Mr Jacob Sibia and British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands David Ward together with the students enrolled under Mr Sibia’s
school at certificate handing over ceremony.
BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
YESTERDAY Mr Jacob Sibia officially received his award as the 42nd Commonwealth Point of light in honour of his exceptional voluntary service of providing access to education for children.
He has received a personalised certificate signed by Her Majesty The Queen as Head of the Commonwealth.
British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands David Ward hands over the award to Mr Jacob Sibia.
According to the British government press statement, Mr Sibia said he was amazed and honoured to receive the award as swell as appreciating his wife, who from the beginning has been very helpful, the teachers at the school and the British High Commission.
“I would also like to thank Her Majesty, The Queen for deeming my work as being deserving of this great honour.
“My voluntary work has never been about the recognition; it is for the children’s welfare and future. My vision, motive and desire in starting the Scholl is to raise children from earlier ages with good values using a holistic approach.
“Therefore I praise God for my success and strongly believe in ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” he said.
The award was presented to him by the British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, David Ward.
Mr Jacob Sibia and British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands David Ward together with the students enrolled under Mr Sibia’s school at certificate handing over ceremony.
THE Western province is reportedly planning to ban agricultural products from other provinces.
This is in response to the growing threat of the giant African snail and the coconut rhinoceros beetle, which are easily making their way across country.
The snail and the beetle are threatening the agriculture sector of Solomon Islands, and the Western province’s decision is based on proactive preventative measures against the pests.
Western provincial secretary (PS) Jeffery Wickham told this paper yesterday the provincial government is close to reaching a conclusion to put a stop on market produces from other provinces.
The Western province is taking this drastic measure because it treasurers its agriculture sector and recognises the utter importance of agriculture to the livelihood of its people.
He said the executive will soon inform its agriculture quarantine division to conduct awareness on the ban.
“We have determined on that issue to ban goods, especially market produces from other provinces to provincial urban centres in Western province.
“This is because of the fear of the African Giant snail and Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle that may spread to Western Province.
“We will soon issue notices to all the shipping services and logging companies entering the province to properly check by concerned authorities before coming to the province.”
He clarifies however that this does not stop people from other provinces trading with the Western province.
He said stakeholders including farmers, ship owners and travelling public will be made aware once the ban comes into effect.
AXIOM’S application to have the joint venture company of the Japanese Government and Sumitomo (SMM Solomon Limited) punished for contempt of court is back in the High Court this week (Tuesday).
In a Press Statement yesterday, Axiom alleges that the Japanese joint venture was behind two letters to the editor published in national newspapers under false names.
The false claims were designed to mislead local landowners and the readers of the newspapers.
Sumitomo says the letters were written on a Sumitomo computer by one of its long standing employees who created and used email accounts in false names to send the letters (which were also written in false names) to the newspapers for publication.
However, Sumitomo denies any involvement saying the employee acted without the knowledge or involvement of Sumitomo management.
Axiom on the hand says Sumitomo must have been behind the letters. As a result, Axiom says Sumitomo breached Court orders in force at the time the letters were written.
The orders were to stop Sumitomo from interfering ‘by its employees’ in any way in Axiom’s lawful business activities in Solomon Islands.
Axiom is seeking access to electronic documents that Google Inc in the USA has produced to the High Court.
Those documents concern the Gmail accounts that were set up by the Sumitomo employee in false names and were used to send the misleading letters to the newspapers.
Axiom has also asked the Court for orders that Sumitomo disclose further documents and seeks documents from Solomon Telekom concerning the emails. The High Court will also decide whether Solomon Telekom must produce its records to the Court.
“Axiom KB is jointly owned by the Isabel people and Axiom,” Axiom CEO Mr Ryan Mount said.
“We will vigorously protect our interests against any unethical behaviour. We will now pursue the opening of electronic data of the Gmail accounts created by Sumitomo’s employee. It is important to have all the evidence so the Court can decide whether Sumitomo was in contempt of the High Court.”
In all of this, one must ask the question, if the Japanese Government and Sumitomo joint venture company have nothing to hide then why do they challenge in court Axiom’s request to have access to the false email accounts created by their employee?
HONIARA City Council plans to launch an operation to cull the increasing number of stray dogs in the streets of Honiara, it is reported.
Mr George Titiulu, chief inspector officer of the HCC, in an exclusive interview with this paper said the HCC taskforce is preparing to first notify all pet owners and the public before lunging into the culling stage.
