TACLOBAN CITY- A vocational and technical training building was formally opened in this city which its donors also describing it as a “life skills training facility.”
The two-story building, inaugurated on Wednesday (Sept.13) was donated by the Consuelo Foundation, which is part of its assistance to Tacloban City after it was battered by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013, to a local based nongovernment organization, Streetlight Philippines, Inc(SPI).
SPI, run by Neva and her Norwegian husband Erlend Johannesen, deals with street children and out-of-school youths for the past 14 years now in Tacloban City.
The Consuelo Foundation, named after from Consuelo Zobel Alger and founded in 1988, was among the private sectors that extended assistance to Leyte and Samar when Yolanda pummeled Eastern Visayas.
And one of the beneficiaries of this new training center, located in Barangay Tagpuro which is around 13 kms north from the city proper, is Gladys, 22.
Gladys (whose family name is being withheld on request of the SPI) said that she is happy that she is one of the 56 scholar-beneficiaries of the training center.
She is enrolled in automotive, a work mostly associated with males.
“I just find it challenging and from what I heard, one can easily land a job in automotive as it is one of the in demands both here and abroad,” she said.
Gladys is the third in the brood of six siblings. Their father abandoned them WHEN she was just a baby. Her mother is jobless with her grandmother, on mother side, helping them on their daily needs.
She will train at the facility for six months.
Lawyer Carmela Andal-Castro, managing director of the Consuelo Foundation, said that the facility will not only provide their scholars needed technical and vocational skills ‘but skills for life.’
“In the center, will have continuous training skills among young adults and at risk youths, both vocational technical skills, and values which we call skills for life,” Andal-Castro said.
The facility offers automotive, engine repair and maintenance, welding, and refrigerator and air-conditioning repair.
On the aspect of ‘skills for life,’ the scholar-beneficiaries will be taught on value formation, work ethic, adolescent reformation, health, conflict resolution, leadership and civic engagement.
“We want to equip them with both soft skills and the technical skills to succeed and bring their respective communities and families on higher grounds,” she added.
Norwegian Ambassador Erik Forner, who graced the opening of the facility, expressed his ‘amazement’ to both SPI and Consuelo Foundation for coming up with the facility.
“We’re happy that both Consuelo Foundation has partnered with the Streetlight Philippine Inc. where they can even help more children out of the harms of the streets in Tacloban,” Forner said. (JOEY A. GABIETA/ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY-“Let us join millions of people around the globe in rehabilitating and cleaning our coastal areas, seas, rivers and waterways from marine debris that harm our marine life and ecosystems this International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day, September 16”, says Assistant Regional Director for Management Service and in-charge of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 8 Arturo N. Salazar.
In observance of this year’s International Coastal Clean-up Day, the Conservation and Development Division of the DENR Regional Office and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) will spearhead a clean-up activity along the coast of Panalaron Bay, Cancabato Bay, San Pedro Bay and Mangonbangon River.
The activity will start simultaneously in every designated area at six o’clock in the morning of September 16. After the cleanup, a short program will be held at Plaza Rizal, this city.
Nearly 300 volunteers will join the event. This includes partners from different agencies and civil society organizations such as ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, Let’s Do It! Philippines, Philippine National Police, Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and PCG-Auxiliary, Knights of Columbus, United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), Volunteer for the Visayans, Petron Corporation, Tacloban City Rescue Unit (TACRU), Rotary Club of Kandaya, SEED4Com, the city government of Tacloban and other national and local government agencies.
Information from the EMB states that for this year, an orchestrated cleanup will be conducted by donor-partners of the Adopt-an-Estero/Waterbody Program.
A synchronized coastal cleanup will also be spearheaded by different DENR field offices in other parts of the region.
The EMB also disclosed that recyclable wastes collected from the clean-up will be sold to junk shops. Proceeds will be donated to Tahanang Walang Hagdan, a non-government organization.
“We enjoin the active participation of the public in cleaning-up our waterways especially this International Coastal Clean-up Day and in ensuring a safe and sound environment beneficial to the health and well-being of the community”, says assistant regional director Salazar.
The International Coastal Cleanup Day is being observed annually every third Saturday of September in consonance with Presidential Proclamation No. 470 signed on September 15, 2003 and consistent with Proclamation No. 244 declaring September as National Clean-up Month.(PR)

CATARMAN, Northern Samar- Three fishermen were rescued off the waters of Capul, this province, on Wednesday (Sept.13) after their unmarked fishing boat was battered by strong winds and currents.
The rescued fishermen were identified as Ricardo Osasena, Ceasar Tupaz, and Dino Atigo, all residents of Cataingan, Masbate province.
Inspector Ricardo Banjawan, Capul police chief, said that he and his men were on board a passenger boat on their way to Allen town when they saw the motorized fishing boat where the fishermen were on board with a white cloth hung at its mast.
Banjawan said that when they spotted the fishing boat at around 7 am, it was already “half submerged.”
The rescued fishermen disclosed to the police that they were from Masbate to deliver their catch to Naval, Biliran when they were battered by strong winds.
Soon water rushed into their boat and the strong sea current drifted them away towards Capul Island.
The fishermen also said that they have to throw to the sea their catch of fish to ensure that their boat would not completely sink.
Banjawan ordered for the three to be brought to Allen District Hospital for a medical checkup and were released by 12 noon on that same day.
“Dumating yung amo nila, ang may ari ng pumpboat, at sinundo na sila para makauwi sa Masbate,” he said.
The officer said they have verified that the persons they rescued were indeed fishermen. The police found empty styrofoam boxes in the rescued boat and other fishing paraphernalia.
(RACHEL V. ARNAIZ)