Putting God first as a sector and individually was the main point in the keynote speech delivered by the Minister of Information and Communication, Timothy Masiu during the Departments dedication service yesterday. “In everything that we do as a Department, we must put God first and foremost,” said Mr. Masiu. “All that the Department has achieved in 2020 was not by sheer luck but through God’s grace.” Apart from the Department of Information and Communication, present for the dedication service also was the National Broadcasting Network (NBC) and National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA). Mr. Masiu reminded the workers not to forget the importance of these three agencies in the country ‘Let us remind ourselves that we work for three important sectors that can make a real difference for our people especially in the Districts and back home,” he said. The Minister also appealed to all the employees to be committed to their jobs and to do their jobs diligently and to not be complacent. The Minister will meet at the end of this month to discuss the plans and aspirations for the ICT sector in the country.

A group of Gulf students from various tertiary institutions across the country have been spending their school break raising awareness on the importance of education to children, students and parents in the Gulf Province. This voluntary awareness program which started last week and ended over the weekend, saw 21 Gulf students visiting the main villages in the Province. The idea was proposed by a third year Applied Chemistry student of the University of Technology, Benjamin Bal who reached out to fellow Gulf students of other tertiary institutions to carry out this awareness. “We visited the main villages Iokea, Lese, Moveave, Terapo, Ipaquata, Uamai, Epo and Opau to raise awareness on the importance and the benefits of education and being educated,” said Mr. Bal. “One key message that we spread throughout these villages was the importance of sending their children to school and that education begins at home first.” The Provincial Department of Health assisted the students with a vehicle and a driver to take them through the villages. “Although we had assistance, it was not enough to take us through all these villages,” said Mr. Bal. “Since the awareness was voluntary, we used our personal finances while a fellow student, Bryan Hubert paid for zoom fuel and a dinghy so that we could go do the educational awareness in his home village of Opau.” “We love what we are doing or did and we are a passionate about it, we want changes in our communities and that Education becomes a priority in the Gulf Province,” Mr. Bal added.

The Final 29 men SP Hunters was announced this week at the Oil Search National Football stadium after the omission of 6 players. According to SP Hunters Coach Matthew Church, Ricko Jimmy, Rhadly Brawa, Sunny Lipu, Ben Kennedy, Jordan Pat and Valentine Culligan were released. “It was a tough conversation to have with each player, one part of the job of a coach we don’t look forward to but it’s best to be honest,” he said. He encouraged them to keep playing hard and well in their Digicel Cup. Meanwhile, 11 new faces were added into the squad. Coach Matthew Church said the squad was selected on the way they wanted to play this season. “The suitability to the Hunters playing style and the introduction of some new game rules were considered when finalizing the squad,” he said. According to Church with an influx of players in the final squad that have never played at the Intrust Super Cup level, training has intensified with Church saying he is going over with them what it is like to be a Hunter and what is like to play at that level. “We are just going over what it takes to play at the ISC level, the intensity of the game and just driving those standards during training,” he said. “We going through what sort of values you should have as a hunter’s player, to be competitive as an individual and as a team to be extremely competitive and hard to beat as well.” There is no major injury concerns within the squad except for Joe Joshua, the former Snax Tiger’s fullback aggravated his hamstring injury.  “He lost his footing while doing some personal training but his progressing well and completing all his sessions,” said Church. The SP Hunters are set to travel to Australia at the end of this month.

A new partnership will now enable members of the PNG Health Assurance (PHA) to directly bill their medical prescriptions to PHA Health Assurance from any one of the 32 City Pharmacy branches at a discounted rate. This partnership was announced today by the Deputy CEO of PHA Insurance John Elisa and the CEO of City Pharmacy Navin Raju. According to Mr Elisa, PHA Insurance members will be able to readily access prescriptions and basic health care in all City Pharmacy outlets nationwide. “This is more affordable and accessible for our members since CPL has 32 branches country wide,” said Mr. Elisa. Mr. Elisa said that there are times when their members are given prescriptions to go elsewhere because the clinics do not have the drugs available. “Also availability of drugs is another reason for this partnership, now our members can go to the nursing stations at any CPL or the CPL counters and get their readily available prescriptions.” PHA Members will only pay the deductible as per their PHA Membership card and the rest will be paid by the PHA Insurance. CPL CEO Navin Raju said they are happy to give the members an opportunity to access their medicines in their provinces and in a convenient and safe place. He further added that they are proud to be associated with PHA Assurance, a company that is progressing so well in the country.

