In Maasin City

TACLOBAN CITY – About 164 poor students enrolled at the Maasin City College (MCC) are to receive assistance from the Commission on Higher Education (ChEd).
This was disclosed by Maasin City Mayor Nacional Mercado who said that he already received a check of P6.75 million from CHEd.
MCC is one of the recipients of the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program of the CHEd.
The 164 students belong to families who are recipients of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
According to Mayor Mercado, he received P6.75 million from CHEd’s chairperson, Prospero de Veyra, for this financial aid.
Each of the identified 164 students are to receive P40,000.
“The 164 qualified student-beneficiaries were screened by ChEd central office based on the qualifications set by their office,” Mayor Mercado said.
“These students came from families who belonged to the 4Ps who are economically disadvantaged and deserved to be given such benefit,” he added.
Mercado added that the distribution of TES will be held after check clearing this week.
“The CHEd chairperson also instructed me to assist the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the evaluation of the beneficiaries and those who are not included but are eligible in the list,” the city mayor said.
TES is one of the core programs under the Republic Act No. 10931 also known as the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, has an allocation of PhP16 billion from the PhP40 billion budget to implement the law.
Priority in receiving the assistance are students who continue to benefit the Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA); students residing and studying in private HEIs in cities/municipalities with no existing state university or college or CHEd-recognized LUC(local university or college); students included in the Listahanan 2.0; and those not in the Listahanan 2.0 but show proof of indigency such as BIR certificate of no income, or barangay certificate of indigency, and ranked according to per capita income.
Last October 9, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11079 which merged MCC to Southern Leyte States University-Maasin City Campus.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY – A groundbreaking ceremony for the more than P400-million water supply system project seen to solve the water supply woes of the north resettlement sites was held on Friday, January 18, 2019, in Barangay Cabalawan, this city.
Present were former Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez, and his son Raymund Romualdez, former Leyte 1st district Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Local Water Utilities (LWUA) Administrator Jeci Lapus, and Presidential Assistant for Special Concerns Undersecretary Wendel Avisado.
Also present were the members of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District Board led by Roberto Muñoz and Barangay Chairman Lito Balangbang.
Lapus assured that the LWUA will earnestly follow up on the immediate completion of the project on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The project is expected to be completed by December 2, 2020, but contractor Mactan Rock and TGV Builders Incorporated assured that by March this year potable water will be made available in initial areas of Tacloban North.
Meantime, in his message following the ceremony, Romualdez acknowledged President Rodrigo Duterte’s support for the project which is a realization of a “dream “to supply potable water to the Yolanda Housing Projects.
“Nagpapasalamat kami kay President Duterte sa proyektong ito at naging katotohanan ang lahat ng ito” the former chief executive said.
A three-term mayor of Tacloban, Romualdez lobbied for the project during his term but the move was unsuccessful because of some underlying issues.
The water system project was given priority when the management of the LMWD was transferred to the city government in 2018.
(HENRY ROCA/CIO)