find out more about the changes in overseas tax laws go to the IRS’s website or ask your local tax preparer. The major accounting firms provide tax-return assistance, or in Manila, TAXPLAN, INC. can be reached at (02) 527-3985 or 5334, or via taxplanphils@skyinet.net
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