Department of Education witnessed the formal handing over of the Ministry of Education from the outgoing Minister and member of Wosera-Gaui, Joseph Yopyoypy to the member of Usino-Bundi Jimmy Uguro this week. In his farewell remarks, Outgoing Minister Joseph Yopyoypy stressed on the importance of education and that it is only through education we can truly take back PNG. “We talk about taking back PNG than education is the way to go because only through an educated population we can change the nation,” he said. In the last 18 months he has pushed for more reforms and policies to be implemented to improve the quality of education and thanked the Department staff for their tireless efforts in bringing this to pass. He also offered his support to the incoming Minister saying he’s door is always open to discuss any policies and reforms. The New Minister Jimmy Uguro assured his predecessor that his he will follow through with the plans and implement where he can. “We will start from where you stopped and do what we have to do and adjust where appropriate,” said Uguro. Minister Uguro said that 2021 will focus more on rural education and maintaining the rural teachers. “The Marape-Basil Government is focusing its education services at the remote areas and it will start from the rural areas first before it reaches the urban areas.”

Outgoing Minister for Education Joseph Yopyoypy has urged the Government to be serious about improving the quality of Education in PNG and not remove money already committed to education. He made this comment during the official handover takeover ceremony between him and his successor, and new Education Minister Jimmy Uguro. He said that schools struggled halfway through 2020 without full Government support and to see a further budget cut for this year is a shame. “Around K200 million is budgeted for this whole year which only means that parents will have to foot around 70% of the school fees and the Government around 30%.” He said that if the Government is serious about taking back PNG through education than this has to be seriously looked at. Students of Messi Primary School in Namatanai, New Ireland Province

An 8 day State Funeral Program has been organized for Papua New Guinea’s seventh Prime Minister and Port Moresby Northwest MP the late Sir Mekere Morauta. This was announced by the State Funeral organizing Committee Chairman and member for Moresby South Justin Tkatchenko who said Day One will officially begin when Late Sir Mekere’s casket lands at the Port Moresby Jacksons Airport. “Day One will be today when the casket and family of the late Sir Mekere arrive at 1:30pm at the VIP carpark at the Jacksons airport.” “He will be received by his family, the Prime Minister, NCD Governor, the Foreign Affairs Minister and all the members of Parliament.” After this the Late Sir Mekere’s body will be dropped off at the Funeral Home and his family will go into quarantine for the next 7 days. “Lady Roslyn Morauta, wife of late Sir Mekere, has made it clearly that all Covid19 protocols should be followed therefore her family will be undergoing home quarantine for the next 7 days.” “Day 5 which is next week Monday the 4th of January, 2021, the Late Sir Mek will be laid in state at the Grand Hall in Parliament for public viewing.” Tkatchenko added, “This is the perfect opportunity for the public to come and pay their respects and mourn their leader and since it’s from 10am-4pm everybody should have time to farewell their leader.” “Even his family requests the public to come pay their respects at the Parliament house.” On Day 8, the country will witness the late Sir Meks State Funeral at the Sione Kami Memorial Church at East Boroko which will be on Friday the 8th of January, 2021. “The reason why we have such a drawn out State Funeral is because of the Covid19 quarantine requirements for the Morauta family.” “His family will be out of quarantine by Thursday the 7th of January, 2021 hence we’re having the funeral service on Friday, followed by his burial at Independence Hill.” The Late Sir Mekere Morauta will be laid to rest on the 8th of January, 2021 at the Independence Hill alongside former Prime Minister the Late Sir William Skate.

The NCD Police Command is stamping its authority ahead of the New Year and warns city residents that their celebrations welcoming the New Year 2021 can only last for an hour. And the sanctioned times for celebrations which doesn't include public disturbances and, or noise pollution is from 12am – 1am in the New Year. “You can only have an hour of New Year celebrations from 12 - 1am, if you go beyond that and a neighbor complains, then that would be an offense,” said the NCD Police Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’Dranou. He said an hour should be enough for people to complete their street celebrations and after that he expects them to be responsible and mindful of others. “The Police understands that people need to celebrate and so we give you an hour to enjoy,” N’Dranou added.   He strongly warned against noise pollution, burning of tires on the streets and the abuse of liquor during the New Year. However, he commended the general public for being compliant, tolerant and on their best behavior during Christmas and requests for the same attitude during New Years. “Be the champion citizen that you are and maintain the good behavior you have during the Christmas,” he added. NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N'Dranou.

