GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO, Leyte — The regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) is monitoring measles cases in San Roque, Northern Samar amid reports that a child died from the said ailment.
Roderick Boyd Cerro, chief of the DOH regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, said that they are still waiting for the confirmation of blood tests from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City to find out if the one-year-old child really contracted measles.
Two other family members, aged 10 and 14, also suffered from measles symptoms such as mild to moderate fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, rashes, and sore throat last week.
“Clinically, it shows that the child died of measles last week, but we are still waiting for the confirmation from the RITM,” Cerro said.
If RITM confirms that the cause of death is measles, the DOH will consider the case in San Roque town as an outbreak, according to Cerro.
“We will categorize it as an outbreak because we already had immunization activities with the goal to achieve zero deaths from measles,” Cerro said.
Children should receive at least two measles immunization shots to boost their immune system against the viral disease.
The government has been implementing the massive immunization program targeting children ages six months to five years old.
Many parents, however, refused government vaccines due to fears caused by Dengvaxia controversy last year.
The DOH has reiterated its call to support the government’s immunization program this year that will benefit 213,717 children in the region.
The health department has been conducting its regular mass vaccination to combat polio, measles, tetanus, meningitis, diphtheria, and tuberculosis.
The immunization program targets 129,370 children 0 to 12 years old and 84,347 Grades 1 to 7 school children in the region.
The DOH pushed for vaccination noting that in the past two years, there are still confirmed cases of fatal diseases preventable by vaccines. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

CATBALOGAN CITY- The Philippine National Police (PNP) Samar provincial office recovered loose firearms from a village chief in Calbayog City, fearing some groups might be preparing to instill rule of fear in next year’s elections.
Chief Insp. Sulpecio Jabagat, PNP Samar spokesperson, said that investigation is ongoing on why a local official in an upland Patong village have to keep assorted firearms.
Several firearms were recovered by the police in a raid on August 14 at the houses of Patong village chief Jemuel de Pablo and some of his relatives.
The village official was not around during the raid, but a family member, Jomar de Pablo was arrested for illegal possession of firearms.
The raiding team executed the search warrant issued by Judge Agerico Avila of Regional Trial Court Branch 29 base in this city.
“It’s possible that some groups will use these guns to harass candidates and their supporters in next year’s elections. We are investigating how they acquired these firearms since some serial number indicates that these are the same model as those acquired by the government,” Jabagat told reporters.
The Samar police intelligence team recovered during the raid caliber .45 pistols, magazines, carbine rifles, revolvers, homemade shotguns, grenades, live ammunitions, and improvised shotguns.
“I wonder why an official in a remote village have to keep these firearms since he’s not a police or an army. They’re not able to show proof that these firearms are licensed. I’m sure these are intended somewhere else,” he added.
The police official cannot confirm if the village official is part of the private armed group in Samar.
Jabagat said they are stepping up intelligence gathering on loose firearms in Calbayog City, known for spate of violence especially during election period.
This year alone, more than 10 shooting incidents occurred in the city, the official said.
The latest was on August 7 where a lone gunman riding a motorcycle killed the city’s assistant engineer Rafaelito Serrano.
Calbayog, one of the biggest cities in the country in terms of land area, has been known as election hotspot due to intense political rivalries.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY – Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said that there are areas in the province which could be planted for bamboos.
In fact, about 7,000 hectares along the Binahaan River could be planted for bamboos, the governor said.
Lately, the governor has been encouraging farmers in the province to plant bamboos to help increase their income saying there is now a huge demand of bamboos in the world market.
Petilla, who recently led in the oath-taking of officials of a bamboo farmers association in San Isidro, Sta. Fe town, said that aside from generating more income for the farmers, bamboo planting could help save the province from climate change.
“We may come to that part but we have to produce first before we market our province on bamboo production. It’s hard to sell our province for a product that is not existence. The key to that is to enhance the skills and knowledge of our people on bamboo production,” Gov. Petilla said.
“Before we also market our bamboo abroad, we also need to examine what are their quality standards. We need to know if we can meet their standard and if we see that we can meet it then we will produce the quality of bamboo according to that standard so that we can export,” he added.
Demands of bamboos continue to rise making it a multi-billion export industry in global market, according to Senator Cynthia Villar who visited China last June.
“Bamboo is an alternative source of income to farmer,” Villar said citing that based on her visit in China, a farmer can earn as much as P1.5 million a year on a one-hectare bamboo plantation which is good for poverty reduction campaign of Philippine government.
“I am supporting bamboo industries, primarily because bamboo is a cash crop for Filipino farmers and can be a good source of income and livelihood of poor communities, particularly in rural areas in our country,” Villar added.
The National Greening Program, which the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) implement, mandates that 20% of the target land for reforestation must be planted with bamboo.
Promoting bamboo as alternative crops in rehabilitating mined sites is being pushed by the DENR according to Secretary Roy Cimatu.
“Demand of bamboo worldwide including China is huge. But before we can plant it we need to test first if what variety is suitable on that area,” Sec Cimatu said.
He added that while the DENR is in charge of bamboo production, the Department of Trade and Industry will handle its marketing.
From home decors and furniture, the use of bamboo had evolved to industrial and construction usage. The leaves of bamboos are also known to absorb more than 100 times of carbon monoxide than that of the ordinary tree.
In Tacloban, engineered bamboo was introduced as material for housing construction after the devastation of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
Hilti Foundation (Base Balay Inc.), a partner of Operation Blessing, brought the construction concept in the city for the building of 324 housing units in the 1.5 hectare land housing projects in Palanog for families from Barangays 89 and 90. (ROEL T. AMAZONA

