Federalism among possible issues

TACLOBAN CITY- All the governors and mayors of the region have already confirmed their attendance for a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte scheduled next week in Cebu City.
This was disclosed by the regional director of the Department of Interior and Local Government(DILG) who added that two Samar mayors, however, have begged off due to conflict of schedules.
The President is scheduled to meet all the governors and mayors from Visayas and Mindanao on Feb.12 in Cebu City.
Maribel Sacendoncillo, DILG-8 regional director, said that while the date of the meeting was specified on their letter among governors and mayors, the issue or issues to be discussed was not mentioned.
“But for sure, various issues such as anti-drug campaign and federalism could be discussed during the meeting,” she said, adding that the travels of the officials are considered as ‘official travel.’
Sacendoncillo said that all the six governors, seven city mayors, and 134 municipal mayors have already signified their attendance at the meeting.
“But two municipal mayors in Samar have informed us that they could not attend the meeting with the President due to conflict of schedules,” she said.
According to her, originally the Cebu City meeting among Visayas and Mindanao officials was scheduled on Feb.1 but was eventually moved to Feb.12.
Meantime, Borongan City Mayor Ma. Fe Abunda said that she is looking forward to the meeting and expect the issue on federalism would be discussed by the President.
“Honestly, I don’t have any idea about federalism. I need to be enlightened more about it. That is why, whenever I am asked about it, I could not give a categorical answer because I don’t really have a full grasp about federalism,” Abunda said.

By: Joey Gabieta

CALBAYOG CITY- Education Secretary Leonor Briones emphasizes the importance of sports in everyday life saying being sports-minded or physically fit could be a contributory factor how one could succeed in life.
Briones was in the city Thursday (February 8) to grace the Eastern Visayas Regional Athletic Association (EVRAA) Meet which is held here which ended Friday.
She was welcomed by City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino, Samar Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento and regional officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) lead by Director Ramir Uytico.
During her talks with the student-athletes, Briones emphasized on how important sports to everyone.
According to her, that development of critical thinking, capacity to ask questions and to innovate could not be gained by an individual if he or she is not fit in mind and body.
“You cannot do all your things if you are not fit in mind and in body and this is where sports is very important. Physical fitness is very important whether you are in academic or in vocational or in arts,” Briones said.
The Education Secretary said that a minimal number of students and their parents chose sports as their field saying being an athlete could also be financially rewarding.
“We think sports is only for young people who cannot finish school but sports in itself is a great profession. It is highly respected. It is also financially rewarding profession,” she said.
Sec. Briones said that of the 1.9 million students who are in the senior high school, only .001 percent have chosen sports as their field while 60 percent are taking academic, 39 percent had chosen vocational or technical course and the remaining percentage of students chose culture and arts.
Briones expressed her gratitude for the support of the city government of Calbayog and Rep. Sarmiento for the successful staging of this year’s EVRAA.
For EVRAA 2018, about P1.5 million was allocated by DepEd,P700,000 of this amount came from the budget from the regional office.
The Ormoc City Division is this year’s runaway champions with 98 gold, 44 silver and 60 bronze medals as of Thursday.
Last year’s champions, the Leyte Division, landed second with 64 gold, 53 silver and 39 bronze medals. (JENNIFER SUMAGANG-ALLEGADO/ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) has given an award to the provincial government of Leyte for developing a software that results to fast service among the clients.
The recognition was held on February 1 and was personally accepted by Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla and his elder brother, former governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, whose administration the software was first developed.
The award is the recognition of PhilHealth for the software or the computer program developed by the provincial government, which is the first and the only accredited by PhilHealth in the country, that greatly improves the submission and payment of claims of the health institutions accredited by the said health insurance agency.
Gov.Petilla, in an interview, said that the province has developed the program or software to be used in reporting electronically the submission of claims by hospitals or other health institutions for their patients to Philhealth as well as payment of those claims by Philhealth to the hospitals or health institutions.
He said that with the software, reporting or submission of claims for the patients of the hospitals and other health institutions in Leyte to Philhealth and payments is now faster and easier.
Petilla said that with the use of the software results to more efficient transactions as its result to lower the rejection rate of claims and in effect also result in high claim rate.
He added that more patients can avail of Philhealth services and has a better system for the submission and payment of claims.
He said that there are already hospitals in Leyte which are already using the software for Philhealth transactions.
The governor claims that the software is the first and the only accredited by Philhealth for hospital operation.
The software can be used without the internet connection and during calamities as it can be used in offline mode.
Renato Limsiaco Jr.,Philhealth regional vice president for Eastern Visayas, based in this city told reporters in an interview, that the Philhealth certification given to Leyte is very critical in the implementation of the electronic claims as the submission to Philhealth electronically automated by the end of March this year and no more manual submission to us and the acceptance of claims should also be electronically done.
“(This ensure) a very fast transaction and the payment release to the facilities is also very fast and that we need to pay the hospital or facility as fast as we can,” Limsiaco said. (RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

