GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO,Leyte-The non-passage of the 2019 national budget has rendered the more than 3,700 job order workers of the regional office of Department of Public Works and Highways and its 13 district engineering offices out of work.
Based on records from the DPWH-8, the 3,786 job order (JO) workers of the said government office were told not to report for work effective January 1.
The failure to approve the 2019 P3.757 trillion General Appropriations Act was cited as reason why these JO workers were told not to report for work.
The national government is operating under the reenacted budget of 2018.
Tonette Lim, DPWH regional information officer, said that with the failure to enact the 2019 national budget, there is no way their office could provide the salaries of the affected JO workers.
“If they report for work, they could not expect that they will be paid of their salaries because our department has no funding yet for that,” she said.
She added that if the respective heads of the department where these affected JO workers are detailed would ask them to report, these head offices would be held responsible in paying the salaries of these workers.
Lim said that it would be unfair to the JO workers to ask them to report for work and not be given their due compensation.
She added that in the case of her office, five of their JO workers were affected.
“At present only two of us are doing the works. And without our JO workers, our works are really affected because they are really a great help to us,” she said.
Lim said that all the 13 district engineering offices of the DPWH-8 are also affected with the non-passage of the 2019 national budget.
‘Ana’, who asked not to be identified, said that she really feels bad that she find herself out of work on the beginning of the year.
“Our concern is we have our daily expenses to worry. I have four children who are all in school,” she said.
Ana has been working as a JO worker for the past 10 years now and earning over P14,300 monthly.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
More than 3,700 job order workers of DPWH affected by the non-passage of the 2019 national budget
PNP-8 stages ‘unity walk’ for a peaceful elections
CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte- The Philippine National Police (PNP) here in the region will lead a unity walk and inter-faith prayer rally this Sunday (Jan.13) aim to have a peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections on May 13, 2019.
Participants coming from various government and private sectors are to converge at the Coca-Cola Junction at 5 am.
Accordingly, the unity walk will be arranged into a one huge walk group approximately 1.2 kilometers from Tacloban City Convention Center or astrodome to be led by a marching band.
Aside from unity walk, the event will also be marked with an inter-faith prayer rally and signing of peace covenant among candidates seeking for elective posts in this year’s mid-term elections, Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, police regional director, said.
“We enjoin all the candidates to be part in the signing of the peace covenant for them to commit themselves to the real essence of the covenant which is to have a peaceful, non-partisan, honest and fair elections. At the end of the day, we are all citizens of this country working together for a better Philippines,” said Carlos.
The activity is also being coordinated with other government agencies, notably, the Commission on Elections; Department of Interior and Local Government; National Police Commission; Department of Justice; Department of Education; Commission on Higher Education ;Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Department of Public Works and Highways; and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Chief Supt. Carlos added that said activity will also be attended by NSTP/ROTC students and those from different religious groups and elections watchdogs like the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting).
Carlos encourages the public to actively participate in guarding the integrity of their votes relative to the May 13, 2019 balloting. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
N. Samar town aims for economic development
Eastern Visayas’ model for modern rice farming
TACLOBAN CITY- A small town in Northern Samar could just uplift from its poverty situation with the modernization of its agriculture sector.
San Roque, a fourth-class town where 12 of its 16 barangays are into palay production, has been identified by the Department of Agriculture as a model for its agricultural development program.
And this early, town officials to include the farmers are optimistic with the program as this could help uplift the town, which has an income of P103 million in 2018, from poverty.
Town Mayor Don Abalon said that once the program will become a reality, not only the farmers will increase their buying capacity but will help the economy of San Roque, 28 kms away from the provincial capital of Catarman.
“The farmers will earn more.So, they will have more buying capacity and then they can provide their basic needs,” Abalon, in a phone interview, said.
“And then, if there is money circulating in the local economy, there will be more businesses that will come in and more businesses, means more employment,” the town mayor added.
About 4,000 families of the town coming from its 12 farming villages are expected to benefit the program. The town has 16 barangays inhabited by 33,000 people.
Under the program, about 200 hectares of land devoted to palay farming will be pumped in with modern farming technologies to be provided by DA, aside from the high-yielding palay seed varieties from the PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute).
Mayor Abalon said that the 200 hectares were identified under the program are located in Barangay Zone3 (covering 50 hectares) and Dale (involving 115 has).
The remaining 35 has will be in Brgys. Balnasan and Bantayan, he said.
Eventually, all the remaining rice farming villages of the town, which has total 2,700 has. of land devoted to rice farming, will benefit the program.
The model farms are also expected to provide seeds to farmers in Eastern Samar and Samar provinces.
The program is expected to start in next quarter of this year.
Abalon said that considering that all rice fields in the town, to include the two model farms of Dale and Zone 3, are rain-feed dependent, solar-powered irrigation coming from deep-wells will be used to ensure a bounty harvest.
But as it is now, local farmers could harvest 80 to 90 bags of palay per hectare.
And with more interventions to be provided to the farmers under the program, they expect to increase their yield, at the average, of 115 bags per hectare.
Abalon said that they are thankful to DA Sec. Emmanuel Piñol for choosing their town as its model in agricultural development.
“I am not really sure why Sec. Piñol chose San Roque for this program but we are still thankful to him and to DA considering its big impact for our people,” the town mayor said.
It was learned that Sec. Piñol visited the town last Jan. 5 where he personally announced the plan for the agricultural development of the town.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
DPWH reports of P54.5 million of damaged roads in EV due to ‘Usman’
TACLOBAN CITY- Tropical depression ‘Usman’ has damaged several major roads here in the region amounting to P54.5 million.
