TACLOBAN CITY-More than a million youths from the region are to vote in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this May 14.
Based on the records of the regional office of the Commission on Elections(Comelec), about 1,173,514 young voters are to cast their votes for the SK elections which are to be held together with the regular barangay balloting.
The number of SK voters in the region has ballooned compare to the 2010 record, the last time the country held a youth election.
For that particular youth election, there were only 188,018 SK registered voters of which 174,547 casted their votes.
Lawyer Felicisimo Embalsado, Comelec-8 assistant regional director, said that the increase of the SK registrants were due to the implementation of RA 10742 which raised the voting age of SK.
From the previous 15 to 17 years of age, considered as SK voters are those from 15 to 30 years of age, Embalsado said.
However, the same law mandates that only those who are 18 to 24 years could run and be elected as SK officials.
“But during the elections, SK voters ages 18 to 30 are to be given two ballots, one for the SK and the other for the regular barangay elections,” Embalsado said.
Under our laws, those who reaches 18 and above are qualified to vote during a local or national election.
Those who will run for the SK and barangay polls are to submit their certificates of candidacy (CoCs) starting on April 14 until April 20.
However, the Comelec local offices will not accept CoCs on April 15 which falls on Sunday, Embalsado said.
Of the six provinces of Eastern Visayas, Leyte has the most number of SK voters at 477,845 followed by Samar,229,505 voters.
Eastern Samar has 135,821 SK voters; Northern Samar (181,335); Southern Leyte (103,081); and Biliran, 45,927.
Meantime, registered for the regular barangay elections in the region is at 2.84 million.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY – All elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials will undergo a mandatory orientation for them to learn how to do their job, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) regional office here said.
The orientation will be held within 15 days before the official assumption of SK or the youth council of their respective positions, said DILG Regional Director Marivel Sacendoncillo.
“The idea is to bring all the SK officials elected to academic institutions to attend the orientation all over the region. Each area has an assigned campus where they will join the orientation,” Sacendoncillo said.
The orientation will gather more than 300,000 youth council officials from the region’s 4,390 villages.
“Each province will partner with state universities and colleges. In the case of big provinces, there would be instances that they will need the help of private institutions,” Sacendoncillo said.
The orientation will run from the third week of May to early June, but preparations have started as early as March.
“We need to help each other for the success of this mandatory orientation since modules are now ready and the educational institutions will find their resource speakers to help the SK learn their job,” Sacendoncillo added.
The village and SK polls will finally push through on May 14 after a series of delays. The last village elections were held in October 2013, while the last SK elections were held in October 2010.
Under the SK Reform Act of 2015, the youth council is composed of one chairman and seven members, who must be aged 18 to 24 at the day of the election, picked by majority of youth resident in the community.
Each elected youth official has a three-year term.
Section 10 of SK Reform Law includes an anti-dynasty provision prescribing that candidates should not be related within the second degree of affinity or consanguinity to any incumbent national, regional, or local elected official at the city, town, or village level.
(MELVA MAE C. MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY – The province of Leyte posted the highest rice production in the region last year, a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-8) said.
Wilma Perante, PSA regional director, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that Leyte produced the highest volume of palay (fresh from the farm not yet milled rice or unmilled rice) at 481,487 metric tons which comprised 50.9 percent of the total palay production of the region.
Eastern Samar, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production at 59,754 MT accounting for only 6.3 percent, she added.
Perante also said that regional palay production plummeted by one percent from 954,844 MT in 2016 to 945,565 MT in 2017.
She added that the total harvest area for palay in the region, on the other hand, inched up by 1.8 percent, from 268,110 hectares in 2016 to 272,889 hectares in 2017.
Increase in palay area harvested were observed among all provinces, except for Biliran and Southern Leyte which exhibited decreased of 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
The PSA director said that Leyte recorded more than two-fifths or 43.4 percent (481,487 hectares) of the total palay area harvested in 2017, while Biliran contributed the least (14,383 hectares) accounting for only 5.3 percent.
Yield for palay in the region went down by 2.7 percent, from 3.6 MT per hectare in 2016 to 3.5 MT per hectare in 2017, Perante said.
Perante said that among the provinces, Biliran posted the highest yield per hectare at 4.5 MT per hectare in 2017. Eastern Samar registered the lowest yield per hectare at 2.6 MT per hectare.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

