Weather experts have predicted that before the month of November ends, there will be two more typhoons that will enter the Philippine area of responsibility. We just hope and pray that these storms will not hit our islands otherwise they will again cause damage to lives and properties.
Gone are the days when our people were just affected by solid winds every time there were typhoons. What they would experience for damages were mostly plucked-off roofs and uprooted fruit trees. At least, destructions caused by winds were easier to repair.
Nowadays, however, the onslaught of typhoons could also mean severe flooding, mudslides, storm surge, and many other catastrophic effects.
If we will notice that each of these rather new consequences accompanying typhoons is caused by man’s doings. For instance, the mudslides in many areas when storms come are obviously caused by the lack or absence of huge trees that used to occupy those areas but are now gone due to the rampant cutting of those trees. Without their big roots firmly holding the soil, the latter easily move when soaked in rainwater.
Flooding also results from not having big trees in flood-prone areas. Those trees naturally siphon plenty of water into their systems. Without those trees to do that, water quickly rises in low-lying areas, causing floods when the rains come. Strom surges, moreover, run deep inland since seawater levels had already gone high due to global warming, which in turn was caused by impaired environments.
It’s no wonder why typhoons now have become rather scary, though we have been accustomed to their visits since time immemorial. They had gone from being natural calamities to unnatural phenomena that bring with them devastating effects.
ORMOC CITY– A woman farmer was shot dead by a lone suspect while she was tending her farm in Sta. Margarita, Samar on Sunday (Nov. 12).
Dead on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds was Edna Delgado, 49, who was doing her farm works in Barangay Inoraguiao when she was attacked by the suspect, Juan Balantino at about 11:30 in the morning.
An old grudge between the two was seen to be the motive for the incident, says Lt. Marvin Labrague, the town police chief.
The police chief said that the suspect confronted the victim, who was with her son at that time, which resulted in a heated argument.
The suspect then pulled out a firearm of unknown caliber and shot the victim hitting in the different parts of her body which resulted in her instantaneous death.
The son of the victim, however, was able to run away and was able to ask for assistance in the barangay.
The suspect fled towards the mountainous area of the said place.
Responding police officers were able to recover two empty shells of an unknown caliber of a firearm at the crime scene.
A manhunt operation is now underway to arrest the suspect. (ROBERT DEJON)
For biodiversity protection, food, and nutritional security and climate change mitigation
Southern Leyte Reps. Luz Mercado and Christopher Yap filed bills at the House of Representatives seeking to declare the Panaon Island as a protective seascape.(Oceana Philippines)
Legislators from Southern Leyte filed separate bills seeking to declare Panaon Island in Southern Leyte as a protected seascape under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (ENIPAS) and enhance efforts to safeguard the island’s coral reefs and threatened and endangered species.
The island was found by an international study as among the priority reefs that will highly likely withstand the devastating impacts of climate change.
Southern Leyte Rep. Christopherson Yap (2nd district) filed House Bill 4095 and Rep. Luz Mercado (1st district, Southern Leyte) filed House Bill 3743 at the start of the 19th Congress.
Both bills, now pending in the committee on natural resources, outline the parameter of the protected seascape’s coverage in the four municipalities of Liloan, San Francisco, Pintuyan, and San Ricardo, the mechanisms for administration, the prohibited acts and penalties, and the funding requirements to sustain its protection.
“The declaration of Panaon Island as Marine Protected Area under the ENIPAS Act is very important to me as it will ensure that our future generation, including my son, would be able to experience the island as we experience it today, with its diverse marine flora and fauna,” Rep. Yap said.
“The formation of a body especially created for its protection would deter commercial vessels from encroaching in municipal waters to do their illegal acts with impunity and keep our most prized reefs from destruction. This will allow marine life to thrive and to be available to our subsistence fishermen and give assurance to our visitors that they will get what they came for or will have something much better to come back to,” he explained.
Following the requirements of the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act or RA 11038, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with the local government units and other stakeholders conducted the Protected Area Suitability Assessment (PASA) of Panaon Island.
The initial scoring garnered a score of 96%, suitable to be declared as a protected seascape. The PASA report will be presented in a series of public consultations soon in the four municipalities of the island.
The PASA was consistent with the cache of data and evidence that Oceana, together with the provincial government of Southern Leyte, gathered in a 21-day scientific expedition to Panaon Island in October 2020.
The expedition that assessed the corals and reef fish collection in the island, also made a significant discovery that more than half of the coral reefs were in good or excellent condition.
Rep. Mercado said the filing of the bill is important in the light of the dwindling marine resources due to natural and man-made causes.
“We need to sustain the continuous supply of fish and marine products for the people of Panaon and the Filipino people,” she added.
In separate resolutions filed in June this year, the local chief executives of Liloan, Pintuyan, San Francisco, and San Ricardo pledged their support for the efforts to provide national protection to Panaon Island.
According to the resolutions from Liloan and Pintuyan, “designating Panaon Island as a protected area will not only ensure the perpetual existence of the marine organisms by promoting managed access and regulated utilization of the resources, but also further enhance cooperation among national government, local government and concerned private organizations.” (PR)
CATBALOGAN CITY– Securing a clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and conversion of agricultural lots to give way to the construction of an airport in this city were among the issues discussed when DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director Engr. Reynaldo Anfone paid a courtesy visit to Governor Sharee Ann Tan and her brother, Second District Representative Reynolds Michael Tan on Friday, November 4 this year.
Newly-installed Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Eastern Visayas regional director, Reynaldo Anfone, pays a courtesy visit to Samar G`overnor, Sharee Ann Tan. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)
During his meeting with the two Samar officials, Governor Tan consulted Anfone on how to go through these requirements so the provincial government and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) can proceed with the project.
Considering that the construction of the airport is a priority project of the Marcos administration, Anfone ordered Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II) Alfonso Catorce, who was also present, to extend the necessary assistance to the local government unit (LGU).
Anfone, installed as the new regional chief of DAR on October 18 this year, included courtesy visits to local government officials to establish harmonious working relationship with the different LGUs as he went around the region the past two weeks.
Other issues discussed during the two-hour meeting were about activities related to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) particularly at the Calbiga-Pinabacdao Settlement, and funding for the construction of the DAR Provincial Office.
Governor Tan assured Anfone and Catorce the inclusion in the 2023 budget of the provincial government the funding requirement for the construction of the said DAR building.
Catorce disclosed that the lot where the DAR provincial office will rise was also donated by the provincial government.
According to him, at the moment they are only renting office space along corner San Francisco Street and Rizal Avenue here in this city. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA/PR)
CATARMAN, Northern Samar– Rep. Harris Christopher Ongchuan (2nd district) recently met with the provincial director of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) where the two leaders vowed to strengthen each other support to help the local government units in the district in particular.
In her meeting with the solon, Geraldine Maquelabit, last November 11, she discussed with Ongchuan the different programs and activities of their department and the performance of the LGUS in the second congressional district.
Maquelabit also expressed her gratitude to Rep. Ongchuan for his support in making sure that LGUs will comply all national laws and guidelines. (EUGENE M. ENANO)
PALOMPON, Leyte-A pizza delivery man was arrested in a buy-bust operation in this town on Saturday (Nov. 13) at about 10:30 am.
Members of the station drug enforcement of the Palompon police station seized in total five sachets of suspected shabu from Melvin Baronda during the sting operation in Barangay San Juan.
Baronda, who work as a pizza delivery, declined to issue statement on his arrest, town police chief, Major Ronald Espina.
He is now detained at the Palompon lock- up facility as he was charged for possession and selling of prohibited drugs. (ROBERT DEJON)
