TACLOBAN CITY- The 14-day suspension of travel authority for locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to Eastern Visayas starting June 25, 2020 is a “welcome move” from the national government in the midst of rising cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the region.
“I believe all local government units in Eastern Visayas are relieved with the news. It will allow them at least two weeks to review and recalibrate their Covid-19 response programs,” said Tacloban Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año formally announced the suspension after meeting with the officials from regional Inter-Agency Task Force in Palo, Leyte on June 24.
“DILG Secretary Año heeded the request of the mayors to temporarily suspend the return to Leyte of the LSIs until such time that the municipal quarantine and isolation centers can accommodate them already,” said Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto.
According to Loreto, Año also requested for a list of Leyteños stranded in Cebu and Manila so that they may be provided with relief assistance.
“We are at a very uncertain time but we will continue our fight against COVID-19. Let us help each other in stopping this pandemic by following health protocols,” the vice governor said in a statement.
The Department of Health (DOH) has identified Leyte, Samar, Southern Leyte and Ormoc City as “emerging hotspots” for coronavirus due to the sudden increase in COVID-19 cases.
As of Saturday evening, June 26, Eastern Visayas has a total of 496 COVID-19 cases, with three deaths.
Several lawmakers in Eastern Visayas suspected the national government’s “Hatid Probinsya/Hatid Tulong” program as the reason in the rapid spread of coronavirus in the region.
“…We firmly believe that it is the duty of the government to ensure that these constituents of ours are free from coronavirus infection and other diseases before they are allowed to rejoin their family members. Their freedom from Covid-19 infection means that their loved ones are free from harm, too,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
(RONALD O. REYES)
Leaders welcome suspension of LSIs return to the region
Cops nab 5 over ‘sabong’ in Eastern Visayas towns
TACLOBAN CITY- At least five people were arrested for illegal cockfighting or “sabong” in separate police operations in Eastern Visayas towns Saturday (June 27).
In Can-avid, Eastern Samar, police arrested two individuals while one other person was at-large in Barangay Can-ilay at around 4:25 pm Saturday.
Confiscated from their possession and control were five fighting cocks with an estimated market value of P 4, 500 and bet money amounting to P250.
Can-avid Municipal Police Station led by Major Clark Chavarria and Eastern Samar Provincial Police Office-Provincial Intelligence Unity (ESPPO-PUI) under supervision of Major Herbert Joey Grata, chief of PUI, conducted the operation.
In Bobon, Northern Samar, two persons were also arrested at around 1:45 pm Saturday at Sitio Kagpangi, Barangay Acereda.
Operatives from Bobon Municipal Police Station led by Captain Ricardo Banjawan, chief of police, confiscated from the suspects bet money amounting to P2,548 and cockfighting paraphernalia with an estimated worth of P1, 260.
Meanwhile, police in Matalom, Leyte arrested one suspect while his companions eluded arrest at around 3:10 pm Saturday at Sitio Casilihan, Barangay San Juan.
Personnel from Matalom Municipal Police led by Lieutenant Arvin Presbitero confiscated from the suspect’s possession and control one fighting cock with estimated market value of P1,000.
Also recovered from the area were two fighting cocks and gaff with an estimated total market value of P2, 300.
The suspects will be facing charges for violation of Presidential Decree 449, or Illegal Cockfighting Law, as amended by Presidential Decree 1602, which prescribes stiffer penalties for illegal gambling.
(RONALD O. REYES)
Mayor Alfred throw support Church activities for Tacloban fiesta
TACLOBAN CITY-Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the local government of Tacloban under Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez has decided to support only the Church activities as the city celebrate this year’s 131st fiesta celebration.
According to l City Tourism Operations (CTOO) Officer-in-Charge, Annabelle Bardot Atillo, Mayor Romualdez has ordered the cancellation of activities related to the city’s fiesta such as the Sangyaw Parade of Lights, concerts and other social gatherings due to COVID-19 situation here in the city. However, the mayor expressed his support for religious activities, she said.
