TACLOBAN CITY- “Keep the faith and hope that we will rise again,” so said Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez after the commemorative mass at the Tacloban City Convention Center, this city on Tuesday (Nov.8) coinciding with the 3rd anniversary of supertyphoon “Yolanda” attended by key national government officials and foreign dignitaries.
Attending the ceremony remembering the onslaught of Yolanda were former Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., Rep. Yedda Romualdez, ViceMayor Jerry Yaokasin, Raymund Romualdez and formercongressmen Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Anton Lagdameo of the 2nd district of Davao del Norte.
Also joining the scores of Tacloban residents who attended the event were national officials and foreign dignitaries, namely Senator Cynthia Villar and Climate Change Commissioner Emmanuel de Guzman,US acting Ambassador to the Philippines, Michael Klecheski, Israeli Ambassador Effie Ben Matityau, Bangladesh Ambassador John Gomes and a representative of the Australian Embassy.
The commemorative mass was officiated by Naval Bishop Filomeno Bactol.
According to Mayor Romualdez, the city government is concentrating its efforts on transferring Yolanda–affected families living in transitional shelters to permanent homes.
Currently, the city government has helped move 2,500 families from temporary shelters to their permanent homes at the National Housing Resettlement Project situated at North of Tacloban. Still lacking potable water amenities, the city government conducts daily rationing of water to the transferred families.
The new township is where the city government plans to transfer some 10,000 to 15,000 families living in identified danger zones in the next two years.
Tacloban North has been identified in hazard maps by the different DOST agencies as some of the safest areas in the City.
Three years after Yolanda, tourism in the city is vibrant according to Mayor Cristina; from 40 hotels before Yolanda, Tacloban now has 63.
Speaking at the commemorative program, she thanked the various international non-government organizations which contributed to the rehabilitation of Tacloban and encouraged Taclobanons to pin hopes on the City now heeding the lessons of Yolanda.
Rep. Romualdez, on the other hand, said she re-filed in the House of Representatives a proposed law authored by former senator Marcos which seeks to create a national agency that will oversee government emergency and rehabilitation efforts during a disaster.
Recalling what happened at the height of Yolanda three years ago, former Mayor Alfred Romualdez said the city government evacuated some 7,000 residents to the Astrodome which only has a total capacity of 3,500.
He also contradicted reports that the evacuation center had several casualties.
Former Mayor Romualdez and Senator Bongbong Marcos were presented with certificates of appreciation
Capping the commemorative program was the launching of the book“Legacies of Leadership Book II”, which compiled the personal narratives of Yolanda survivors. (HENRY JAMES ROCA/Tacloban City Information Office)

TACLOBAN CITY-A radio reporter, based this city, mentioned during a Senate inquiry on the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., said that he is willing to appear before the body and clear his name.
Eulogio Caorte, 50, who works at DyBr (Kaugop Radyo), said that he has nothing to hide or fear considering that he was in the area to cover the incident.
“I was part of the team, yes but I was not part of the operation. I was not even aware who was or were the subject or subjects of the operation except that a search warrants are to be served by the CIDG(Criminal Investigation and Detection Group),” he said during an interview.
The radio man stressed that he was not informed by the CIDG raiding team where they were going saying he knew if it was part of the police operations.
“I only learned about where we’re heading when the vehicles we were on board stopped to a familiar land mark which was the office of the DPWH in Baybay City,” he said.
The Leyte subprovincial jail in Baybay is located near the office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) located in Barangay Hiposngo, a kilometer away from the city center.
Caorte claimed that when the CIDG team, headed by Inspector Leo Laraga entered the facility, he was prohibited by Laraga to join the group to enter the building where the prison cells were located.
“I was inside the compound but not inside the building,” he said.
Minutes after they arrived at the facility, Caorte said,he heard burst of fire followed by a commotion then another burst of fire.
“I later learned that the subjects were Mayor Espinosa and one (Raul) Yap,” Caorte said.
He also said that while he knew that Espinosa was among the prisoners at the jail facility, he had no idea that the subject of the operation was Espinosa, father of Eastern Visayas drug lord.
Caorte said that he did not see a firearm near the dead body of Espinosa saying that he was able to see the corpse of Espinosa after the team of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) from Ormoc City finished their work.
Caorte said that he is willing to appear before the Senate to answer senators’ questions on the matter.
“I will only tell them what I knew. I was there to cover the operation and nothing else,”Caorte said.
During the Senate inquiry on Thursday(Nov.10), the senators asked that Caorte be summoned to shed light on some issues related to the death of Espinosa.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY-Annual poverty incidence among families in Eastern Visayas in 2015 was estimated at 30.7 percent based on official poverty statistics released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
This implies that around 3 in every 10 families in Eastern Visayas are poor.
During the same period in 2012, poverty incidence among families in the region was estimated at 37.4 percent.
A significant reduction by 6.7 percentage points was observed between 2012 and 2015.
Among the provinces in the region, Biliran registered the lowest poverty incidence among families at 17.4 percent.
Leyte ranked second lowest at 23.6 percent, followed by Southern Leyte, Eastern Samar and Samar with 30.2, 37.4 and 39.5 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Northern Samar remained to record the highest poverty incidence at 47.9 percent.
Improvements in poverty incidence between 2012 and 2015 were observed in all provinces in the region except Northern Samar, the only province that registered an increase by 4.4 percentage points from 43.5 percent in 2012 to 47.9 percent in 2015.
Eastern Samar recorded the biggest significant decrease by 18.0 percentage points from 55.4 percent in 2012 to 37.4 percent in 2015.
All provinces in the country were clustered from 1 to 5 using confidence intervals of poverty incidence as the clustering variable, where Cluster 1 comprises the bottom poor provinces and Cluster 5 comprises the least poor provinces.
In 2015, Northern Samar and Samar were included in cluster 1; Eastern Samar and Southern Leyte belonged in cluster 2, while Leyte and Biliran were in cluster 3.
During 2009, 2012, and 2015, the province of Northern Samar was consistently included in the cluster of poor provinces.
The annual per capita poverty threshold in the region, or the minimum income required to meet the basic food and non-food needs of every person, was estimated at P21,304.
This indicates an increase of about 17.9 percent from the P18,076 annual per capita poverty threshold in 2012.
This implies that a family of five in Eastern Visayas must have at least P8,877 on the average every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs. (PR)

