It’s not surprising at all if the country’s telecommunication companies are dismayed over the “unsuccessful” drive of the government to have the people’s SIM cards registered. It is because, the registration process is strictly limiting itself to certain valid government IDs that not all people possess.
Per experience by many, this SIM card registration is not easy. The process is meticulous, and extra sensitive as well. For instance, while one is filling out the form to comply with the registration requirements, the process could suddenly stop, saying that the registrant had gone overtime. In other words, there is a time limit for every step, and it cannot wait nor extend as one would have to start all over again.
Not only that but the process is also very demanding. It demands registrants to upload a valid ID, for instance, and would not allow any ID at that. Now this is quite problematic, because again, many people do not have such valid IDs for many reasons, such as age, employment, etc. Grade school children who mostly own their own mobiles cannot register their SIM cards since they can’t have valid IDs yet; all they have is a school ID.
It is for this reasons that telcos are appealing to the government to be considerate enough if it wants the registration procedure to succeed. The government, no doubt, is working in good faith here, aiming to eliminate scams or mobile related crimes involving cellphone users. But such registration should be made easier for people to process.
Now that the registration deadline is fast approaching, which is April 26 this year, the number of those who registered is still far from the expectation. The government then should extend that deadline, or else so many subscribers and cellphone users would lose their SIM card numbers. Such loss is great, indeed.
COLOR WALK PARADE. Thousands of residents of Palompon in Leyte celebrated the Easter Sunday(April 9) through the colorful and boisterous Color Walk Parade. The event has been staged in the town since 2015 but was stopped due COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo Courtesy)
Held every Easter Sunday
COLOR WALK PARADE. Thousands of residents of Palompon in Leyte celebrated the Easter Sunday(April 9) through the colorful and boisterous Color Walk Parade. The event has been staged in the town since 2015 but was stopped due COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo Courtesy)
PALOMPON, Leyte-After two years in hiatus, the ‘Color Walk Parade’ held in this town resumed on Sunday (April 9).
The Color Walk Parade started in 2015 wherein participants are dripped from water cannons full of various colors while they are parading in the towns’ major thoroughfares.
The event is held every Easter Sunday but when the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID1-19) ravaged the country and the rest of the world in 2019 it was temporarily stopped due to health protocol imposed by the government and the World Health Organization.
The said event is sponsored by the local government and is participated by thousands and was starting to draw tourists.
The walk from the Municipal Hall where the program started going through the major thoroughfares of the town comes next where all participants will be poured with colors in selected stations on their way back to where the program started.
Its restaging last Sunday shows how the participants missed the events as they relished being poured and painted with colored water.
Personnel from the local police and Bureau of Fire Protection were around to secure the peace and order of the street festival and for any possible rescue operation, respectively. (ROBERT DEJON)
ORMOC CITY-A passenger van driver was arrested by operatives of the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit of the Eastern Samar Provincial Police Office, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Station Drugs Enforcement Team of the local police of Sulat, Eastern Samar on Tuesday (April 11).
The suspect, Francis Sesio, 37, is listed as a newly- identified individual on the drug watch list of both the provincial and local police in Eastern Samar.
Recovered from the possession of the suspect during the sting operation in Brgy. Riverside at about 8:10 pm were two sachets containing a white crystalline substance suspected to be shabu procured by an operative in the amount of P1,500.
And during a body search, operatives recovered from the suspect seven more sachets containing the same white crystalline substances also suspected to be shabu.
Charges of violations of RA 9165, the Comprehensive Law against Illegal Drugs of 2002, were filed against the suspect who is now detained at the locked-up cell of Sulat municipal police station. (ROBERT DEJON)
CATARMAN, N. Samar– A barangay chairman and three others were arrested by police operatives for alleged illegal gambling.
Raymundo Esparto, 77, village chairman of Bangkerohan in this town, was arrested along with three other persons while in the act of playing mahjong inside the house of his brother, Romeo Esparto, when the police raided the latter’s house around 3:30pm on Good Friday(April 7).
Romeo, 71, a barangay tanod, was also arrested along with Juana Deniega, 68, barangay health worker, and Rose Ann Gallego, a saleslady.
According to the police, the group attempted to flee upon seeing the approaching police.
“The house was jampacked with people but only (the four) arrested were caught gambling. The others who ran away were just sitting and onlookers,” town police chief, Colonel Michael Jude Dotingco, who led the raiding team, told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
The police recovered from the scene the P182 bet money, two pieces of dice, a mahjong table mat, and one set of playing mahjong tiles.
