TACLOBAN CITY – The city government of Ormoc has lined-up activities for its 75th Charter Day celebration slated on October 20.

The celebration will be the first time they will have a grand event after two years due to restrictions caused by the corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“This is very different celebration because this is a milestone, the 75th Charter Day of Ormoc City, especially coming from a pandemic for two years, we envision for a month-long celebration not just for a few select people but for the entire Ormoc,” City Mayor Lucy Torres Gomez said.

She stressed that all activities lined up relative to the celebration will be free except for its Miss Ormoc beauty pageant.

Among the major events prepared include concerts of artists like Nina (October 1), Rey Valera (Oct 2), Joey Generoso (Oct 9), and Gloc-9 (Oct 10), then a dance concert of Regine Tolentino on Oct 14.

Tatak Ormoc Award will also be stage on Oct 13, giving recognition to local business enterprise and business personalities organized by the Ormoc City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ORCHAM) and the city government.

Miss Ormoc pageant will return after two years, with the coronation on Oct. 15 to be hosted by actress-turned beauty queen Ruffa Gutierrez and James Deakin, with Ian Veneracion as one of the celebrity guests.

On Oct 16, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra will also hold a free concert at the city’s superdome.

A basketball showdown between Kapuso stars against PBA player is slated on Oct 17 , while this October 18, the city mayor will deliver her first State of the City Address as the local chief executive of Ormoc.

On the 20th, the charter day of Ormoc, activities will start with the Charter Day mass at the St. Peter’s and Paul Church, followed by a parade, then the Jubilee celebration in the morning.

Afternoon activity will center at the Ormoc Bay with the ‘bangkarera’ and will culminate with a grand concert at the city plaza to be headline by Regine Velasquez and Ogie Alcasid.

Aside from these major activities, the executive committee also prepared sports competitions like the ‘dayon dayon’ volleyball tournament. Dayon dayon is a type of volleyball wherein competitors may agree to the number of players who will enter the court to compete. It also have the rule it is illegal to pass the ball to their teammate, thus they must hit the ball directly to pass it to their opponents.

Other sports competition includes, airsoft tournament, e-sport, baseball, volleyball, billiard, softball, archery, bike race, arnis anyo and team demonstration competiton, sepak takraw, dance sport, chess, dart, taekwondo, triathlon and aquathlon, swimming, then the 4th and 5th leg of the Southeast Asian Games qualifying tournament.

Local products in Ormoc are also to be showcase thru trade fair events of the Department of Trade (Oct 10 – 16) and Industry and Agri-Aqua trade Fair (Oct 10-28).

A jobs fair will also be conducted on Oct. 22 and a lechon competition, dubbed as ‘lechon kumbira’ on Oct. 29.

Ormoc City is a 1st class independent city that became the 15th city of the country and the first in Eastern Visayas under the virtue of Republic Act No. 179 on October 20, 1947.

It has a population of 230, 998 residents based on 2020 census which makes it the second most populated city in the region, next to Tacloban City.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY – An official of the National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP) said that Filipino seafarers need to upgrade their skills in automation to cope up with the emerging trend in the international maritime industry as more European shipping companies are shifting to automation.

Mayla Macadawan, NMP officer-in-charge, said that there are ongoing efforts to revise the NMP’s standards of training, certification, and watchkeeping (STCW) to adapt to the emerging global technologies.

NMP is a government-run maritime training center based here in the city that provides to its stakeholders, particularly seafarers, quality training and assessment to upgrade the country’s maritime manpower resources through upgrading and specialization programs and research and studies on the latest maritime technologies that are needed of the maritime industry.

“Ang IMO, in fact, mayroon na silang ginagawang revision para sa STCW. So ang STCW amendments accordingly will address the technological advancement of the shipping industry. Hopefully, and NMP o ang Philippines ay magkakaroon ng paradigm shift para maaddress yung mga kaukulang na training needs in terms of usage of technology,” Macadawan said.

“Kasi ang pino-propose ngayon at ginagamit na sa mga internal waters of Denmark and Norway is automation. So ang automation means use of technology and if mayroong automation there is a probability na magkaroon ng decline ang needs ng seafarers,” she added.

Still, despite of this, Filipino seafarers remain to be the most in demand abroad, the NMP official stressed.

The official added that all government agencies must work in synergy to address the trend of automation.

If this will not be address, this may result to the decline on the demand of Filipino seafarers that could impact the country’s economy.

Last year, remittances from seafarers was reported at $ 6.54 billion.

The country’s main competitors in seafaring industry are China, Russia, and Ukraine.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

AUTHORITIES formally filed a criminal complaint against a 19-year-old student who falsely reported and spread fake news about being a “victim” of an alleged white van kidnapping incident in Naval, Biliran.

The suspect, a college student and a resident of Cabucgayan town said the incident happened at about 2:40 p.m. on August 20, 2022, at Barangay Santissimo Rosario Poblacion, Naval.

However, a series of in-depth investigations conducted by Naval Municipal Police Station showed that the kidnapping incident was “all made-up and fabricated considering the inconsistencies of the statements given by the alleged suspect.”

Witnesses and CCTV footage also revealed that no kidnapping incident happened on the said time and date.

“Please avoid spreading news or information that is unverified and would mislead, deceive, and cause fear to the public,” said Colonel Dionisio Apas Jr., acting director of Biliran Police Provincial Office.