By: SIMON JULEOVENZ L.GARNACE  

Philippines has been recognized all over the world for winning in pageants and boxing arena; now is the right time to mobilize our country’s social media powers to vote for our future scientist!
Besting more than 6000 entries from 146 countries, the Philippine entry by Hillary Diane Andales bagged one of the coveted Top 30 spots as a semifinalist in the prestigious Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
To secure a place as a Top 6 finalist, the entry needs to garner the most Facebook likes and shares before 3 PM, November 10 (Philippine Time). Votes for this entry should be cast this official link: https://www.facebook.com/BreakthroughPrize/videos/1406243266067692/.
A Grade 11 student of Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus, Andales submitted a video entry explaining an advanced Physics concept called “Feynman’s Path Integrals” and relates it to simpler concepts and ordinary human life in order to encourage understanding even to the average person.
So far, the video has caught the attention of former Harvard University assistant professor and esteemed String Theorist Lubos Motl. In his popular physics blog, he lauds the entry saying: “Andales of the Philippines and her musings about the path integral could be my winner …”
“She sees some true scientific beauty behind the physical concept and that she has articulated her ideas and feelings about it herself – while many others are just repeating things that have been aired in popular programs many times,” Motl adds.
The sole winner of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge will be flown to the United States to accept the award along with a $250,000 scholarship, a $100,000 science lab for the winner’s school, and a $50,000 award for the winner’s teacher.
As a campus ruined from the onslaught of typhoon Haiyan in 2013, this feat is a manifestation that Andales is not only resilient but also creative, inventive and innovative, and this possible new lab will surely help produce more scientists in the country,” Dr. Reynaldo Garnace, EVC Director quoted.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge was launched in order to showcase the scientific knowledge of the world’s young leaders in development, and also to promote science awareness among the general public.
The entrants must display exemplary skills in science communication and be able to simplify complex ideas into basic terms. Their videos are evaluated based on four criteria: Creativity, Difficulty, Engagement, and Illumination.
“I hope that this becomes a chance for the people especially Filipinos worldwide to unite and support a Pinoy representative to the world stage, just like how we always did with our beauty royalties and boxers. This could prove to the world that we’re also competitive even in science and technology,” states Andales.

Promise to return on December to check progress  

TACLOBAN CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed dissatisfaction over slow housing development project for supertyphoon “Yolanda” survivors, prompting him to order concerned agencies to make significant improvement within a month.
Addressing a throng of local officials and typhoon survivors during the 3rd year anniversary of the monster typhoon at the mass grave site located in Barangay Basper, Mr. Duterte noted the problem of water supply in relocation sites and unoccupied completed houses in the northern part of the city.
“I am not satisfied. In three years, only few families were transferred to their permanent houses. The national offices, the respective departments, they’re only given one month to process the paper and it must be out. I will be coming up with rules that bind everybody, including government corporations,” said Duterte, eliciting applause from the crowd.
The Chief Executive directed Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino to closely monitor housing projects and ensure that water supply project is done.
“I have to ask Dino to help. I want to see them in their new homes by December. I will be back in December to check. I ask everybody to kindly cooperate and do not delay government projects. You cut the red tape because I’m disappointed,” Duterte added.
Specifically, the President ordered the National Housing Authority (NHA), Department of Public Works and Highways, and Local Water Utilities Authority to address the basic needs of families in resettlement sites.
Mayor Cristina Romualdez was pleased with the Presidents’ pronouncement.
“I believe that this will be done with the President’s willpower to mobilize all concerned agencies,” the city mayor said.
The NHA reported that out of the 14,000 houses targeted for construction in this city alone, 7,148 have been completed so far, but only 1,564 units have been occupied.
There are nearly 1,000 households that moved to units built by private donors. The pace of transfer heavily relies on the availability of stable water supply, according to the city government.
Earlier, LWUA approved the P159 million water supply plan as a medium-term solution to the water shortage problem at the Tacloban North Resettlement Area.
Concerned officials met on Tuesday (Nov.8) to iron out issues related to project implementation.
Under its original plan, the project will run for six months while waiting for the implementation of the P527 million level 3 Tacloban North Water Supply Project of LWUA and Leyte Metropolitan Water District. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)