Chief Supt. Mariel Magaway is the new police director

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte- The more than 20,000 police force of the region will have their new regional director after their incumbent leader, Chief Supt. Gilberto Cruz, formally bowed out from his post he held for nine months on Monday (June 4).
Cruz, who assumed his post August 31,2017, will be replaced by Chief Supt. Mariel Magaway, who is the current chief of the intelligence command of the national PNP.
Cruz, who received his relief order on June 1, will be assigned as the deputy chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations-Eastern Mindanao based at Camp Crame.
The former regional police director asked the police force of the region to also give the same trust and confidence that they gave him to Chief Supt. Magaway.
The change of command of PNP-8 leadership is part of a reshuffle among top regional officials initiated by PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde.
Magaway was not around during the change of command program held at the grounds of Camp Ruperto Kangleon, the regional PNP-8 headquarters, this town.
Cruz said that while he welcomes his new appointment, he will also miss Eastern Visayas.
“Medyo malungkot. Mami-miss mo ang samahan sa kapulisan, yung adventures and journey that we went through together,” he said during an interview after the turn over ceremony.
But he was happy that during his nine-month stay in the region, Cruz said that he had accomplished so many things.
For one, he said, it was under his watch that three of the six provinces of the region were declared as drug-cleared, namely, Southern Leyte, Biliran, and Northern Samar and four of its seven cities were also declared as such, namely, Tacloban, Ormoc, Baybay and Maasin.
About 97 percent of the region’s 4, 390 barangays were also declared as drug-free under his watch, he said.
Cruz is also known as an environmentalist as he led several operations against illegal logging activities in the region.
Before he bow out from the region, he led in the blessing of the 30-feet image of Crucified Jesus Christ which he dubbed as “Environmental Jesus’ located right inside the PNP regional headquarters.
The image is made of scrap materials like confiscated chain saws and firearms, among others.
Cruz said that he hope that the image, made by Lucky Salayog, will symbolize fight against environment destruction.
During the fourth anniversary of destruction of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’last year, Cruz also initiated in the construction of the image of St.Medard, patron saint of protection against bad storms, located in Tanauan, Leyte.
He also supervised the most peaceful conduct of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in the region held last May 14.

By: Joey A. Gabieta/Lizbeth Ann A. Abella

Declared as persona non grata by city council

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte- The embattled police provincial director for Samar, Senior Superintendent Nicholas Torre III, said that he is willing to reach out to his perceived adversaries in the province.
He, however, was quick to say that his adversaries should not take his actions personally as he maintained that these were just part of his duty as a police officer.
Torre became the first ever police official of the region to be declared as persona non grata after the city council of Calbayog City passed a resolution of such effect on May 21 citing his alleged failure to solve killing incidents in the city and some towns of the province.
This allegation was denied by Torre saying that most of the killing incidents cited occurred when he was not yet the provincial director of Samar.
“Of course (I’m willing to reach out to them). I don’t see any problem of it. I did not start the problem. If we have some differences of opinions, so be it,” he said Monday (June 4).
“I’m not mad (with them). It’s just part of my job and spices of my being a police officer,” Torre added.
He also said that despite of the persona non grata resolution, he still visits Calbayog to meet his men there.
Torre also said that he is proud of the police force of Calbayog, calling them ‘professionals’ and ‘shield’ them from getting involved in partisan politics.
He also dismissed the claim that he played favorite among officials in Samar saying that as a provincial director, he deals most of the time with Governor Sharee Ann Tan, who chair the Regional Peace and Order Council.
“I am a provincial director and we work closely with the governor and other government officials,” Torre said.
Part of the persona non grata petition against Torre was that he engages in ‘political partisan activity.’
The incumbent mayor of Calbayog City, Reynaldo Aquino, is a known political enemy of Gov. Tan whose sister Angel, ran against him during the 2016 elections.
Asked if his confident that he could retain his post with a new regional director, Torre said that he will leave it up to their new leader, Chief Supt. Mariel Magaway, to decide.
“That’s remain to be seen. It depends to our new regional director. It depends on his appreciation, on my performance. I always respect the decision of the higher-ups,” Torre said.
But if he will be relief from his post, Torre said that he will accept it.
“That’s ok. Why, is my name engrave forever as a provincial director?” Torre said.
Torre has the backing of several town mayors of the province, to include Catbalogan City Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan, and Gov. Tan.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

1.3 million students in EV are enrolled for this school year

TACLOBAN CITY- More than 1.3 million students from public elementary and secondary schools across the region attended their first day of classes on Monday(June 4) as perennial woes continue to hound several schools.
With the ‘Brigada Eskwela’ conducted a week before the opening of the classes, formal classes formally started though schools were directed to continue to accept late enrollees, said Jasmin Calzeta, DepEd regional information officer.
“Teachers are expected to come with their first day of lessons this Monday,” she said.
But as in previous school years, woes continue to hound several schools of the region.
At the Campetik Elementary School in Palo, Leyte, they need at least school buildings to accommodate its growing number of enrollees, its principal said.
“We still need at least two school buildings for us to accommodate our pupils,” Jennifer Avila, school principal, said.
As of Monday, the school has more than 220 enrolled students which is expected to increase as enrollment is still ongoing.
“We expect to have an increase number of students for this school year,” Avila said. During the first day of classes, the school has accepted more than 20 students.
Last year, the school had 270 students.
At the San Fernando Central School (SFCS) this city, school principal Filitia Waniwan said that while they don’t need new school building, they are wanting of students.
According to Waniwan, she expects that the number of enrolled students would decline as families located within their school have been transferred to the northern part of the city after their houses were destroyed by the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda.’
“We expect to drop by 70 percent our number of enrollees as families have moved out to the northern resettlement areas,” she said.
As of Monday, SFCS has 1,122 attended the first day of classes.
Last school year, SFCS, which is one of the biggest elementary school in the city, had an enrollment of 1,504.
Lily Dumas, school principal of the Salvacion Elementary School, which is located in the northern part of the city, said that she has noted a slight increase of their school enrollment for this school year.
She said that as of Monday, the school has already about 490 students which is just six students shay away from last year’s school term.
“We have yet to have a final figure as enrollment is still ongoing,” Dumas said.
The city schools division has earlier reported that about 3,000 students in the seven schools in the northern part of the city, where families who totally lost their houses due to Yolanda were resettled, are expected to be enrolled.
But with the increasing number of students of the schools, 88 temporary classrooms were built to address the lack of school rooms, said Thelma Quitalig, city schools division superintendent, said in a media interview.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

