BORONGAN CITY- For good governance and transparency, Eastern Samar Development Project Monitoring Team (ESDPMT), Department of Public Works and Highways Eastern Samar District Engineering Office (DPWH ESDEO) and National Irrigation Administration (NIA) joined together in one meeting on January 18, 2019 at DPWH ESDEO Function Hall to discuss status of infrastructure projects in the province of Eastern Samar.
The meeting was initiated by ESDPMT, an independent, ethics-oriented civil society group, composed of individuals representing the various stakeholders.
The team is composed of lawyers, engineers, personalities from the academe, religious group and other sectors in the government.
During the preliminaries, Bishop Crispin Varquez, one of the leaders and organizers of ESDPMT, stated that the main purpose of the meeting is to monitor and ensure the proper implementation of infrastructure projects in the province.
The assembly discussed the DPWH Eastern Samar on-going and lined up projects; Maydolong-Basey Road construction update; status of damaged roads along national highways; engineering solution to landslide-prone areas and situation of the irrigation system in Eastern Samar.
District Engineer Manolo A. Rojas of DPWH ESDEO said that 107 project will be implemented in Eastern Samar this 2019.
“Our total appropriation for this year 2019 once approved is worth 1.6 billion pesos, this includes improvement of shoulders and drainage system along landslide prone areas particularly in Llorente and Giporlos, flood control projects, roads leading to tourism destinations and other local infra projects,” added DE Rojas.
DE Rojas also disclosed that the Samar Island Natural Park-Protected Area Management Board (SINP-PAMB) EXECOM resolution was already approved. The said resolution is endorsing the DPWH for prior clearance to continue the construction of Maydolong-Basey Road.
“We still have four phases to fully complete the Maydolong-Basey road project amounting to P839.2 million, but for the 2019, our focus is to finish prior year contract since it was suspended last year,” said DE Rojas.
Maydolong-Basey road is one of the high impact projects of DPWH because once completed, it will be the shortest route from Borongan to Tacloban and will save an hour travel from the usual four hours ride via Lawaan.
The district engineer mentioned also future network road development plans like the Can-avid-Dolores-Maslog-Jipapad-Las Navas bypass road.
“Our plan is to link this road to San Jose de Buan which when realized will comprise the Samar Island Central Highway,” added DE Rojas.
Meanwhile Dr. Leovigildo Cardenas, a dean from the Eastern Samar State University and one of the members of ESDPMT, posted a thank you message in his Facebook account to DE Rojas for being accommodating and supportive to the monitoring team.
On the comment section, one of the netizens named Felisa Gomba, admired the DPWH Eastern Samar District Engineering Office for reporting its accomplishments to external stakeholders.
“It takes a lot of courage to submit projects for assessment by volunteers of professionals,” Gomba said.
ESDPMT has been a monitoring government projects for 11 years which ensures that transactions will bring to a higher moral ground through honest, efficient and transparent use of the public funds allocated to improve the delivery of basic services to the people.
The vision of ESDPMT is that Eastern Samar will become a place where people lives in peace and prosperity and in a manner befitting their dignity as human beings.
(JAYSON ESPEJO, PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- The mayor of Guiuan town in Eastern Samar who was ordered suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman cries political harassment.
Mayor Christopher Sheen Gonzales, outgoing mayor of Guiuan town, said that he finds it unfortunate that the decision of the anti-graft court came at a time as the country is to hold elections.
He said that the case against him was filed while he was seeking for a reelection as mayor of Guiuan in March, 2016.
Gonzales, who is serving his third and last term as mayor of Guiuan is seeking for a congressional seat for Eastern Samar lone congressional district in this year’s midterm elections.
“It’s purely harassment and politically motivated. This issue always come out every election. But it’s not true because the local government of Guiuan has no disallowances from the Commission on Audit,” Gonzales said.
He also said that the complaint against him were fabricated and that he submitted the lacking documents before the anti-graft court when he was asked to answer it earlier.
“There was no findings by the Ombudsman that there were overpriced but just lack of documents which we already provided earlier,” Gonzales said.
He also said that he has yet to receive the copy of the Ombudsman ruling. But once he received it, he would immediately file his motion for reconsideration.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires, on his February 12 order, preventively suspended Gonzales for six months without pay for grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty.
The case against Gonzales stemmed from a complaint filed by Kiriath Jearn Andrie Tumanda and Avelino Balagbis, Jr., both residents of the town, claiming for misuse of Recovery Assistance on Yolanda (RAY), a fund downloaded to towns and cities hit by Yolanda from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The town received P43 million intended for the repair of its municipal building and P13 million for its public market.
It also received P152.99 million to be used for the repair of about 89 barangay halls.
But the Ombudsman, however, said that its Field Investigation Bureau found no proof contractors, Pedro S. Labasbas Construction and EDG Americas Inc., submitted documents stating their technical, legal and financial competence to undertake the projects.
