TACLOBAN CITY – The city of Borongan in Eastern Samar is requiring all persons within its borders transacting at any public and private establishment to present a QR (quick response) code to boost contact tracing.
After a series of technical reviews, name encoding, and data sorting, the city government officially implemented the QR code system on November 30 with more than 103,000 registered names as of December 4.
“This will boost our contact tracing to mitigate the spread of (the) coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The border control, business establishments, churches, schools, and government and private offices shall deny entry of those who do not have a QR code, valid identification card, and face mask and shield,” Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda said in a statement on Friday.
Agda said everyone could generate a unique QR code through the SAFE Borongan mobile application for free.
Village officials have been directed to assist residents in activating their codes, while non-residents, including authorized persons outside residence, who intend to travel to the city, could secure them at the border control point or directly from the https://safeborongan.today/ website.
This would also serve as an additional requirement for returning residents, including locally stranded individuals and overseas Filipino workers, which would be issued by the city disaster risk reduction and management office, he added.
All establishments must register at the City Hall or through safeborongan.today@gmail.com, and provide a mobile phone to be used as a scanner.
The local government will impose a PHP5,000 fine on establishments that fail to register and implement the QR code system and another PHP5,000 fine plus revocation of business permit for the second offense.
Meanwhile, Agda assured that all information stored in the QR code system would be solely used for contact tracing.
“This would be used in lieu of the logbook system employed presently in border control points and establishments and would help us track, whenever necessary relative to contact tracing, the history of travel of a particular individual regarded as high risk,” he said.
As of December 4, the city has confirmed a total of 35 Covid-19 cases, including 29 recoveries and zero death, based on the monitoring report of the Eastern Samar provincial health office.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

ALANGALANG, Leyte – Despite the sudden heavy downpour, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Brother John Castriciones did not back out from his original plan of delivering the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) to six agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in a remote village here under the “DAR to Door” program.
Upon his arrival on Wednesday (November 25) in Tacloban City, Castriciones went directly to this town, which is some 30 kilometers away.
Accompanied by his deputies, Undersecretary David Erro of the Field Operations Office and Undersecretary Carim Panumpang of the Special Concerns Office, Castriciones proceeded to Barangay Lourdes, which is still about five kilometers away from the town proper.
While in the middle of his talk with ARB Francisco Catindoy in the land the latter is tilling, heavy rain suddenly poured. But Castriciones patiently waited in a nearby house of Bernardo Lagaday, another ARB, for the rain to subside to continue with his purpose of delivering the CLOAs to the homes of the four other recipient farmers in the area.
From Barangay Lourdes, Castriciones went also to Barangay Bobonon to deliver the CLOA of Alicia Tabernero, who became emotional when she received the land title.
Tabernero, as she thanked Secretary Castriciones, shared that she had been wishing for a long time that the land she was tilling would be hers someday, and that her wish is now being realized. She added that she valued much that land especially the time that she was sending her children to school.
On the following day, Castriciones went back to this town and distributed in a formal rite at the municipal covered court 1,280 more CLOAs covering an aggregate area of over a thousand hectares to 1,042 ARBs from other farming villages in this municipality as well as from the towns of Barugo, Burauen, Capoocan, Carigara, Dagami, Jaro, Kananga, and Pastrana.
According to Castriciones, “kaya ako ay lumilibot sa buong Pilipinas upang palakasin ang pag-asa ng ating mga magsasaka sapagkat alam ko na sa panahong ito ay dapat silang bigyan ng pag-asa, bigyan sila ng motibasyon para magpatuloy sa paghahanapbuhay bilang mga magsasaka.
Castriciones described the farmers as true heroes of our nation.
He emphasized “malaki po ang utang na loob ng ating bansa sa ating mga magsasaka lalo na ngayong may pandemya. Dahil sa kanila may pagkain ang ating mga mesa.”
Meanwhile, MAALSADA-Farmer Irrigators Service Cooperative (FISCO) was honored on the same occasion as outstanding agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (ARBO) in the region for garnering the highest product sales encompassing both the traditional and institutional markets, at ₱13.3-million from March to October this year.
However, Reynaldo Peja, chairman of the MAALSADA-FISCO, begged to increase the buying price of rice. At present, a kilo of rice is sold at P12 only.
(JOSE ALSMITH SORIA)

MIPC maintains that they are not destroying environment

TACLOBAN CITY- A parish priest who openly opposes mining activity in MacArthur town in Leyte province said that he has the support of Archbishop John Du of the Palo Archdiocese.
Fr. Amadeo Alvero, parish priest of the St.Isidore Parish of MacArthur town, said that the archbishop was aware that there is a black sand activity in the town and one of his reminders to him include to protect and preserve the environment of the town, about 60 kms away from here.
“The archbishop, during his visit to MacArthur, is aware that there is mining activity there and saw personally its bad effects. He asked me to oppose any such activity and he has given me his support on this,” Alvero said on Monday during a press conference.
On Monday, Alvero led a motorcade from MacArthur to the offices of DENR-MGB (Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau) to express their protest on the mining activity in MacArthur.
The DENR-MGB has granted MacArthur Iron Project Corp. (MIPC) a mining claims of 2,000 hectares September of this year.
The 2,000 mining claims covers the towns of MacArthur, Javier and Abuyog. In MacArthur, MIPC mining claims is around 500 hectares located in Barangay Maya.
Alvero said that he is opposing the mining activity as this could lead to the destruction of the environment like flooding in Maya, which he described as a ‘prime agricultural area.’
Januar Ong, community relation manager of the MIPC, said that their company is not yet engaging in commercial operation but still on a ‘test run’ of their equipment.
Ong said that while they were granted the MPSA or the mineral production sharing agreement by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) back in 2007, they have not actually conducted their commercial operations.
“What we have right now is test run and debugging activity of our equipment and in our plant. We have not started or conducted any mining activity or actual commercial operations,” he said.
The company also asserted that they have all the necessary permits from concerned government agencies.
Ong also said that there is no possibility that flooding could result to their mining activity saying that a creek located nearby has been dredged by the company to ensure that in case of heavy rains, it would not overflow.
Also, they have planted bamboos along the creek as part of their river bank stabilization program.
Ong, however, could not say as when they could actually conduct their business operation except to say that China is one of their markets.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- This city’s Green Revolution program is strengthened as the St. Francis Integrated School in St. Francis Village begins their ‘Gulayan sa Paaralan’ project.
In collaboration with the city government of Tacloban thru Chief of Staff, City Hall North Ruth Ramirez, with the assistance of Marito Barillo of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office, the vegetable seeds from National Housing Authority (NHA), the school administration and the parents (most of whom are 4 Ps/MCCT beneficiaries), they have converted the vacant lot inside the school property into a vegetable garden.
Monitored by the school head Jennifer Babiano, and the Gulayan sa Paaralan coordinator, Elma Lopez, the group of parents work in the garden every Wednesday and Friday.
Inspired by Mayor Alfred Romualdez’s desire for food security and sustainability in Tacloban City, Gulayan sa Paaralan has set up a calendar of appropriate vegetables to grow per season.
The group is also determined to promote proper waste disposal and segregation by producing organic fertilizer for the vegetable garden from kitchen waste.
Meanwhile, the first harvest is geared towards healthy consumption for the school children, but the group is determined to expand for the garden to be a source of income in the near future.
If this kind of community endeavor, such as farming and gardening will continue in the coming years, no Taclobanon will ever be hungry again, according to  Babiano. (TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)