DAGAMI, Leyte – In preparation for the upcoming project implementation of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Leyte Second District Engineering Office (L2DEO) held a pre-construction meeting with the residents of Barangay Plaridel, this town.

The P30 million project involved the construction of drainage canals stretching the road section of Plaridel.

The purpose of the meeting was to give the community a general overview and design of the project, district engineer Edward Oppura said.

“These pre-construction activities will be the ideal opportunity for the community to voice their worries and difficulties in order to prevent future issues that may develop during the project implementation and, in some way, to have a smooth flow in all of the project’s plan,” he said.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

ORMOC CITY– A revenue collection clerk of the municipality of Can-avid in Eastern Samar was arrested in a buy-bust operation Monday (Feb.13).

Report from the local police identified the suspect as Michael Leguarda who was also described to be the number 3 in the drug watch list in the province.

During the buy-bust operation conducted in Barangay 3 at about 7:45 am, the police were able to recover from the suspect five sachets of alleged shabu with a commercial value of P20,400.

Leguarda, who denied that the recovered prohibited items were from him, is now detained at the Can-avid municipal police station and charged under RA 6425.
(ROBERT DEJON)

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte– Eighteen former rebels surrendered before police authorities on Friday (Feb.17) who were presented before members of the local media in a presser.

All former members of the New People’s Army (NPA) said that they have decided to abandon their former comrades and the communist armed group due to hardships in the mountains and avail the government program for returning rebels.

Of the 18 surrenderees, seven were from Eastern Samar; six from Samar, and five from Northern Samar. They also surrendered several firearms and a grenade.

Alias ‘Ka James’ said that he went to the mountains and joined the communist armed group after he suffered military abuse during the tenure of the controversial former Major Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Palparan was the region’s top military official in 2015 and was credited for the ‘significant reduction’ of the number of rebels in the region.

He is now detained after a court found him guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection to the abduction and disappearance of two University of the Philippines (UP) students, Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, in 2006.

The three Samar provinces are considered by the military where the insurgency problem of the region remains to be active and skirmishes between government troops and NPA rebels sometimes occur.

B/ Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil, the police regional director, said that he was glad that these former rebels decided to return to the folds of the law and want to live a normal life.
“And to those who are still in doubt of the government, please, this is your time to live anew. Make your children proud of you for choosing the right path,” he said.

“Indeed, their reintegration into the government is the best decision they have made to welcome genuine development for peace and progress. Hand-in-hand, we will attain the true peace we have long been waiting for,” he added.

It was learned that since the start of the year, 93 former NPA members have surrendered to government forces, particularly to the police in the region.

Marbil commended the efforts of his personnel who have been relentless in the campaign against insurgency and other lawless elements.

“It is through your dedication and commitment to public safety and orderliness that our brothers and sisters in the armed struggle have realized to come back to our one government,” the police regional director said.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

ORMOC CITY– A man was stabbed by his nephew while they were having a drinking spree during the Valentine’s Day celebration in Catbalogan City.

It was learned that the victim, Rolando Avestruz,49, and his nephew, Jessan Quenese,19, were having a drinking spree with some of their neighbors in Barangay Old Mahayag of the said city when the suspect stabbed his uncle without any provocation.

Avestruz sustained stab wounds on his right leg.

Fortunately, there were members of the village police who were able to arrest Quenese and brought him to the city police station.

The victim was brought by his sister to the Samar Provincial Hospital for immediate medical treatment. (ROBERT DEJON)