TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has prepositioned 34,458 family food packs (FFPs) in strategic areas of Eastern Visayas in preparation for the “rainy days”.
PREPARED. Volunteers load family food packs stored at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional resource operations center in Palo town, Leyte on Nov. 19, 2022. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has prepositioned 34,458 family food packs in strategic areas of Eastern Visayas in preparation for the rainy days. (Photo courtesy of DSWD)
The stocking of PHP22.74 million worth of food supplies as of Wednesday will ensure faster delivery of relief goods in case of severe flooding and other disasters, said lawyer Jonalyndie Chua, DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) information officer in a phone interview.
Of the total, 918 FFPs are in Catbalogan City, Samar province; 1,109 in Naval town, Biliran; 14,634 in Allen, Northern Samar; 1,400 in Santo Niño, Samar; 600 in Almagro, Samar; 163 in Giporlos, Eastern Samar; 1,000 in Biri, Northern Samar, and 14,634 at the DSWD regional resource operations center in Palo town, Leyte.
The food packs in Catbalogan are stored at the Philippine Army 8th Infantry Division headquarters while in Allen town, the Office of Civil Defense warehouse has been designated as a storage area.
“If there are disasters, we will produce more as the need arises. We have volunteers to help us repack goods,” Chua told the Philippine News Agency.
Each FFP contains six kilos of rice, four cans of corned beef, four cans of tuna flakes, two cans of sardines, five sachets of coffee, and five sachets of cereal drinks.
The DSWD has also prepared PHP10 million in standby funds for emergencies and 11,332 non-food items worth PHP20.78 million.
Non-food supplies include hygiene kits, kitchen sets, sleeping kits, collapsible water containers, and laminated sacks. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)
THAT beautiful gospel story of a centurion who approached Christ on behalf of his dying servant, importuning Christ for a miracle to happen, that is, for his servant to survive, (cfr. Mt 8,5-11) tells us precious lessons about how our faith in Christ should be.
It should be a faith that is so strong and deep that we would not hesitate to go to Christ for ask for a favor. And it should also be a faith that is so strong and deep that without asking Christ for a direct, face-to-face encounter with the persons concerned, we know that the favor would be granted.
As the gospel narrated, the centurion boldly told Christ the now famous words, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” To which, Christ responded, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” And the servant was healed.
We have to remember that it is faith that would let us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world. It enables us to receive God’s favor, and brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20).
Without faith, in spite of our keenest intelligence, we will miss much of the more important aspects of our life as we would only be restricted to the here and now, the material and the temporal.
To those leading Jews who refused to believe in spite of the clearest evidence at least of his special powers, Christ has these strong, intriguing words to say: “They who see not, may see, and they who see, may become blind.” (Jn 9,39)
Especially in our special needs and persistent human miseries, we need to follow the example of the men and women, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the sick, etc., who did all to get close to Christ and to beg. Some even had to climb to the roof and cut a portion there to be able to be near Christ.
This is the pattern we have to follow. We have to eagerly seek Christ and importune him with all our might, accompanying our pleas with external signs of our fervent faith and love for him.
We need to understand that as the very beginning of our life with God, our life in the Spirit which is a supernatural life more than just a natural life, our Christian faith has to be taken care of, nourished and developed to full maturity.
We need to be more aware of this duty and develop the appropriate attitude and skill to carry out this responsibility effectively. We have to go beyond mere good intentions or being merely theoretical in order to be truly practical and vitally engaged with this obligation.
Faith is a tremendous gift from God who starts to share with us what he has, what he knows about himself and about ourselves. It gives us the global picture of reality, covering both the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, the natural and supernatural dimensions of our life.
Faith contains the medicine and the remedy to all our spiritual inadequacies and illnesses. It is what is required for miracles to happen, as attested many times in the Gospel.
Sounds like a much welcomed news to the Philippine Dairy Industry is the report by the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) forecasted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Accordingly, the “country’s dairy production to increase by three percent to 26,800 metric tons (MT).
