TACLOBAN CITY- Elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Samar conducted separate anti-drug operations in Calbayog City that resulted in the arrest of three men in possession of 23 sachets of methamphatime hydrochloride or shabu.
PDEA Regional Director Edgar Jubay, in a press statement, said that the separate operations in Barangay Balud of the said city last December 3 resulted in the arrest of Wilan Amaro, Rolando Cagomoc, and Rodrigo Ruado.
Seized from Amaro’s possession were 11 sachets of shabu while six sachets of the prohibited drug were seized each from Cagomoc and Ruado.
Cagomoc and Ruado are now detained at the Calbayog City Police Station lock-up facility while Amaro was able to elude from the anti-drug operatives.
All three were charged for possession and selling of the illegal drugs.
The operations were also involved members of the Calbayog city police and 2nd platoon of the 3rd Company of the Regional Public Safety Battalion. (PR)

Unsolved killings continue

CALBAYOG CITY- The apparent relentless killings involving barangay officials of this city have stalked fear among them to the extent some have expressed their desire to step down from their posts.
But Mayor Ronald Aquino appealed to them not to quit from their posts as he instead asked them to work together to help him end the killing incidents.
The recent victim of these killing incidents involving a barangay official of the city was Roberto Gacelos, chairman of Barangay San Jose who was gunned down last November 15 by still unidentified armed men.
Incidentally, a police detachment is located 100 meters away from where Gacelos was murdered.
A staff of Mayor Aquino, Joe Patrick Lentejas, was also shot to death five days later by still unidentified suspects.
It was learned that before they were murdered both Gacelos and Lentejas received death threats.
Because of these series of incidents, some village leaders have expressed their fears and wanted to resign from their positions to avoid being targeted.
“I don’t know why all these senseless killings are happening in our city and I don’t know for how long we will continue to live in fear,” a village official, who asked not to be named, said.
“We are appealing to our police authorities to do something to end these senseless killings. All we want is to live in peace,” the official added.
Mayor Aquino asked barangay officials of the city not to give up as he asked them to help him solve the killing incidents hounding Calbayog for years now.
“It is so shocking and sad. But I want you not to give up this battle. Let us not be discouraged from serving our city,” he said.
The series of killings that have transpired in Calbayog were blamed to private armed groups reportedly maintained by certain politicians.
(JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

Management says it’s just a joint venture

TACLOBAN CITY- More than 200 water concessionaires from this city staged their demonstration before the office of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) to dramatize their opposition on the plan of the management to privatize the said agency.
However, the LMWD management insisted that the move is not privatization but a joint venture under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme wherein they could still have a say in the operations of the water agency.
The protestors said that they are opposing the planned privatization of the LMWD as this could bring misery to its more than 33,000 concessionaires in the form of a higher water rate.
They are also asking the management of the LMWD to turn over its management to the city government of Tacloban instead of turning it into a private company, using a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) involving the city and provincial governments of Cebu on who has the right to appoint a board of director of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD).
The High Court, on its December 2016 resolution, ruled that it is the city mayor of Cebu that has the right to appoint the board of director(s) of the MCWD and not the provincial government.
The SC issued a final ruling on this case last August 8, 2017.
“We are strongly opposing this privatization plan of the LMWD because this will surely result in a higher water rate to the detriment of our concessionaires,” Noel Tabao, president of the Tacloban Union of Barangay Officials (Tubo) which spearheaded the Friday (Dec.1) peaceful rally staged at the LMWD office in Barangay Nula-Tula, this city, said.
At present, the water rate of the LMWD is P148 per 10 cubic meters of consumption.
Aside from Tacloban, the other service areas of LMWD are Palo, Tanauan, Sta. Fe, Dagami, Tolosa, Tabon-Tabon, and Pastrana.
Tabao also assailed the “poor service” of the LMWD as several areas of Tacloban are experiencing inadequate water supply and “no water supply at all” at the northern part of the city where families who lost their houses when the city was devastated by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“If they cannot do their job well in providing water to the people of Tacloban, why not turn the management and operations of the LMWD to the city government where the majority of its member-consumers came from,” Tabao said.
As of December, 2016, out of the more than 33,000 concessionaires of LMWD, 21,028 members are in Tacloban City.
“We will not stop our demonstrations until our demand will be met,” Tabao said.
Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez wrote a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte on May 18 of this year, seeking for his intervention which includes giving the city government the right to appoint the board of directors of LMWD.
At present, the provincial government of Leyte appoints all the five members of the board which, in turn, appoint the general manager of LMWD.
Engr. Pastor Homeres, the current general manager, admitted on the plan to turn over the management of the LMWD to a private company.
“It’s not a privatization but just a joint venture under the PPP scheme wherein we will still continue to exercise our regulatory functions like the private company could not just raise the water rate without our approval,” Homeres said.
A pre-bidding conference was held attended by the representatives of bidders, Metro Pacific, Prime Resources Holding Inc., and Manila Water at the LMWD office while the rally was ongoing.
Homeres clarified that it was the Manila Water which offered to have a joint venture with them through the PPP scheme sometimes last year.
“And when the two companies learned about this proposal by the Manila Water, they also offered their proposals,” he said.
Asked on the recent Supreme Court ruling, Homeres said that they could not just apply it unless ordered by the court.
“They have first to file a case and if the court says that we have to turn the management to the city government, then we will obey it,” he said.
Homeres also said that they have opted to have a private company as a partner of the LMWD to afford its ‘development plans’ which would cost a huge amount of money.
“Tacloban is fast growing with several businesses coming in as well as Palo and Tanauan and we have to improve our services,” he said.
In 2010, the LMWD incurred a loan from the Local Water Utilities Administration in the amount of P900 million which it is paying P10 million every month since 2013.

