Yolanda’s 4th anniversary

TACLOBAN CITY – Spiritual activities and environmental protection should be highlighted during the yearly commemoration of the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda.’
And in doing so, it is just fitting to put up the icons of St. Medard along the coasts in areas that suffered devastations due to Yolanda that pummeled the province on November 8, 2013.
Thus said Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto who disclosed that a group of divers will be coming to the province next week to identify particular areas where the icons of the saint would be placed.
But initially, the plan is to ‘submerge’ the icons in areas where storm surges occurred. The storm surge was blamed as the cause for the deaths of thousands of people when Yolanda devastated Leyte and some parts of the region.
“The yearly commemoration of the Yolanda devastation should have more meaning(and) impact by taking care of our environment and strengthen our spiritual faith,” Loreto said.
Thus, the plan to put the images of Saint Medard of Noyon considered as the patron saint against bad storms.
“Divers are due to come next week to pinpoint a good location for these (icons),” Loreto disclosed.
Scientists were one in saying that Yolanda was a result of climate change, blame mainly to man’s abuses to the environment.
St. Medard of Noyon, France is a sixth-century bishop considered as the patron saint for protection from bad storms. Legend has it that as a child, he was once sheltered from the rain by an eagle hovering over him.
Proposed areas for the project are Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa and other areas which were devastated by the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
However, for Tanauan town, the plan is for the icon be placed at one of its junctions facing the sea, Loreto said.
Loreto added that while many natural disasters are unavoidable such as Yolanda, some are linked to human activities which direct a connection towards environmental stewardship.
He said catastrophic natural disasters continue to occur nowadays and these devastating events always take their toll on human life, whether through immediate devastation and destruction or through their crippling impact on food production and ecological systems.
In the long run, these areas where the icons of St. Medard will be placed can be promoted for pilgrimage tourism, it was learned. (AHLETTE C.REYES)

ORMOC CITY– The member-agencies of the Eastern Visayas Regional Child Labor Committee (EVRCLC) tackled in a meeting some issues and concerns for the welfare of child laborers in the region.
The EVRCLC had its last activity in 2012 with the drafting of a memorandum of agreement for the intensified, sustained and unified implementation of Philippine Program Against Child Labor in Eastern Visayas Region.
Lawyer Roy L. Buenafe, OIC-assistant regional director (ARD) of DOLE 8, who presided the RCLC meeting in Ormoc City, Friday (October 6), hope to make the RCLC alive again by reconstituting its membership and structure.
He asked representatives of the RCLC member-agencies to intensify their child labor-related development programs to help minimize and eradicate it in the region.
He also highlighted the reaffirmation and appraisal of the commitment of the EVRCLC member-agencies on the drafted 2012 MOA to fit into their present programs and interventions.
The member-agencies of the EVRCLC lined-up the following activities for the National Children’s Month celebration in November: MOA signing of the heads of the EVRCLC member-agencies of the intensified, sustained and unified implementation of Philippine Program Against Child Labor in Eastern Visayas Region; gift-giving to the identified child laborers in barangays Rizal and Tugbong in Kananga and in barangays Sumanga and Patag in Ormoc City dubbed “Pasko sa Nobyembre”; national launching of IEC materials for the Strategic Helpdesk for Information, Education, Livelihood and other Developmental Interventions (SHIELD) Project; and the DSWD 8 children-related activities.
The lined-up activities for the National Children’s Month celebration in November tentatively set on November 29, 2017 in Ormoc City will be finalized during the meeting of the EVRCLC member-agencies on November 3, 2017 in Ormoc City.
(PIA8-Ormoc Desk)

