234 new cops take oath in Eastern Visayas
PALO, Leyte- A total of 234 new policemen took their oath on Wednesday (July 1) at the Camp Ruperto Kangleon grounds, this town.
Brigadier General Bernabe Balba, director of Police Regional Office (PRO)-8, congratulated the new batch of officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for passing the rigorous selection process.
“To the newly recruits, you have met an incredible obstacle on your journey of becoming police officers, and keep this in mind that being such is not just a mere job, but rather, it is a title with responsibility, passion, and dedication,” Balba said.
He also thanked the medical personnel, recruitment team, and other personnel in-charge in the recruitment process “who made extra efforts for the accomplishment of this recruitment amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.”
“I always want to emphasize the three basic Filipino values which actually and faithfully represent the fundamentals of law enforcement that are all attuned to and aligned with the focus directives of our Chief PNP General Archie Francisco Gamboa. These core values are summed up by the acronym 3M, represented by Malinis, Magalang, and Maasahan,” the police official said in a statement.
Out of the 1,305 applicants who have undergone the face to face interview for the First Cycle CY 2020 Regular Recruitment Program, only 234 successfully passed the process.
“Of these 234, 196 are males and 38 are females. To fill up the quota of 250 recruits,16 male qualified applicants from Police Regional Office (PRO) – 6 are now en route to join as they are realigned to this PRO,” added Lieutenant Colonel Ma. Bella Rentuaya, spokesperson of PRO-8.
The new batch of police officers will undergo the mandatory training, Public Safety Basic Recruit Course (PSBRC) for six months at the Regional Training Center (RTC) in Kuta Kankabato, San Jose, Tacloban City.
It will be followed by another six months of the Field Training Program (FTP).
According to Rentuaya, the recruitment process followed all the health guidelines and protocols amid the health crisis.
(RONALD O.REYES with RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT )
Health exec says swab testing all LSIs is resource draining; suggest of placing them in isolation facility instead
TACLOBAN CITY – Subjecting all arriving locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to swab test is resource draining.
Instead these returning LSIs should be immediately isolated or quarantined by their respective local government units, Roderick Boyd Cerro, sentinel nurse and chief of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health(DOH-8), said.
The spike of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) cases of the region was largely attributed to the massive arrivals of the LSIs as well as those who have availed of the Balik Probinsiya program and returning overseas workers.
Of the 563 confirmed COVID-19 cases of the region, more than half of them were LSIs.
“We have sufficient evidence that these returning residents are infected. Testing them is resource draining. We need huge amount of resources if we will test them all,”Cerro said.
“These returning LSIs, upon their arrival, should be immediately quarantined for 14 days. We don’t need to test them, we’ll just consider them as infected. This way, our resources would not be exhausted and better used for testing for local transmission which is far more dangerous,” the health official added.
The return of the LSIs to Eastern Visayas was temporary halted by the government through a resolution of the National Inter-Agency on COVID-19. This after the region’s lawmakers and mayors, particularly from Leyte, seeking for a temporary stop of their return to their hometowns.
Mayors have also complained that their limited resources are also being drained with the return of these individuals as they have to maintain the quarantine facility and provide them their daily meals.
Cerro added that they already made an appeal to local officials to stop subjecting the returning residents for RT-PCR test but instead immediately isolate them in a facility for 14 days.
As of Friday, the region has about 563 COVID-19 cases.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Northern Samar illegal cutting of trees declines; P8.4 million lumber confiscated
(Photo by: DENR)
TACLOBAN CITY – The illegal cutting of trees in the first district of Northern Samar has declined to a negligible level.
Thus declared Rep. Paul Daza of the first congressional district of the province in a mobile phone interview with Leyte Samar Daily Express said that the series of operations conducted by the authorities on the timber poaching in the early part of this year have resulted to the decline of the illegal cutting of trees in his district.
Rep. Daza said that the efforts and accomplishments of the law enforcers to stop the illegal cutting of trees in his district is commendable as he declared that one of his advocacies is the protection and conservation of the environment.
The solon explained that in his advocacy for the protection and conservation of the environment, he just wants to protect the people in his district from floods and landslides and other devastations brought about by calamities which are blamed on environmental destruction and degradation.
It was learned that the intermittent timber poaching in the first district of Northern Samar has been going on for years now.
Records at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources regional office 8 (DENR-8) based in Tacloban City disclosed that the series of operations conducted by the authorities from the month of April, 2020 to early part of this month of June has resulted to the confiscation of more than 165,000 board feet of assorted sizes of lumber with an estimated value of P8.4 million in the municipality of San Isidro and its nearby areas.
Daza said that residents in his district have blamed rampant illegal cutting of trees for the massive flooding during typhoons for the past years resulting in deaths and agricultural destruction in the province of Northern Samar.
It can be recalled that the House of Representatives has conducted an investigation last January 2019 on the reported rampant illegal logging in the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar.
The illegal cutting of trees was blamed on the massive flooding and landslides at the height of Typhoon ‘Usman’ on December 28, 2018.
There were eight people who died in Northern Samar and five people in Samar during the fury of Usman.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
‘Most wanted’ shot dead by Ormoc cops after opening fire to officers
TACLOBAN CITY- A 35-year old man listed among the most wanted was shot dead by policemen after he allegedly opened fire on officers serving an arrest warrant in Ormoc City last June 30.
The fatality, Rodel “Ode” Arsenal, had a warrant of arrest dated February 8, 2019, for frustrated murder and attempted murder issued by Judge Wenifredo Cuaton of Regional Trial Court (RTC)-Branch 11 in Calubian, Leyte.
The operatives said that while they were implementing the warrant of arrest to Arsenal at around 3:35 pm at Tzu Chi Village in Barangay Liloan, they were fired upon by the suspect with his Cal .45 pistol, prompting the police officers to retaliate.
Arsenal was hit in the different parts of his body which caused his instantaneous death, according to a police report.
The joint police operation was conducted by Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) led by Major Alex Echon, Ormoc City Police-Station 3 and Ormoc City Mobile Force Company under the supervision of Colonel Armel Gongona, Ormoc city police director.
“Here in Ormoc City, peace and order remains to be our priority despite the fact that we are preoccupied in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Our police force remains busy with their work,” Ormoc Mayor Richard Gomez said. (RONALD O. REYES)