CALBAYOG CITY- The Rotary Club of Calbayog received a special award as one of the outstanding stakeholders of the Department of Education (DepEd), Schools Division of Calbayog City on August 31, 2018 at the Calbayog Convention Center.
The award was in recognition of the club’s exemplary contribution, active engagement and shared responsibility for developing life-long learners through provision of slippers, feeding program, dental care, livelihood program, and provision of school supplies to Happy Valley Clustered Schools located at the far-flung barangays in Calbayog and Alternative Learning System (ALS) – Calbayog Arts and Design School of Eastern Visayas (CADSEV), Barangay Gadgaran.
The Rotary Club of Calbayog qualified as a special awardee based on the monetary consideration and number of schools which availed of its significant programs and services.
The club recognizes the relentless and unwavering support of its partners including the Philippine Army, Philippine National Police, People’s Outreach Program, Kalipayan-Katitirok-Kasangkayan, and Boleros Basketball Club in the successful delivery of its projects, programs and services. (PR)

CALBAYOG CITY- Tourists who want to visit two of the most well-known waterfalls found in this city would now make it easy in going there.
The city government, under Mayor Ronald Aquino, has started the construction of concrete road worth P8.4 million leading to Bangon and Tarangban Falls, said its tourism officer Ronald Ricafort, Jr.
According to Ricafort, among Calbayog City’s several waterfalls, Bangon and Tarangban are the most accessible and easy to reach reason why they are giving a priority on these tourist attractions.
Aside from concrete road,the city government will also put up tourist assistance centers to assist tourists.
The two waterfalls are located in Barangay Tinaplacan which is just 45 minutes away from the city proper.
Of the two waterfalls, Bangon can be reached easily through a 5-minute ride from the entrance of Brgy. Tinaplacan while tourists need to walk for 30 minutes from the village’ center before they could reach Tarangban Falls.
For tourists to have better access to Tarangban and to avoid accident, construction of a 1.5 kilometer concrete pavement is now ongoing.
“This really makes me happy because it will make Tarangban more accessible knowing that this falls is the best seller because of its beautiful landscape,” Ricafort said.
Ricafort added that tourists will also find five other waterfalls on the top of Tarangban Falls.
Aside from the tourism center and pathway concreting, some residents of Tinaplacan have attended tour guiding training including basic safety and first aid response.
Dubbed as the “City of Waterfalls”, Calbayog at present has a total of 22 waterfalls validated by the City Tourism Office.
Ricafort said that they are projecting a surge of tourist arrivals with the operation of a fast craft serving Calbayog to Cebu and the on-going improvement of Calbayog Airport that will allow bigger commercial planes to land at the said facility. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO, Leyte-A high ranking education official has urged the public to celebrate this year’s national teachers’ month like how they would celebrate Christmas and other festive holidays.
“Our dream is that the Filipinos will have this deeper awareness on the importance of teachers in our society. We want everyone to intensify the teachers’ month celebration starting September 5 to October 5 like how we would celebrate important holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas day,” said Undersecretary Tonisito Umali said in a press conference.
Umali said that there is a need for the people to relive the past in terms of how the teachers are being respected and honored.
He reiterated that the annual teachers’ month celebration is pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 242, Republic Act No. 10743 entitled “An Act Declaring the Fifth Day of October of Every Year as the National Teachers’ Day,” and the designation of the World Teachers’ Day every 5th of October by the United Nations Education and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO).
In coordination with the National Teachers Day Coordinating Council and the National Teachers’ Month Coordinating Council, Umali said that this year’s teachers’ month celebration will be held in Ormoc City with its theme “Gurong Filipino: Turo Mo, Kinabukasan Ko.”
Umali said the event is aimed to “honor those who are in the teaching profession; acknowledge and give emphasis on the crucial role, loyal service, and dedicated commitment of teachers in developing globally minded citizens, nurturing families, strengthening communities, and building the nation.”
According to Umali, the celebration will also “ revitalize the image of and respect for teaching as a vocation by increasing public awareness on the value of teachers in the Philippine society; take the occasion as an opportunity in building the image of teaching as an attractive and fulfilling profession; generate widespread support and assistance for teachers; and express gratitude for the positive influences of teachers on Filipino learners.”
Meanwhile, Ramir Uytico, DepEd regional director, welcomed the hosting of the event.
“We should be happy that Region 8 will be hosting a national activity,” Uytico said.
Despite the many issues hounding the education sector, Uytico called on the teachers to continue what they are doing with “competence, courage, and compassion.”
“For me, the work of a teacher is not something new…I am what I am now because of the bulk of work of DepEd. Mas maganda nga ngayon, may chalk allowance, may hardship allowance, may mga increase sa salary maski pakunti kunti. Noon wala iyon, but I was able to survive,” Uytico said on his message to the teachers.
More than 6, 000 teacher-delegates across the country are expected to attend the national teachers’ month celebration in Ormoc City on October 5. (RONALD O. REYES)

PALOMPON, Leyte- Visitors going to Kalanggaman Island contributed more than P18 million to the economy of this town.
Visitors of Kalanggaman Island, considered now as Leyte’s main island tourist destination, spent P18.5 million last year which was higher by P2 million compared to the 2016 receipt.
Last year, 101,312 tourists visited Kalanggaman Island which was higher compared to the 95,677 guests who spent P1.6 million on the same period.
Raoul Bacalla, head of Palompon municipal environment and natural resources office, said that considering that Kalanggaman Island is fast becoming one of the town’s income generators, they are making sure that the island’s natural beauty would not be destroyed.
Aside from enforcing the maximum capacity policy which allows only 500 tourists a day going to the island, regular water sampling is also conducted in collaboration with the Environmental Management Bureau to ensure the health and safety of the guests and maintain the integrity of the island.
Bacalla added that partying including loud music is also not allowed in Kalanggaman Island which being promoted as place for relaxation away from the busy life in the metropolis.
Bacalla added that only soft infrastructures were constructed in the island like comfort rooms, shower area and a pavilion intended as shelter for their personnel who are manning the island.
Kalangaman, which is just a 45-minutes boat ride from the town proper of Palompon, is a 6-hectare island surrounded by fine white sand with some areas covered pebbles and coarse, some coconut trees and a long stretch of sandbar.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

BOBON, Northern Samar- The construction of concrete roads in four remote villages going to the town center, this municipality, is expected to create economic activities in these areas.
Road constructions are ongoing in Barangays Santander and E. Duran worth P180 million while another road project covering the villages of Jose Abad Santos and J.P. Laurel worth P20 million is also underway.
Mayor Reny Celespara said that once these road projects are completed not only travel would become easy and faster but the transfer of goods from these villages to the town center would be hasten.
The municipal government, Celespara said, got a financial assistance from Governor Jose ‘Jun’ Ong who also provided a P6 million assistance intended to procure a one hectare lot for a food and transport terminal.
The construction of said facility located in Barangay Salvacion is to be completed by December this year.
The bulk of the cost in the construction of the two-storey facility is sourced from a loan secured by the municipal government from the Department of Finance.
Mayor Celespara said that the town’s internal revenue allotment would not be used in paying the loan which is payable in 10 years and with a grace period of three years as payments on rentals on the stalls of the said food terminal would be used in paying the loan.(PETER PAREDES)

TACLOBAN CITY- Seeking for the return of the Balangiga Bells as a condition in buying arms from the United States makes President Rodrigo Duterte a ‘traitor.’
Thus said the spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Eastern Visayas, reacting to an earlier statement of Mr. Duterte who said that the historic bells must first be returned to the country before he decides to buy arms from the United States, where the bells are presently stored in one of its military bases.
“It is not only an insult to the memory of the people’s uprising in Balangiga against the US war of aggression to colonize the Philippines, but also treasonous for conniving with a foreign power against the Filipino people in the ongoing civil war,” Salas said in an emailed statement dated August 31.
The President had earlier said that he would not buy arms from the United States unless they would return to the country the Balangiga Bells taken in 1901 during the American colonization.
The bells were carted away when American soldiers based in Balangiga, Eastern Samar were attacked by local guerillas which resulted in the ‘worst single defeat by American forces’ during their colonization of the country as they turned Samar into a “howling of wilderness.”
The bells are presently stored at F.E. Warren Air Force Based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.
Mr. Duterte, during his State of the Nation Address in 2017, asked the US government to return the Balangiga Bells.
Recently, efforts to return the historic bells have intensified after US Defense Sec. James Mattis said that their government is now open for the return of the Balangiga Bells.
Early efforts of the Philippine government to retrieve the Balangiga Bells proved unsuccessful.
Salas, meantime, said that just like the rest of the country, they too are seeking for the repatriation of the bells back to the country and to the town of Balangiga.
“Filipino patriots and their friends and supporters here and in the United States have long sought the return of the Balangiga Bells, a campaign with which NDF-EV is in solidarity. Together with the freedom-loving Americans and Filipinos, we look forward to the return of the Balangiga Bells to toll once more the continuing struggle of the Filipino people to be free,” he said.(JOEY A. GABIETA)