VILLABA, Leyte – The regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-8) has extended assistance to the farmers here who survived the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda.’
DA-8 Regional Executive Director, U-Nichols Manalo told Leyte Samar Daily Express that the turnover of the assistance worth P15.77 million funded by the Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (YRRP) was made during the launching of the YRRP livelihood initiated by DA-8 in coordination with the local government unit of this town.
Director Manalo said that the project has provided the farmer-beneficiaries of this town with agricultural assistance composed of modern farm machineries, equipment, tools, and inputs like seeds and fertilizers including farm animals for the five Associations of the town which includes Sta. Cruz Rice Upland Farmers Association, Tabunok Integrated Farmers Association, Hinundayan Farmers Association, Malayahay Vegetables and Rootcrops Farmers Association and Barangay Jalas Farmers Association with a total membership of 199 farmers.
Villaba Mayor Juliet Larrazabal said that the assistance would be of great help for the recovery of the farmers in her town who are still reeling and recovering from the devastation brought about by Yolanda and for building back better of their livelihood.
Mayor Larrazabal claims that the assistance will further help her administration to convince more farmers in the town to adhere to the modern and scientific farming and livestock production.
Larrazabal added that the assistance will also help boost the farm productivity in her town and eventually more income of the farmers.
Villaba with a land area of 150.31 square kilometers and 35 barangays is a 3rd class municipality and has a population of 41,891 according to the 2015 census.
(RESTITUTO A.CAYUBIT)

The Philippines’ leading airline, Cebu Pacific (PSE: CEB), has implemented the 20% discount, on top of the exemption from the 12% Value-Added Tax (VAT), on airfare for Senior Citizens and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) across all its booking systems. That means that bookings of Cebu Pacific flights by eligible Senior Citizens and PWDs, whether done via ticket office, online via the CEB website, or through the CEB mobile app, now reflect the applicable discounts on the base fare for flights within the Philippines.
The 20% airfare discount and 12% VAT can be availed by all Filipino Senior Citizens and PWDs. For bookings made through the website or mobile app, the passengers need to input their details, including their date of birth or the number stated on their identification cards (Senior Citizen Card or PWD card). The total amount discounted can be found both on the ‘booking summary’ portion of the website, as well as the ‘fare breakdown’ or ‘payment details’ portion of the itinerary receipt.
The discount extended to Senior Citizens and PWDs only covers airfare, and does not cover ancillary services such as food, baggage allowance and seat selection.
Upon check-in, passengers who availed of the discount are required to present their Senior Citizen ID issued by the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs (OSCA); or PWD ID issued by the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA). In lieu of these, they may show other valid government-issued IDs that reflect their nationality and birthdate such as Passport, Driver’s License, Voter’s ID, SSS/GSIS ID, PRC Card, Postal ID, PWD ID issued by the Office of Persons with Disability Affairs (PDAO) or the City/Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO/MSWDO) of the place where the PWD resides, or their Transportation Discount Fare Identification Card issued by the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP).
“Through this system upgrade, we hope to be able to better serve the travelling public and make it easier for our Senior Citizens and PWDs to avail of the discounts. We also recognize the efforts of the House Committee on Transportation, the Department of Transportation and the Civil Aeronautics Board in drafting these guidelines that would govern the granting of discounts for senior citizens and PWDs on online transactions as these have been seen growing exponentially over the past years,” said Atty. JR Mantaring, Vice President for Corporate Affairs of Cebu Pacific.
CEB flies to 37 domestic destinations, with over 80 routes—the most extensive among Philippine carriers. Its 60-strong fleet is comprised of two Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, eight Airbus A330, eight ATR 72-500, and six ATR 72-600 aircraft. Between 2017 and 2022, CEB expects delivery of 7 Airbus A321ceo, 32 Airbus A321neo, and 10 ATR 72-600 aircraft.

TACLOBAN CITY- Serious on its pursuit to eliminate drug trade and drug use in the city, the administration of Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez staged an anti-drug summit Thursday (September 21).
The summit, held at the Tacloban City Convention Center dubbed as “New Beginnings for Change”, started with a parade across the main streets of the city.
The participants were divided into three: the red team converged at Magsaysay Blvd. Kanhuraw side (downtown section of the city and city hall employees); the white team from Robinsons’ Place (San Jose and Marasbaras areas) and the blue team from the junction of Angelicum School, or those coming from the northern barangays of the city and proceeded to the venue for the program proper.
Carrying the theme: “Pagkaurusa para ha Pagbag-o Kontra Illegal sa Droga, Kriminalidad, Korapsyon ngan Terorismo”, the New Beginnings for Change is an inter-agency program participated by city employees and officials led by Mayor Romualdez, barangay officials and their respective constituents, students, and various organizations in the city.
Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial was the guest speaker who lauded the city government for coming up a program to help drug dependents recover from substance abuse.
During the summit, the Masa Masid app was launched to help address criminalities in the city.
The New Beginnings for Change Program of Tacloban is a holistic approach in dealing with the drug menace in the city.
As of August 2017, 4,402 drug users voluntarily surrendered, 31 barangays were declared as drug- cleared barangays, while 62 barangays were being endorsed to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for drug-clearing.
(GAY B. GASPAY, TISAT/KANHURAW MEDIA TEAM)