By: JOEY A. GABIETA

“We have been pushing for the promotion and preservation of this dam because this will surely attract more tourists given its significance to our history,” Gabornes said on Tuesday (Nov. 28).

LAWAAN, Eastern Samar – The local government here is seeking the historical recognition of Sungduan Dam, built by American soldiers as the water source during World War II.
The recognition by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) would pave the way for the preservation of the dam badly damaged when super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ hit their town in 2013, said town tourism officer Mary Sarah Gabornes.
“We have been pushing for the promotion and preservation of this dam because this will surely attract more tourists given its significance to our history,” Gabornes said on Tuesday (Nov. 28).
Citing accounts of local historians, the tourism officer said the construction of the dam was rushed after American Army Lt. Edward Milo surveyed the area in 1944 and led the civil works with the help of locals.
The dam supplied drinking water to American Forces based in Eastern Samar who came to liberate the country from the Japanese invaders.
Soldiers also fetched waters from the Sungduan Dam and were loaded to barges docked at Bel-at Port where Americans built a lighthouse.
The water supply was shipped to American camps in Okinawa, Japan and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The dam plays an important role in the World War II as it helped American soldiers survived during the war, according to Gabornes.
Despite the long process and the need for a lot of verifications, she is positive that if Sungduan Dam would be acknowledged by the NCCA, their town will be known to many as well.
Lawaan is a 5th class town in Eastern Samar province with a population of 12,742. The town is 73 kilometers from Tacloban, the regional capital.
The National Cultural Heritage Act signed in 2009 mandates the registration of all cultural properties of the country, which the NCCA is mandated to establish and maintain through the appropriate cultural agencies and local governments.
The law defines cultural property as “all products of human creativity by which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques and other places of religious worship, schools, and natural history specimens and sites.” (PEARL MARIE L.ECALDRE/PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) is confident that hotel business will continue to flourish in the region as tourist arrivals steadily increase over the past years.
The DOT reported that in 2012, there were only 413 accommodation establishments in the region with 5,824 rooms. After three years, in 2015, the number of operating hotels went up to 469 with 6,341 rooms.
The number has increased despite damages caused by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013, said DOT Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes.
“When the result of the 2017 Accommodation Capacity Survey is completed, we are certain that these numbers will increase,” Tiopes said.
The survey on the existing hotels in operation is important to find out the capacity of an area to accommodate guests at a given time, she said.
“When we do our arrival forecast and increase our tourist arrival targets, these figures also give us a cue whether we should promote more investments in accommodation facilities,” Tiopes added.
In 2016, the region ushered 1.22 million visitors, a significant increase from the measly 365,000 arrivals in 2011.
Under a tourism roadmap drawn by the DOT, the region target to welcome 3.5 million domestic tourists and 90,000 foreign visitors.
With the increasing number of accommodation facilities, the next step is to push for accreditation of these establishments especially that more business realizes the value of DOT recognition.
“In the past, a large number of our tourism enterprises in the region did not value DOT accreditation. Today, however, to be competitive, it is imperative for businesses to adhere to standards that tourists now look for,” the official added.
“For this reason, we now see an increasing number of tourism-related business levels up the standards and quality of their facilities and services,” Tiopes said.
A DOT accreditation is a certification issued to tourism enterprises that have complied with the minimum and progressive levels of operating quality and internationally recognized standards for the operation and maintenance of their tourism facilities and services.
The high number of accredited establishments is an indication of the market-readiness of a destination, according to the tourism department.
(MELVA MAE C. MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY- A human rights group based in the city expressed their fear on the recent declaration of President Rodrigo Duterte to shoot-to-kill any members of the outlawed New People’s Army (NPA).
Joshua Sagdullas, spokesperson of Bayan-Eastern Visayas, said that this directive has a chilling effect not only among the identified targets but even among activities and members of legal organizations.
“To say the least, we are raising the alarm for all activists, community organizers and protesters in the country in lieu of Duterte’s recent shoot to kill order,” Sagdullas said.
“Although Duterte’s exact statements were directed at the revolutionary New People’s Army, history has shown us that generic and passing statements such as these are blown out of proportion by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police and are meant to include legal organizations and activists who in recent days have been tagged as no less than conspirators to acts of terrorism,” he added.
Thus, Sagdullas said, “manhunt” could be conducted against anyone who speaks and stands against the administration of Mr. Duterte.
Last November 29, the President issued a directive to all soldiers and police personnel to shoot and kill NPA members.
The order of the President came in the light of his recent declaration to stop the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) claiming that the NPA, armed wing of the group, continue to stage ambuscades against government troops despite of the talks.
This claim, however, is being denied by the CPP-NDF leaders.
Eastern Visayas remain to have an active insurgency problem, particularly in the Samar provinces.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)