CATBALOGAN CITY- Senior citizen beneficiaries of this city received P2,400 each during the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) payout at the Samar National School covered court through the Landbank of the Philippines (LBP).
In an interview, LBP Catbalogan Branch Head Bobby Mondoy said, “It is just a one-time payment amounting to P2,400 intended for indigent senior citizens of Catbalogan.”
The unconditional cash transfer program is the tax subsidy provided under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law to mitigate the economic impact of the law to the poor, said Nida Aroza, city social welfare officer of Catbalogan.
Gay Nueva of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office 8 said the DSWD downloaded P3,708,000 for the 1,548 senior citizen beneficiaries from the city.
Jaime Vargas, 75, and a resident of Barangay Pangdan, this city, happily shared that he will use the money to buy food for his family.
“It is a big help for me. I will use it to buy food and medicine,” said Milagros Gibson, 73, a regular pensioner for three years.
Other senior citizens shared common sentiments saying they will use it for food and medicine and that such amount is a great help to them.
(PIA8-Samar)
Catbalogan senior citizens receive unconditional cash transfer
Cargo motorboat survives mishap incident in Biliran province
TACLOBAN CITY- A cargo motorboat loaded with four passengers and merchandise escaped from sinking after it made a distress call with the Coast Guard in Naval, Biliran on Friday (August 3) afternoon.
The motorboat, MB Jemarlet, was sailing in between Sambawan Island, off Maripipi, Biliran province and Masbate province, when one of the passengers made a call at their office at about 2:30 pm, said Glen Asis of the Naval-Coast Guard.
“The said motorboat encountered big waves reason why one of the passengers made the distress call as they were afraid that they might sink as water started to enter their motorboat,” Asis, in a phone interview, said.
The rescued motorboat, captained by Lucas Solibaga with three passengers and loaded with 140 sacks of mangoes and 15 pigs, docked safely at Barangay San Lorenzo, Kawayan, also in Biliran, at around 4:30 pm.
Commodore Lawrence Roque, chief of the Tacloban Coast Guard, in a separate interview, said that MB Jemarlet left from Pio V. Corpus, Masbate at around 11:30 am Friday and on its way to Tacloban City where the loaded products are to be sold when it encountered big waves.
“The said motorboat arrived here in Tacloban port at around 1 am Saturday with all of its passengers safe and unharm,” Roque said.
Roque also said that another motorboat, MB Rea Angela, which also travelled 30 minutes ahead from MB Jemarlet, also from Pio V. Corpus which had seven passengers captained by Julie Amaroto, and loaded with more than 100 sacks of mangoes and 15 pigs, arrived in Tacloban safely.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Maasin numerous awards product of cooperation between officials and its people-Mayor Mercado
As it celebrates its 18th founding anniversary
MAASIN CITY- As this city is to celebrate its 18th founding anniversary on August 10, Mayor Nacional Mercado said that he is proud that the city is basking of various awards and recognitions.
All these awards and recognitions received by the city government were testament of a solid cooperation between its officials and residents, the city mayor said.
“In spite of our limited resources, for we are only a fourth class city, in fact, we are the smallest city in terms of area and internal revenue allotment in Region 8, yet we are big in our dreams and big in our collaborative efforts which consequently we have been recipient of various national and regional awards and recognitions,” the 36-year-old mayor said.
Under his watch, Maasin City was adjudged as one of the 359 awardees of Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) in 2017 out of the 145 cities and 1, 715 local government units evaluated by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Maasin, the provincial capital of Southern Leyte, has also bagged awards such as Child-friendly Local Governance Award; Most Improved LGU for Component Cities, second place; Best LGU on Pabasa sa Nutrisyon in 2016-2017; Regional Outstanding Barangay Nutrition Scholar and Council, and a hall of fame awardee of Red Orchid due to its no smoking policy, among others.
The city was also declared as a drug-cleared city as it launched a rehabilitation program for illegal drug users dubbed as “Rehabilitation without Walls.”
On nutrition, health, sports, and wellness, Mercado said the city now have life-saving devices such as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and additional ambulances and doctor to its roster of three existing physicians while institutionalizing sports and fitness programs like the Zumba and Hataw sessions.
In support of its agricultural and commercial development, the mayor reported on the increasing number of commercial establishments, banks and farm inputs to the farmers in the city.
He added that more health centers and infrastructure projects will be implemented in the city.
Mercado also took pride in the operation of additional transport services like the Weesam Express and the opening of Guadalupe port to provide easy access for investors and tourists from nearby Cebu and Bohol.
Commercial airline travel through Air Juan is now opened in the city coupled with newly-installed improvements at the Panan-awan Airport.
The city also enacted local investment and incentive code, tourism code, and other measures on public-private partnership approach towards development to further invite tourism-oriented and related enterprises.
To ensure peace and order particularly in times of disaster, Mercado said they already have the Maasin City children’s code, traffic code, gender and development code, city anti-narcotic unit, the establishment of VAWC (Violence against Women and Children) desks in all 70 barangays of the city, including streetlight project particularly in danger-prone areas.
The mayor also assured that the city has a ready team and equipment on local disaster and risk reduction management along with its firefighting and extricating equipment.
He maintained that environmental conservation is a top priority in his administration as he backed the comprehensive solid waste management ordinance in the city.
“All these are because we are helping each other, in the Maasinhon way of bayanihan, nag-ajonay tang tanan, nagtinabangay ta,” also said the mayor during his state of the city address recently, thanking the barangay officials, socio-religious and civic sector, private sector, academe, and business groups for their help in the growth of the city.