He urges pet owners to register their pets and to keep them confined within their homes, so as not to be caught in the cull exercise.
Stray dogs are a nuisance for many, in terms of noise, spreading of litter along the streets, disturbance along Honiara’s road and pathways, and also pose health risks to the residents of Honiara.
Titiulu uttered this initiative will be carried out according to the dog ordinance of the council and the international law on animal rights.
He said this campaign would help the task force achieve its aims when undertaking the operation.
Titiulu said in carrying out this campaign they will be using media.
He adds for now are they focusing on combating stray dogs but later on they will work with other animals as well.
PRINCIPAL Magistrate Tearo Beneteti has committed a murder case to the High Court for trial.
This is the case against Christopher Lalo, alleged to have murdered a man last year.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge and the defence lawyer requested for a short form preliminary inquiry to be conducted on the case.
The prosecution then submitted the preliminary inquiry papers to the court and after looking through the document the Magistrate has ruled that prosecution has sufficient evidence to stand trial in the High court.
She then made directions that the accused will be called in the High Court on April 27.
AN ordinance to ensure that fish sellers at the Central Market are not deceiving customers with false scale readings is in the making.
Honiara City Council Mayor, Mr Andrew Mua, speaking to Island Sun yesterday, said in light of fish sale at the market, there are people who are selling fish using scales that do not provide the correct scale reading thus the real cost of the seafood.
In relation, Mua said that if you weigh fish on different scales, you can see that the price will vary which results in some customers purchasing fish at a far higher price than expected.
He stated that once the ordinance is established and regulated, they will provide scales for fish sellers of Central Market.
“Concerning fish sale at the market, we are currently working on securing a number of scales so that Town Council can provide scales for those selling fish at Central Market,” said Mua.
He emphasised that this should help reduce the practice of using scales with false readings and should anybody be caught still engaged in the ordeal, they will be charged with theft under the ordinance.
WESTERN provincial leaders took the chance to refresh their ideas on how to move the province forward after their look and learn visit to Singapore.
The provincial delegation was led by the Premier, Wayne Maepio. Premier Maepio was accompanied by his deputy, the provincial secretary and treasurer, the minister for commerce and minister for finance and an energy consultant.
Provincial secretary, Jeffery Wickham said their visit was mainly to learn about Singapore’s energy sector.
Mr Wickham said the energy sector is an area the province is keen to explore as it is interested to be involved in fuel distribution in the province.
During the visit, he said they had meetings with people who are involved in Singapore’s petroleum refinery and distribution.
Wickham said during the visit they also looked at other areas of interest to the province including housing, investment, tourism and agro-forestry.
On housing, the province is interested to rent out houses in its land across the province for rent at affordable rates. Currently, the province only builds houses in its land in Noro.
On investment, the province is interested to develop programmes that would attract big investors than waiting for investors to go to the province.
Wickham said tourism is another key area they also looked at during the visit.
He said the province looks to promote the people private partnership arrangement as a way to boost the sector.
For agro-forestry, Wickham revealed the province intends to go into tree replanting. There is already an intention to turn Vagunu oil palm plantation into a tree-replanting site.
Wickham said the province would set up entities to take care of each of the areas the province identifies and wants to develop.
He said everything they learnt during the trip would be included in a report to be presented to the provincial executive.
A Honiara businessman has until today to settle outstanding National Provident Fund (NPF) contributions on behalf his workers or face prosecution, according to documents obtained by Island Sun.
The documents show Alick Wane, also known as Tabe’u, owed his eight workers NPF contributions totalling $57,047.50 between 2012 and 2017.
The NPF has written to Mr Wane, demanding that the businessman settles his arrears within 14 days or face prosecution, according to the NPF Contributions Payment Demand – 14 day Notice letter dated April 13, 2018.
That demand notice lapses today.
Since it was recommended by the Office of the Ombudsman and by virtue of section 13(1) of the SINPF ACT CAP 109, you are hereby demanded to settle all this long outstanding contributions within 14 days as of the date of this letter.
Failure to comply as demanded herein will only indicate your willingness for this matter to be referred to prosecution,” the letter, written by Senior Enforcement Officer, Collin Narasia, said.
It is understood overtures by Mr Wane to settle out of court the matter with his former workers have been rejected. It is also understood that SINPF had issued a similar demand letter in May 2017.
However that demand appeared to have been ignored.