By: MICHAEL PARADO

While the plan of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration (PDEA) to conduct drug testing to all students age 10 and older is laudable, the Department of Education and other sectors looked at it in the other way around.
No less than the Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said that plan may require the amendment of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which authorizes drug testing for secondary and tertiary level students only.
Briones, in a statement, said that it will be good to compare the objectives of the two government institutions in implementing the drug test in connection to DepEd’s program which is “mainly to know the prevalence so it can provide interventions compliant to its mandate, and for health reasons, so proper treatment can be provided.”
As expected, DepEd took side with the children. This deserves a commendation from the public.
Aptly said, the Human Right Watch also criticized the move of PDEA, saying this proposal “will place school children at grave risk.”
“It marks a drastic extension of mandatory drug testing already in place for all college students and applicants, and will effectively allow the police to extend their ‘anti-drug’ operations to primary school classrooms. Imposing mandatory drug testing on schoolchildren when Philippine police are committing rampant summary killings of alleged drug users puts countless children in danger for failing a drug test, said Phelim Kine, Asia deputy director in Asia.
According to the rights group, the mandatory testing of children for drug use raises other human rights concerns as well.
“Taking a child’s bodily fluids, whether blood or urine, without their consent may violate the right to bodily integrity and constitute arbitrary interference with their privacy and dignity. Depending on how such testing occurs, it could also constitute degrading treatment, and may deter children from attending school or college for reasons unrelated to any potential drug use, depriving them of their right to an education,” Kine added.
Personally, I agreed with what Kine suggested when he said that government “should provide children with accurate information about the potential risks of drug use, not put them in the crosshairs of a summary killing campaign that has already claimed the lives of more than 12,000 Filipinos.”

We are also thankful to progressive youth groups who voiced out their criticism against the plan. League of Filipino Students national spokesperson JP Rosos said that subjecting students in random drug testing does not consider the welfare of the youth or provide interventions whether they are lost in track or not.
This is clearly an avenue for students to be vulnerable to attacks, he said.
As the drug campaign of Pres. Duterte already claimed the lives of dozens of children, it would be wise for the government to spare the children from mandatory drug testing.
(Note: The author teaches at the Palo National High School in Palo, Leyte)

Palay production in Eastern Visayas increased by 7.9 percent, from 239,600 metric tons (MT) in the second quarter of 2017 to 258,486 MT in the second quarter of 2018.
Increases were observed among all provinces, except in Northern Samar, which posted a decrease of 9.3 percent.
Southern Leyte recorded the highest increase in production of 50.3 percent, from 24,817 in the second quarter of 2017 to 37,306 percent in the second quarter of 2018.
Among the provinces, Leyte produced the highest volume of palay at 147,221 MT, which comprised more than half (57.0 percent) of the total palay production in the region.
Eastern Samar, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production (12,215 MT) accounting for only 4.7 percent.
The total harvest area for palay in the region decreased slightly by 0.2 percent, from 69,453 hectares in the second quarter of 2017 to 69,289 hectares in the second quarter of 2018.
Increases recorded in Biliran (7.0 percent) and Samar (1.0 percent) were offset by the decreases registered in Northern Samar (6.8 percent) and Southern Leyte (2.0 percent).
Leyte recorded a little over half or 53.6 percent (37,144 hectares) of the total palay area harvested during the quarter in review, while Biliran contributed the least (4,763 hectares) accounting for only 6.9 percent.
Yield per hectare for palay in the region went up by 8.8 percent, from 3.4 MT per hectare in the second quarter of 2017 to 3.7 MT per hectare in the same quarter of 2018.
Among the provinces, Biliran posted the highest yield per hectare during the quarter in review at 4.6 MT per hectare. Eastern Samar registered the lowest yield per hectare at 2.3 MT per hectare.(PR)

TACLOBAN CITY – At least P 2.3-million worth of livelihood assistance was distributed by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional office and the city government of Tacloban under Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez to beneficiaries on Friday.
DOLE Undersecretary Renato Ebarle and Assistant Secretary Mariano Alquiza led the distribution along with City Councilor Evangeline Esperas who represented Mayor Romualdez, DOLE 8 Director Yahya Centi, National Maritime Polytechnic Executive Director Romulo Bernardez, and Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Manager Emilia Cruz.
Sixty beneficiaries from different barangays received P 1.7-million worth of grant under the DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program (DILP) for various livelihood activities like Dress Making/Tailoring, Pedicab, Nego-Cart, Rice Retailing, Bread and Pastry Making and Food Vending.
On the other hand, the Nazareth Farmers Association which has 27 members received P699, 000 worth of livelihood grant for their Sustainable Organic Vegetables and Milkfish Alternative Production Project.
Thirty-one coconut farmers in Barangay 12 Palanog also received P475,800 cash assistance, and a grant of P778,000 was given to the 24-member Tiangge Fruit Vendors Association (TFVA).
One of the beneficiaries of the assistance, Melanio Pelino, said that the grant will bring livelihood enhancement to him and members of their association.
“This livelihood grant is helpful to us who rely on fruit vending as a source of income to support my children and family in the financial aspect,” said Pelino.
“We thank DOLE and the city government for this assistance” he added.
The DILP aims to promote poverty reduction and provide protection to vulnerable and marginalized workers. The program promotes entrepreneurship through small income-generating projects.
(HENRY JAMES ROCA/CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)