TACLOBAN CITY-Contrary to a report that the Tacloban City slaughterhouse is operating without a permit, the City Veterinary Office (CVO) clarified that the abattoir in Barangay Salvacion is not yet operational and is still undergoing a dry run.
In a statement, City Veterinarian Doctor Eunice Alcantara clarified that the machinery within the state-of-the-art slaughter is undergoing a run-through, but is not commercially operational.
The CVO has already revised and complied with requirements set by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) three weeks ago for accreditation such as good manufacturing manual, sanitary standard operating procedures and others, explained Alcantara.
“Oo nag-apply kita, but dire kita nago-operate (Yes, we have applied for the necessary permits, but we are not yet operational). Kun baga it masisiring it mga tawo nga nago-operate bisan waray permit, dire ito tinuod. Kun may-ada man didto yana nagamit an facility, it’s because nagda-dry run kita, (It is not true that we are operating without a permit, we are just conducting a dry run)” she said.
“Ine man gud kay para mahasa an tawo didto ha paggamit it equipment ngan mabaro an process han slaughtering procedure, (the dry run is being done to enhance the skills of staff on slaughtering procedure) “ Dr. Alcantara added.
The dry run is expected to end this December, according to the CVO.
Meantime, Alcantara assured that the facility will not operate without necessary permits required by the proper authority.
Categorized as ‘AAA’, the city abattoir is equipped with modern and state-of-the-art amenities and will be the first to be set up here in Region 8. (C. MERIN/CIO)
City Vet: Abattoir not yet operational, undergoing dry run
Some 135 surviving families of victims of NPA purging in Leyte, target of ELCAC convergence
TACLOBAN CITY- Some 135 surviving families of the victims of the Inopacan purging of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the 1980s, from Baybay City, Mahaplag and Inopacan, all in Leyte, are the target of help from the various government agencies under Executive Order 70.
Twelve years after the exhumation of the mass grave on September 2, 2006, these surviving families will be the recipients of collective help from the government.
Dubbed “Special ELCAC Convergence Mission,” with the theme “Halad of Panaghiusa Alang sa Kalinaw ug Kalambuan,” the launching is set on October 29 in Baybay City with no less than National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict Vice-Chairperson Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) for Eastern Visayas Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario in attendance.
Before the launching, a series of dialogues and consultations with the beneficiaries were made by the military, TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority)-Leyte, the province of Leyte, and the local government units in order to know the felt needs of the families.
The services and programs that will be delivered by various agencies are the answers to the concerns of the surviving families.
During the launching, various government agencies and local government units like the province of Leyte, TESDA, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Philippine Information Agency (PIA) are expected to unveil their projects/programs for the surviving families.
The beneficiaries were organized into associations in order to get accreditation from the DOLE.
The DSWD will provide financial assistance in the amount of P5,000 cash assistance to each of the 135 surviving families.
TESDA Leyte will provide various livelihood training as requested by the beneficiaries.
The province of Leyte will conduct a medical and dental mission and will provide free reading glasses and agri services, free seeds, and lecture on preventive medicines.
TESDA will make available free manicure, pedicure, haircut for both men and women, and hilot wellness to the family-beneficiaries, during the convergence caravan.
The DOLE will accredit the associations of beneficiaries so that they can avail of livelihood funding by the agency.
Meanwhile, PIA will organize the beneficiaries into information volunteers network so that they will be empowered to communicate their concerns and the help given by the government. (PIA-8)
Councilor Grafil pushes regulation on use of plastics, polystyrene in Tacloban City
As a way to help the environment
TACLOBAN CITY-A public hearing on the possible regulation on the use of plastics and polystyrene here in the city was conducted by the members of the committee on environmental protection and waste management.
The panel, chaired by Councilor Aimee Grafil, aims to solicit opinion and at the same time, support from the public on a measure she introduced at the city council on the regulation of single-use of plastics and polystyrene on food products.
The committee’s public hearing, conducted at the session hall of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, was attended by business establishments’ operators or their representatives, barangay officials, and some environment groups.
Councilor Grafil said that under her proposed ordinance, end-users, to include business establishments, will be given six months to properly dispose and stop in using plastic bags and polystyrene.
