PALO, Leyte-Five years after the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’, the auditorium of Saint Paul School of Professional Studies (SPSPS) based this town was finally refurbished with new amenities added.
Erwin Vincent Alcala, president and board chair of SPSPS, said that the family of Mary Ngo, to which the new refurbished auditorium was named, was kind enough to donate 10 air conditioning units for the auditorium.
However, Johnny Chu Go, representative of family, said that they decided to donate the glass enclosure to make the donation complete.
Alcala informed that the auditorium was damaged during Yolanda and the school management started to look for funds for its repair.
The school requested Johnny Go for the refurbishment of the building said Alcala.
The donations included 10 units of 5-tonners and glass enclosures.
Alcala said that the air-conditioned consumption of the auditorium is equal to the air-conditioned consumption of the whole school, emphasizing how expensive the cost of the facility.
With the desire of the school to provide affordable accommodation to the people of Eastern Visayas, the school invested along with donation of benefactors.
Students can use the facility for free while other entities who want to use it will be charged.
And even before its formal inauguration last Friday ((Feb.15), the venue had been used in various national event with several schools based in Metro Manila visiting the SPSPS for benchmarking.
The school authorities who visited SPSPS brought with them to Manila the best practices of the school because of the school’s facilities, Alcala said.
“It makes us proud that a provincial school is considered as a benchmark of top universities in other places,” the SPSPs president said.
The blessing and formal turn-over of the Mary Ngo Auditorium was graced by the Ngo’s family, Archbishop John Du, and other school officials.
(LIZBETH ANN A.ABELLA)

In Biliran

TACLOBAN CITY- Recipients of a housing resettlement project in Culaba, Biliran have alleged that they are being threatened of being delisted if they will not vote ‘straight’ in the forthcoming May 13 elections.
Margarita Villegas, a resident of Barangay Marbel of said town, claimed that they were asked to ‘vote straight’ in favor of outgoing Mayor Lorenzo Reveldez who is running for vice governor of the province, and his brother, Councilor Rodito Reveldez, who is running for mayor of the town.
“We were told that we will not be awarded with our housing unit if we will not vote straight,” Villegas, in a media interview, said.
Culaba is a recipient of a housing project from the National Housing Authority (NHA) located in Barangay Guinapondan.
The housing project is part of the government’s Yolanda assistance program.
In Culaba, the recipients of this housing project are families living in coastal areas, declared as danger zones, of the town.
The said housing project has more than 700 units but many of the recipients chose not to occupy their units due to absence of water and power supplies.
Villegas said that they find it unfair that their eventual occupation to their housing units is being politicized.
“We are the beneficiaries of this pabahay project of our government but we will not be given our unit as he claimed that he has the right whom he want to award the units,” she said, referring to Mayor Reveldez.
Mayor Reveldez was contacted by Leyte Samar Daily Express for his side through his mobile phone on this claim by the beneficiaries but did not received a reply from him.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

In Ormoc City

ORMOC CITY-A two-storey, 6-classroom school building and a technical vocational laboratory (TVL) multi-purpose building were turned over by Rep. Lucy Marie Torres-Gomez and the Department of Public Works and Highways Leyte Fourth District Engineering Office led by Lino Francisco C. Gonzalez, last (February 10).
The school buildings are convergence project between Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The two-storey building amounting P11,429,393 and TVL which cost P 2,521,338 are under the Basic Education Facilities Fund 2017 (BEFF) of DepEd which was implemented by DPWH – Leyte 4th District Engineering Office (DEO).
The new classroom building can accommodate an average of 300 students, thence, minimizing classroom congestion.
This year, under the BEFF 2018, DepEd – DPWH Convergence Program is implementing sixty-nine (69) school building projects, out of the 69 sites, 34 sites are implemented in Ormoc City Division, and the other sites are under Leyte Division.
In addition, the school buildings are scheduled to be completed on the first quarter of the year, except for the multi-storey buildings.
This convergence project between the DepEd and DPWH demonstrates that coordination is needed in order to build quality school building infrastructures and facilities for every Filipino student. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY-One ambulant vendor of peanut butter and fruits, and two medical interns of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) who were inside the DA-Regional Office 8 compound to seek help in getting technical assistance and information regarding rural urban and backyard gardening were among the first three clients served right away by the newly launched “Malasakit Help Desk (MHD)” put up at the DA-Regional Office, Kanhuraw Hill, Tacloban City.
Senior citizen Silving Abarquez of Sagkahan District, Tacloban City, along with two young medical interns Heide Batula and Mafil Calamay of Palo and Tacloban City, respectively, who are presently conducting an immersion activity at the Habitat Village, a resettlement area located in Brgy. Tagpuro, this city, promptly got the assistance they sought from the office.
Coincidentally, they came in while the Malasakit Help Desk is being inaugurated and launched on Monday(February 18) in line with Secretary Emmanuel F. Pinol’s mandate to replicate similar center in the different DA-Regional Offices nationwide.
It may be recalled that on Valentine’s Day (February 14), DA top officials led by Secretary Manny F. Piñol spearheaded the launching of the Malasakit Help Desk at the DA Central Office.
Accordingly, the Help Desk will serve as an integrated window for selected services not only of the DA, but also of its bureaus, attached agencies and corporations.
DA-8’s Regional Executive Director Milo delos Reyes, who is on official travel, has been well-represented by no less than the two Assistant Regional Directors Elvira C. Torres and Andrew T. Orais who both explained that today’s launching of MHD in the region was in response also of RED delos Reyes “who urged us to immediately put up the said Malasakit Center within the vicinity of the DA-RFO 8.”
The said help desk complements the Public Assistance Center already established in all DA offices as mandated under Republic Act 9485 otherwise known as the “Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.” Thus, to be easily accessible, the Help Desk has been set up at the ground floor of the DA-Regional Office 8 Main Building, just near to the DA-8 Library and the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Information Section (Rafis).
According to Atty. Wilfredo Pascua, assistant chief of the Admin and Finance Division, like what DA Central Office is doing, the MHD will initially provide access to agri-fishery information and data, registration and accreditation; agri-fishery profiling and validation; access to development interventions consisting of credit facilities, crop insurance, including scholarships, trainings and seminars, as well as possible employment opportunities and many more.
Through the Help Desk, farmers, fisherfolk, and other agriculture stakeholders can easily avail of the services offered by the Department. It is expected that the establishment of this Help Desk could ease-up the doing of business in the regional office, and bring the government closer to the people as envisioned by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte. (PR)