Meanwhile, Mercado announced the upcoming job fair at the city gymnasium on August 13 in line to its charter day and its fiesta celebration on August 15 in honor of Our Lady of Assumption.
(RONALD O. REYES)
40 families in Catbalogan City starts work for their Gawad Kalinga-initiated housing project
Houses destroyed due to typhoon ‘Seniang’
CATBALOGAN CITY – Families who lost their houses when a landslide hit their village due to typhoon ‘Seniang’ in 2014 will soon have their own permanent homes.
The affected families, now living in bunkhouses, are to live in houses donated by the Berjaya Corporation through Gawad Kalinga in Barangay Payao, about three kms away from the city center.
The houses of these families were totally destroyed when a landslide spawned by Seniang on December, 2014, hit their village of Mercedes.
The city government donated the eight-hectare relocation site with city and donors’ officials present during the formal groundbreaking of the project on August 3 with all the units, to include improvements to be made in the area, expected to be completed by 2020.
And just like any Gawad Kalinga housing project, the 40 family-beneficiaries are to provide their sweat equity by working at their own unit for 1,500 hours.
One of them is Pacencia Uy, 70, who lost a grandchild during the typhoon.
“I am thankful that I was chosen as one of the beneficiaries of this housing project,” she said, at her old age, still willing to work as her counterpart for the construction of her soon-to-own house.
Gawad Kalinga Samar coordinator Eduard Baltazar said that aside from volunteering at the project site, beneficiaries must also observe and follow the regulations impose for the community.
“Peace and harmony are our goal for this project. We cannot achieve this that if there are indifferences among community members,” he said.
Baltazar added that the Gawad Kalinga site in Catbalogan is their second site after Calbayog City.
He added that the project in Catbalogan is part of their target to build 5 million houses by 2022 for families who are displaced by calamities and disasters and those who are living in poverty and do not have means to have their own house.
Catbalogan City Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan said that they are thankful to Gawad Kalinga and to the management of Berjaya Corporation for answering the need of her constituents.
“This is a two-year (housing project) in the making. Making this project into a reality is not easy. We are truly happy that Berjaya Company extended their hands to help us in Catbalogan,” Mayor Uy-Tan said.
“Many had doubted that this project will be implemented because it is already two years since we started our talks with them and completing the requirements. The LGU is really happy that soon the survivors of the landslide will have a better place to live in,” Mayor Uy-Tan added.
The city mayor also said that aside from the housing units, a public school from the Department of Education, two evacuation centers, including a building intended for youth offenders and drug surrenderees, and housing project funded by Pag-ibig Fund will also be constructed in Brgy. Payao. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
N. Samar town joins nutrition month celebration
SAN ISIDRO, Northern Samar- The municipal government of this town has join the national nutrition celebration held every July of the year.
Mayor Ferdinand Avila, through municipal nutrition action officer Cleopatra Flores, initiated several activities as part of the celebration which had a theme ‘Ugaliing Magtanim, Sapat na Nutrisyon Aanihin.’
Among these activities was a street parade participated by various schools, barangay nutrition scholars.
In his message, Mayor Avila extended his gratitude to the heads of the nutrition office; social welfare under Amalia Grimpula; agriculture office; and barangay nutrition scholars coming from the 14 barangays of the own for their continued support on making the annual celebration a resounding success.
Flores said that the celebration was highlighted with the cooking contest of ‘pinakbet’—produced from their own farm.
Also held was the ‘pinaka’ contest involving different types of root crops and vegetables.
In both contest, the winners received cash prizes.
During the celebration, the municipal government distributed free seedlings and other planting materials to mothers and to the barangay nutrition scholars.
(PETER D. PAREDES)
15K farmers tagged as priority in DA policy shift
TACLOBAN CITY — More than 15,000 farmer-beneficiaries of the anti-poverty program in Eastern Visayas will be organized into cooperatives to prepare them for the policy shift in farmers’ assistance from subsidy to credit.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Regional Director for Operations Andrew Orais said Friday the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) could not be sustained if farmers would just work on their own.
“We think of organizing them since it will be easier to market their produce to institutional buyers and access loans from the government. It’s hard to monitor all of them if they are not grouped,” Orais said. “If they’re earning more from farming, they will be less dependent on the dole-out system.”
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol earlier reiterated the department’s shift from direct provision of subsidies to “easy access financing” of the agricultural and fisheries production support program starting 2020.
“We are slowly shifting from subsidy to credit and this is mainly because of the fact that we could not possibly give out free support to everybody,” Piñol said at the House of Representatives budget hearing on Thursday.
The soft loans will only have a 6 percent interest every year, Orais added.
The 15,000 farmers are beneficiaries of SAAD in the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Leyte, and Southern Leyte.
The initiative aims to achieve a 25-percent poverty reduction within the term of President Rodrigo Duterte by providing free farm inputs for the production of rice, corn, vegetables, and livestock.
“SAAD has no big infrastructure projects because our targets are the small marginal farmers who are not beneficiaries of regular programs. These are meant for those who have not received interventions because they’re not capable of catching up with the requirements for beneficiaries,” Orais said.
SAAD has two funding components. The first will be carried out by the provincial government through funds downloaded to the local government while, the second component will be managed by the DA regional office.
Launched in 2016, SAAD is a special program of the DA focusing on the top 10 poorest provinces in the country, which include the three Samar provinces.
Leyte and Southern Leyte were included in this year’s implementation as second priority area.
Activities are focused on social preparation and provision of agriculture and fishery-related livelihood interventions to address poverty in selected provinces.
In 2018, SAAD got a budget allocation of P126 million for the five provinces.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)