TACLOBAN CITY – Local government units are given until March to complete all the P2.52 billion projects meant for the rehabilitation of facilities damaged by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ or else funds will be reverted back to the central government.
Regional Director Maribel Sacendoncillo of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Eastern Visayas said on Thursday that all bottlenecks have been addressed in a recent meeting with local officials, as they committed to finish all projects within the first quarter of 2018.
As of the end of 2017, at least 229 Recovery Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) projects are still ongoing and 145 have not yet started out of the 2,287 projects implemented in three phases since 2014.
A big majority or 1,1817 projects are already done.
“All these projects must have to be completed by March 2018 otherwise money will be returned to the national treasury. There’s no other option,” the DILG regional chief warned.
Among the cause of delays are the late submission of revised detailed engineering designs documents, realignment of unutilized funds, land, and right of way acquisition issues, partially damaged buildings were used by other government offices, procurement delays, among others.
“The most serious was political differences between the mayor and members of the town council. The local legislative branch refused to issue an authority to the mayor to enter an agreement with DILG. We have to intervene to address this concern,” Sacendoncillo explained.
Of the P2.52 billion allotment for RAY projects, P934 million were released for phase 1 (144 projects), P995.05 million for phase 2 (1,652 projects), and P592.63 million for phase 3 (491 projects).
Under the first batch, the national government had invested for the repair of buildings owned by 61 towns and city governments along the super typhoon Yolanda’s path in Eastern Visayas region.
The second batch was focused on the rebuilding of village facilities.
The third batch funded the repair of halls of justice, public terminals, community centers, and spill over projects under the first two phases.
RAY is the government’s strategic plan to guide the recovery and reconstruction of the economy, lives, and livelihoods in the affected areas of the 2013 monster typhoon.
The objective of the plan is to restore the economic and social conditions of these areas at the very least to their pre-typhoon levels and to a higher level of disaster resilience.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY-(CIO) — Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez visited Barangay 106-Sto. Niño on Wednesday, for the conduct of the highly popular outreach program of the city government — the Barangayan.
Mayor Romualdez mingled with residents from nearby permanent housing projects in the area such as New Hope, GMA Kapuso Village, Habitat, and St. Francis, which availed of free services like hair cutting, feeding for malnourished kids, and other frontline city government services.
Doctors and medical personnel from the City Health Office also conducted medical consultations and dispensed free medicines during the Barangayan.
Hygiene kits and mosquito nets were also distributed by the City Social Welfare and Development Office to the residents during the half-day Barangayan.
Other city departments which brought their services to the outreach program were the Public Employment and Services Office (PESO), City Cooperative office and the City Veterinary Office (CVO) which conducted free dog vaccination, as part of its anti-rabies campaign.
The Barangayan which brings much-needed social services to far-flung is a priority program of Mayor Romualdez.
(HENRY JAMES ROCA)

TACLOBAN CITY- The regional office of the National Food Authority (NFA) in the region reported that its stock of rice is now only good for two days.
However, Raymund Tafalla, assistant regional manager of NFA-8, said that there is nothing to be worried about on their low supply saying that there is more than enough of commercial rice in the market for consumers to buy.
He said that NFA-milled rice only consists about 2 percent of the regional household consumption.
“Our role is just to ensure that there is a stability of rice supply. Right now, while we have a supply of rice of just 64,000 bags which is just enough for two days assuming that all rice supplies will be procured from NFA, there are more than enough of commercial rice available in the market,” Tafalla said.
He also added that due to the series of flooding and bad weather that hit the region, their focus now is to ensure that there are available NFA rice that they could distribute to the affected areas once needed.
Just last month, about 14,000 bags of NFA rice were distributed to different areas in the region hit by the massive flooding spawned by tropical storm ‘Agaton.’
According to Tafalla, as of last month, Eastern Visayas has more than 967,000 bags household consumption of rice of which there were more than 1.73 million bags of commercial rice available.
But still, due to their low supply, NFA-accredited retailers are now only allowed to procure 2 to 5 bags from the previous 20 to 30 bags.
“We have also asked our rice retailers not to increase their prices as we still have enough supply of commercial rice. There is nothing to worry about,” Tafalla said.
At present, a kilogram of NFA rice is at P27.00.
Evangeline Herrera, 58 and a rice retailer at the Tacloban city public market confirmed of lack of NFA-supplied rice.
“We have not procured NFA rice since last week due to low of supply. What we have now are more of commercial rice,” she said.
She, however, admitted that because of the natural calamities like flooding and typhoons that hit the region recently, prices of rice per bag has gone up.
Thus, she said, she was compelled to increase her prices to earn.
She said that she increased by P5 of the rice she sells.
“Some of our customers complained about the increased price but we cannot do anything because we bought our supplies at a higher price,” Herrera said.
She said that the previous P1,950 per bag, she now gets her supplies from her suppliers at P2,050 per bags.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)