TACLOBAN CITY-Several areas in Leyte and Southern Leyte provinces felt series of earthquakes on Friday (April 23) morning.
Reports from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said that the quakes were traced to have the town of Sogod in Southern Leyte province as the epicenter.
The first tremor was felt at around 4:31 am which have a magnitude of 4.6.
The said earth movement shook the towns of Sogod, Hinunangan and Hinundayan at Intensity IV; III in Abuyog; II in Baybay City and I in Palo, all in Leyte province.
The second jolt occurred at 6:37 am, with Sogod as the epicenter, which was also felt in Abuyog town, Leyte at Intensity I.
The southern Leyte provincial disaster risk reduction management office said that both quakes did not result to any damage.
Both quakes that rattled Southern Leyte and Leyte provinces were both of tectonic in origin.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Quakes rattled Leyte, Southern Leyte with no reported damage
DOH sends another 11 nurses to NCR as it continue to grapple spike of COVID-19 cases
TACLOBAN CITY-At least 11 nurses from the region were deployed to the National Capital Region (NCR) to help it address it’s ballooning COVID-19 cases.
The 11 nurses, all assigned at various rural health units from the different provinces of the region, will be assigned at the Philippine Heart Center.
Last April 7, 16 medical workers from the region were deployed at the Lung Center of the Philippines as part of the call of the national government to augment health workers to hospitals In NCR which are grappling with high COVID patients.
Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino, regional director of the Department of Health(DOH), who lead in the sendoff at the Daniel Romualdez Airport on Wednesday (April 21) morning, extolled them for their decision to heed the call.
“We thank you for your selfless offering of yourself for the people of NCR,”she said.
“It is better to help than to be of help. If it’s the other way around, we cannot afford it (due to our limited resources),”Sabalberino said, referring to the high cases of coronavirus disease in NCR, beginning on April 21.
She added that they hope that the COVID cases in NCR will go down so these medical workers could return to the region early.
These medical workers are to stay in NCR for two months.
Ryan Paul Rostata,27 and a nurse from Cabucgayan town In Biliran province said that he feels “fear and excited” at the same time.
“Fears because of the challenges that awaits us but at the same time, excited because we will of help to the people in NCR, especially those with COViD&19,”he said.
According to him, he has informed his parents on his temporarily deployment in NCR and they gave their approval to him.
Meantime, the DOH announced on Friday (April 23) of 50 new COVID-19 cases in the region, pushing its total cases to 17,540.
The region has also posted three deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
At present, the region’s active COVID-19 cases stand at 495 with 16,779 recovered cases.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Tacloban priest lauds support for church construction
Church features a columbary for cremated remains
TACLOBAN CITY – Fr. Kim Margallo has lauded the support he got for the construction of the first St. Josemaria Escriva Mission Station Church in Barangay Apitong, this city.
The mission station church features a columbary and ossuary facility to house bone casket and cremated remains of the dead.
“The construction is going on. We have started the ground floor where the columbary is located,” said Margallo, the outgoing mission station priest-in-charge.
He added that the facility will serve as a dignified and cost-effective Catholic alternative to casket burial in the city and in the region.
To help finance the church construction, Margallo has been selling paintings, church vestments, and sculptures of statues aside from holding drive-in mass amid the pandemic.
He also hired two resident artists, Ernesto Kardante and Kim Clinton Gonzales, to do the commissioned paintings
However, Margallo maintained that the columbary and ossuary are not for sale.
“Parishioners and interested individuals or family are invited to have a certain amount of donation to avail a columbary and ossuary vault. It is like you help us build our church and we give you a token of gratitude, depending on the amount you give. You can have either ossuary or columbary vault, and you can have that donation in installment,” Margallo told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Following its original site development plan in a one-hectare donated lot, the St. Josemaria Escriva Mission Station Church will be composed of several church edifices and structures “that will facilitate the services to be rendered by the church.”
It will also house the “first-class relic” of St. Josemaria Escriva.
The mission church launched its first pledging session through a donate-a-fence program in August 2018 while the construction of the main church started in December 2018.
Margallo earlier said they need at least P200 million to finish the entire mission church building.
“This will become a landmark, a shrine,” said Margallo.
(RONALD O. REYES)
Community pantries spread across EV
Churches, police offices also putting up of their own pantries
TACLOBAN CITY-The bandwagon on putting of community pantries continues here in the region.
