In Borongan City

TACLOBAN CITY-A private college school based on Borongan City, Eastern Samar was ordered to stop its operation effective Tuesday (August 4) for its failure to follow health protocols on COVID-19.
The suspension of the Our Lady of Mercy College (OLMC) of its operation was ordered by the city government’s licensing and legal offices and approved by Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda.
The said school, which opened its classes last July 20, was said to have conducted face-to-face classes, non-wearing of face masks of both students and teachers while inside the campus; not practicing social distancing and allowing students to attend classes even without health certificates, among other alleged violations of the school.
All these were in clear violations on health protocol being enforced against coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), the city government said on its order suspending the business license of OLMC.
Based on the notice of suspension order of the city government, it said that OLMC did not deny its alleged violations but merely declared that they have ‘already’ followed the protocols.
“It appears, therefore, that your compliance of the health protocols was already after the fact of your violations thereof,” the order said, adding that it did not coordinate both the Commission on Higher Education and the city government before it started its face-to-face classes.
“Therefore, in view of your violations, your business permit is hereby suspended until August 31,2020 and you are hereby directed to stop operations in view of the said suspension,” it added.
Failure of the school management not to heed the order would force the city government to take legal and administrative actions against them and the revocation of its business permit, the city officials warned.
School president Diosdado Obligar, however, maintained that they are compliant of all the health protocols being implemented by the government on COVID-19.
For one, the wearing of face masks among students is strictly observed inside the campus.
“But when the city personnel inspected our school last Monday, they saw two students at our school stage who were not wearing their face masks properly. They pulled down their face masks. But we are really very strict on this. We have signages inside our campus reminding our students to strictly wear face masks and observe social distancing and other health protocols,”Obligar said through a mobile phone interview.
But he admitted that they did conducted face-to-face classes but stressed that they were observing social distancing with the students sitting two-meters apart.
Still, he chose not to contest the decision of the city government saying they were only doing their duties.
“I chose not to argue with them. I just followed. Anyway, they were only after the safety of the public,” Obligar, who is under quarantine as he just arrived from Manila this week, said.
He added that with this move of the city government, they would further intensify on the implementation of all health protocols.
Obligar also said that the almost one month loss of classes at OLMC due to the closure order would be recovered by extending their classes until December of this year.
The school, at present, has more than 350 enrolled students and set to celebrate its 25th founding anniversary on September 21 this year.
Based on its website, the OLMC offers several four-year courses like criminology, nursing, education and short courses like caregiver.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- Holiday getaways have remained possible in Eastern Visayas despite the new normal brought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Karen Tiopes, Department of Tourism (DOT) regional director, assured travelers and visitors that they are positioning a responsible restart for Eastern Visayas tourism, following the issuance of various guidelines on the operation of tourism enterprises in the new normal from DOT central office.
“That is why for the Eastern Visayas tourism to restart, we are positioning the region to be known as a destination with infinite escapes to experience and offers sites and activities that are fun yet at the same time promotes safety and wellness,” she said.
“By having guidelines on the operation of tourism sites, we are actually able to accomplish two things – promote wellness and help build back the confidence of our target market to travel again,” Tiopes added.
According to Tiopes, they drafted a manual to promote the health and safety of guests, tourism workers, and service providers alike.
“Once people see that their safety is of utmost importance in our tourism sites, they will start to feel that there is not much to worry about. When our target domestic markets also start to see that Eastern Visayans are safely going to their tourism sites, this will also give them the message that Eastern Visayas indeed is a safe destination and may consider putting us in their list once they start traveling to other region again,” the tourism regional director said.
With the lowering of the COVID-19 risk level in many parts of the region, Tiopes said many tourism facilities that comply with the guidelines have already reopened.
“Next in line are the tourism sites and activities. However, we have to do this with care to make sure that health and safety protocols are in place consistently followed by both service providers and guests,” she said.
For their first assessment, Tiopes and her team visited Calbayog City sites in collaboration with the Calbayog City Tourism Office to see how their health and safety manual is adopted and implemented by the local government unit (LGU).
“One challenge we have faced though is the level of willingness of our target tourists to travel again at this time. That is why we will initially target local tourists – Eastern Visayans traveling around Eastern Visayas. However, for now, many of our LGUs who have already opened up some of their tourism sites only allow their local community to initially visit their sites,” Tiopes said.
The tourism industry has been one, if not the most affected industries when COVID-19 struck, according to the tourism official.
“The need to follow health and safety protocols remain paramount, however, we also have to nurture back our economy – open up businesses, resume the operation of tourism sites, bring back jobs, continue the livelihood that were temporarily stopped as a result of impositions made to put to a minimum the spread of the virus,” Tiopes added.
(RONALD O. REYES)

TACLOBAN CITY (CIO) – At least P3.2 million worth of financial assistance was allocated by the city government of Tacloban through Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez to aid City Division Schools in its Brigada Eskwela Program this year.
Under the financial assistance program, each of the 64 elementary and secondary schools under the division will receive P50,000 each from the Special Education Fund of the local government to help defray the cost of maintenance and repairs of schools as it prepares for the coming school year.
On Monday, August 3, 2020, Mayor Romualdez, along with City Schools Division Superintendent, Dr. Mariza S. Magan led the distribution to the heads of the 64 elementary and high schools of the city division.
This is the second time that the local government extended the much-needed aid to city schools. Last January, the city government also handed cash aids to the public schools for the repair and rehabilitation of facilities affected by Typhoon ‘Ursula’.
Meantime, amidst the coronavirus scare, some 61,157 students (as compared to last year’s 72,293) have enrolled for the new school year which, will start on August 24, 2020.
Despite the slight decline in enrollment, the City Division still posted the highest enrollment rate in Region 8, according to Magan.
The City Division will utilize multiple learning modalities; through self-learning modules and online/virtual classes as to alternative to face-to-face learning.
(K.NAPALA, TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)