More tourists, investors projected to visit N. Samar
CATARMAN, Northern Samar- The newly-rehabilitated passenger terminal building (PTB) of the Catarman Airport in Catarman, this province, could now accommodate more passengers.
Transportations Sec. Arthur Tugade said that with a better and bigger passenger terminal building, the town and the rest of the province could expect better days ahead.
Tugade, who together with Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Jim Sydiongco leading the event Thursday (Sept.2), said that from the previous 50 passengers, the airport’s PTB could now accommodate 150 passengers and 15,000 passengers every year.
The national government, through the Department of Transportations, allocated more than P114.8 million for the rehabilitation and development of the Catarman Airport which is located in Barangay Dalakit in the said provincial capital.
For the rehabilitation of the PTB, the government allocated P26.13 million and P53 million for asphalt overlay construction, among others.
Sec. Tugade said that now that the Catarman Airport has been developed, influx of tourists and even investors could be expected.
“Catarman and the rest of Northern Samar has a big potential in terms of tourism. And this potential will not be realized if the airport will not be rehabilitated,” he said.
Local officials led by Rep. Paul Daza, Vice Governor Gary Lavin and Catarman Vice Mayor Clarissa Bonsol expressed their gratitude to Sec. Tugade.
“(The) Catarman Airport is critical for the progress and development of the province,” Daza said.
Lavin and Bosol said that an improved Catarman Airport will not only help the locals but also help improve the economy of the province and even during relief operations during a disaster situation.
At present, the Catarman Airport has a once- a -week flight to Manila. (PETER D. PAREDES)
BIGGER, STURDIER EVACUATION CENTER. Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Ro- mualdez spearheaded the inauguration of the P35 million worth evacuation center in Barangay 101 (New Kawayan) on Thursday (Sept. 2). Among the city officials who joined Mayor Romualdez were Councilors Aimee Grafil, Leo Bahin and Brian Steve Granados, city disaster risk reduction management officer Edilbrando Bernadas and city social welfare and development officer Chona Bahin.
BIGGER, STURDIER EVACUATION CENTER. Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Ro- mualdez spearheaded the inauguration of the P35 million worth evacuation center in Barangay 101 (New Kawayan) on Thursday (Sept. 2). Among the city officials who joined Mayor Romualdez were Councilors Aimee Grafil, Leo Bahin and Brian Steve Granados, city disaster risk reduction management officer Edilbrando Bernadas and city social welfare and development officer Chona Bahin.
TACLOBAN CITY- A new, bigger and sturdier evacuation center was inaugurated by City Mayor Alfred Romualdez who was joined by other city officials on Thursday (Sept.2).
The P35 million worth facility, located in Barangay 101(New Kawayan), was funded by the city government with the help from Leyte Rep. and House Majority Floor Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Tingog party-list through Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, and the Department of Public Works and Highways)DPWH).
Joining the city mayor during the inauguration of the said evacuation center, were Councilors Aimee Delgado Grafil, Leo Bahin, Brian Steve Granados.
Also present were city disaster risk reduction management officer Edilbrando Bernadas and city social welfare, development officer Chona Bahin, and barangay chairman Albert Eviota, among others.
Mayor Romualdez said that the facility, which is equipped with closed circuit television, will be a big help to the residents in the northern part in the city during a disaster.
The evacuation center was built last February 2021 and was completed on July of this year.
It was learned from city engineer Dionisio ‘Dony’ De Paz that another evacuation center will be constructed near the area.
Barangay chairpersons Maria Leah Altobar (New Kawayan), Eutequio Balunan (Suhi), Caroline Jane Bodano (Old Kawayan), Rachel Lacaba (Tagpuro) and Lito Balangbang (Cabalawan) were also present during the event.
(CHINO COSTIBOLO)
TACLOBAN CITY- With barely two weeks before the opening of this school year, more than 405,000 students so far have enrolled in all public schools in the region.
The Department of Education (DepEd) is calling parents for their children to be enrolled before the September 13 school opening.
Jazmin Calzita, DepEd regional information officer, said that the current number of 405,459 enrollees covering Kindergarten, elementary, junior and senior high, is expected to increase before the start of the opening for this school year.
“This is just initial as other schools have yet to submit their learners’ enrollment and survey forms,” she said.
Calzita also said that they hope parents and other stakeholders will help on their goal to have more enrollment for this school year.
The current number of enrollment as of August 31 represents just around 33 percent from the 1.26 million students’ enrolled last school year.
Based on the data Calzita provided to Leyte Samar Daily Express, 226,278 are now enrolled in the elementary; 128,672 in the junior;50,075 in the senior high; and 434 in the non-graded or learners with special education needs.
Calzita said that just like last year, the method of learning in this school year remains to be mostly modular with some schools still adopting online classes.
