TACLOBAN CITY- At least three passengers, two of them were minors, died and scores other were hurt after the passenger they were on board fell off a bridge in Tanauan, Leyte at about 11:45 pm Tuesday.
SPO3 Restituto Faron, officer-on-case of the Tanauan police station, identified the fatalities as Queenly Galagnara3; Wendell Simbajon,15; and Brian Noterte,30.
The three fatalities were among the 52 passengers who on board a Philtranco Bus Line with plate number ACA 9771 which was cruising along Barangay Buntay of said town when it fell into the Solano Bridge by about three meters, Faron said.
The three were declared as dead on arrival by the attending physicians while the other passengers sustained injuries who were brought to different hospitals at the nearby town of Palo and here in Tacloban City.
Queenly was with her grandparents, Pepito and Marites Galagnara with address of San Jose, Dinagat Island, while Simbajon was with his father, Willy, who was said to be the assistant driver and with address of Dumoy, Davao City.
The address of Noterte was not known.
“Many of the passengers are now at an evacuation center in Brgy.Canramos as ordered by Mayor (Pelagio) Tecson for the meantime as they are recovering from the injuries that they sustained due to the incident,” Faron said.
The police officer said that the passenger bus, driven by Edgardo Legaspi, was from Pasay City and bound for Tandag City, Surigao del Sur.
And based on their initial investigation, the driver claimed that a passenger whom he identified as Wendell Simbajon tried to grab the steering wheel from him, causing him to lose control of the vehicle which resulted for the bus to swerve going down to the bridge.
“But I doubt it. Most probably, Wendell could have awaken from his sleep and fell straight to the driver. He (Simbajon) was sitting at the back of the driver,” Faron said.
The passengers were rescued by the town rescue group and local police.
Faron said that the driver, now detained at the local police lock-up facility, would be charged for reckless imprudence resulting to multiple homicide and multiple physical injuries and damage to property.(JOEY A. GABIETA)

Particularly area leading to the new EVRMC

During the EVRMC main building inauguration, Sec. Go reiterated the thrust of the Duterte administration to improve the health services for poor Filipinos.

TACLOBAN CITY- Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Sec. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go vowed to talk to Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar to address the perennial flooding along a main highway leading to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in Barangay Bacagay, this city.
“I will personally request Secretary Villar to find immediate solutions to this flooding as soon as possible. It is important that the road to the hospital is always accessible,” Go told reporters during the press briefing inside the new P497-million EVRMC main building Tuesday (May 22).
The official asked his staff to help him remind of the complaint.
Go also received reports that the main road in the city are impassable during heavy rains due to flooding, forcing light vehicles, to include ambulances carrying patients to return to some parts of Samar.
Last December 2017 and February 2018, flooding of the national road along Nula Tula district stalled traffic and stranded hundreds of commuters.
The Department of Public Works and Highways earlier said the flood was caused by newly-constricted structures blocking the waterways.
The city government under Mayor Cristina Romualdez asked property owners to demolish their structures to ensure smooth flow of drainage waters.
Go also vowed to ask military to use its trucks to transport patients if in case flooding will make the road impassable in the future.
During the EVRMC main building inauguration, Sec. Go reiterated the thrust of the Duterte administration to improve the health services for poor Filipinos.
The opening of the main building signals the expansion of President Duterte’s Malasakit Center, a one-stop-shop that will provide access to government programs that extend medical financial assistance to the underprivileged, he said.
Go turned over P15 million to the EVRMC management for the first month operation of Malasakit Center.
This is the second center in the Visayas after the opening of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu.
Go also announced the provision of Toyota Grandia van to transport patients from remote areas in Leyte and Samar provinces to the regional hospital.
The vehicle donated by him and some friends from Davao City comes with regular operation and maintenance support.
The six-storey EVRMC main building has 353 beds and 35 cribs built in a new location free from threats of storm surges. With a floor area of 30,000 square meters, it was designed for 420-bed service wards and 180-bed private rooms. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its provincial office in Leyte together organized a ‘Diskwento’ Caravan dubbed as “Presyong Panalo Mamimiling Pilipino” with various goods sold at lower prices held at Plaza Rizal, this city.
The event, which opened last Wednesday(May 23) provides good quality of school supplies, food and non-food products in lower prices which is the basic needs for consumers children for the opening of classes.
School supplies like writing materials, notebooks, school uniforms, school shoes and for food, biscuits and drinks for children are being sold at discounted prices as high as 50%.
The caravan is a public service of the DTI, in partnership with big manufactures and/ distributors to help relieve workers through non-wage benefits, and enable them to cope up with the rising prices of basic goods and services.
The DTI encouraged distributors and manufacturers to participate in the caravan and be able to deliver good quality products to consumer and to educate consumers of their rights and responsibilities as consumers.
The caravan is a yearly project by the DTI first established on May 12, 2011 which is made part on United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) in assistance to ‘No Hungry, No poverty’.It is also part of advocacy campaign on consumer well-fare. (REJOY R. TORALBA, SHELLA MAE D. ASTORGA & DHEMA NIÑA O. IGAY, NwSSU Student Interns)

