TACLOBAN CITY- This year’s Miss Tacloban will become the first to wear a crown designed by a Venezuelan crown maker.
This was revealed by beauty pageant crown donor Richard White who said that the crown was made exclusively for Miss Tacloban 2018 and her successors.
The crown was made by famous Venezuelan pageant crown maker George Wittels.
The whimsical and bohemian inspired flower wreath crown was drawn from nature by Wittels with an intricate intertwining of lily flowers, leaves and branches gives this contour crown a total splendor.
The crown is a perfect homage to mother earth, White said.
The Ms. Tacloban crown symbolizes power, legitimacy, victory, triumph, honor, glory and righteousness and also represents the advocacies of the organization, therefore must be treated with utmost care, he added.
The crown is the official Miss Tacloban crown and must be worn by title holders only in public and private occasions and should be used only on coronations, parades and other official functions of Ms. Tacloban, White added.
An official crown keeper assigned by the donor will take good care of the crown in times that is not being worn by the titleholder.
Wittels, the designer of Miss Tacloban crown, according to White, is a Venezuelan jewelry designer, who designed and created jeweler collections for many famous fashion designers and retail outlets in his native country.
His designs and creations are exceptionally hand crafted with special attention to details. Most of his pieces are made of a variety of combinations of unusual materials like brass, tin, silver, gold, bone, wood, vintage glasses and beads and precious stones.
His name and pieces appeared in Fashion Week New York in 1999 and Paris pet a Porter fashion Week in 2004. Since 1999, the crown designer has created crowns for many beauty pageant titleholders from Venezuela, Bahamas, Spain, Poland’s Ms. Teen and Ms. World; Dominican Republic’s Ms. World & Ms. International; El Salvador’s Ms. Universe, Ms. International, Ms. Tourism & Ms. Earth; Ms. Caracao Universe and Ms. Teen Aruba International among others.
Twelve ladies will compete for the 2018 crown come June 22, 2018 coronation night at the Tacloban City Convention Center.
The candidates are Angel Raquel Gregorio; Ruth Marie “Pippay” Gavane; Pauline Clarisse “Pau” Carisma; Patricia Pauline “Patty” Labugin; Cassandra Marie “Cassy” Lee; Ivy Mae de Mesa; Christine Jane “Jin-Jin” Jara; Khristel Loirah “Jel” Pulga; Ashley “Ash” Ponce; Kimberley Rose “Kim” Ruedas; Marie Carmen “Carmen” Songalia and Dulcinea Yobhel “Bhel” Labanta.(GAY GASPAY, TISAT)

Part of the 11th year cityhood anniversary

CATBALOGAN CITY – The mayor of this city, Stephany Uy-Tan, expressed her gratitude for the successful holding of a jobs fair recently held to mark its 11th year as a city.
The jobs fair, held last June 16, was in partnership with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and coordinated by the City Public Employment Services Office (PESO) and the City Tourism, Culture, Arts and Information Office (CTCIAO).
About 5,996 vacant positions were offered during the jobs fair from 23 participating offices where eight were government agencies.
Of the offered jobs, 907 were offered by local companies and agencies while 5,011 were for overseas employment.
Almost 200 job applicants were hired-on-the-spot according to Mayor Uy-Tan.
“I am so glad that we were able to offer again job opportunities again to our fellow Catbaloganons in this year’s celebration of our 11th Charter Day. Being a developing city as we are, we also strive to develop our people because both should go hand in hand,” Mayor Uy-Tan said.
Aside from the jobs fair, a simultaneous caravan was also held in City Plaza, Barangay Bunuanan Covered Court and Barangay Pupua Covered Court offering services from the City Health Office, City Civil Registrar Office, City Social Welfare and Development Office, City Veterinary Office, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, City Agriculture’s Office and City Environment and Natural Resources Office.
Catbalogan City is one of the three cities in the region that celebrated its cityhood status last June 16 (Saturday). The other two cities were Baybay and Borongan.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- The national government has released about P52 million in the past seven years to improve the capability of local government units in the region to comply with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) regional coordinator for the solid waste management program, Maribel Munsayac, said financial assistance has been provided to cities and towns in the region whose officials are more committed to comply with the environmental law.
“With the very limited resources, we prioritize those areas with initiative to manage their solid waste. Since the fund is already handed to them, there’s no reason they won’t close open dumpsites,” Munsayac said on Wednesday.
About P26 million has been released since 2012 for the establishment of the materials recovery facility (MRF) of three cities and 58 towns in the region’s six provinces.
The MRF receives waste for final sorting, according to its type for composting and recycling. It is designed to receive, sort, process and store compostable and recyclable material efficiently.
Of the P52 million, P20.29 million was given to six local governments for the closure of open dumpsites.
These were Tacloban City; Palo, Leyte; Lavezares, Northern Samar; Laoang, Northern Samar; Abuyog, Leyte; and Motiong, Samar.
Most of the funds were released in the past two months.
Republic Act (RA) No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act prohibits the continued use of open and controlled dumpsites and requires that they must be closed and rehabilitated.
“The degradation of the waste layers takes a long time even as these continue to generate leachate and methane gases. It is necessary to manage the dumpsite properly after the operations and to manage the post closure land use in order to protect public health and preserve the environment,” Munsayac explained.
Some funds were also poured for the provision of shredder machines for biodegradable wastes (P3.42 million), solid waste management in public markets (P1.8 million), school-based eco-savers program (P450,000), and informal waste sector (P100,000).
These funds are primarily sourced from the office of Senator Loren Legarda, the principal author of RA 9003, which was signed in 2001.