More than 1000 grade 12 students from 15 schools both in NCD and Central Provinces have received scholarship from the DATEC Learning Centre to study with them in 2021. Scholarship package includes a discount of school fees from 5% through to 25% depending on how well students scored their marks on the Merit Scholarship Exam, an exam hosted by the Learning Centre itself to determine the selection of students. DATEC Learning Centre’s General Manager Ravi Chandran said the Merit Scholarship Exam was conducted by them in schools around the city and province. “We had to be fair in the handing out of our scholarship and so it is through this exam we identify and award the scholarship to the students that performed well in our exams,” said Mr. Chandran. “The scholarship offers the discount of school fees for the whole 2 years that the students study for their Diploma program,” He further added. This scholarship scheme was introduced in 2018 to financially assist students who were unable to pay for their school fees when studying with the DATEC Learning Centre. With over 17,000 students missing out on tertiary space this year, the DATEC Learning Center proves to be a good learning center for students especially with the global advancement of Digital technology. DATEC Learning Centre offers Certificate in Information and Technology (IT), Diploma in Information Technology, IT and Business Management, Server and Network Administration and Database Administration and Advance Diploma in IT, IT and Business Management, Server and Network Administration, Database Administration, software Development and Software and Mobile Application.

“Christmas is a time of love and a time to share and give to your family and friends,” said Tonya Tamuno, Founder of the Fast Lane Mainz Foundation. She said this during a small donation her team made to the mothers at the labor ward in Port Moresby General Hospital on Christmas Day. “Most of our mothers that come to have their babies are from the rural areas and they usually do not have family visiting hence why we are here to donate the food and much needed toiletries,” Tonya Tamuno added. She also said that there is so much love in the world to give to others and what better time than on Christmas Day. Tamuno urged youths out there to join the foundation and so they can work together to help the less fortunate in whatever way they can. “To any youths out there that wants to help someone in need, please inbox Fast Lane Mainz Foundation PNG on Facebook or follow on twitter and we can go from there.” She also thanked Paradise Biscuits and Colgate Palmolive for their assistance to FML with biscuits and Colgate products to donate to these mothers and hope more can join for future projects.

The PNG Hunters have received a 3 year sponsorship worth over K5 million from the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited recently. With plans to relocate to Queensland for the 2021 Intrust Super Cup season, the sponsorship could not have come at a better time. “The PNG Hunters are relocating to Queensland due to COVID19 and this support is very important to the success of the program,” said the Chairman of PNG Rugby League Mr. Sandis Tsaka. He thanked KPHL for their continuous support towards not just the Hunters but to Rugby League in general.  “I just want to say a big thank you to KPHL and the Board for their commitment is supporting the PNG Hunters and coming on board as a long term partner,” Tsaka added. Managing Director Wapu Sonk said this year was a tough time for the company with Covid19 affecting the price of oil and gas but that will not stop them from supporting the Country’s national sport. KPHL has always supported Rugby League in PNG from local matches to rugby 9’s and this time are extending their support to the PNG Hunters as a platinum sponsor. “Based on what we have experienced through our locally sponsored club Hela Wigmen, we feel that we should continue supporting the Rugby league sporting code especially the PNG Hunters,” said Mr. Sonk. While giving the cheque K5.5 million he further added that it is through such programs that they hope to promote the social well-being of the country. Picture source: RNZ Audio: PNGRFL Chairman Sandis Tsaka PNGRFL Chairman Sandis Tsaka

The Minister for Housing and Member for Moresby-South Justin Tkatchenko has labelled the illegal settling of Taurama Valley and Gereka in Port Moresby a total disgrace and a disaster. He made this remark during the launching of the NCD Urban Development Plan recently. Minister Tkatchenko said land in these two areas are being illegally sold by unapproved landowners who are not following proper process of getting the individual customary landowners and registered ILG’s approval. “Individuals are selling land for their own personal gain without going through the proper process of registering ILG’s and getting the whole clan to approve,” said Tkatchenko. “This is a big problem that is happening at Gereka, Taurama and other areas in Moresby-South,” he added. He also shared concerns that there were no proper plan and land subdivisions making it difficult to provide the necessary services and infrastructures. “How can I put proper electricity, water, road and other utilities when there’s no proper land subdivisions and land is already been occupied?” Tkatchenko said. However, during his time as the Minister of Lands he held a Customary Landowner Summit to empower actual ILG’s to control and stop the illegal selling of customary land by their family members. “It was during this time we introduced laws that if one clan member sells customary land without the unanimous support and permission of the clan, they will be arrested and charged.” The laws have been approved by NEC but are yet to be implemented. File photo: