TACLOBAN CITY- The regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) is upbeat of the tourism industry’s brighter future in Eastern Visayas with the easy access by air, sea, and land.
The region’s strategic location in the central Philippines makes it very accessible through different means of transportation, according to DOT Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes.
“Tacloban is the region’s main gateway by air. It is served by three major airlines with a total of 96 flights per week from and to Manila, Cebu, Davao, and by next year, Clark. Accessibility is a primary consideration for visiting a place,” Tiopes said.
Tacloban’s Daniel Z. Romualdez (DZR) Airport is ranked as the country’s 9th busiest airport in 2016 with 1.1 million inbound and outbound passengers.
In Calbayog City, eight flights per week serve the Calbayog-Manila and Calbayog-Cebu routes while the Ormoc City’s airport in the western part of Leyte has seven flights in a week to and from Cebu.
Catarman Airport in Northern Samar has four flights a week from and to Manila.
Air connectivity between Cebu and Naval in Biliran, and between Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Cebu and Tagbilaran is made possible through Air Juan.
From April to June 2017 alone, the region’s 10 airports recorded a passenger movement of 642,701, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
This is due to the onset of summer season and long holidays during Holy Week.
In terms of access by land, Eastern Visayas serves as the vital link that promotes connectivity between Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Land travel from north to south pass this route via the Maharlika Highway, using roll-on roll-off ports in Southern Leyte and Northern Samar.
“With seaports located in various localities in the region, sea travel between Luzon, other parts of Visayas and Mindanao is also convenient,” Tiopes said.
In 2016, the region ushered 1.22 million visitors, a significant increase from the measly 365,000 arrivals in 2011.
From a 6 percent to 7 percent annual growth target, stakeholders increased it to at least 20 percent annually for both domestic and foreign guest arrivals.
Of the 3.23 million projected arrivals after six years, 81,936 of them are foreign and 3.15 million of them are domestic.
Tourism stakeholders of the region are eyeing at least 1.31 million to 3.23 million annual tourists from 2017 to 2022 as outlined in the new development roadmap. (MELVA MAE C. MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY-Believing that this city has recovered from the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda,’ couple Mira and Sinclair Lucero has put up a business.
On November 11 of this year, the couple personally welcomed their customers at their newly-opened SOS (Save on Surplus) store, incidentally, the first branch of the said well-known store in Eastern Visayas.
The SOS Tacloban branch is located along Marasbaras district.
“We are just glad to open a branch here in Tacloban City and we know that our store will be patronized by its people and even those coming outside the city,” Mira Lucero said.
“We are optimistic that we will make good here considering that we are not only offering good service for our prospective customers but competitive prices for all the items that we sell here at SOS. We see an opportunity here in Tacloban,” she added.
According to Mira, she and her husband are loyal customers of SOS, franchise arm of HRM Philippines, Inc. reason why they decided to open its branch in Tacloban.
The Lucero couple is the franchise holder of SOS-Tacloban, becoming the 21st outlets of said company in the country.
By opening a branch in Tacloban, customers from the city and other parts of the region could now enjoy the “SOS-” type of service and products being sold,Mira said.
“It’s actually like giving back. The people here need not go to Cebu or Manila just to experience how to buy in an SOS store,” she said.
The opening of the SOS-Tacloban, which is occupying about 700 square meters of an old warehouse converted into a store, also generated employment to locals.
Teofila Brosas, executive secretary of Mayor Cristina Romualdez, said that the city government is happy for the opening of SOS in Tacloban City.
“This only affirms that business confidence has been restored after Tacloban City was devastated by Yolanda in 2013,” she said during an interview.
Katrina Tolentino, franchise manager of HMR, said that they are also glad that finally, their store is now serving the people of Tacloban and the region.
She guarantees to the public that aside from low prices, all the items that SOS is selling are of good quality, many were made from the United States and Australia.
“Our products are affordable. So it’s a destination store for all…” she said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- Elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Samar conducted separate anti-drug operations in Calbayog City that resulted in the arrest of three men in possession of 23 sachets of methamphatime hydrochloride or shabu.
PDEA Regional Director Edgar Jubay, in a press statement, said that the separate operations in Barangay Balud of the said city last December 3 resulted in the arrest of Wilan Amaro, Rolando Cagomoc, and Rodrigo Ruado.
Seized from Amaro’s possession were 11 sachets of shabu while six sachets of the prohibited drug were seized each from Cagomoc and Ruado.
Cagomoc and Ruado are now detained at the Calbayog City Police Station lock-up facility while Amaro was able to elude from the anti-drug operatives.
All three were charged for possession and selling of the illegal drugs.
The operations were also involved members of the Calbayog city police and 2nd platoon of the 3rd Company of the Regional Public Safety Battalion. (PR)

Unsolved killings continue

CALBAYOG CITY- The apparent relentless killings involving barangay officials of this city have stalked fear among them to the extent some have expressed their desire to step down from their posts.
But Mayor Ronald Aquino appealed to them not to quit from their posts as he instead asked them to work together to help him end the killing incidents.
The recent victim of these killing incidents involving a barangay official of the city was Roberto Gacelos, chairman of Barangay San Jose who was gunned down last November 15 by still unidentified armed men.
Incidentally, a police detachment is located 100 meters away from where Gacelos was murdered.
A staff of Mayor Aquino, Joe Patrick Lentejas, was also shot to death five days later by still unidentified suspects.
It was learned that before they were murdered both Gacelos and Lentejas received death threats.
Because of these series of incidents, some village leaders have expressed their fears and wanted to resign from their positions to avoid being targeted.
“I don’t know why all these senseless killings are happening in our city and I don’t know for how long we will continue to live in fear,” a village official, who asked not to be named, said.
“We are appealing to our police authorities to do something to end these senseless killings. All we want is to live in peace,” the official added.
Mayor Aquino asked barangay officials of the city not to give up as he asked them to help him solve the killing incidents hounding Calbayog for years now.
“It is so shocking and sad. But I want you not to give up this battle. Let us not be discouraged from serving our city,” he said.
The series of killings that have transpired in Calbayog were blamed to private armed groups reportedly maintained by certain politicians.
(JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