By: Sarwell Q. Meniano/PNA

TACLOBAN CITY – Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez on Thursday (June 14) led the mass oath-taking of 1,112 newly-elected barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials.
The mass oath-taking ceremony, held at the Tacloban City Convention Center, was attended by barangay and SK officials from the city’s 138 barangays who won during the May 14 polls.
Mayor Romualdez urged the officials to work for the common good and focus on pressing issues in the barangays such as drugs and the environment.
“We need good and dedicated leaders, willing to work and sacrifice for the common good,” she added.
The chief executive also assured the officials of city government support in barangay projects, especially on health, public service and infrastructures.
Meanwhile, Atty. Darwin Bibar, city local operations officer, asked the officials to support the Department of Interior and Local Government’s anti-corruption campaign Bantay-Kaagapay and do away with politics.
“Your cooperation in the various programs and projects of the city government will ensure (your) barangay and the city’s success,” he told the village officials.
As for the unfilled SK positions in some barangays, Bibar said that they are still waiting for guidelines from the central office on how to resolve the issue.
Prior to assuming their duties on June 30, the newly-elected barangay officials will attend an orientation on June 20 that will be organized by the local DILG.
Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin and Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) president Eden Chua-Pineda also witnessed the mass oath-taking ceremony. (HENRY JAMES G.ROCA/CIO)

TACLOBAN CITY- An innovation made by the service support unit of the 8th Infantry Division will now guarantee that all of its military vehicles could still remain serviceable despite of their being decades-old.
This after the 8th Forward Service Support Unit (FSSU), whose headquarter is based in Palo town, Leyte and under the command of Lt.Col. Vincent Arnold Dy, developed a hydraulic brake system which are now being applied to 11 military vehicles.
This means, these vehicles are using two brake systems, manual and hydraulic-driven.
The hydraulic-supported brake system was developed by Technical Sgt.Mario Alfie Bagtong, who is the chief mechanic of the FSSU motor pool.
Major Sergio Sabiano, Jr., executive officer of the FSSU-8, said that the new system is a big help to the division’s vehicles.
He said that considering that many of their military vehicles have been acquired by the Armed Forces in the 1960s, the brake system of these vehicles are no longer reliable which are all manually-operated .
Thus, aside from being costly due to repairs every now and then, safety is also being compromised, Sabiano said.
He added that the hydraulic- support brake system could work alongside with the manually- done brake system.
“One of its advantages is that the driver will no longer exert effort to press the brake as it is no longer depended on foot valve,” Sabiano said.
He also said that the materials used by Bagtong in developing the hydraulic-supported brake system could be bought locally unlike the standard ones that they are using.
Thus, maintenance cost is drastically reduced, Sabiano added.
“We hope that this system will also be applied by our FSSU units considering of its advantages,” he said.
FSSU serves as the motor pool of the military organization which is responsible, among others, in the repair and rehabilitation of their military vehicles and other equipment.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

CATARMAN, Northern Samar-Senator Cynthia Villar said that she will be introducing a legislative measure that would provide relief assistance to farmers in times of calamities.
This way, affected farmers and their respective families would no longer wait for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to provide them relief assistance, Villar, who chairs the Senate’s committee on agriculture and food, said during an interview Thursday (June 14).
Villar was in this provincial capital of Northern Samar where majority of its people depends on agriculture to speak during the 7th Annual International Conference on Environmental Sciences held at the gymnasium of the University of Eastern Philippines (UEP).
The senator said that her measure, once approved, could provide relief to farmers hit by a natural calamity.
Villar said that she is still making some fine-tuning on this proposal like its mechanism and how much the government will allocate for this scheme.
“Bibigyan sila ng free insurance against calamity para sa ganun, pag sila ay tinamaan ng calamity, magki-claim sila sa insurance company, di na sila pipila sa DSWD,” Villar said.
She added that there are instances that farmers are being left out during calamity-giving assistance but this measure, they are sure to receive the assistance.
“(But)we just have to know how much will cost us and what budget we will put in the (proposed) law to cover the free calamity insurance for crops of our farmers,” Villar said.
“We will be asking the private sector to participate in this,” she added, referring to private insurance companies.
Jun Berino, secretary-general of the Samahan han mga Gugti na Parag-uma (Sagupa), a regional farmers’ group, welcome this proposed measure of Villar.
“We welcome this proposal of Sen.Villar and we just hope that this will become a reality because farmers really need all the help that our government could provide to them,” Berino, in a phone interview, said.
Potentially, if this Villar proposal becomes a law, around 3 million farmers, to include their dependents, from the region could benefit this.
Berino said that farmers in the region continue to grapple economic difficulties after the Eastern Visayas was devastated by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“They have yet to fully recover, to include those engaging in the abaca and copra production,” he said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)