ORMOC CITY- This city will now have its own molecular testing laboratory after said facility, located at the Ormoc Sugarcane Planters Association – Farmers’ Medical Center (OSPA-FMC) grounds was inaugurated on Tuesday(Oct.20).
The new laboratory, the region’s third of such facility, is a result of collaborative efforts between the city government of Ormoc, the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and the OSPA-FMC, a non-stock, non-profit and the city’s oldest private hospital.
Mayor Richard Gomez, during the inauguration, said the city’s dream of establishing a molecular testing laboratory has come to a realization through the help of EDC, the country’s geothermal leader, which donated high-end molecular testing equipment to the city government worth roughly P27 million.
OSPA-FMC offered a building for the laboratory and takes charge of the operations and maintenance.
The signing of landmark agreement was made on July by Mayor Gomez and Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo Locsin, OSPA-FMC vice president Roy Bernard Fiel and EDC management represented by its president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco witnessed by Deputy Chief Implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease against COVID-19 Secretary Vivencio Dizon.
Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (PASAR), an industrial company based in Isabel, Leyte provided testing kits for the use of the said laboratory.
The facility is still subject for the Department of Health accreditation, said OSPA Medical Director Dr. Sandra Fiel Chiong.
Mayor Gomez recalled that when the pandemic started, the local government dreamed of putting up a molecular laboratory to fast track results for the Reverse Transcription – Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test detecting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections and eventually stop its spread.
Once the region’s third molecular laboratory becomes operational, bulk of COVID-19 swab samples for the existing two molecular centers at the region are reduced and processing of results become faster. It is also expected to serve the nearby towns as far as Maasin City, the province’s southern part, Gomez said.
It was learned that the center could process 600 swab samples a day with a maximum capacity of 1,200 swab samples.
Currently, the city has 131 COVID-19 cases.
Tantoco, in his virtual message during the inauguration reiterated its commitment to uplift the lives of the people from its partner communities including the city and help them get through this pandemic.
“We are privileged to have a significant role in establishing the city’s first molecular testing facility. It is our way of showing our unwavering commitment to help the people of Ormoc thrive amid this health and economic crisis and our solid support to the leadership of Mayor Richard Gomez whom we consider as one of our regenerative partners”, he Tantoco said.
EDC owns and operates the 714-megawatt Leyte geothermal facility, the company’s biggest site that straddles between Ormoc City and the Municipality of Kananga and utilizes the largest known geothermal wet steam field world.
(ELVIE ROMAN-ROA)

CAMP VICENTE LUKBAN, CATBALOGAN CITY-The government troops repelled Communist NPA Terrorists (CNTs) who were planning to disrupt the implementation of government’s livelihood trainings in two remote villages of Can-avid, Eastern Samar in a gunfight about 10 am,October 20, 2020 in Barangay Salvacion, Can-avid, Eastern Samar.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Joven D Bugarin, commanding officer of 52nd Infantry Battalion, soldiers were sent in order to conduct security operations for the upcoming Agrikultura at Kabuhayan tungo sa Kaunlaran at Kapayapaan (AKKAP) Project launching on Thursday, October 22, 2020 in the villages of Boco and Balagon of Can-avid.
However, during the conduct of security operations the troops clashed with more or less 25 CNTs in Barangay Salvacion who scampered to different directions after the 15-minute firefight.
Three soldiers were wounded while an undetermined casualty was reported on the CNT’s side.
“Traces of bloodstains in the area they abandoned suggest that many in the NPA were wounded,” said Lt.Col. Bugarin.
Utilizing K9 teams, recovered were two anti-personnel mines (APM), blasting caps, and electrical wires that will be used by the NPA to sow terror.
To recall, on December 13, 2019, three innocent civilians were killed while 14 were wounded including two minors and an infant caused by NPA’s roadside bombing in Barangay Libuton, Borongan City.
While on April 2019, a nine-year-old boy died in another NPA bombing in Barangay San Miguel, Las Navas, Northern Samar. And recently, four civilians including two teachers were also wounded in an ambush in Barangay Tagbayaon, Jiabong, Samar.
“This only shows how cruel and heartless the NPA’s are. They ignore the safety of the civilians and put their lives at risk for their own gain,” Lt.Col. Bugarin added.
The livelihood training under AKKAP is part of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) program in order to address the insurgency problem in the remote Barangays in the town of Can-avid. At the same time offer livelihood opportunities to the residents who have been suffering from poverty.
The commander of 801st Infantry Brigade, Brigadier General Camilo Z Ligayo, said the collaboration among the military, Local Government Units and different Government agencies were already in place but the CNTs hinder the implementation of the government programs and projects.
“Ang mga teroristang NPA ay salot at perwisyo. Sinasabotahe at pinipigilan nila ang pagpasok ng mga pangunahing serbisyo ng pamahalaan sa mga Geographically Isolated and Disadvantage Areas (GIDAs). Pinagkakait ng mga NPA na makaranas ng pag-unlad ang mga kababayan natin sa mga pinakaliblib na mga kumunidad. Mga Teroristang NPA ang tunay na pagpapahirap at nagpapanatiling mahirap dito sa buong Samar,” BGen. Ligayo said. (PR)