Management says it’s just a joint venture

TACLOBAN CITY- More than 200 water concessionaires from this city staged their demonstration before the office of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) to dramatize their opposition on the plan of the management to privatize the said agency.
However, the LMWD management insisted that the move is not privatization but a joint venture under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme wherein they could still have a say in the operations of the water agency.
The protestors said that they are opposing the planned privatization of the LMWD as this could bring misery to its more than 33,000 concessionaires in the form of a higher water rate.
They are also asking the management of the LMWD to turn over its management to the city government of Tacloban instead of turning it into a private company, using a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) involving the city and provincial governments of Cebu on who has the right to appoint a board of director of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD).
The High Court, on its December 2016 resolution, ruled that it is the city mayor of Cebu that has the right to appoint the board of director(s) of the MCWD and not the provincial government.
The SC issued a final ruling on this case last August 8, 2017.
“We are strongly opposing this privatization plan of the LMWD because this will surely result in a higher water rate to the detriment of our concessionaires,” Noel Tabao, president of the Tacloban Union of Barangay Officials (Tubo) which spearheaded the Friday (Dec.1) peaceful rally staged at the LMWD office in Barangay Nula-Tula, this city, said.
At present, the water rate of the LMWD is P148 per 10 cubic meters of consumption.
Aside from Tacloban, the other service areas of LMWD are Palo, Tanauan, Sta. Fe, Dagami, Tolosa, Tabon-Tabon, and Pastrana.
Tabao also assailed the “poor service” of the LMWD as several areas of Tacloban are experiencing inadequate water supply and “no water supply at all” at the northern part of the city where families who lost their houses when the city was devastated by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“If they cannot do their job well in providing water to the people of Tacloban, why not turn the management and operations of the LMWD to the city government where the majority of its member-consumers came from,” Tabao said.
As of December, 2016, out of the more than 33,000 concessionaires of LMWD, 21,028 members are in Tacloban City.
“We will not stop our demonstrations until our demand will be met,” Tabao said.
Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez wrote a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte on May 18 of this year, seeking for his intervention which includes giving the city government the right to appoint the board of directors of LMWD.
At present, the provincial government of Leyte appoints all the five members of the board which, in turn, appoint the general manager of LMWD.
Engr. Pastor Homeres, the current general manager, admitted on the plan to turn over the management of the LMWD to a private company.
“It’s not a privatization but just a joint venture under the PPP scheme wherein we will still continue to exercise our regulatory functions like the private company could not just raise the water rate without our approval,” Homeres said.
A pre-bidding conference was held attended by the representatives of bidders, Metro Pacific, Prime Resources Holding Inc., and Manila Water at the LMWD office while the rally was ongoing.
Homeres clarified that it was the Manila Water which offered to have a joint venture with them through the PPP scheme sometimes last year.
“And when the two companies learned about this proposal by the Manila Water, they also offered their proposals,” he said.
Asked on the recent Supreme Court ruling, Homeres said that they could not just apply it unless ordered by the court.
“They have first to file a case and if the court says that we have to turn the management to the city government, then we will obey it,” he said.
Homeres also said that they have opted to have a private company as a partner of the LMWD to afford its ‘development plans’ which would cost a huge amount of money.
“Tacloban is fast growing with several businesses coming in as well as Palo and Tanauan and we have to improve our services,” he said.
In 2010, the LMWD incurred a loan from the Local Water Utilities Administration in the amount of P900 million which it is paying P10 million every month since 2013.

By: JOEY A. GABIETA

“We have been pushing for the promotion and preservation of this dam because this will surely attract more tourists given its significance to our history,” Gabornes said on Tuesday (Nov. 28).

LAWAAN, Eastern Samar – The local government here is seeking the historical recognition of Sungduan Dam, built by American soldiers as the water source during World War II.
The recognition by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) would pave the way for the preservation of the dam badly damaged when super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ hit their town in 2013, said town tourism officer Mary Sarah Gabornes.
“We have been pushing for the promotion and preservation of this dam because this will surely attract more tourists given its significance to our history,” Gabornes said on Tuesday (Nov. 28).
Citing accounts of local historians, the tourism officer said the construction of the dam was rushed after American Army Lt. Edward Milo surveyed the area in 1944 and led the civil works with the help of locals.
The dam supplied drinking water to American Forces based in Eastern Samar who came to liberate the country from the Japanese invaders.
Soldiers also fetched waters from the Sungduan Dam and were loaded to barges docked at Bel-at Port where Americans built a lighthouse.
The water supply was shipped to American camps in Okinawa, Japan and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The dam plays an important role in the World War II as it helped American soldiers survived during the war, according to Gabornes.
Despite the long process and the need for a lot of verifications, she is positive that if Sungduan Dam would be acknowledged by the NCCA, their town will be known to many as well.
Lawaan is a 5th class town in Eastern Samar province with a population of 12,742. The town is 73 kilometers from Tacloban, the regional capital.
The National Cultural Heritage Act signed in 2009 mandates the registration of all cultural properties of the country, which the NCCA is mandated to establish and maintain through the appropriate cultural agencies and local governments.
The law defines cultural property as “all products of human creativity by which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques and other places of religious worship, schools, and natural history specimens and sites.” (PEARL MARIE L.ECALDRE/PNA)