As sole authority to conduct anti-illegal drugs operations

TACLOBAN CITY- With President Rodrigo Duterte directing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the sole agency to carry out operations against illegal drugs in the country, an official of the anti-drug agency in the region said that they need additional personnel to carry out such mission.
Rogelette Urgel, PDEA’s regional spokesperson, said that their current strength is not enough for them to carry out anti-drug operations across the region, composed of six provinces and seven cities.
Urgel, however, said that they welcome the order of Mr. Duterte, issued on October 10, as it is the mandate of PDEA to address the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.
“Of course we welcome this directive of the President. However, our campaign may be hampered due to lack of personnel,” Urgel said.
“For us to cover the entire region, perhaps we need an additional 100 agents,” she added.
At present, PDEA-8 has about 100 personnel which is headed by Regional Director Edgar Jubay.
She also said that while the President now gave PDEA the sole authority to conduct anti-drug operations, they would continue to work closely with the Philippine National Police (PNP), which earlier played a significant role in the anti-drug campaign.
She, however, stressed that the police organization could not conduct any anti-drug operations without the consent or coordination with their agency.
The campaign to eliminate illegal drugs in the country under the administration of Pres. Duterte has turned out to be controversial due to reported extrajudicial killings which now runs to close to 3,000 as claimed by the administration’s critics, to include human rights groups.
The huge number is being contested by the Philippine National Police.
In the region, lawyer Desiree Pontejos, officer-in-charge of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said that they have monitored 36 so-called extrajudicial killings across the region.
These killings include that of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who was gunned down inside his cell at the Leyte subprovincial jail in Baybay City on November 4, 2016 by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Angelika Bonita, 18.
Urgel said that aside from giving PDEA additional personnel, they also need cooperation from the people in the communities.
Meantime, Urgel said that out of the 4,390 barangays in the region, more than 350 of them have been declared as ‘drug-cleared’ by their office.
She also said that the towns of General MacArthur, Maslog, both in Eastern Samar; Limasawa in Southern Leyte; Pagsanghan and Motiong, both in Samar, have been declared as drug-cleared.
By drug-cleared it means absence of a drug supplier in a particular area though there could still be drug dependents, Urgel said.

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)