THE trial date for the case against the Member of Parliament for Baegu/Asifola Constituency will be re-scheduled because there will be no prosecutor free on the initial date.
Public Prosecutor Bradley Dalipanda told court yesterday the trial date on May 7 will not be possible for the prosecution as they have other matters for trial that same week.
Dalipanda said the date was set by his colleague prosecutor, who has since been on study leave. Thus, the case has been re-issued to Dalipanda.
However Chief Magistrate Emma Garo said re-scheduling of the case is another problem to the court, because there are only three court rooms shared among six magistrates.
She said if a case is already set for trial and lawyers wanted to vacate the trial date, the case will not be heard until after six months.
Ms Garo said the accused, Mr David Tome, is charged in relation to incidents in 2011, and if the trial date is moved for next year, this means the case would have been delayed for eight years.
Meanwhile defence lawyer Michael Pitakaka suggested that prosecution prioritises this case over other cases before them.
Defence also made application to vary Mr Tome’s bail condition as he will be travelling to Australia for his medical review next month.
The case has adjourned to today for ruling on bail variation and to confirm the trial date.
This is the case against MP David Tome who is alleged to have been involved in converting funds in relation to incidents in 2011.
Prosecution alleged that in 2011 Tome obtained public funds for a constituency project; however those funds were not used as intended and was converted for his own use.
The MP is charged with 14 counts of Conversion under Section 278(1) (c) (i) of the Penal Code, involving funds totalling $67,170.
The minister is on $2,000 cash bail and will appear in court faithfully till his case is completed.
Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela earlier this week opened the new High Commission office of Solomon Islands in London. This is seen as Solomon Islands further strengthening its traditional
ties with Great Britain, which Prime Minister Hou says ‘has never wavered’. (Pictured) PM Rick Hounipwela proposing a toast to mark the opening.
Prime Minister Hou opens SI High Commission in London
PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela has officially opened the Solomon Islands High Commission Office in London.
Speaking during the occasion, the Prime Minister Hou said it is an historic moment for Solomon Islands as it also marks a new era in our long history with the United Kingdom (UK).
He said just as the UK is looking to re-engage in the Pacific Islands region, Solomon Islands is also looking to further strengthen its traditional ties with the UK.
UK Minister Mark Field congratulating the PM after he unveiled the plaque.
“History tells us that Solomon Islands gained her Independence from Great Britain 40 years ago this year. Yet today, in the era of globalisation, we cannot deny the value of interdependency. Genuine and durable partnerships that result in tangible mutual benefits has now replaced the donor-recipient relations of yesteryear,” he said.
He said the opening of our diplomatic mission in London is also a manifestation of our strengthened partnership with the United Kingdom.
“This new paradigm, with a focus on partnership in the development cooperation sphere, is the way forward. In this connection, Solomon Islands looks forward to enhancing and strengthening its already successful partnership with the United Kingdom through this renewed commitment between our nations.
Minister Field delivering his remarks. Photos from PM Press Secretariate
“One may ask as to why it has taken this long for Solomon Islands to establish a mission in the UK. Let me say that despite the absence of a physical presence in London, our relation with the UK has always been solid,” he said.
The Prime Minister said Solomon Islands relationship with UK has never wavered.
“Given UK is exiting the EU, we see an opportunity for us to benefit and engage more directly at a bilateral level. As they say, as one door closes, another even bigger one opens,” he said.
Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka (right) and High Commissioner designate Eliam Tangirongo.
Prime Minister Hou said Solomon Islands representation in London will also allow Solomon Islands to work more effectively with its international partners in promoting collective agendas.
“It will also allow us to bring to bear our national interests and priorities in these agendas as well that will further strengthen our cooperation in the area of investment, trade and development cooperation,” he said.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hon Mark Field, Members of the Diplomatic Corp, Minister for Foreign Affairs & External Trade of the Solomon Islands Hon Milner Tozaka, High Commissioner designate Mr Eliam Tangirongo, Solomon Islanders living in and around London and other parts of the UK and friends of Solomon Islands.
Mr Field speaking on behalf of the UK Government has congratulated Solomon Islands for opening its office in London.
He said it is a new beginning as Solomon Islands continues to reach out to its friends around the world.
–OPMC PRESS
(Left to Right) SI ambassador to Brussels Moses Mose, Foreign Minister Tozaka and PS Junior Kenilorea.Fiji Govt reps presenting a gift to PM Hou during the opening.Some members of the UK Solomon Islands community.