CABUCGAYAN, Biliran – The Department of Education (DepEd) Biliran schools division has conducted the 20th division schools press conference 2017 for this province in this town drawing in 813 participants from different elementary and secondary schools in the province.
Town Mayor Edwin Masbang delivered the keynote address during the opening last Thursday (Sept.21).
Delia Quijano, of the DepEd’s Biliran Schools Division and who is in-charge of the campus journalism of the Biliran Schools Division, told Leyte Samar Daily Express activity was participated by 274 pupil journalists in the elementary level with 63 school paper advisers and 415 campus journalists from the secondary level with 61 school paper advisers.
The participants came from the nine districts of the eight towns of the province composed of 125 schools in the elementary and 20 schools in the secondary levels. Other participants included a private secondary school and from Naval State University, she added.
Quijano said that in the competition for individual categories include news writing, feature writing, editorial writing, editorial cartooning, sports writing, copy reading, headline writing, science and technology writing, and photojournalism.
On the other hand, for group categories include desktop collaborative and desktop publishing, radio broadcasting, and television broadcasting.
Quijano said that the program starts at the division level in choosing the best seven students who will be declared winners and who will compete in the regional schools press conference, and the winners at the regional level will eventually proceed to the national schools press conference which is the highest competition in the campus journalism.
Quijano clarified that in the division level, top seven will be chosen but the top 5 will have to proceed to the regional schools press conference while the remaining two will just be reserved if ever top 5 cannot attend for valid reasons.
And on the regional schools press conference, top seven will be chosen but then only the top 3 will have to proceed to the national press conference.
DepEd’s schools press conference is an especial program to develop the talents and skills of the pupils and students in relation to campus journalism, Quijano said.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

PALO, Leyte- The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has announced the winners of this year’s regional invention contest and exhibit.
The holding of the contest is in line with the annual science and technology week. This year’s activity had a theme “Science and Technology for the People.”
This year’s competition was participated by 87 inventors who were either students or professionals from the region which has four categories namely, outstanding student creative research for high school, outstanding student creative research for college, outstanding creative research and outstanding utility model.
Lawyer Marion Ivy Decena, chief science research specialist of the Invention Development Division of Technology Application and Promotion Institute, stated that this activity was a part of the qualifying round for the national invention contest and exhibit next year in Manila.
The following are the list of winners and placers of the four categories:
Outstanding Student Creative Research for High School (SIBOL award)-”Posture Notification System Prototype Using Cyroscope Sensor” by Enrique, MD., Sumagang, H., and Oras, M. of the Philippine Science High School.
Outstanding Student Creative Research for College (SIBOL award) – “Utilization of Sarad (Pinnadae) into Sarad Crackers by Angeline Alberca and Jerson Abalos of Samar State University, Paranas Campus.
Regional Winner – “Computerized Scoring a Paper-based Multiple Choice Exam (PBMCE) through Image Processing” by Hihimo Almenario Jr. of the Eastern Visayas State University.
Outstanding Utility Model- “Process of Preparing Squid Rings” by Leonora Doncillo and Vivian Moya.
The winners will represent the region for the National Invention Contest and Exhibit.
(EMILY MONTALLANA, LNU Student Intern)

MANILA- Ambassador Sung Kim recently administered a swearing-in of three new -in three Peace Corps Response Volunteers (PCRVs) at the Peace Corps Office in Manila.
These PCRVs are experts on information communication technology and are now beginning a five-month assignment with local partner institutions including the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
This group is part of an innovative public-private partnership between the U.S. Peace Corps and IBM in which participants from the IBM Corporate Service Corps (IBM-CSC) and PCRVs collaborate with Philippine partners on high-impact projects in the areas of disaster risk reduction and management.
The PCRVs and IBM-CSC participants will provide technical support to improve the fast and accurate dissemination of information concerning disaster preparation and response.
Along with the efforts to enhance information systems, they will also conduct staff capacity development activities with Pagasa and Phivolcs.
This is the second Peace Corps and IBM partnership in the Philippines. The first was successfully completed in cooperation with the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna, an international research organization dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger, improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers and protecting the rice-growing environment for future generations through rice science.(PR)