But this deadline was opposed by some saying it is too short for them to comply the mandate of the proposed ordinance which carry a penalty of fines of not less than P5,000 and imprisonment.
However, majority present in the public hearing eventually agreed for a six months grace period.
Under the proposed ordinance, the City Information Office, the media and information arm of the city government, will lead in the information dissemination campaign on the regulation on the use of plastic bags and polystyrene on food products.
Grafil is pushing for the enactment of the ordinance saying that there is now a need to at least regulate the use of plastic use in the city not only they cause damage to the environment but also to help lengthen the use of the city’s sanitary landfill.
Jonathan Hijada, city environment and natural resources officer, informed those who attended the more than three-hour public hearing that there is really a need for the people of the city to be conscious in properly disposing their waste, particularly plastics which are non-biodegradable.
According to him, the waste disposal in the city is declining due to the cooperation of the public, especially on proper waste disposal and segregation.
Hijada reported that from the previous 154 tons per day of waste, they now collects 114 tons a day.
“But with the proposed ordinance, we hope to target to just 100 tons a day of waste,” he said.
Also present during the public hearing were Councilors Evangeline Esperas, Dalisay Erpe and Leo Bahin.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
PNP 8 on full alert status during ‘Undas’
CAMP KANGLEON, Palo Leyte-The Philippine National Police (PNP) in Eastern Visayas is set to declare a full alert status in the region starting Wednesday, October 31, 2019, at 6 o’clock in the evening until November 3, 2019, at 6 o’clock in the morning.
This is in preparation for Oplan Undas or All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2 respectively.
In a press conference held Monday, October 28, 2019, at Camp Kangleon, this municipality, Police Lieutenant Col. Hector F. Enage, chief of the PNP8 Regional Operations Management Division, said this would mean that all PNP personnel whether on leave or not are mandated to report to their respective units.
“This coming Undas we are on full alert. This means that all personnel in their respective units kahit on leave sila, magrereport sila doon sa unit nila so it means 100 percent ng unit anduon of course excluding yung non-uniformed personnel which is bounded ng civil service law,” Enage said.
A Regional Standby Support Force at the regional and provincial levels will be created that will serve as a quick reaction team to other units if augmentation is needed.
Aside from the four thousand force multipliers from various agencies, over two thousand police personnel will be deployed in new bus terminals, seaports, airports, malls, cemeteries and other areas of convergence all over the region.
With regards to traffic enforcement in the city, the Tacloban City Police Office has a contingency plan in coordination with the Traffic Operations, Management, Enforcement, and Control Office (TOMECO).
Police Lieutenant Col. Lope M. Macauba Jr, deputy city director for administration of the Tacloban City Police Office said, all the six cemeteries in the city will be secured with police personnel scattered in such areas during the holidays. (nbq/cba/PIA8)
Sec. Esperon says gov’t to bring Sison back to the country
By: ROEL T. AMAZONA
BAYBAY CITY- The national government is exerting all means to bring back self-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison here in the Philippines.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.disclosed this during the launching of the ‘Halad ug Panaghiusa Alang sa Kalinaw Ug Kalambuan’ (Special Convergence Mission for Peace and Development or SCMPD) in this city on Tuesday(October 29).
And part of this effort, he said, was that a team organized by the government is now in Europe working with the International Police Organization (Interpol) and the government will hire Europe-based lawyers to help them file a case against Sison.
However, Esperon said that he cannot reveal any further details about the operation.
President Rodrigo Duterte has directed the military, and even the Philippine National Police, to end the country’s insurgency problem before his term ends on 2022. He earlier issued Executive Order 70 as part of the campaign.
Sison along with his wife and several other top leaders of the communist group are facing multiple murder charges over their alleged involvement in the Inopacan Massacre.
A warrant of arrest was issued in August 28 by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina with “no bail recommended” against Sison and other key figures like National Democratic Front (NDF) senior adviser Luis Jalandoni, Rodolfo Salas and Eduardo Sarmiento.
Around 67 skeletal remains were discovered in a shallow mass grave site during the exhumation in August 28, 2006 in a mountainous barangay of Subang Daku in Inopacan.
But surviving families reported that at least 87 were victims of mass purging victims from Baybay City, 12 from Inopacan and 22 from Mahaplag.
