ORMOC CITY- This city is experiencing an economic boom and it seems, there’s no turning back.
Business leader Apple Alagon has this forecast on the business and investment prospects in the city under the administration of Mayor Richard Gomez.
“The investment atmosphere is picking up. I can’t say where we are for sure but business-wise, more people are coming to Ormoc to invest in businesses, franchise or homegrown,” said Alagon, who is now the elected president of Rotary Club of Ormoc Bay.
“We recently had a Local Government Unit-Ormoc Chamber Kapihan talk at the Multipurpose Hall sometime May this year. The talk was about ‘Preparing Ormoc Towards Urbanization’ where we acknowledged the presence of big players in the city,” she added.
Alagon, who owns JO’s Milagrina chain of restaurants, added that they have seen many opportunities for growth with the opening of Robinsons Place Ormoc in April and the upcoming SM Center and Metro Gaisano.
“Obviously, they see Ormoc City as a prime area where they can grow their businesses which also translates to more job opportunities and more tourists in the city,” she added.
In 2017, the city registered a total of 1,366 establishments.
As of July 19 this year, it has already 896 number of establishments.
In 2017, Ormoc has P1,226,341,583 total budget. For this year, it has increased to P1,320,923,786.
By next year, it will have P1,457,990,318 budget sourced out from Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), local sources, local economic enterprises, other sources, and share from the national coffer.
For its vibrant economy, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry dubbed Ormoc as the “Most Business-friendly city” in the region in 2005. (RONALD O. REYES)

PALO, Leyte — The construction of the P1.62 billion diversion road with flood control and drainage systems will push through in 2019 to decongest traffic and curb flooding in areas bordering this town and the regional capital.
The proposed 2.87-km., four-lane road along Candahug, Pawing and Campetic villages will be the first of its kind in Eastern Visayas designed to decongest traffic and stop perennial flooding.
“Floodwater remains in these areas for weeks. That is why these have been idle lands until now. The road and drainage project will convert vacant lots into prime commercial districts,” Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Edgar Tabacon told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday.
The project, to be implemented in six packages next year, will mitigate massive flooding in highly-populated communities in Marasbaras, Caibaan, Calanipawan and V&G Subdivision in Tacloban City; Candahug, Pawing, and Campetic villages in Palo town.
This is an urgent project identified by the Regional Development Council as part of the department’s mandate to construct new roads to enhance the national road systems nationwide.
The road will serve as an alternative route from Tacloban City going to the eastern and western parts of Leyte, addressing heavy traffic at the junction of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s regional office.
Palo, the nearest town to Tacloban, is the seat of most government departments, bureaus and regional offices in Eastern Visayas. It is also home to the offices of the ecclesiastical government of the Roman Catholic Church Archdiocese of Palo.
The infrastructure, included for funding in 2019, can be considered as a diversion road since it will start at a national secondary road leading to the airport (San Jose, Tacloban – Candahug, Palo Road) and ends at a national primary road (Maharlika Highway), Tabacon said.
Of the P1.62 billion proposed budget, P1.13 billion is intended for civil works and P490.18 million for right-of-way acquisition. The inclusion of outlay to acquire properties is expected to expedite the road construction phase, the official added.
Building alternative roads, widening, and connecting gaps along national roads has been the priority of Public Works Secretary Mark Villar to decongest traffic in two to three years. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)

NAVAL, Biliran- The P100 million worth of project of road opening and concreting of access road going to Germohenes Waterfalls in Biliran, Biliran has started construction.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – Biliran District Engineering Office (DEO) implemented the project under its 2018 Local Infrastructure Program (LIP) with a total length of 2.9-kilometers.
According to district engineer David Adongay Jr., the project covers the construction of 100- meter length spillway and a rehabilitation of 60-meter existing local road that was washed out by tropical storm ‘Urduja’ late last year.
From its construction date on June 3, 2018, the project has accomplished 3% as of June 30, 2018. Road excavation works is on-going on the said project.
It is under contract with Samarinan Construction and Development Corp. and EZJones Construction Inc., a joint venture firm.
Adongay said that the completion of the project will reduce the walking time from 4-5 hours to just 30 minutes to reach the beautiful Germohenes Waterfalls.
Biliran is known as an island of waterfalls with more than 30 waterfalls in its mountainous province.
The road opening and concreting of access road project going to Germohenes Waterfalls will add another tourist destination in the province of Biliran that will encourage more local and foreign tourists to visit the place.
The project is proposed to be completed in January 28, 2019.
Meanwhile, Adongay reported that under its 2018 project implementation, Biliran DEO has completed nine projects with 38 on-going and 13 Not-Yet-Started (NYS) projects with an overall accomplishment of 29.49% as of June 30, 2018.
Biliran DEO has a total projects of 60 with a budget amount of P1.6 billion under the General Appropriation Act (GAA) of year 2018. (PR)

