SAN ISIDRO, Northern Samar- The municipal government of this town has join the national nutrition celebration held every July of the year.
Mayor Ferdinand Avila, through municipal nutrition action officer Cleopatra Flores, initiated several activities as part of the celebration which had a theme ‘Ugaliing Magtanim, Sapat na Nutrisyon Aanihin.’
Among these activities was a street parade participated by various schools, barangay nutrition scholars.
In his message, Mayor Avila extended his gratitude to the heads of the nutrition office; social welfare under Amalia Grimpula; agriculture office; and barangay nutrition scholars coming from the 14 barangays of the own for their continued support on making the annual celebration a resounding success.
Flores said that the celebration was highlighted with the cooking contest of ‘pinakbet’—produced from their own farm.
Also held was the ‘pinaka’ contest involving different types of root crops and vegetables.
In both contest, the winners received cash prizes.
During the celebration, the municipal government distributed free seedlings and other planting materials to mothers and to the barangay nutrition scholars.
(PETER D. PAREDES)

TACLOBAN CITY — More than 15,000 farmer-beneficiaries of the anti-poverty program in Eastern Visayas will be organized into cooperatives to prepare them for the policy shift in farmers’ assistance from subsidy to credit.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Regional Director for Operations Andrew Orais said Friday the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) could not be sustained if farmers would just work on their own.
“We think of organizing them since it will be easier to market their produce to institutional buyers and access loans from the government. It’s hard to monitor all of them if they are not grouped,” Orais said. “If they’re earning more from farming, they will be less dependent on the dole-out system.”
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol earlier reiterated the department’s shift from direct provision of subsidies to “easy access financing” of the agricultural and fisheries production support program starting 2020.
“We are slowly shifting from subsidy to credit and this is mainly because of the fact that we could not possibly give out free support to everybody,” Piñol said at the House of Representatives budget hearing on Thursday.
The soft loans will only have a 6 percent interest every year, Orais added.
The 15,000 farmers are beneficiaries of SAAD in the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Leyte, and Southern Leyte.
The initiative aims to achieve a 25-percent poverty reduction within the term of President Rodrigo Duterte by providing free farm inputs for the production of rice, corn, vegetables, and livestock.
“SAAD has no big infrastructure projects because our targets are the small marginal farmers who are not beneficiaries of regular programs. These are meant for those who have not received interventions because they’re not capable of catching up with the requirements for beneficiaries,” Orais said.
SAAD has two funding components. The first will be carried out by the provincial government through funds downloaded to the local government while, the second component will be managed by the DA regional office.
Launched in 2016, SAAD is a special program of the DA focusing on the top 10 poorest provinces in the country, which include the three Samar provinces.
Leyte and Southern Leyte were included in this year’s implementation as second priority area.
Activities are focused on social preparation and provision of agriculture and fishery-related livelihood interventions to address poverty in selected provinces.
In 2018, SAAD got a budget allocation of P126 million for the five provinces.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

NAVAL-Biliran- “Fastracking our projects doesn’t mean that we need to sacrifice the quality of our work, even if we are ordered to accelerate our accomplishment,” Alfredo L. Bollido, assistant district engineer of the Biliran Engineering District Office reiterated during his meeting with the contractors.
From the month of May to June, 2018, Bollido emphasized that the overall accomplishment of the district just increased to only 3% a month when it should supposed to accomplish at least 15% each month.
Bollido said that the District Engineer wants the contractors to accelerate their work in order to meet the 15% monthly target accomplishment of the district.
“Allotment of the budget is based on the performance of the district. If we continue to have low accomplishment, this will affect our budget allotment for next year,” Bollido added.
Starting 2019, the department will be implementing the cash-based policy which means that contractors have only one year validity period to finish the implementation of projects.
With this, Bollido orders contractors to rush the implementation of projects funded from current General Appropriations Act (GAA) as well as those funded from previous years’ GAA i.e. 2016 and 2017 in order to smoothen the 2019 project implementation.
According to Bollido, BDEO would identify those contractors who have low accomplishments.
“Those contractors who have already 50% – 100% negative slippage will be recommended for contract termination and will be automatically blacklisted to participate in any future biddings in Biliran DEO,” Bollido said.
“We need your cooperation because we are not only be the one that will be affected, but also you (contractors)”, he added.
BDEO has been allotted P1.6B for 2018 with a total of 60 projects funded under the General Appropriation Act (GAA). Out of the 60 projects, 24 are already completed, 28 are on-going and 8 are Not-Yet-Started (NYS) as of July 31, 2018 with an overall accomplishment of 42.60%.
Under 2017 project implementation, out of the 57 projects, BDEO has completed 52 with still five projects on-going which are being rushed for completion. (PR)

PALO, Leyte- The Department of Science and Technology(DOST) here in the region together with Science Education Institute announces that the DOST 2019 scholarship form is now available.
In a statement, Engr. Ramil Uy, center manager of Science and Technology Human Resource Development and Promotion Center (STHRDPC) of the said agency, said that the scholarship is offered to talented and deserving students who wish to pursue 4 or 6 years degree priority courses in science and technology fields.
He added that DOST’s scholarships and the merit scholarships both aim to produce and develop high quality human resources needed for science and technology (S&T) and research and develop, (R&D) initiatives in the country.
Uy said that those interested may visit their office or at their various provincial offices to get the scholarship application form for under graduate scholarship for academic year 2019-2020.
Uy added that the application form is accessible for download in the DOST SEI website thru the link http://www.sei.dost.gov.ph/images/ downloads/ 2019UndergApp.pdf.
The deadline for filing of application is on August 31, 2018 while the date of examination is October 21. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

TACLOBAN CITY – A farm-to-market road constructed in the town of Babatngon, Leyte is expected to help improve farm productivity in the area.
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla told reporters that the P 2 million-worth project situated in Sitio Sogod, Barangay District 4 of said town will be of great help to the farmers in bringing their farm products to the market.
Gov. Petilla also said that it will encourage farmers to invest and produce more considering the ease in the transportation of farm products.
He added that more vehicles will travel the area and eventually lower the transportation costs.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

CATBALOGAN CITY – An official of Samar, one of the poorest provinces in the country, issued an appeal to its people to pay their taxes, patronize their own products and plant more for food sufficiency.
By doing so, the province could withstand all the challenges that would come its way, Board Alvin Abejuela (2nd district) said.
Abejuela made this appeal during a speech on Monday (August 6) in a program in a run-up for the Samar Day celebration on August 11.
“Our province can withstand challenges if we all cooperate by paying our taxes, plant our idle land in order to achieve food security, buy our own products to encourage farmers and producers to plant and produce more,” he said.
“We must also promote Spark Samar to domestic and international tourists to collate economic activity in our community,” he added.
“Let us make impact for our Samar province and this is the essence of Samar Day,” Abejuela said.
Spark Samar is a provincial government initiated program under Governor Sharee Ann Tan focusing on tourism to help economic development in the province.
Among the highlights of the one-week Samar Day celebration activities are the search for Mutya ng Samar this August 9, with 14 candidates representing their respective locality vying for the most coveted crown and the Tandaya Festival of Festivals showdown and festival street dance competition on August 11.
The Samar Provincial Hospital also lined up activities for the week-long celebration that includes health and wealth day; a medical and dental mission from August 3 and 7; medical mission in Barangay Guinsorongan in August 6; health on wheels in Motiong town on August 8 and Paranas on August 10 focusing on proper tooth brushing an oral examination and a midwife forum on childhood immunization on August 9.
Samar province previously celebrated Samar Day every November 10 to commemorate and was transferred to August 23 in the 1970s.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)