Based on the report of the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the damaged roads were in the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar.
These infrastructures were damaged due to flooding and landslide spawned by Usman which, for a time, rendered them impassable.
All these damaged roads were now open and cleared by the DPWH personnel.
Tonette Lim, DPWH regional information officer, said that their office has already forwarded the said report to their central office, particularly to Asec. Antonio Molano, Jr. for the regional operations in Visayas, National Capital Region and Region IV-B (Mimaropa Region), for appropriate action.
The province of Samar sustained the most damage to its infrastructures in the amount of P27.5 million, the same DPWH report said.
Among these damaged roads were the Calbayog Diversion Road; Calbayog-Allen (Northern Samar) Road; and the Calbayog-Catarman (Northern Samar) Road.
The two engineering district offices in Northern Samar, meantime, reported of damaged of public infrastructures in the amount of P26 million.
The bulk of the damaged infrastructures were in the first district of Northern Samar, particularly in the towns of Catarman, its provincial capital, and Lope de Vega, considered the hard-hit area in the province due to Usman.
The first engineering district office reported a P25 million in damage to roads.
Northern Samar’s second engineering district office reported of P1 million of damaged roads, particularly the Catarman-Laoang Road and several roads in San Roque town.
Meantime, the lone engineering district office in Eastern Samar reported of P1 million damage to its roads, particularly along the Wright-Taft-Borongan City Road and Borongan City-Guiuan Road.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
BJMP declares ‘drug-free, drug-cleared’ all 24 facilities under its management in EV
TACLOBAN CITY-All 24 jail facilities under the supervision of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) here in the region were declared as drug-free and drug-cleared jails, attaining its 100% target on January 4.
“This affirms the jail bureaus efforts in attaining a drug-free workplace and its intense fight against illegal drugs,” said Jail Senior Superintendent Felixberto Jagorin Jr., BJMP regional director.
Declared as drug-free BJMP jail facilities are Naval District Jail in Naval, Biliran; Tacloban City Jail-Female Dorm in Tacloban City; Borongan City Jail in Borongan City; San Juan District Jail in Southern Leyte; Dolores District Jail in Dolores, Eastern Samar; Sogod District Jail in Sogod, Southern Leyte; Guiuan District Jail in Guiuan, Eastern Samar; Catarman District Jail in Catarman, Northern Samar; Balangiga District Jail in Balangiga, Eastern Samar; Calbayog City District Jail in Calbayog City; Burauen District Jail in Burauen, Leyte; Catbalogan City District Jail in Catbalogan City; Carigara District Jail in Carigara, Leyte; Maasin City Jail in Maasin City; Isabel District Jail in Isabel, Leyte; Alangalang Municipal Jail in Alangalang, Leyte; Baybay City Jail in Baybay City; Palompon Municipal Jail in Palompon, Leyte; Ormoc City Jail-Male Dorm and Female Dorm, both in Ormoc City; Basey Municipal Jail in Basey, Samar and Laoang Municipal Jail in Laoang, Northern Samar.
The drug-cleared BJMP jail facilities are Tacloban City Jail-Male Dorm in Tacloban City and Palo Municipal Jail in PALO, Leyte.
Edgar Jubay, the regional director of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) led in the certification of the said jail facilities.
The declaration was witnessed by Artemio Caneja, the regional director OIC of the Department of Interior and Local Government; Dr. Ma. Sol Villones, the head of the Non-Communicable Disease Unit of the Department of Health in the region, and other personnel.
(RONALD O. REYES)
Catbalogan City acting mayor vows transparency and accountability in his six-months in office
CATBALOGAN CITY – The acting mayor of this city vows that he would make into good use his stay in the office, which is six months.
This was disclosed by Councilor Archie Fuentes who formally took his post as acting mayor of the city on January 3.
Fuentes took the top post of the city government after Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan was suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman due to alleged irregular land deal and lease of the city’s public market.
Aside from Uy-Tan, also suspended for six months without pay by the anti-graft court were Vice Mayor Art Sherwin Gabon; Councilors Coefredo Uy, father of the Stephany Uy-Tan; Jeffrey Uy; Maximo Pascual; Edward Uy; Christine Joy Escobar; Beethoven Bermejo; and Nanette Jasmin.
Included suspended were city accountant Peachy Daguman; city treasurer Elizabeth Lim; city budget officer Ma. Theresa Lim; and city assessor Romero Tuazon.
Fuentes and Councilor Kendall Luke Perez, the acting vice mayor, took their oath before Judge Sibanah Usman, presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court-Branch 28.
In a press conference after he took his oath as acting mayor, Fuentes said that he will focus on transparency, accountability, participatory form of government while serving as city mayor.
“There will be consultation on important policies and programs that the city government will implement,” Fuentes, reading a prepared statement, said.
“Under my term, I will continue to implement the good programs of the suspended mayor and we will scrutinize and make sure that these projects will not only benefit the few,” the acting mayor added.
Fuentes said that since the last day of his term as acting mayor will coincide with the start of the first day of a new mayor, he assures of a smooth transition.
For his part, acting Vice Mayor Perez said that as the head of the city council, he cannot discharge functions as they could not convene due to lack of quorum.
At present, only Siegfried Uy and Michael Ian Tuazon, city president of the Association of Barangay Chairmen, and Sangguniang Kabataan city federation president, respectively, are the active members of the council.
“I will be waiting for the legal advice from the Department of Interior and Local Government,” Perez said. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)