Meantime, Calzita said that they hope to address the “challenges” that they have encountered during last school year, the first time that the modular and online method of classes were implemented in the country due to the pandemic caused by coronavirus.
Among these issues were poor internet connection, lack of gadgets mostly on the part of the students, errors in lessons featured in DepEd television and modules, and even mental issues affecting both students and even teachers, among others.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
VACCINATION ROLLOUT. Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla is seeking for more vaccine supplies from the national government as the number of people in the province who have been vaccinated is just around 10 percent from its target population. Photo shows the governor with Leyte-Leyte Mayor Arnold James Ysidoro during a rollout of vaccine in the said town . (GINA P. GEREZ)
With just less than 10 percent vaccinated Leyteños
VACCINATION ROLLOUT. Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla is seeking for more vaccine supplies from the national government as the number of people in the province who have been vaccinated is just around 10 percent from its target population. Photo shows the governor with Leyte-Leyte Mayor Arnold James Ysidoro during a rollout of vaccine in the said town . (GINA P. GEREZ)
TACLOBAN CITY – After almost seven months of vaccination campaign here in Leyte, less than 10 percent of the target population have so far received the jabs.
And with this low number of vaccinated persons, Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla is calling the national government through the Department of Health (DOH) for more supplies of vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
He also urged local government units to fast track their vaccination campaign for Leyte to achieve its own herd immunity before the end of this year.
Based on the report of the Provincial Health Office (PHO) provided to the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force chaired by Petilla, Leyte has only achieved 9.89 percent of its vaccination campaign as of Wednesday (Sept.1).
The 9.89 percent represents 107,043 people from the 40 towns of the province and the city of Baybay. The cities of Tacloban and Ormoc are not included being independent administratively from the provincial government.
Leyte has so far received 162,426 doses of vaccines from the DOH.
It was learned that for Leyte to achieve herd immunity, at least 70 percent or 1,082,094 out of its more than 1.54 million population need to be vaccinated.
“If we will hurry, we can do the first and second dose to the remaining 900,000 Leyteños in two months. We can do that based on the capacity that we have seen and then whatever vaccine is sent to us, we can do that,” Petilla said.
The governor also said that a freezer procured by the provincial government to be used in storing the Pfizer vaccines had already arrived in the province with a freezer used to store for Moderna vaccines arrived last July.
The PHO keeps the freezers for these vaccines.
Gov. Petilla said that the freezer for Moderna vaccines has the capacity to store more than 150,000 doses while freezer for Pfizer can store more than 200,000 doses.
With these freezers, Petilla hope that the national government will provide more vaccines to the province to fast track its inoculation campaign against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Further, with the cases of Delta variants reported in in the region, the Leyte governor said that the government should consider putting up genome center in other areas like in the Visayas to fasttrack sequencing process in determining presence of variants of concern.
Petilla said that in the present situation, it will take several weeks to a month before a COVID-19 patients learn if they are infected with a particular variant.
“I hope na madagdagan nila ang laboratory, if they really want to pursue na maging… ano bang tawag dyan, parang halos labas kaagad ang resulta ng Delta, hindi yung maghihintay ka ng isang buwan or several weeks bago mo malaman, nakarecover na ang pasyente,” Petilla said.
In Leyte province, two cases of Delta variants were reported by the Department of Health (DOH), one is in Hilongos town, an OFW who is currently under isolation in Metro Manila, while the other is a pregnant women from Hindang who is currently under isolation in the facility of the municipality.
Leyte province based on the data from the Department of Health Eastern Visayas has a total of 14, 893 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of August 30.
Of which, a total of 14, 073 had already recovered, 696 are active cases with 124 recorded death.
Of the recorded cases 1,973 or 13.25% were mild cases, 329 or 2.21% moderate cases, 129 or .86% were severe cases, and 21 or .14% were critical.
CATARMAN, Northern Samar- The province’s capital town, Catarman, will have its fiesta restrictions as imposed in Resolution No. 27 by the Municipal Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19.
Catarman will be celebrating this year’s annual town fiesta on August 28 and 29 in honor of Our Lady of Annunciation but due to the current surge of confirmed positive cases, the local IATF found it proper to impose restrictions in the movement of people.
As stated, fiesta celebration is limited to family members, those residing within the poblacion are encouraged to prepare foods only for a simple family gathering.
Religious activity will be allowed, however it will be limited to 50% venue and seating capacity enforcing minimum health protocols and QR code usage. No religious procession will be allowed, only motorcade.
The resolution also stated that persons aged 20 years old and below and adults 60 years old and above are not allowed to go out of their residences except for accessing essential services, needing immediate medical attention and those fully vaccinated.
From August 27 to 29, it is prohibited to sell and buy liquor and or drinking in public places.
Accordingly, all these efforts are geared towards prevention of any possible transmission and spread of COVID-19 without prejudice to the traditional significance of the occassion. (NBQ/ADiaz/PIA-8/Northern Samar)