PALO, Leyte – Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy visited the residents of the shelters constructed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the region to check on their conditions.
Badoy, who was a former DSWD assistant secretary before she was appointed to her current post, visited the Reception and Study Center (RSC) where abandoned and neglected children are temporarily staying before they are taken by adopted parents; the Haven for Women, a shelter for sexually abused women; the Home for Girls; and the Regional Center for Children in Conflict with the Law (RCCCY) which is a regional rehabilitation facility for boys.
The shelters are located in the municipality of Palo and Tanauan.
Usec. Badoy said that compare to other similar shelters that she visited in Luzon and Mindanao, the facilities of DSWD here in the region are in better condition and well-maintained by the personnel of the agency.
She disclosed that for this year, P3 billion has been allocated for the improvement of shelter centers in the country of which P60 million has been budgeted for the region.
During her visits to these shelters, Badoy had an interaction with the residents, as the boys and girls are addressed, and gave them her encouragement.
Psycho-social interventions and livelihood training skills are being provided by the DSWD in these temporary shelters for the abused and abandoned children. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

PCOO USEC Lorraine Badoy gives a loving hug to these girls who come from extremely poor families of barangay Binaloan, Taft, Eastern Samar.
In 2015, typhoon Ruby devastated several northern barangays of ESamar, including barangay Binaloan, Taft, Eastern Samar which remained flooded to the house roofings in days.
Seeing the children’s hapless condition, when she led a medical mission, the former DSWD ASEC Badoy promised to herself to adopt the barangay, particularly the children.
Indeed, the now PCOO USEC Badoy has kept on returning to this far flung barangay that is nestled in a mountainous terrain, barely mindful of possible challenges along the way.
Today, as she arrived for the graduation rites, the Malacanang lady beamed with overwhelming joy at the sight of the children now looking better and well-learned. #PartnersForChange #TapangatMalasakit #WorkingPCOO. (PR)

PALO, Leyte-The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Eastern Visayas continues to watch major ports in the region to prevent the entry of planting materials with coconut scale insect or “cocolisap”.
PCA Regional Manager Joel Pilapil said the entire region is still free of the very damaging “cocolisap” infestation, prompting them to step up all efforts to prevent the bugs from entering the coconut-producing provinces.
Pilapil said they have been coordinating with the quarantine office based in ports of Northern Samar and Southern Leyte provinces to ensure that coconut planting materials are free from pests and diseases
“It can kill a mature coconut tree. It’s a real headache on how to address this concern. We don’t want this to happen in the region,” Pilapil told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
‘Cocolisap’ has affected several areas in the country such as Batangas, Quezon province, Basilan, and Zamboanga, but it is being contained as scientists found antidotes to these bugs, said Pilapil.
The pest infestation starts with yellowing of the lowermost leaves, followed by drying of all leaves and ultimately the death of the palm.
To date, the only major threat to the region’s coconut industry is the coconut rhinoceros beetle manifesting in areas with rotten coconut trees as their breeding ground, Pilapil said.
“Although we have many rotten coconut trees damaged by super typhoon Yolanda, the population of rhinoceros beetle has not reached the alarming level due to massive debris clearing activities since 2014,” Pilapil added.
The PCA reported that 33.90 million coconut trees in Eastern Visayas were affected by the monster storm in 2013.
Of the total, 13.90 million were categorized as totally damaged, 9.04 million severely damaged, 5.69 million slightly damaged, and 5.28 million moderately damaged.
Eastern Visayas — the second top coconut producing region in the country — has 46.9 million bearing trees. About 72 percent were destroyed by the disaster.
Millions of planting materials have been distributed to replace uprooted and sheared trees.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)