KANANGA, Leyte- Belinda Pitogo, mother of five children of Barangay Rizal, this town, was grateful she would no longer buy some school supplies for her incoming Grades 3 and 4 boys.
Her sentiment was shared by all other parents whose children stand as beneficiaries of an outreach program of a public utility company.
These items, in particular a bag, ten notebooks, and pencils, were distributed on Wednesday(May 23) to their intended recipients under the “Gamit ni Bulilit” corporate social responsibility program of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
“Giving of these school supplies was meant to motivate pupils and parents to continue the schooling of their children,” said Bambie Capulong, NGCP media liaison officer for region 8.
Capulong led the distribution of 500 sets assisted by Arlene Tampus, a kindergarten teacher, in the small, covered stage inside the Rizal Elementary School.
Aside from the giving of materials, children and parents also listened to a short talk on safety measures as the barangay was traversed by NGCP’s high-voltage power lines.
R-G Baldomar, NGCP safety engineer, cautioned the kids on flying kites and playing slngshots near these lines to avoid electrocution,
Parents were also warned on installing TV antennas if their houses are located beneath these lines, as well as in carrying long wooden or bamboo poles, for these may touch the wire, a clear and present danger to their lives, Baldomar added.
(mmp/PIA8-Southern Leyte)

Piña Festival among the highlights

ORMOC CITY- Mayor Richard Gomez said that the second year edition of ‘Piña’ Festival will be bigger and better compare to last year.
This was declared by Gomez during the launching of the festivities held on Wednesday (May 23) at the newly-opened Robinsons Ormoc.
The actor-turned-city mayor said that for this year, the city government has allocated P20 million for the staging of the festival which highlights one of the city’s most known products which is the ‘queen pineapple, ‘said to be one of the sweetest in the world.
“It will be a bigger and better festival compare to last year,” Gomez said during the press launching of the festivities.
The city fiesta, which is held every June 29 in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul, will be made colorful by various activities which will start on June 16 through a ‘Parade of Lights,’ labeled by the organizers as ‘nighttime spectacle’ which will feature luminescent vehicular floats and lighted costumes.
The Piña Festival will be held on June 24, five days before the annual city fiesta.
And for this year, about 20 contingents from different schools and organizations are to participate the festival.
Mayor Gomez said that aside from promoting the city’s pineapples, the holding of the Piña Festival also aim to draw more tourists to Ormoc.
While Gomez could not provide data as to how many tourists attended last year’s Piña Festival, the city mayor said that they got a big crowd that saw the festival.
As they project a bigger crowd this year, the competition will be held at the city’s quadrangle located just in front of the city park.
And aside from the city police, they would also ask for additional men from the regional police headquarters to help secure the people who will witness the festival, Gomez said.
Meantime, Gomez said that visitors have hotels and lodging inns where they could stay during their visit to Ormoc during the week-long activities.
“Although we don’t have the luxury of having the big hotels for now we try to accommodate the visitors with what we have,” Gomez said.
He also said that aside from visiting Ormoc’s tourist spots, visitors could also visit nearby towns like Palompon, known for its white sand Kalangaman Island. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/JOEY A. GABIETA)

In Eastern Visayas

PALO, Leyte – The recently-held barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections held last May 14 was the region’s ‘most peaceful’ in decades.
This was declared by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Philippine National Police which pulled out its deployed personnel just two days after the conduct of the barangay and youth elections.
“Thank you to the PNP (Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines).Their presence was deterrent to people who were planning to disturb the election process,” Comelec Regional Director Jose Nick Mendros said.
“We have not experienced any violent incident and all precincts functioned,” he added.
But the elections in Barangay Diet de Turag in Silvino Lubos, Northern Samar were held a day late due as the members of elections tellers were stopped by a group of individuals while they were on their way to the village on May 14.
Winners in the said village, which has more than 300 voters, were proclaimed Tuesday (May 15) afternoon.
About 2,700 police and soldiers were deployed in almost all areas in the region to ensure that the barangay and SK elections here would turn out to be peaceful and orderly.
Earlier, the PNP and the Comelec had identified 284 barangays in the region as concerned areas or where election-related violence could happen.
On Thursday (May 17), the 990 policemen and women who were given poll duties were pulled out from their respective assignments, a strong indication that the conduct of the balloting was peaceful and orderly.
“This happened because you were on the ground. You were with the people to secure them. As officials, our job is to supervise, give guidance and direction but all the hard work is with you. So we are thankful for the sacrifices and on what you did to ensure that the election is peaceful and secure,” Chief Supt. Gilberto Cruz, police regional director, said.
Cruz added that the presence of police and military also resulted for more voters to cast their votes at their respective polling precincts.
The Comelec projects that the turnout of votes in the region could be more than 85 percent.
During the 2013 barangay elections, several villages in the region experienced failure of balloting with election-related violence recorded at more than 100.

BY: Roel T. Amazona