The Ombudsman said EDG Americas Inc., which bagged the contract for the works involving the repair of public market and the barangay facilities, also deviated from the approved plans stated in the program of works, such as discrepancies in the construction materials used and the number of floors built.
Also suspended by the Ombudsman were municipal accountant Adrian Bernardo; municipal treasurer Felicisima Bernardo; bids and awards committee members Arsenio Salamida, Esperanza Cortin, Danilo Colandog, Gilberto Labicante, Ma. Nenita Ecleo, and Felipe Padual; and Zosimo Macabasag, BAC technical working group member.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA/JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY-The first ever Human Milk Bank for Visayas was installed on Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in this city.
Costing an approximate P9 million, the equipment that preserve the human milk is a lone donation of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in its aim to help the people in the region promote exclusive breastfeeding and prevent disease and mortality among babies and infants.
As Chief of EVRMC, Dr. Salvador Evardone, expressed his overwhelming joy during the inauguration program, because according to him, this is another health program which the region’s medical center can give service to the people with excellence.
Asked why EVRMC was chosen among other big hospitals in Eastern Visayas, Dr. Wigdan Marani, UNICEF’s representative and chief for health and nutrition said, that after super typhoon “Yolanda,” they saw how EVRMC responded to the traumatized victims of the disaster, children in particular.
“We were witnesses of babies and infants in need of medical attention and nutritional intervention. We knew then they could not be fed properly of their mothers’ milk because of the trauma the parents themselves manifested from the enormous disaster,” Dr. Marani shared.
“In an area that is prone to disaster, there could be a high incidence of infant mortality, thus UNICEF pours medical and nutritional assistance for the people in Tacloban in particular, being the most “Yolanda” devastated area,” Marani added.
She also appealed to lactating mothers to donate their milk to help save the lives of babies requiring the world’s best milk.
The Human Milk Bank is capable to store the human milk in a week time, after it has undergone the process from expressing to pasteurizing to thawing etc.
It is made available to babies needing to be fed with the human milk as prescribed by a doctor.
“Breastfeeding mothers have only to include any soup of their taste in their diet to produce the milk, so there wouldn’t be any problem in producing it, as other mothers assert they don’t have,” said Dr. Nelita Salinas, EVRMC’s chairman of Pediatrics Department, “and since the milk is donated, it shall be given free, except for the pasteurizing cost of P220 per 100ml,” Dr. Salinas further informed. (AENicart/PIA-8)

BORONGAN CITY- Department of Public Works and Highways Eastern Samar District Engineering Office (DPWH ESDEO) completed 16 river landing projects in the upstream barangays in Can-avid, Dolores, Oras, Eastern Samar.
These river landing structures are convergence projects of DPWH funded by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
These completed projects were constructed at the five upstream barangays in Can-avid, Eastern Samar namely Malogo, Mabuhay, Camantang, Caghalong, and Baruk; another six barangays in Dolores, Eastern Samar particularly in Sta. Cruz, San Pascual, Magsaysay, Denigpian, San Roque and Buenavista; and another five remote areas in Oras, Eastern Samar in Cagdine, Gamot, Batang, Alang-alang and Cadian.
According to District Engineers Manolo A. Rojas, river landing projects are small ports constructed along the shore of rivers at the upstream barangays.
DE Rojas also disclosed that the completion of the projects will provide convenient and safe facilities to commuting public and easy transportation of goods and services to nearby mainland.
Meanwhile, the project manager of DOTr-Maritime Sector Julius Carlos said in an interview that these projects were mentioned by President Duterte in his first state of the nation address (SONA) regarding the socio-economic development that promotes inter-island linkages.
“With the absence of a road network, the next best means of transportation especially in the island provinces is to use water transport. DOTr implements these development projects to give the people the privilege of a safe, convenient and affordable transport experience throughout the archipelago,” said Carlos.(JAYSON ESPESO,PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- On top of the vaccine, breast milk could have minimized the number of measles-infected babies and infants in the region.
So said Dr. Exuperia Sabelberino, assistant regional director (ARD) of the Department of Health 8 (DOH-8) during the inauguration ceremony of the Human Milk Bank on Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), here.
“Babies are protected from diseases when mothers breastfeed them exclusively from birth to six months and up to two years,” she said.
“However, there is a very low coverage in the region, of mothers who are feeding their babies with their milk only, despite the best quality that is being told them by health workers and media,” she added.
Sabelberino recalled that in the olden days, there were lesser babies who were affected by measles, six months after birth, because they were fed exclusively with their mother’s milk.
“In the recent days, however, babies as young as three months were already reported to have been infected with the highly viral disease, some even died,” she lamented.
“It could be because many mothers today, either are not aware or refuse to believe that the human milk is filled with substances that are not present in animal’s milk nor in other commercial formula,” she pointed out.
“Breastfeeding should be a multi-sectoral concern, from correct information, advocacy campaign to behavior change and practices, because breastfeeding is more than just a nutrition,” Dr. Sabelberino concluded.
(AEN/PIA-8)