TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is planning to implement a project that will install closed circuit televisions (CCTV) in major areas of the region, especially in areas where crime incidents are high.

This plan will not only help in crime prevention initiatives but even during disaster risk reduction and mitigation, it said.

However, because it would entail a huge amount, this is still in the planning process, Adrian Thomas Colasito, the DILG-8 local government operations officer, said.

Colasito said that several agencies that already expressed their support to this project which is part of the Peace and Order and Public Safety (POPS) Plan for the region.
“Unfortunately, it is still in the planning process. We had already signified to support it, especially for the funding,” he said.

“We are working it out. We have the support from the Speaker (Martin Romualdez), and we are hoping that this project will push through,” Colasito added.

The official added that even if this project would not push thru, the support of the community is still necessary to deter criminality in each locality.

“We still need the community,” Colasito emphasizes, adding that in the five pillars of the Philippine criminal justice system, the community is included being the source of personnel who will become law enforcers, who are directly or indirectly victims of criminality, and the greatest source of information against crimes.

“Character molding starts in the community and basically crimes are a measurement of how our community fails. That is why we always emphasize the role of community particularly in crime prevention,” Colasito said.

Police Regional Office 8, Regional Community Affairs and Development Division Chief PCol Dionisio Apas Jr. said that the law enforcement agency highly encourages the installation of CCTVs to help deter crimes.

“We encourage na maincorporate or maisama ang procurement ng mga LGU ng CCTV kasi kung titingnan natin, napakalaking gamit nito,”he Apas said.

PCol. Apas added that although this will mean an additional budget for the LGUs but this will greatly benefit them in the peace and order and security aspect in the long run.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY – Police personnel who have relatives running this coming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election (BSKE) will be reassigned to other areas of the region.
Thus said police regional director B/Gen. Vincent Calanoga to ensure that the police organization will remain apolitical.

Calanoga, however, did not provide data as to how many policemen in the region would be affected by this order.

“Depende sa kalalabasan ng filing of certificates of candidacy. So pag may mag file na ng CoC at makita na natin yung mga pangalan ng kandidato doon natin titingnan yung mga kailangan nating ilipat,” he said.

The filing of the CoCs for the barangay polls started on Monday (Aug. 28) and is to end this Saturday (Sept. 2).

Eastern Visayas has around 11,000 police officers who will be assigned to man the BKSE polls this October 30 in about 4,390 villages.

The regional office of the PNP has not yet announced areas of concern but Calanoga said that most definitely, election-related violence that happened for the last two elections are sure to be included in the list.

Among these areas are those located in Samar province and the 3rd district of Leyte?
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

Through the efforts of Rep. Libanan

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Eastern Samar will be constructing two new municipal buildings that will provide better services to the people.

On August 27, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the construction of a four-story municipal building in Taft and a three-story municipal building in Can-avid.

The new municipal hall of Taft will be built on 3,360 square meters of donated land.

Both have an initial funding of P30 million with the construction to start within this month.
The project is expected to be finished in May of next year.

Meanwhile, funding for the construction of the new municipal building of Can-avid will reach P140 million, bigger compared to the municipality of Taft because of its location which is larger.

The target completion of the same project is in 1,000 days.

Funding for both projects are from the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2023.
Taft Mayor Gina Ty and Can-avid Mayor Vilma Germino are grateful to the House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Marcelino Libanan for his efforts to fund these projects.

“This is a realization of our long-time dream to have a new municipal building after 55 years. This municipal building is a symbol of our service for our people. Thank you, congressman Libanan for funding this project,” Mayor Ty said.

For her part, Mayor Germino said that their municipal building is so old that they need a new one. She also informed that the old one will be converted into a legislative building when the new municipal building is finished.

Rep. Libanan, who is also the minority floor leader at the House of Representatives, made sure to fund these projects until their completion.

For the year 2024, the solon informed that P70 million is already in place for funding of the multi-faced projects.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)