51st Aklan Day
Eight Outstanding Aklanons named
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – Eight outstanding Aklanons is this year’s awardees of the 51st founding anniversary of Aklan separation from the province of Capiz.
Philippine Army Staff Sergeant Blas Fernandez (Military) is the Community Affairs Non-Commissioned Officer of the 63rd Infantry, 8th Infantry Divison, Catubig, Northern Samar.

He was one of the Ten Outstanding Soldiers of the Philippines under the Enlisted Personnel Category -- a search sponsored by the Metrobank Foundation and the Rotary Club of Makati in recognition of and gratitude to the gallantry of select members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in preserving the country’s sovereignty.
He effectively implemented the Army Literacy Patrol System (ALPS) program of the AFP wherein the ALPS classes he handled had been a consistent winner in the Dep-Ed sponsored competition for the Outstanding Literacy program in the regional and national level.
Justice Arsenio Solidum (Judiciary) is the former Judge of the Court of First Instance of Manila and presently Justice of the Court of Appeals.

Anthony Mabasa (Business and Industry) is the Tollways Management Corporation president and CEO, operator of the 84-kilometer world-class North Luzon Expressway. After taking over TMC on February 2005, he partnered with Automobile Association Philippines (AAP), a non-profit organization with an advocacy in safety driving and proper care for vehicles.
Clarina Reloj-Dela Cruz (Technology Research) of the University of Houston captured first prize in the worldwide student competition of the 2006 50th Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference may one day provide faster, more efficient access to data, music and movies in such hand-held devices as MP3 players and cellular phones
Ambassador Teresita Vega-Berner (Foreign Service) is the former Philippine charge d’ Affaires to Italy and Director, Foreign Service Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs. She is presently the chief of mission, class II, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of India, with concurrent jurisdiction over Nepal.
Multi-awarded high school teacher Josette Biyo (Science) was honored with a minor planet for winning the 2002 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Louisville, Kentucky.

Her asteroid, christened 13241 Biyo was discovered in 1998 by Linear, a robotic telescope in Socorro, New Mexico, operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.
Odon Bandiola (Community Journalism), a former correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer and Panay News and former president of Aklan Press Club, is presently the Secretary to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Aklan.

Evelyn Meren-Kimpo (Education), first awardee from Banga Elementary School in Banga, Aklan where she teaches English to Grade 6 pupils and has been teaching for almost 38 years, is one of the 2006 outstanding teachers chosen by the Metrobank Foundation for serving as models of excellence in their profession.