The rebound projected in 2022 “. . . will be driven by the active implementation of the government’s dairy development projects geared toward increasing milk production.” USDA adds that “. . . despite the projected increase, total production will only supply one percent of the country’s total annual dairy requirement and the rest to be served by imported milk.”
In 2021, the country’s dairy production decreased by two percent to 26,000 MT due to a reduced dairy herd following the slaughter and retiring of older animals. Meanwhile, the slow production growth is attributed to the inability to increase the dairy herd, mostly due to insufficient funding and little investment from the private sector.
The USDA predicts higher consumption to reach 3 million MT far from the 26,000 MT produced in the same year (2021). Also, contributing to the increased dairy product is the Milk Feeding Program (MFP), jointly implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Agriculture (DA). The latter remains the growth driver for the local milk consumption per USDA study.
The same US agency reports that 60 percent of the local fresh milk production goes to the MFP and the rest to local commercial sales or household use.
MY COMMENT:
The Philippine government should address the following to see the dairy production attain full recovery level as espoused by the USDA: 1) increase dairy herd by infusing fund, and 2) encourage active private investment in the dairy industry-related ventures.
ooo000ooo
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One may probably think that in subdivisions, life is satisfactorily comfortable due to the amenities enjoyed by the homeowners there, more so that the residents are expectedly well off compared to squatters living in illegal settlements.
Since subdivision blueprints require approval prior to actual construction, comfortable living is indeed ensured. Parts of this could be proper arrangements of housing units, spacious roads, excellent drainage systems, good power and water supplies, safety from both man-made and natural calamities, and many more. In fact, in the case of some subdivisions, the entrance alone is already suggestive of elegance, adorned with ornamental plants and impressive landscape, hence truly inviting to newcomers.
All these are the opposites of what can be seen in a certain subdivision here, in Tacloban City. Named St. Anthony Subdivision, this housing village has perhaps the worst road entrance/exit in the entire region or country among subdivision categories. It is located in Brgy. 87, Manlurip-San Jose, an ironically booming place for business and industry.
Two small roads branch out from the highway leading to this subdivision, separated by about 50-meter distance. One is a shortcut to the village; the other one snakes across residential units. They are too small they cannot accommodate two cars that encounter along the way. One car must have its one side out of the road and let the other one pass first so they can successfully push through in their opposite directions.
Aside from being narrow, these roads now are badly damaged. In fact, the short-cut one is not concreted; it’s just a dirt road, hence slippery during rainy days. The big rocks protruding from the surface are causing people a bumpy ride to and from the subdivision. The other one used to be a cemented road, but due to some reasons, it is now pulverized into huge and tiny cracks causing an equally rough ride.
Worse, these tiny roads are deeply submerged in flood water even after just a limited dose of rain. They are both prone to flooding, making it difficult for people to walk along them. Flooded, rough, narrow, and unpredictably risky, these roads are driving pedicab drivers away. They don’t want to get inside the subdivision anymore for fear that their tires might be deformed especially when the passenger’s luggage is heavy. If they must get inside, they charge the passengers so highly, making the transportation there very expensive.
One may wonder: why is the city government not addressing this problem there? Is it because the people there are identified with other politicians? Is it because the village is not vote-rich? Is it to punish someone there due to an old offense? Or is it due to sheer neglect and irresponsibility on the part of the city, knowing that this place is very much part and parcel of the city of Tacloban. What a shame to visitors from other places that in a highly-urbanized city, there are still Jurassic roads such as these.
If not for the Chinese bullying and militaristic approach to resolving the West Philippine Sea maritime disputes, the presence of American military bases and troops in the Philippines is good as useless. But the government allows it primarily because of the Chinese threat; so that, should the tensions escalate into an armed confrontation over the disputed waters, the country would have a strong ally to count on.