On Monday,( June 29), a vigil mass will be celebrated by Bishop Filomeno Bactol, at the Sto. Niño Parish this 5:00 pm. After this, a motorcade followed at 6:30 p.m wherein Taclobanons were urged to put up an altar with Sto. Niño images and other religious articles in front of their houses for the blessing.
Today, June 30 (Feast Day), Palo Archbishop John Du and Naval Bishop Rex Ramirez will respectively officiate the Pontifical Mass at 9:30 A.M and 6:00 pm.
Apart from that, a fluvial procession will be done at 2:00 pm in Tacloban City Port and at 4:00 pm on the same day, a motorcade of the three Sr. Sto. Niño images such as the El Teniente, El Capitan, and El Sargento will be conducted around the city, as the CTOO prepared the pick-up floats to be used on the said activity.
To ensure that the precautionary measures will be observed, Rizal Rizal will serve as an extension venue for all the Holy Masses. “Tents, chairs as well as audiovisual system are in place so that churchgoers can participate in the religious celebration, “ Atillo said.
This year’s fiesta celebration carries the theme: “ Steadfast Faith in Sr. Sto Niño: Our Source of Hope and Protection Amid Pandemic.” (K.E. Napala/CIO)
Under quarantine after being exposed to an inmate found positive of COVID-19
Zumarraga police force
TACLOBAN CITY- The entire police force of a town in Samar province are under quarantine after they were exposed to an inmate who was confirmed to have the coronavirus.
Police Lt. Reynato Gerona, police chief of Zumarraga town, said that he and his 16 subordinates and four non-uniformed personnel, are now at their station for a quarantine.
Last June 14, he and his four men went to Caloocan City to pick up a 50-year old man, suspected for a rape charge last year, arrested by the elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the said city.
The suspect obtained a medical certificate from the Caloocan Medical Center that he was physically fit, Gerona said, adding that it did not state whether he was positive of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).
On June 17, as part of the procedure, the suspect was swabbed and on June 24, the result was released which turned out to be positive.
“We had our rapid test last June 16 which turned out to be negative and we are scheduled for our swab test this week. But we are all okay. We are not showing any of the symptoms. Hopefully, the result would turn out to be negative,” Gerona, in a phone interview, said.
The inmate who is positive of COVID-19, is also not showing any symptoms, the town police chief, adding that every now and then, his cell is being disinfected.
Gerona said that despite that they are all in quarantine, the peace and order of the town is not affected.
“We have asked help from our barangay tanods to help us maintain our peace and order. So far, everything’s okay here in Zumarraga. We are peaceful here,” he said.
the town police chief added that they are thankful for the total support being extended to them by Mayor Myrna Tan.
Mayor Tan earlier placed the town poblacion under enhanced community quarantine as part of the contact tracing and ensure that the virus would not spread in the town of close to 17,000 people.
The town has a total of four COVID-19 confirmed cases.
Mayor Tan also issued an appeal to the residents who want to return to the town to defer it for the meantime.
“Please don’t take it as we are denying your right to return here in Zumarraga. This is for the good of the majority of our people here,” the town mayor said.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Over 250,000 workers in EV lost their jobs
TACLOBAN CITY- Sheila Camposano,34 and a mother of two children, worked as a waitress in one of the restaurants here in the city.
But after only working for less than five months, she lost her job last March, the time the quarantine period started due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“The restaurant stopped its operation which resulted for us workers to lose our jobs. I am just an ordinary food server earning less than P200 a day. But now, I have no job and I have been looking around with no positive result at all,” she said.
She said that she even went to house-to-house just to find work as a house help.
Camposano is just one of the more than 250,000 people in the region who have lost their employment related to the COVID-19 pandemic, report the regional office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
According to the PSA, as of April of this year, about 251,000 people in Eastern Visayas were rendered unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic which saw several business establishments either totally closing or limiting their operations which resulted to job losses.
The PSA said that the number of people who lost their work represents a whopping 14.3 unemployment rate of the region which higher by 10.3 percent compare to the same period of April,2019 or 4.0 percent.