CALBAYOG CITY – DPWH-Samar First District Engineering Office (SFDEO) undergoes 2nd quarter inspection of service vehicles and equipment on July 18, 2018.
Inspectors from the Regional Office, Terencio Regala and Ma. Luisa V. Pedrosa inspected 25 service vehicles assessing their cleanliness, accessories’ functions and updated Land Transportation Office (LTO) registrations as well as the driver’s license of the operators of these vehicles.
“This inspection ensures that the service vehicles used by this office are safe for the roads and that their drivers have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities in compliance with not only DPWH standards but also to the standards of other government agencies such as the LTO and Highway Patrol Group,” said Inspector Pedrosa.
On the last vehicle inspection conducted last April 24, 2018, SFDEO ranked 2nd place among the 13 District Engineering Offices in Region VIII because it satisfactorily complied with all of the standards required in the use and maintenance of its service vehicles.
The final findings and assessment for this quarter will be communicated back as soon as it is evaluated in the Regional Office.
(JASON DE LOS ANGELES)

BURAUEN, Leyte- The long wait is over.
The Cadahunan Elementary School is one of the barrio schools of this town which is under the Burauen North District.
Before it was just a primary school with only two teachers and two classrooms with combination classes of Grades 1 and 2 and Grade 3 and 4.
The school became a complete elementary school when the Grades 5 and 6 classes were opened in the school year 2014-2015.
There was an additional teacher assigned for these grade levels. Because of the limited classrooms, the first classroom were occupied by the Grade 3 and 4 classes while the other classroom was shared by the Grade 1 and 2 classes and Grade 5 and 6 classes. They only put a division at the center.
Due to the mandatory opening of the Kindergarten class for the K to 12 program, the school head, teachers, and stakeholders find ways and means to build a makeshift to accommodate the Kindergarten class. Another teacher was deployed to handle the class.
Now, the long wait is over to have additional classroom because the school was given a 1-unit with 2 classroom building by the Department of Public Works and Highways Regional Office in partnership with the Leyte Division of the Department of Education.
The construction started on January 15, 2018 and was finished on June 19, 2018.
The newly-constructed building was turned over to the school on June 29, 2018 and now occupied by the Kindergarten and Grade I and II classes respectively.
It is a big help to the teachers and pupils and especially the children in Barangay Cadahunan, where the school is is located, to have a classroom that is conducive for learning.
(Note: The author is a school head of Cadahunan Elementary School in Burauen, Leyte).

SOUTHERN LEYTE- All public funds received have been duly accounted for.
This was the central message conveyed as the provincial government here sent a Fund Utilization Report to the city government of Davao.
The report, marked received by the city accountant office of Davao July 9, 2018, covered the P 3 million cash assistance donated to the province in the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda in November, 2013.
“As seen in the report, the total amount disbursed is P 2,992,678.68. Also enclosed is a check amounting to P 7,321.32 representing the balance thereof,” wrote Gov. Christopherson Yap to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio in a letter dated July 5, 2018, a copy of which was obtained by PIA.
An official receipt was given to the returned, unspent money.
As gleaned in the report, the disbursed amounts were given to all the 18 municipalities and one city in an almost equal amount of P 100,000.00 per LGU, in order to aid constituents with partially damaged houses,
Other amounts were used to purchase medicines for disaster victims, and still others were given to individuals whose houses were totally damaged.
“We would once again take this opportunity to thank the City Government of Davao for your generous gift. It has helped many of our constituents who were victims of the typhoon,” Gov. Yap said in his letter. (PIA8-Southern Leyte)