TACLOBAN CITY – About 3,000 running enthusiasts in Leyte are set to move their running legs on October 21 in four different areas in Leyte and Biliran for the biggest humanitarian run organized by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).
For PRC-Leyte, its chairman lawyer Miguel Tezon said during the media forum ‘Panginsayod’ of the Philippine Information Agency, the fun run will cover 3-kilometer along designated areas in Tacloban City and in the towns of San Isidro and Isabel.
A similar fun run will also be held in Naval, Biliran.
The advocacy run seeks to draw participation from government, corporate, religious, academic, and athletic institutions to rally their support for the impartial protection of life and dignity, especially of indigent Filipinos in vulnerable situations.
The proceeds of the event will fund PRC’s various humanitarian programs and lifesaving services such as its blood services, disaster management services, safety services, health services, social services, Red Cross Youth and volunteer services.
The fun run, according to Tezon, will reinforce the PRC’s role in the forefront in disasters and calamities, rescuing people, providing life-saving assistance and initiating recovery programs that provide beneficiaries with assistance to help them get back on their feet after each disaster, such as restoring shelter, livelihood, water and sanitation, health service and delivery, and education.
He added that joining the Million Volunteer Run can help the PRC provide more people to be resilient to disasters, bring assistance to the most vulnerable and help the Red Cross to be more prepared to respond to disasters and calamities.
In 2016, PRC Leyte contributed a net proceed of P 200,000 from the Million Volunteer Run.
Runners will be given singlets and join the raffle of prizes.
(AHLETTE C. REYES)

TACLOBAN CITY- There’s nothing wrong with the use of drop boxes in reporting village drug dependents.
Thus said the regional director of the Commission on Human Rights(CHR), lawyer Desiree Pontejos who was quick to say that the mechanism would only violate one’s human rights if names of suspected drug users would be openly announced in the media.
Pontejos said that the use of drop boxes has acquired the system of ‘confidentiality.’ Thus, it could not be considered as violative of one’s human rights.
“We can only consider it as a violation of one’s rights if this will be broadcast or publish. Since this will be coursed through the use of a drop box, there is confidentiality in it,” Pontejos said.
The city office of the Department of Interior and Local Government, through its chief, lawyer Darwin Bibar, had earlier said that drop boxes would serve as one of the mechanisms on the campaign of the national government against proliferation of illegal drugs as well as abuses and corruptions committed by barangay leaders.
Bibar also said that information they obtained from the drop boxes, to be placed in the barangay halls, would still be subjected to verification with the help from the city police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency if the issue falls on illegal drugs and the Office of the Ombudsman if the matter has something to do with corruption.
He said that through their verification process, any possible abuse could be check.
“All things are susceptible to abuse. But this process is just a verification; it’s just an information. For it to stand a legal leg, there should be an affidavit,”Pontejos said.
But for Bayan-Sinirangan Bisaya, this drop box method is just another form of “intensifying the hysteria over local communities.”
“(This will) prompt a violent and misplaced persecution of the urban poor instead of attacking the root causes of drug proliferation: poverty itself,” said its spokesperson Joshua Sagdullas.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

CATBALOGAN CITY-Senior citizens in this city are being prioritized by the City Health Office for the flu shot and pneumococcal vaccine.
Mayor Stephanie Uy-Tan earlier issued an order giving the city’s senior citizens needed medicines as they are the most vulnerable to acquire illnesses.
“When a person is getting older, immunity also gets weaker. That is why these vaccines are very important to prevent senior citizens from getting sick,” Aaron Jay Macabare, nurse in-charge for the vaccination, said.
The City Health Office provides the medicines thrice a week or every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The pneumococcal vaccine comprises two doses: senior citizens aged 60 years old will be given the first dose and will receive the second dose after a 5-year interval.
On the other hand, senior citizens 65 years old and above will receive one dose of the pneumococcal vaccine.
For flu vaccine, senior citizens must have it every year.
The program is offered to senior citizens provided that they have no allergies to egg and chicken, no active infection like cough or colds, and not immunocompromised.
“If they have allergies, we don’t inject them with the vaccine because it may trigger to allergic reactions,” Macabare said.
The services provided to senior citizens are one of the priority health programs of city government under Mayor Uy-Tan in improving the health conditions of the city’s residents.
“To ensure that more residents of this city will benefit the health programs, we are coming up with plans of establishing more health centers and of having an infirmary clinics,” Uy-Tan said.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)