Here in the city, a group of 30 students, some from the University of Tacloban-Tacloban Campus, banded together and pooled their own resources to buy food items which they put into display at their own community pantry.
Their own community pantry, which started last Tuesday (April 20), is located along Jones Street where a big number of poor families lives.
But during their first day, even some employees working at the nearby government office also took a line to get their share composed of rice, vegetables, noodles, sardines, and even face shields.
“We are just happy to put our own community pantry. This way, we can help those who are in needs, especially during this time of pandemic,” Neil Glova, Jr.,20 and a second year college student, said.
Some professionals have also raised funds to put up their own community pantry which visits different depressed villages in the city.
Lalaine Cartalla, one of the organizers, said that they decided to stay not only in one particular area so they could ‘serve more those who are in need.’
“We will continue doing this as long as we can.Of course, better if we can get some donors for us to sustain our own community pantry,” she said.
Community pantries have also sprouts in the town of Guiuan, Eastern Samar initiated by a bikers’ association as several Church-based groups in Catarman, Laoang and Lavezares, both in Northern Samar and in Ormoc City and this city, both in Leyte.
Here in Tacloban, the mission station of St. Josemaria Escriva through its parish priest Fr. Kim Margallo has put up its community pantry.
Although the community pantry is inside the vicinity of the church, Fr. Margallo clarified that even those who are not Catholics are welcome to avail their outreach effort.
The parish, under its guideline, requires that only the head of the family of delegated but must be 18 years and above would be allowed to get the items.
They must also bring their QR code and must wear face masks, and observe physical distancing while falling in line. Before they can get goods, their body temperature will also be checked.
Marshalls, who are church volunteers, are also listing the names of those who want to take the items as they constantly reminds them to observe physical distancing.
The Tacloban vicariate together with the government has also put up thier own community pantry at the Rizal Park.
A fraternity group also joined the bandwagon by putting their own community pantry in Catbalogan City, Samar.
In Palompon and Maasin City, their respective Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) facilities have put up their own community pantries.
For its community pantry, the officials of the BJMP-Maasin target to provide free foods, other than their regular rations, to its 60 inmates.
Police offices across the region have also put their own community pantries to serve people who are poor.
Employees of the local government unit in Victoria, Northern Samar have contributed for them to have their own community pantry too.
In Biliran province, personnel of the Biliran Provincial Hospital based in Naval town, has also put up their own community pantry for their patients and even outsider to avail.
All these community pantries took their inspiration with the Maginhawa Community Pantry organized by Anna Patricia Non in Quezon City.
They too ask those who want to avail to only take what they need and for those who can afford to donate their own share.
LGU Maasin City earmarks P8.5-M for massive abaca rehab program
MAASIN CITY-The city government here has set aside the amount of P8.5 million from its own coffers to jumpstart the revival of the once thriving abaca, an industry that dominated the grassroots economy here more than two decades ago before being crippled by disease.
For the year 2020, P6 million was set aside for the purpose and another P2.5 million was allotted for this year, Virgilia Barrientos, OIC city agriculturist, reported.
Since 2004, bunchy top, a disease affecting abaca plants, ravaged almost all of the areas planted to this kind of fiber in upland barangays of the city.
But over the years some patches have survived, in which the surviving growth will now be replanted and cared under the comprehensive abaca rehabilitation program, a pet project of City Mayor Nacional Mercado, Barrientos said at the Kapihan sa PIA Wednesday.
Farmers in 20 out of 34 abaca-producing barangays, at 17 farmers per barangay, already received the cash assistance under the 2020 budget of P6 million, where every farmer planted 100 healthy suckers coming from his own stock.
After having been checked the individual output for 20 days, the abaca farmer was paid P300 for his daily labor for a total of P6,000 per farmer, and Mayor Mercado was personally present during days when payment was done in all the barangays, further boosting the morale of the farmers, Barrientos shared.
That was Phase 1, and Phase 2 is for this year, for the abaca farmers in the remaining 14 barangays, she added.
Maasin city boosts as having the best kind of abaca fibers most traders liked, such as the inosa, laylay, and putian varieties, and right now the current market price ranged P80 per kilo and above.
In two to three years’ time it is estimated that the newly planted generation of abaca plants will be due for harvesting, Barrientos further said.
(ldl/mmp/PIA8-Southern Leyte)