This makes Eastern Visayas as the fifth region in the country to have posted a high unemployment rate during this time of pandemic.
Meantime, the underemployed or those employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job was estimated at 328,000 April 2020.
This figure translates to an underemployment rate of 21.8 percent, higher than the 18.6 percent recorded in the same period last year.
The region has about 1.7 million in the employment force in April of this year, PSA said.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Tacloban marks Sr. Santo Niño’s 131 feast day
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic
BY: ROEL T. AMAZONA
TACLOBAN CITY- Amid the pandemic spawned by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Taclobanons will continue to honor and venerate the Child Jesus or Senior Santo Niño which will have His feast day today, June 30.
While several cultural activities have been cancelled due to public health concerns, the traditional religious activities would continue as has been strictly observed in the past.
Today marks the 131st fiesta celebration of the city’s annual fiesta.
No less than Archbishop John Du of the Archdiocese of Palo will lead the morning Pontifical Mass to be held at the Santo Niño Church, the seat where the centuries-old miraculous image of the Child Jesus can be found.
But due to the pandemic, instead of the usual over a thousand massgoers, only about 300 faithful would be allowed inside the church, Fr. Jan Ian Brylle Callera, one of the assisting priests of the Santo Niño Church.
He said that parishioners need not go to the church to hear the Pontifical Mass as this will be through livestreaming at 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Faithful can also attend the Mass at the Rizal Park, just across the Church, where speakers and video wall was set up with the health protocols to be strictly observed like wearing of face masks and social distancing.
But those who will attend will be ask to fill a form for contact tracing purposes.
Fr. Callera said that from the previous 200 to 300 boats that joins the fluvial procession, they limited the number to only five boats, where on one boat will carry the image of Sto. Niño while on the other boats are the prayer leaders and security.
“Each boat will only carry 50 percent of its capacity and those who will join are pre-identified by the parish,” he said.
After the fluvial procession, a motorcade procession will follow, a modification from the usual land procession activity which is practice in previous fiesta,” he added.
The church had earlier cancelled the traditional Balyuan Rites held every June 20, a tradition where the image of the Sto. Niño of Tacloban is ‘exchange’ with the image of Sto. Niño de Buscada of Basey town.
“Balyu-an” (or exchange) is a religious tradition that can be traced back to the time when Tacloban, then named Kankabatok was but a mere Sitio of Basey Town.
Kankabatok has grown into a prosperous settlement, that the Spanish Parish Priest of Basey arranged an exchange of Sto. Nino images.
Kankabatok received a bigger and more beautiful image while Buscada had a smaller image from Kankabatok. Every year, the local government units of Tacloban and Basey continue the ritual in celebration of their shared history and filial devotion to the Holy Child.
Tacloban City is the only locality that celebrates the feast day of Sto. Niño on June despite the church declaration of celebrating it every third Sunday of January.
Celebrating the feast day on every June 30 is a commemoration of its arrival on June 30, 1889 after the ship that carrying the image caught fire off the coast of Mindoro and Romblon on 1888.
Many claims that the arrival of the image of the Holy Child Jesus had stopped the cholera epidemic that hits residents of Tacloban and its nearby Basey town.
While Church activities continue with some changes, festival activities related to the Tacloban City fiesta like the Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals and the Sangyaw Festival were suspended this year in compliance with the order prohibiting mass gathering in a large crowd like fiesta.
While Sangyaw Festival organizers did not create activities for the city fiesta, the organizers of Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals continue with some of its activities through online contest and livestreaming.
This includes contest on Sto. Niño Barangay and Home exhibit, Pintados Tiktok Festival, acrylic painting contest, poster contest and the search of Miss Teen and Miss Pintados 2020.
‘We decided to come up with these activities for residents in the city to have diversion. Most are worried due to Covid-19 specially that positive cases is increasing,” Eugene Tan, Pintados Festival president, said.
“Aside from following health protocols, this is also the time for us to strengthen our faith to him. All our activities are geared toward the celebration of his feast,” he added.