TACLOBAN CITY- Former Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said that his party, Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, and Tingog Sinirangan, a party-list group he helped form, is committed in supporting the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Romualdez, who is reclaiming his congressional seat for Leyte’s first district in next year’s elections, made this assurance after he entered an alliance with Hugpong ng Pagbabago of Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter, Sara Duterte, during a big gathering held at the Tacloban City Convention Center on November 7.
“The signing of an alliance agreement is just a formality because both parties have already been aligned in principle before. We share the same mission, beliefs, vision and thrusts with Mayor Sara’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago,” said Romualdez, who is also the president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
“We are all committed to push President Rodrigo Duterte’s agenda for nation’s growth and improve the lives of the people in the countryside,” the former solon said.
Romualdez also expressed his commitment to support the senatorial candidates of Hugpong ng Pagbabago which he said would carry Pres.Duterte’s agenda of genuine change.
He also reiterated the party’s “strong support to President Duterte and his agenda for change.”
For her part, Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, wife of Romualdez and first nominee of Tingog Sinirangan, thanked the people of the first district of Leyte for electing her to Congress, this after she accepted the party-list nomination.
Rep. Romualdez is behind in the successful passage of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act which provides for free college education in all state colleges and universities and the Ease of Doing Business Act, which intends to help the budding small and medium entrepreneurs.
“We passed on third reading the Alternative Learning System Bill, which aims to strengthen the alternative learning system, the Expanded Maternity Leave Bill, which enables new mothers to care for their newborn for the first hundred days and recently, the Disaster Resilience Bill, which provides for the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience as the country’s principal agency responsible for preparing and responding to natural disasters and climate change,” she said.
The desire to be of help to an even wider community pushed her to accept the party-list nomination, Romualdez said.
“We hope that the modest achievements we have realized here in the first district of Leyte, could be true to every part of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, and Biliran,” she added.
Philip Jude Acidre, the second nominee of Tingog, acknowledged Pres. Duterte, saying that “in our time, the leadership, sincerity and passion for service of our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gives us so much hope in the future, that the change that we aspire for ourselves and our families is already here.”
“It is a deep honor for me to stand before all of you – leaders of both our regions, and of our nation – as we embark on a common journey towards a better tomorrow for this nation that we all love,” Acidre said.
The other three nominees of Tingog are Jamie Go, Alexis Yu, and Jenifer Padual. (RONALD O.REYES)
Alliance with Hugpong ng Pagbabago proof of their shared purpose, Romualdez says
Mayor Romualdez leads ‘Yolanda’ commemoration
Now on its fifth year
By: Joey Gabieta
TACLOBAN CITY- A memorial mass and a commemorative program will highlight this year’s fifth anniversary of the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ this Thursday (November 8) as more than 3,000 families in the city continue to live in areas declared as danger zones as they wait to be awarded of their new houses by the government.
City Mayor Cristina Romualdez will lead city officials, guests and residents of this city in the commemoration of the onslaught of Yolanda, the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland that killed more than 2,200 people of the city and practically leveled Tacloban to the grounds.
A commemorative run, dubbed as “Yolandalagan” will kick off the program which will start at 3 am at the grounds of the Tacloban Convention Center or astrodome.
At 8 am, a Holy Mass will be held at the Santo Niño Church, which sustained major damaged due to Yolanda.
The commemorative program will be held at 3 pm at the astrodome which served as temporary shelter to more than 8,000 people at the time the city was pummeled by Yolanda.
Among the guests for the commemorative program are Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Dino who will read a message from President Rodrigo Duterte during the event; Senator Cynthia Villar, former presidential assistant for political affairs Francis Tolentino, Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, former senator Bongbong Marcos, and French Embassy officials.
Former mayor Alfred Romualdez, who was the chief executive at that time, is also to join the commemorative program.
Mayor Romualdez, who signed an executive order suspending classes and works in the city on that day, will lead in the laying of wreaths at the Yolanda Memorial, located inside the compound of the astrodome, where names of those who perished during the onslaught of Yolanda were written.
The commemoration will be ended with a candle-light event along the streets of the city to start at 6 pm to be followed by Yolanda Sundown Memorial at 9 pm sponsored by the office of Leyte Rep. Yedda Romualdez.
While it has been five years since Tacloban was pummeled by Yolanda, thousands of families who totally lost their houses have yet to be given their own houses at the identified relocation sites.
Based on the records of the City Housing and Community Development (CHCD), of the identified 14,433 families who need to be relocated, the government through the National Housing Authority still need to transfer 3,621 families who are still living at their old houses which are located in the coastal areas now declared as danger zones.
And while there are already 10,821 families awarded of their new houses, several of these families chose not to occupy these units.
And one of them is Albeth Moreno,48, who is the current secretary of their village in Brgy.89, San Jose district.
She was awarded a housing unit in Guadalupe Heights 2 December, 2016 but only ‘visits’ the unit every weekend or if her schedule permits.
“My work as a barangay secretary demand that I should always be in our barangay hall to attend the needs of my barangay mates. That is why, we still live here and we just repair our house,” the mother of three children said.
