TACLOBAN CITY- Two pieces of debris suspected to be from an aircraft were separately found on the beaches of Mercedes and Guiuan towns, both in Eastern Samar province.
In Mercedes, such wreckage was said to have been beached off the waters in Barangay Anuron, Juvimar Lira, a resident of the said village, said.
Lira, in a phone interview, said that the wreckage was seen in the area five days ago by some local fishermen in Anuron, which faces the Pacific Ocean.
“When I saw them, they were trying to tinker the debris, probably for profit. I told them not to touch it and instead report it authorities,” the 33-year old businessman said.
He said the item should be turn over to proper authorities for them to conduct investigation to really determine on the wreckage found on the shore.
On Thursday (August 6), local police together with personnel from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), and local police came to the area to inspect the debris.
There was no illegal contraband found by the PDEA while the CAAP has not yet determine if the debris was from an airplane or from what part of an aircraft.
CAAP regional office based in the city has yet to issue a statement on this matter.
But Lira said that the debris was heavy as it took about 10 men to flip it over as he estimated that it could be around over 100 kilograms in weight and 3 x 4 meters in width. Some Chinese or Japanese characters were seen on the debris, he added.
Meanwhile, another similar debris was also in the waters in Brgy. Taytay, Guiuan, report reaching the regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police, said.
The said debris was found floating last July 27 by Nicanor Gagarin, 46 and resident of said village.
The item was said to have been secured by the Guiuan police.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

ORMOC CITY- At least three persons were buried alive after a landslide hit near a dried river where they were excavating in Barangay Canlawis, Pintuyan, Southern Leyte Friday (July 31) afternoon.
Town police chief Lt. Col Omar Bagasbas identified the fatalities as Ruben Gulbao, 20, single and native of Tampoong, Sogod, Southern Leyte; Adelberto Gales, Jr., 35, single and resident of PD Equipilag village in Pintuyan town, both are laborers; and Joel Malque, married, 43 and living in the village where the incident occurred.
Bagasbas said in a phone interview that the three were sacking sand and gravel near the slope at estimated height of 35 meters at the side of a dried river when the soil containing rocks eroded and covered the victims.
When police arrived at the scene, some people from the community, roughly half a kilometer distance, were already digging with the use of shovel to rescue the victims. They came to help the town rescuers and able to retrieve two bodies. Another body was recovered with the use of a backhoe.
The three were rushed to the town district hospital but were pronounced dead upon arrival by the attending physician Dr. Jude Aspirin.
Bagasbas said that the landslide area used to be a quarrying site but excavation was discontinued by the local government being unsafe already.
However, residents nearby continue excavation activities of small volumes for meager income. Heavy rains on the past days softened the soil and slight movement on the ground may have resulted to the landslide, he added.
(ELVIE ROMAN-ROA with report RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Friday said a total of 81,003 additional family beneficiaries in Eastern Visayas would receive cash assistance under the social amelioration program (SAP) of the national government.
In a press statement, DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Marie Angela Gopalan said these came from the 129 local government units (LGUs) in the region that submitted a list of qualified poor families but did not receive the grant during the first tranche.
A total of 38,420 families were listed from Leyte, 16,393 in Samar, 14,652 in Northern Samar, 5,310 in Eastern Samar, 4,663 in Southern Leyte, and 1,565 in Biliran.
As of July 29, the regional office here has already released P12,145,000, serving a total of 2,429 families.
Each recipient received P5,000 cash, Gopalan said.
“We expect more beneficiaries to receive the emergency subsidy in the next days, especially that the DSWD continues to conduct direct cash payout and we are also preparing for the implementation of the digital payment scheme,” she added.
Under Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, financial support for two months will be granted to indigent families affected by the movement restrictions meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
However, Eastern Visayas is no longer included in the second tranche of the emergency subsidy due to downgraded community quarantine status.
Gopalan said they released a total of P2,752,283,000 during the first tranche of SAP, serving 550,480 families from the region’s 143 LGUs.
Meanwhile, Eastern Visayas has confirmed a total of 936 Covid-19 cases, including 670 recoveries and three deaths from Leyte, Biliran, and Samar, according to the Department of Health monitoring report.
(GERICO SABALZA/PNA)