PAJ General Assembly & Elections
April 16, 2010
Bureau of Soils & Water Management

The Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc. held their General Assembly & Elections at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management Auditorium in Quezon City participated in by about 65 new and old members from the mainstream media, information units of various agricultural government agencies, agricultural writers and faculty members from agricultural colleges & universities.

After the President’s Report by Sanny Galvez and the Treasurer’s Report by Inez Magbual, an open forum was held where the following points/suggestions were given:

•for PAJ to come up with 2 categories of membership: one from the mainstream media and another from the information officers of government agencies/departments;
•share PAJ activities with the youth by creating PAJ Campus Publications Groups where students are involved as members;
•for PAJ to have an office of its own, to become fully independent from the government;
•a website for PAJ where members can share information; and
•encourage a focal person per region so that PAJ can have chapters nationwide




After the Open Forum, the election was held and the COMELEC declared the following results:

Voted as the top 15 were:

Melody Aguiba– 54 votes
Noel Reyes – 54 votes
Inez Magbual – 53 votes
Rudy Fernandez – 52 votes
Fermin Diaz – 47 votes
Johnny Goloyugo – 46 votes
Ma. Ruby Lumongsod – 44 votes
Conrad Carino – 42 votes
Thelma Tolentino – 42 votes
Girlie Hilario – 38 votes
Matilde Maunahan- 38 votes
Divine Reyes – 38 votes
Melba Wee – 38 votes
Jenny Ng – 36 votes
Riza Olchondra – 36 votes

The ranked 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th nominees were:

Love Gado (33 votes)
Emily Bordado (31 votes)
Cora Abio (30 votes) and
Ike Paguital (22 votes)

These persons are enlisted as alternate directors who will sit in the Board in the event that an elected Director resigned or became incapacitated to render service as PAJ director due to whatever cause..

The 15 elected Directors had their election of officers among themselves immediately after the General Elections in preparation to their Induction during the Binhi Awards Night which followed in the evening of the same day. Inducted by DA Undersecretary Joel Rudinas, the following are the new set of officers for the year 2010 -2012:






President: Jenny Ng
Vice President for Internal Affairs: Noel Reyes
Vice President for External Affairs: Matilde Maunahan
Secretary: Ma. Ruby Lumongsod
Treasurer: Inez Magbual
Auditor: Thelma Tolentino
PRO: Divine Reyes
Business Manager: Girlie Hilario

Directors:

Riza Olchondra
Johnny Goloyugo
Melody Aguiba
Rudy Fernandez
Fermin Diaz
Conrad Carino
Melba Wee

With past president Sanny Galvez, the new set of officers had their first meeting and discussed/agreed on the following:

•As requested by appointed President Jenny Ng, the regular meeting will be every 1st & 3rd Tuesday of the month. But for the first meeting of the 2010 officers, it will be on April 27, 2010

•Jenny suggested everyone to please prepare proposed programs/projects to be implemented for the next two years and present the said proposals on the PAJ first regular Board meeting. Jenny asked for the group support. She said she wants to establish a data base for the organization, create regional chapters and establish links

•The group commended VP Matilde Maunahan for successfully facilitating PAJ Membership to IFAJ or the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists

•For the PAJ Website, the PHILRICE group led by Andrei Lanuza volunteered to design the PAJ Website. The PAJ will just pay for the domain and will find someone to be the web manager.

•The director-elect from Zamboanga Melba Wee said she can attend the regular PAJ meetings provided she will be advised ahead of time. She added that it is a welcome idea to hold a PAJ Meeting in Zamboanga City