Esparto and the three other suspects were put in jail and were charged with violation of Presidential Decree No. 1602 for illegal gambling. (RACHEL ARNAIZ)
Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy’ Libanan of the 4Ps party-list vowed to construct more farm-to-market roads not only in Oras but in other towns in Eastern Samar to help the farmers and for easy and fast travel among the residents. On Tuesday (April 11), the party-list solon led the groundbreaking of a farm-to-market road project in Oras covering eight towns at a cost of P100 million.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
In Eastern Samar
Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy’ Libanan of the 4Ps party-list vowed to construct more farm-to-market roads not only in Oras but in other towns in Eastern Samar to help the farmers and for easy and fast travel among the residents. On Tuesday (April 11), the party-list solon led the groundbreaking of a farm-to-market road project in Oras covering eight towns at a cost of P100 million.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
ORAS, Eastern Samar– Residents in eight remote villages of this town are thankful that the government has finally responded to their longtime dream to have a paved road.
On Tuesday (April 11), the 6.8 meters farm-to-market road project had its groundbreaking with Rep. Marcelino Libanan of the 4Ps party-list, officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) headed by their regional director Robert Anthony Yu and Mayor Roy Ador leading the event.
Residents from the villages of Iwayan, Minap-os, Nadacpan, Agsam, San Eduardo, Alang-alang, Cadian, and Saruong, where the event took place, are to benefit the P100 million worth project.
About 3,616 farmers from these villages are also to directly benefit from the project to help them transport with ease their farm produce to the market and institutional buyers.
Alang-alang village chairman Jocelyn Cabilan said that once the road project is completed, residents in their village will no longer have to ride a “bote,” a motorized boat without an outrigger, when going to and from the town proper.
Travel time to their village takes about an hour depending on the engine of the boat but will now be cut to 50 minutes once the road is completed.
“When there is a typhoon or flooding, the boats cannot travel because of the strong current; owner fears that their boats will sink. This will be a big help because even during rainy season, we can safely travel to the town center to bring our farm products,” Cabilan said.
Minap-os village councilor Anthony Montallana added that they had long been waiting to have an access road leading to their village which is also located along the Oras River.
Aside from that, the road could help them in delivering their goods to the market and their children can safely go to school especially those who are in high school and studying in their neighboring villages like Agsam which can be reached by riding a boat.
“The children are using motorboats when going to school which is very dangerous when there is sudden flooding during heavy rain. Once the road is completed, they could go to school and home safely,” Montallana said.
For Cadi-an village chairman Benhur Aparra, not only the road project will help them have better accessibility for the transport of goods, accessibility to school and during calamities but this will also help those who are seeking for medical attention safely reach medical facilities.
Cadi-an is the farthest among the eight villages where the farm-to-market road traverses and can only be reached at the moment by an hour-and-a-half boat ride from Oras town proper.
“Right now we’re still transporting patients of emergency cases through motorboat which takes us longer time to reach medical facilities but once this road is completed we could bring out patients to the hospital in 30 minutes,” Aparra said.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Rep. Libanan promised to look for more funds for the construction of more farm-to-market roads that will connect other villages of Oras town and will link them to communities in their neighboring towns.
“We will look for more funds to construct roads to link and connect every village not only in Oras but in the entire province of Eastern Samar to spur development and uplift the living condition of our people,” the party-list solon said.
Yu, in his message, emphasized that their agency’s mandate is not only to distribute lands but also to provide support services to the farmers like the construction of farm-to-market roads.
“Distributing or giving land is not enough. We also need to provide support such as farm equipment and machinery, and farm-to-market roads. This is the best way to help our farmer-beneficiaries; concrete road helps in the development of our ARBs and other farmers by allowing them to efficiently brought to the market their products and reduce the cost of transportation,” the DAR regional director said. (ROEL T.AMAZONA)
TACLOBAN CITY – Both the police and the Army declared as a hoax a post that circulated this week claiming of an attack by the members of the New People’s Army(NPA) across the region.
The post, which was shared by several social media users, claimed that the rebels are targeting public places like shopping malls, churches, and other places frequented by people.
“The news circulating online of a possible attack by NPA rebels is a black propaganda orchestrated by the enemies of the state to attract support from sympathizers and instill fear to the populace,” the 8th Infantry Division said in a press statement.
Still, the Army urged the public to report to authorities of any suspicious elements or activities in their respective areas.
It also asked the public to stop sharing the same post to avoid further panic and fear.
The police in the region, in a separate press statement, also urged the public not to share the same hoax information.
“With this, the whole force of PRO-8 assures the public that all police personnel are doing their best efforts in maintaining the peace and order in the whole of Eastern Visayas,” it said.
The city police, meantime, also asked the public to report to the authorities any similar post of its veracity and not to share it right away on their social media accounts. (JEIZEL C. JUSAYAN, LNU Student Intern)
