Hit by “Yolanda”  

PALO, Leyte-The National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) is committed to help the region’s business sector especially in the area of information technology.
This was assured by Wilfredo Sa-a, Jr., president of NICP, in his remarks during the 8th NICP Information and Communications Technology (ICT) two-day summit held this town.
“To the people of Samar/Leyte, this is your time to rise and rebuild your IT/BPM industry. The National ICT Confederation of the Philippines and the Department of ICT are committed to see you back in business,” he said during the two-day summit which ended on November 11.
“We have seen tremendous amount of rebuilding. It needs more catalyst to help rebuild better and even faster,” he added.
Sa-a informed his audience that the IT/BPM industry has generated at least 300,000 jobs in the countryside since NICP has actively developed and promoted cities outside Metro Manila like Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, and Metro Clark.
Much of this success could also be credited to the efforts of then Commission on ICT which has evolved as ICT Office and now to the newly created Department of Information, Communication and Technology (DICT), he added.
Sa-a claims that NICP continues to partner with DICT in not only bringing IT/BPM jobs to the countryside but also creating new opportunities such as rural impact sourcing or home based outsourcing and encouraging our local techpreneurs to go into startups.
“Through the 8th NICP ICT Summit, we want the IT/BPM companies to rediscover the potential of Leyte/Samar through its people,” Sa-a said.
Engr. Edgardo Esperancilla, regional director of the Department of Science and Technology, in an interview said that this year’s national ICT summit attended by nearly 600 delegates from all over the country which carried the theme “Accelerate Growth thru Digital Economy,” is the first major national event after super typhoon Yolanda battered the region three years ago.
“This summit is spearheaded by the Regional Information and Communication Technology Committee-Eastern Visayas Federation for Information Technology (RICTC-EVFIT), in partnership with the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines, the province of Leyte, the city government of Tacloban and the Department of Information and Communication Technology,” Esperancilla said. (RESTITUTO A.CAYUBIT)

At a cost of P40 million

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will build a P40 million warehouse for better storage of relief goods meant for disaster victims in the region.
DSWD Regional Director Restituto Macuto said the national government has already earmarked P30 million to construct the new permanent warehouse at the Government Center in Palo, Leyte.
“The proposed warehouse is safe from storm surges, flooding and pilferage. The location is strategic, hence, it will be easy for us to bring relief goods to needed communities,” he said.
Macuto said the new warehouse is badly needed since the DSWD regional office has been renting a storage facility in the city for P200,000 monthly located in Barangay Caibaan, this city.
When the region was devastated by supertyphoon “Yolanda” exactly three years ago, the said facility became the regional warehouse where food assistance were loaded and repacked for distribution for the survivors.
Patterned after the DSWD’s National Resource Operation Center, the warehouse will store rice, assorted food packs, blankets, cooking implements, and mosquito nets.
Macuto said that the construction of the regional warehouse will start next year once the needed money will be available.
“We (also) need additional P10 million for filling of the 5,000-square meter lot donated by the provincial government for the new warehouse,” Macuto said.
Recently, the DSWD asked funding assistance from the Department of Public Works and Highways for land preparation since the cost is not included in the original budget proposal.
The DSWD will enter a 25-year usufruct agreement with the provincial government which owns the more than 25-hectare Government Center which also houses several regional government offices.
The DSWD is pushing for the construction of new warehouses after an internal investigation by the agency found that the food packs and sacks of rice dumped in Leyte last year were meant for distribution to victims of typhoons “Ruby” and “Glenda” that hit the country in 2014.
About 200 sacks of relief items intended for typhoon survivors of Ruby and Glenda were dumped in a hole in Barangay Mac-alang, Dagami town.
The DSWD claimed that the dumped items were already spoiled and unfit for human consumption.

TACLOBAN CITY- Survivors of supertyphoon “Yolanda” from different towns of Eastern Samar staged their rally before the regional office of the National Housing Authority (NHA) on Friday(Oct.4).
The survivors claimed that it’s been three years now and yet the NHA failed to deliver its promise to provide them permanent houses.
Lita Bagunas from Giporlos town and member of the Uswag Este-Katarunghan, a group of informal settlers, admitted that while they live in areas identified as no build zones, they are still entitled to be provided with permanent houses considering that they are also Yolanda survivors.
The members of the group claimed that their houses, mostly made of light materials, were washed out when Yolanda battered the region on November 8, 2013.
Citing the NHA data, there are 7,573 families from various towns in Eastern Samar hit by Yolanda that need to be relocated to safe zones or be provided with permanent houses.
“My family still lives in a temporary shelter. Rainy season is coming and the houses we temporarily live is fast dilapidating,”Bagunas said.
The 200 survivors were from the towns of Lawaan, Balangiga, Giporlos, Gen. MacArthur, Hernani, Llorente and Maydolong.
The NHA has cited lack of titled lands and high cost of lands suitable for housing as the reasons why the delay on the construction of permanent houses for Yolanda survivors in Eastern Samar.
Bagunas, however, said that the exorbitant asking price for private lands that are said to have caused the delay could have been solved if only the local government units be given the right to exercise their power of eminent domain.
(MEL CASPE/RONALD O.REYES)

VILLAREAL, Samar – A public library is thriving in this quaint and sleepy town, attracting students, government workers and even the ordinary Juans of the town.
The library, maintained by the municipal government, was established in 1989, stuffed with few books and other reading materials donated by the mayor at that time, Augusto Cabueños.
But over the years and thanks to the generosity of private groups and individuals from the town as well as by the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), an office under the Office of the President which has vast collection of books and other reading materials working closely with local government units, the municipal library has now over 2,000 books and reading materials like newspapers ready for use among its users.
Dea Manicane, the librarian, said that she is glad that despite of the presence of two internet shops in their town and modern gadgets where information could easily be accessed, many still come to the library.
Among its regular users is Hyddeh Varela, a senior high school student at the Villareal National High School.
“The library helps a lot in my studies because it is accessible and I can research topics which are advanced from what we have in school,” she said.
The municipal library is located at the old legislative building in 2012 and sustained damage when Villareal was hit by typhoon “Ruby” last year.
But before it was relocated to its present site, the facility had to share a small space with the municipal information agency.
Manicane said that she regularly attends seminars conducted by the NLP to update its content and to know the latest trends in books and digital collections.
Villareal (population: 27,230) is a small coastal town in Samar province 57 kms away from the regional center of Tacloban City. (JONABEL L. SALAZAR, contributor)