“Be more cautious when posting and sharing in social media, and always fact-check the authenticity of reports posted on social media so as not to fall victim to misinformation and disinformation,” added Apas.

The police official also lauded the Naval police personnel, headed by Major Ryan Delima, for the filing of a criminal complaint on September 13, 2022.

The suspect is facing a complaint for violation of Article 154 paragraph 1 of Revised Penal Code, as amended by Republic Act (RA) 10951, or Consummated Unlawful Use Of Means Of Publication And Unlawful Utterances) in relation to section 6 of RA 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
(Ronald O. Reyes)

CATBALOGAN CITY — “All set and ready to go.”

The 10th Rurumba Adventure Race this coming September 21-24, 2022 hosted by the provincial government of Northern Samar via its Provincial Tourism Office is now all set.
Governor Edwin Ongchuan said the event is very fun aimed “to promote sports tourism in the province”.

The governor believes that by holding this event, not only the sports among the young ones are promoted but also the tourist destinations are highlighted.

Started 10 years ago, the “Rurumba” was consistently co-organized by the Northern Samar Outdoor Federation, Inc (NSOF), Northern Samar Trailblazers, Inc. (NOSTRA) with partner municipalities of San Jose (Mayor Damian Luzon), Allen (Mayor Joey Suan) and Lavezares (Mayor Editho Saludaga) towns.

NOSTRA president Engr. Eliseo Allado and race director Anavil Lou Balanon said that as early as of September 16, “all system go (na kami)” as far as preparation is concerned.
In a publicly shared photos, several stand-alone tarps indicating control points, directions, mechanics and guidelines were seen on standby mode ready to get to assigned places.
Posters, event shirts, event IDs as well as giveaways from various sponsors are almost ready (now).

Marshalls, race coordinators, event support groups, rescue volunteers as well as the barangay LGUs and PNP were already briefed to guide and secure the participating adventure racers passing in their areas.

NSOF President Engr. Noel Obrar, who also served as Route Setter, told The Express that as of Friday, at least 16 teams are confirmed and ready to race and get dirty.

The Official Race date is on September 23rd and 24th but as early as September 20, many sprint race participants and its support teams / clubs will troop to Northern Samar to set up basecamp.

Engr. Obrar said each participating team will be given their race kits.

The following are confirmed Race Teams for this year’s Adventure Race.

1. TEAM DIRT – Tacloban City; 2. THE NORTH CAMPERS – Northern Samar; 3. THE HAPPY CAMPERS – Northern Samar; 4. TEAM DIRTIER – Tacloban City; 5. PALAPAG SIERRA – Northern Samar; 6. TEAM HAGANAS – (Western) Samar; 7. TEAM ILAJAS – Northern Samar; 8. LSC KAKIRAY – Northern Samar; 9. TEAM WILDER – mixed NS and Tacloban; 10. TEAM BERA – mixed NS and Tacloban; 11. TEAM IMMORTALS – PNP NS; 12. CAPUL ISLANDERS – Northern Samar; 13. TEAM CABIAS – Northern Samar; 14. PITAD ABAKNON – Northern Samar; 15. ISLAND CHARM – Northern Samar; 16. TEAM DISASTER – Northern Samar

Each team from various outdoor and mountaineering groups will try to out-scoop or test the skills and endurance capability of their competitors in terms of biking, hiking, running, swimming, land navigation and some surprise cultural tasks to be assign to them by the organizers.

Of the 16 teams, two teams from Tacloban City (Team Dirt and Team Dirtier) are among those that the spectators considered as “seasoned” racers as they already experience participating in both domestic and international adventure races.

Among the competing teams, only One Team represent Samar Province via Team Haganas from the Samar Mountaineering and Outdoor Club, Inc.

SAMOC’s entry, in an earlier media interviews, said they joined “just to have fun, meet new friends and gain experience in racing.”

Most of the racing teams are dominated by local racers courtesy of Northern Samar – based outdoor clubs.

Notably, one team – the “Team Immortals” are from Northern Samar Philippine National Police.

The race, also dubbed as “Carrera de Balicuatro con Carangian” is a 32-hour non-stop multi-discipline race that will pass through the barangays of Allen, Lavezares and SanJose, all in Northern Samar.

“The most challenging part of the race is the land navigation as participants need to locate a certain control points using only their knowledge in compass reading. One false reading (of the map) may mean losing their track,” said Obrar.

“A minute of mistake in calculation, or a delay in swimming, biking and running will result to a teams’ defeat. So, each team is expected not to stop the adrenaline rush for 32 long hours,” Obrar added.

Meanwhile, an official of the Northern Samar Provincial Tourism Office (NSPTO), said the event will coincide with the global observance of the World Tourism Day on September 27th.

For two consecutive years, the Rurumba Adventure Race bagged the 1st Runner Up as “Pearl Award for Best Sports Tourism Category” in the year 2018 and 2019.

For this year’s event, the province of Northern Samar made it more bigger, wider in distance, more challenging but with bigger prizes and rewards.

The province thru Gov. Edwin Ongchuan and the SP alloted a sumptous cash award of Champion P10,000 for the 2nd runner-up; P15,000 for the 1st runner-up and P25, 000 for the Grand Champion.

Finishers, according to organizers, will be given medals, certificate, a free beer during socials, and some surprise items for lucky raffle winners. (Pubmat courtesy of Rurumba Organizers)
(RICKY J. BAUTISTA)