Generally, this is how most Filipinos regard the presence of US forces in the archipelago—more of a ‘savior’ to whom we should be endlessly indebted. As such, we become overly accommodating to Uncle Sam, tolerant of their occasional ‘abuses’, and quick to meet their demands. Again, we need not behave this way had China been depriving them of a justifying reason, were it not for an impending armed conflict that we cannot handle on our own. We can therefore blame China that we are compelled to act this way.
Are the US troops really here to protect us should war erupt? Is it really the reason why they are here? Historically, and based on how the United States operates in various places, the answer is no. They are here to protect their interests, not us. They are just good at making their presence appear messianic, and at making us repay for this ‘indebtedness’; but the truth is, they don’t care for us at all and are just using us in whatever possible manner.
In countries where they maintain military bases and facilities, they pay massive amounts of money for rent, but in the Philippines, no way—they stay for free. What’s the difference? Because those countries are beholden to them as well? It’s not that. They just can’t fool those people and do away with their rental obligation. That’s why they have to pay. They are more respectful to those people than they are to us.
In the event of war, what benefits shall we get for having US troops on our soil? Our country will surely be targeted by enemy missiles and bombardment attacks, especially in the areas where US military facilities are located. We will become the venue of their war while our lives and properties are being reduced to ashes. But in terms of protection that US forces can provide, that’s a remote possibility. More likely, it’s just a pigment in our imagination.
Leading digital solutions platform Globe has fired up over 600 TMBayan Fiber WiFi hubs as of the end of October to address the growing need for connectivity nationwide as the economy opens up and mobility improves.
TMBayan Fiber, Globe’s pioneering prepaid fiber offer, reached this milestone just two months after the service was launched to reach more Filipinos in different parts of the country. It especially caters to the youth, providing powerful and reliable connectivity for undisrupted bonding with their barkadas.
Globe continues to expand its TMBayan hubs by tapping more local retailers to serve as connectivity partners, providing them a new way to earn.
“Our TMBayan Fiber WiFi service provides our partners a new earning opportunity as many Filipinos are still working towards recovery from the worst of the pandemic. It is a way to further empower and boost their businesses as they become the community’s new favorite “tambayans” or hangouts,” said Janis Legaspi-Racpan, Globe At Home Brand Management Head.
Globe launched its first prepaid community fiber in the National Capital Region (NCR); Luzon including Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, and Laguna; Visayas, specifically, Cebu and Tacloban; and Mindanao, including Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Zamboanga.
The hubs provide neighborhood tambayans such as sari-sari stores and other community centers with fast and reliable fiber connectivity crucial for gaming, browsing, streaming and creating content to share with friends.
Through TMBayan Fiber WiFi, Filipinos can access Fiber strong internet connectivity at P50, unlimited for three days.
TM subscribers, Globe and even non-Globe customers only need to purchase a promo by loading through their neighborhood sari-sari stores and connecting to the TMBayan Fiber WiFi portal. They can go to WiFi device settings, look for @TMBayanWiFi, input the mobile number, and verify access using the one-time password (OTP) received via SMS.
“There is a segment of the market that is predominantly prepaid but are now in need of better speeds and more reliable connection that fiber can provide. As such, Globe continues to roll out prepaid fiber hubs to cater to the growing number of the digital Filipino. Our TMBayan Fiber WiFi is Globe’s response to the public clamor and the government’s call for reliable and affordable internet connectivity accessible to the masses,” Racpan said.
This affordable connectivity service is in line with Globe’s push for providing inclusive connectivity as part of its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly UN SDG No. 9, highlighting the roles of infrastructure and innovation as crucial drivers of economic growth and development.
After spending a record P92.8 billion for its capital expenditures last year, Globe has spent P74.4 billion in capital expenditure as of the third quarter of this year to build its fiber assets, put up more cell sites, upgrade towers to 4G/LTE, and roll out 5G technology and in-building solutions.(PR)