Some of the victims were said to be members of the NPA who were suspected by the communist leaders of providing information to state forces.
The discovery of the mass grave led to the filling of murder charges against Sison and other top leaders of the CPP-NPA-NDF.
Twelve years after the exhumation, surviving family members are still waiting for justice and had asked for government assistance to them.
In the launching of the SCMPD, government agencies like the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and Department of Labor and Employment participated in the special caravan.
Assistance given during the caravan includes P5,000 cash assistance from the DSWD, medical and dental mission from the provincial government of Leyte and An Waray Party-list.
The city government of Baybay also provided P400,000 worth of livelihood assistance to four organizations in upland villages of the city.
Esperon said that with the government reaching out to the people by bringing services to them through the enforcement of the National Task Force to end insurgency, they are confident that even with the end of President Rodrigo Duterte term, this can be sustain because local government units are given an active role in addressing the problem.
“Local leaders in Leyte are doing an excellent job in addressing insurgency problem in the province. Imagine from 36 percent on poverty rate it goes down to only 13 percent even without the help of the national task force,” Esperon said.
“Governance here is doing very well, I doubt if rebel will still exists in this province because the LGUs here are providing the people the assistance that they need,” he added.
For his part, Major Gen. Pio Diñoso III, the commanding general of the 8th Infantry Division, said that the numbers of rebels in the province have considerably dwindled.
Diñoso said that the cooperation and support extended by the people in the villages contributed to their campaign to quell the insurgency problem in Leyte and other parts of the region.
Also present at the launching of the SCMPD were Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council of the Philippines Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, Vice Governor Carlo Loreto, Rep.Carl Nicolas Cari(5th district), Baybay City Mayor Jose Carlos Cari, DILG Regional Director Artemio Cañeja and DSWD Regional Director Marie Angela Gopalan.
Lecture on ‘baybayin’ kick start the opening of the 75th Leyte Gulf Landings anniversary
PALO, Leyte – The lecture on early Visayan script opened the series of activities lined up for the 75th Leyte Landings Commemoration this October 20.
The 3rd Quincentennial Lecture Series, entitled, ‘Surat: The Early Visayan Script’ is also part of the nationwide campaign on the 500th celebration of First Easter Mass in the Orient or the First Mass in Limasawa which will be marked on March 30, 2021.
The activity, held on Thursday (Oct.10) is organized by the National Quincentennial Committee in partnership with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), provincial government of Leyte, and the municipal government of Palo.
The discussion focused on the early writing system in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spaniards.
University of the Philippines-Manila Health Sciences professor and Eastern Visayas resident historian professor Rolando Borrinaga served as the lecturer attended by secondary school students from Ormoc City and from several schools in Leyte.
“As Filipinos we need to have the historical and cultural awareness,” Borrinaga said.
Learning that there is an ancient script or way of writing of Filipino will help the younger generations to know that prior to the arrival of Spain or Western Colonizers, there is already a civilization in the country that has a system of writing called the ‘baybayin’.
“It’s not difficult to learn how to write our ancient writing. We must know to write in our old way,” Borrinaga said.
Borrinaga said that learning the ancient way of script is not hard as this can be studied within two to three hours of workshop.
In April 2018, the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture has approved House Bill 1022 or the proposed “National Writing System Act” that seeks to declare baybayin as the country’s national writing system.
The bill received the support of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, who welcomed the participants in the lecture, said that younger generations should make sure to know their history have an accurate and correct information.
“To help solve our country’s problems, we need to understand and learn the lesson of the past for the new generation to be better equip with knowledge and skills to address challengers,” he said.
Part of the lecture is the display of the national costume that Miss Universe Catriona Gray wore during the last year’s Miss Universe competition held in Thailand.
Prior to the competition, Gray along with her team visited Tacloban and talked with local artist Dante Enage and Borrinaga on how to come up with the design of her national costume.
The national costume of Gray was inspired by the tattoo motifs of Visayas ancestors called by the Spanish as “pintados”.
Shown in the Boxer Codex, it contains pages of the earliest known limned illustrations of Filipino ancestors described as “accustomed to paint their bodies with some very elegant tattoos.”
The display the national costume Gray used during the Miss Universe pageant will be viewed until October 24 at the lobby of the Leyte Oriental Hotel, this town. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)