She said that in due time, they would relocate to their new house as she was aware that there is an order from both the NHA and the city government to demolish their houses once they were awarded of their units as these are located within areas declared by the government as danger zones. (with HENRY JAMES, CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
Not just your ordinary sports coach
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
TACLOBAN CITY-At his young age, John Paul Masubay has set his goal in life- be a coach.
And not just a sports coach but a life coach to children who attend their sessions in soccer.
The 22-year old resident of Barangay 59, Sampaguita district, this city, is one of the coaches under the wings of FundLife International, a humanitarian organization which aims to promote children hit by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ recover through sports, particularly football or soccer.
Masubay, himself a survivor of the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland, said that by being a life coach to these children, he finds meaning to his life and existence.
By focusing as a coach, he chose to forget of becoming an engineer saying that as an engineer he could only build a solid structure ‘without an impact to a community.’
“I realized that football or soccer could help shape how the children sees their life in the future. That despite of poverty, they can do something and achieve in life,” Masubay, who himself is no stranger to daily life’s struggles, said.
Masubay, second to the brood of three siblings whose parents are just average wage earners, became a coach of soccer of FundLife International sometimes in 2016 going around to various communities in Tacloban City, considered as the ground zero of Yolanda.
As a coach, he teaches children the basic of the games while considered as the world’s most popular sports yet remain alien to most of the Filipinos, for at least two hours.
But in so doing, Masubay inculcates some values which he said are needed for one to become a ‘champion in life.’
“The core value being promoted by FundLife includes commitment, creativity, courage, respect, and skills which are needed for one to become a champion in life and not just in sports,” he said.
“Just coming to the session or by bringing a bottled water help them become committed and responsible,” Masubay said.
The young coach boasted that since they have started their mission, they have seen many of the children who attended their sessions showing some measure of success.
He said that many of them have finished their elementary or secondary studies with good grades, if not topping their classes.
Masubay himself said that joining FundLife International, funded by Marko Kasic, was one of the best decisions he has ever made.
Aside from fulfilling his dream to become a soccer player-cum-coach, he gets to travel to foreign countries helping promote soccer as a life-changing tool.
Recently, Masubay went to Buenos Aires, Argentina to joined a global event dubbed as ‘Sport at the Service of Humanity,’ a mentoring activity.
He was the only Asian to attend the October 3-6 event participated by luminaries coming from various field of endeavors.
The experience of attending a global affair made him realized that sports like soccer could be a big thing not just in breaking social barrier but a venue in achieving ‘social inclusion.’
“Each one of us has our own unique way. One should not be considered as above from the rest. We can achieve our dreams in life in our own ways but we have to work hard for us to achieve our goals in life,” Masubay said.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
DILG reinstates Southern Leyte governor
TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has formally reinstated Southern Leyte Governor Damian Mercado following a Court of Appeals decision reversing the previous dismissal order of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Mercado, who is seeking for another term in next year’s midterm elections, was reinstalled by DILG regional legal officer Cyril Blanco on October 31.
The reinstatement of Mercado as governor of the province was made possible after the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the Ombudsman ousting him from office.
“With this order, there is no more doubt that I am back into office. We will continue to give service to our people,” Mercado told reporters in a press conference held after he assumed the office temporarily held by Vice Governor Christopher “Coco” Yap.
On August 10 last year, the Ombudsman found Mercado liable for grave misconduct in the alleged anomalous procurement of vehicles amounting to P2.3 million when he was still Maasin City mayor in 2007.
He was suspended the following month.
However, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision on May 22 this year. (RONALD O. REYES)
‘Yolanda’ reconstruction remains slow, anomalous, group says
Five years after
TACLOBAN CITY- Imelda Tacalan, 48, feels nothing but heavy heart every time November 8 approaches.
Like her fellow survivors of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, Tacalan has not yet been relocated to a government-led permanent housing site in their area after it was found out that their units were allegedly “substandard.”
She said that of the 460 housing units intended for Yolanda survivors of their town, only 230 were constructed yet but were declared to be of not good quality.
“I envy those Yolanda survivors whose relocation sites are managed by non-government organizations. They have better units compared to us,” Tacalan said in an interview.
This sentiment was also shared by Lita Bagunas of the Uswag Este-Katarungan.
She said that the houses constructed by the National Housing Authority have weaker construction materials used with the walls could easily be shaken.
Bagunas added that the housing projects that were started under President Rodrigo Duterte continue to be of substandard quality comparable to the ones constructed under the then administration of Benigno Aquino III.
“Akala namin change is coming. Hindi rin pala,” she said whose group is part of the coalition of storm victims known as Community of Yolanda Survivors and Partners (CYSP).
The group said that housing projects in Lawaan and Balangiga continue to face complaints due to their “poor quality.”
According to Joli Torella of Urban Poor Associates, many housing areas in Yolanda-hit areas generally lacked basic social services.
The added cost of transportation and lack of access to these social services made life more difficult in the relocation sites, he said.
“Families transferred at St.Francis Village find it difficult to live there because aside from lacking basic services, there’s flooding when it rains,”Vincent Basiano, a resident of said relocation site located in Barangay Suhi, Tacloban City, said.
CYSP alleged that the relocation of 3,000 families was fast-tracked even as the relocation sites were still lacking basic social services like water, electricity, schools, and difficult access to public transport.
(RONALD O. REYES)