BOBON, Northern Samar- The construction of concrete roads in four remote villages going to the town center, this municipality, is expected to create economic activities in these areas.
Road constructions are ongoing in Barangays Santander and E. Duran worth P180 million while another road project covering the villages of Jose Abad Santos and J.P. Laurel worth P20 million is also underway.
Mayor Reny Celespara said that once these road projects are completed not only travel would become easy and faster but the transfer of goods from these villages to the town center would be hasten.
The municipal government, Celespara said, got a financial assistance from Governor Jose ‘Jun’ Ong who also provided a P6 million assistance intended to procure a one hectare lot for a food and transport terminal.
The construction of said facility located in Barangay Salvacion is to be completed by December this year.
The bulk of the cost in the construction of the two-storey facility is sourced from a loan secured by the municipal government from the Department of Finance.
Mayor Celespara said that the town’s internal revenue allotment would not be used in paying the loan which is payable in 10 years and with a grace period of three years as payments on rentals on the stalls of the said food terminal would be used in paying the loan.(PETER PAREDES)

TACLOBAN CITY- Seeking for the return of the Balangiga Bells as a condition in buying arms from the United States makes President Rodrigo Duterte a ‘traitor.’
Thus said the spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Eastern Visayas, reacting to an earlier statement of Mr. Duterte who said that the historic bells must first be returned to the country before he decides to buy arms from the United States, where the bells are presently stored in one of its military bases.
“It is not only an insult to the memory of the people’s uprising in Balangiga against the US war of aggression to colonize the Philippines, but also treasonous for conniving with a foreign power against the Filipino people in the ongoing civil war,” Salas said in an emailed statement dated August 31.
The President had earlier said that he would not buy arms from the United States unless they would return to the country the Balangiga Bells taken in 1901 during the American colonization.
The bells were carted away when American soldiers based in Balangiga, Eastern Samar were attacked by local guerillas which resulted in the ‘worst single defeat by American forces’ during their colonization of the country as they turned Samar into a “howling of wilderness.”
The bells are presently stored at F.E. Warren Air Force Based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.
Mr. Duterte, during his State of the Nation Address in 2017, asked the US government to return the Balangiga Bells.
Recently, efforts to return the historic bells have intensified after US Defense Sec. James Mattis said that their government is now open for the return of the Balangiga Bells.
Early efforts of the Philippine government to retrieve the Balangiga Bells proved unsuccessful.
Salas, meantime, said that just like the rest of the country, they too are seeking for the repatriation of the bells back to the country and to the town of Balangiga.
“Filipino patriots and their friends and supporters here and in the United States have long sought the return of the Balangiga Bells, a campaign with which NDF-EV is in solidarity. Together with the freedom-loving Americans and Filipinos, we look forward to the return of the Balangiga Bells to toll once more the continuing struggle of the Filipino people to be free,” he said.(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY – The Regional Development Council (RDC) has listed the Philippine Army as member of a committee tasked to monitor infrastructure projects in remote Eastern Visayas areas infested with communist rebels.
Acting on the request of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the Regional Project Monitoring Committee (RPMC) approved the proposal to consider the military as one of the members of the body.
The RPMC, composed of officials from the government and private sector, admitted that several projects, especially in Samar provinces, have been delayed due to threats of the New People’s Army.
Consequently, incomplete projects have affected the delivery of basic service to poor families.
“Through the participation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in RPMC meetings, delays in implementation of projects due to security-related reasons shall be appropriately addressed,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Regional Director Bonifacio Uy said, quoting Lorenzana’s letter.
Uy, chairperson of RDC’s monitoring arm, RPMC said the military will help check some ongoing projects and report their status in quarterly meetings.
Lt. Col. Gasanara Sultan, Army’s 8th Infantry Division assistant chief of staff for civil military operations, said they can tap all military units in the region to monitor ongoing construction activities, secure heavy equipment, and escort personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) inspecting the project.
“Our efforts will be coordinated with DPWH because we need to know what kind of projects we have to prioritize in monitoring,” Sultan said.
At least 188 major projects in Eastern Visayas have been listed by the RPMC as priority for monitoring this year, citing their importance to the attainment of regional development goals and targets.
These projects include post-Yolanda reconstruction activities; resettlement sites in Tacloban City, Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Biliran; livelihood projects; irrigations; social infrastructure; agriculture and fishery; road and bridges; roads leading to tourism destinations; roads in conflict-stricken areas; seaports; and airports.
Uy said the project monitoring initiative by RDC members, both from government and private sector, will help ensure timely implementation of programs and projects critical to the attainment of goals in the 2017-2022 Regional Development Plan.
The official said programs and projects with substantial negative slippage and problems in implementation have been the priority for field monitoring and problem-solving sessions.
The RPMC is RDC’s project monitoring arm responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of priority programs and projects implemented in the region, particularly those that are encountering implementation bottlenecks and projects that are worthy for replication.