SAN RICARDO, Southern Leyte – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Southern Leyte will start this year the construction of a viaduct forming part of the San Ricardo-Liloan Circumferential Road.
Through the P175 million earmarked for 2018, the DPWH will be able to implement the first phase of the viaduct project, said DPWH Southern Leyte district engineering office chief Ma. Margarita Junia.
The DPWH plan to build the viaduct to preserve the natural rock formations in the southernmost tip of Leyte Island. The viaduct will rise within the boundary of this town’s Kinachawa and San Ramon villages.
Instead of blasting the hard rock to clear an area to pave the way for road opening works, government engineers will build 450-meter viaduct snaking through the rock formation.
A viaduct is a long elevated roadway usually consisting of a series of short spans supported on arches, piers, or columns. It is a long, high bridge that carries a road over a yawning gap of a natural structure, like a valley.
The P175 million first allocation is just fraction of the estimated P540 million funding to build the structure. The government needs at least P1.2 million for each meter of the viaduct project.
The decision to build a viaduct was made after consultations with concerned government agencies and officials. The project is in line with Southern Leyte’s development plan.
Also ongoing within the proposed alternative road is the P100 million concreting project in this town connecting to a foreign-funded farm-to-market road in Liloan town.
The new circumferential road will reduce travel distance from Liloan port to another exit point to Mindanao in San Ricardo town from more than 40 kilometers to only 20 kilometers.
It will convert an existing provincial road into a primary highway, allowing motorists to reach San Ricardo from Liloan town without traversing the landslide-prone and accident-prone road sections in San Francisco and Pintuyan towns.
DPWH aims to build a safer alternative road to San Ricardo after noting that more buses and rolling cargoes use Benit port in San Ricardo town instead of nearby Liloan port, considering the former’s proximity to Surigao.
Within the existing Liloan-San Ricardo Road is the saddle road along the boundary of barangays Son-ok and Manglit. The road leads to Benit port, one of the major exit points to Mindanao from Visayas. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- An Waray party-list Rep.Victoria Isabel Noel said that her bill providing business opportunities to government workers who are to retire from service is now on its third and final reading at the House of Representatives.
Noel said that the main purpose of her bill, numbered as House Bill 3335, is to ensure that government workers who will retire from service will remain productive and will continue to have an income of their own.
“They should not just rely on their retirement benefits which are not that big (of amount). They can still be productive by having their own income like putting up a business,” she said.
Noel filed the said bill in 2016 and was recently approved on third reading.
She hope that HB 3335 will be approved by the Lower House as she disclosed that her bill will have its counterpart at the Senate.
Once it becomes a law, it will be known as the “Government Employees Entrepreneurship Development Act.”
According to Noel, she filed the measure as her way to help and encourage retiring government workers hone their entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for better economic opportunities after working with government service.
Other government agencies like the TESDA (Technical Education Skills and Development Authority) and DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) will also be involved in providing assistance to the retiring government workers.
Noel said that the law has two major points, first to ensure the continuous flow of innovative and development oriented government programs and projects for entrepreneurial development and second to ensure the creative utilization of highly competitive and resourceful government employees whether in services or post-service.
With the passage of the bill into law, entrepreneurial training programs will be established by the government offices and agencies shall prepare a post-service government service entrepreneurship development program for their employees based on the guidelines prescribed by the Civil Service Commission.
She added that it will be designed in such a manner as to help employees learn what they need to know to develop ideas and actualize them into successful businesses and how to increase entrepreneurial opportunities in their respective municipalities, provinces and regions.
It will also introduce the employees to technology transfer systems, entrepreneurial networks she added.
As a post service assistance to employees through this law, all government agencies shall extend post-service assistance to their respective retirees and shall include this as part of their human resources development plan.
The proposed bill also mandates the development of a post-service assistance program to backstop aspiring entrepreneurs in the development and implementation of their ideas.
The program will cover the entirety of the venture creation process from generation to building viable business. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA with report, JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY – Eighty-two pieces of illegally transported lumber were seized by the Fisheries Law Enforcement Team (FLET) of this City on the shoreline of Mahusay Beach, Brgy. 88 San Jose at around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, 2018.
According to the report the team was conducting their regular sea-borne patrol operation off San Pedro Bay when they discovered 1,953 board feet of Lawaan with an estimated market value of P87,885.
Unidentified men aboard a motorized banca abandoned the ‘hot logs’ recovered by the team of patrol team leader Raul Duque said FLET In-Charge Carlos Dave Castello.
The seized logs were brought to the FLET office for documentation and for proper turnover to the Department Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
From March to May this year, FLET had five apprehensions in its extensive campaign to impose fisheries and environmental laws pursuant to orders of Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez.
In two separate operations, last March and April 70 pieces of lumber were seized off Cancabato and San Pedro Bays in violation of R.A. 7161 or the illegal transport of forest products. – H.J. Roca/CIO