The body forwards monitoring reports and recommendations generated during the problem-solving sessions to the council for information and appropriate action. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

GOVERNMENT CENTER, PALO, Leyte—The Department of Education (DepEd) in Leyte division continued the delivery of computer units to its schools as part of the department’s computerization program.
Ronel Boholano, the division’s in-charge of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) unit, said that about 90 percent of the schools in Leyte have already received at least one DCP package since 2010.
“Starting from batch 24 up to now the recent batches 44, there were more than 600 school recipients per year have been given at least one ICT equipment,” he said.
While saying that every DCP batch is composed of different components, Boholano said that this year, they have also delivered and installed DCP batches to remote schools and senior high schools under batch 36 to 44.
Aside from the distribution of computers, Boholano said their unit is focused on developing and giving technical assistance, educational leadership in promoting ICT in education, professional development of teachers in terms of ICT in education, crafting of policies and roadmaps that would facilitate integrating ICT in teaching and learning, and provision of learning resources and curriculum support.
Meanwhile, Boholano lauded schools that went an extra mile in soliciting support for their own computerization program, noting that the DCP Batch 24 is not enough for their schools.
He cited the efforts of Pining Paglingap Elementary School (PPES), a remote school in Tabango, Leyte, which have found a way to connect with their stakeholders and donors for additional used computers to their school
“It’s so heart-warming to see this kind of picture of schools using ICT as a tool for their students to get concepts of subjects across subject areas while at the same time teaching ICT as a subject,” Boholano said on the initiative of Carlo Ngoho, the school head of PPES.
Ngoho, who was one of the first 100 teachers who attended the pilot run of ICT literacy skills development last November 2015 in Tacloban City, said their school had received Batch 24 of DCP composed of one system unit and seven monitors.
With the help of its former principal Maristela Delalamon, their school was able to link with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the donation of computers.
“We write a letter to BSP requesting them to give us numbers of used computers. They responded and gave us 10 desktop computers on August 3 this year,” Ngoho said.
“I am very happy that we will learn computer in our school,” said 11 years old Ronalyn Lapore, a Grade- 6 student.
Ivy Shane Rojas, a Grade 5 student, said they are “proud that even we are studying in the far-flung school we learn ICT skills just like what the pupils learn in city and town school.”
Ngoho also thanked the leadership of Leyte Schools Division Superintendent Ronelo Al Firmo “for the continuous support and monitoring of the program.” (RONALD O. REYES)

As a way to neutralize shooting incidents

By: Joey A. Gabieta

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, CAMPETIC, PALO, Leyte- The newly-assumed police director of the region, Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, has issued a warning against those who are in possession of loose firearms.
Carlos, who assumed the post last week, said that the proliferation of these loose firearms is the reason why shooting incidents happen.
The police regional director made this warning in the wake of an arrest of a barangay chairman in Calbayog City who was discovered to be in possession of firearms inside his house in Barangay Patong.
Carlos said that he has directed Senior Supt.Nicholas Torre III to intensify the campaign on loose firearm as a way to avoid further shooting incidents in Samar province.
“Samar PPO (Police Provincial Office) is conducting operations to remove these firearms. Shooting incidents could be avoided without these tools,” Carlos, in a press conference Monday (August 20), said, referring to loose firearms.
Carlos supervised the presentation of the loose firearms seized by the personnel of S/Supt. Torres at the house of barangay chairman Jemuel de Pablo during an operation on August 14 in Brgy.Patong.
The said operation also resulted to the arrest of de Pablo’s uncle, Jovito, who is a village councilor, and his son Jomar.
The operation also netted for the confiscation of several firearms and ammunitions from the houses of the village’s chairman father, Jornito, and Sonny Tegra, a former village chair of Patong.
Both Jornito and Tegra were not around when their houses were searched by police personnel who were armed of a search warrant issued by Judge Agerico Avila, presiding judge of Regional Trial-Branch 29 in Catbalogan City.
According to Carlos, private individuals who are allowed to carry firearms should have clearance issued by the Philippine National Police for their safety and security.
Otherwise, those who are in possession of firearms not authorized by the PNP should be subjected to scrutiny as to the purpose why they are carrying guns.
Meantime, Torre said that they are conducting their operations based on a court order.
And getting a search warrant, the Samar police provincial director said, is not easy.
“We make sure that we comply (with all the requirements in applying for a search warrant),” he said.
Torre also said that the firearms that they have confiscated from their August 14 operation as well as other firearms that they have seized from their previous operations were submitted at the regional crime laboratory for examination.
“These will be cross check if these firearms were used in previous shooting incidents and we suspect that many of these firearms were used in previous shooting incidents,” Torre said.

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON,PALO, Leyte- Nope, they are not focusing their operations in Calbayog City for some personal reason but because it is where most of the shooting incidents are taking place.
Thus said Senior Supt. Nicholas Torre III when asked why they appear to focus their attention in Calbayog City whose council declared him earlier as ‘persona non grata’ or not welcome.
City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino himself openly accused Torre as to be more ‘close’ to Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan, a political nemesis.
“We are not singling out Calbayog. It just shows in the crime map and crime analysis that the concentration of crimes are in that particular city. Thus, the police is also concentrating their efforts in the said city,” Torre, in a press conference on Monday here, said.
Torre joined Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, police regional director, in the presentation of several firearms confiscated by the Samar police provincial office in a raid in Barangay Patong, a remote village in Calbayog City.
Torre said that Calbayog’s big land area make it ‘prone’ to have a high crime incidents as he noted that the city has only about 100 policemen securing its residents.
Thus, Torre said they are extending assistance to the city police to solve crimes and chase after criminals operating especially in remote villages of the city.
Torre said they will continue their operations against those who are accused of committing crimes to ensure the safety of the people and the city itself.
Because of the series of killing incidents, Calbayog was derisively known as “Killbayog” of which Mayor Aquino strongly opposed.
He said that the label has affected their campaign to attract more investors and tourists to their city.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)