TACLOBAN CITY- Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez officiated a free mass wedding to some 50 couples coming from 24 barangays of Tacloban City during the “Kasalang Bayan” ceremony held last Thursday (August 24) at the Tacloban City Training Center.
On that same day, the city mayor also officiated a separate mass wedding to 20 inmates at the Tacloban City Jail with their respective partners.
In her short talk, Mayor Romualdez advised the couples that the secret to a happy marriage is putting God always at the center of their lives, respect each other’s views and to be faithful in the eyes of God and his fellowmen.
After the wedding ceremonies, the newly-wed couples as well as their guests were treated to sumptuous foods.
The providing mass wedding to couples who have been living together for years now is a priority and continuous program of Mayor Romualdez’ administration, said City Civil Registrar Officer Imelda Roa.
As part of the package of the free wedding for the 24 couples, they were not asked to pay for their application and in securing their certificates of marriage.
Mayor Romualdez, meantime, issued her call to couples who are not yet civilly married to avail of the free wedding program by just visiting the Civil Registrar’s Office or during the holding of the ‘Caring, Giving and Reaching Out’ activity of the city government.
The next mass wedding is scheduled this December.
“Kasalang Bayan” is a regular program of the City Government of Tacloban thru the City Civil Registrar’s Office. It wed exceptional couples who has been living together for five years or more and has a five years old child to enter into marriage, to strengthen their union bond.
(GAY B. GASPAY, TISAT/KANHURAW MEDIA TEAM)

Thousands of appointment slots are now available to those who wish to apply for and renew their passports, after the Department of Foreign Affairs implemented sweeping reforms.
Assistant Secretary Frank Cimafranca of the Office of Consular Affairs said an additional 94,350 slots were opened from July to August, while thousands more will be opened tomorrow, Aug. 25, for September appointments.
According to Cimafranca, of the slots opened last month, the 62,450 additional slots were made available after the DFA increased the consular offices’ appointment quotas, while the remaining 31,900 came from the cleaning up of bogus appointments created by unscrupulous individuals.
“The goal is to serve as many people as we can efficiently and effectively, so those slots had to be cleaned up. And that’s what we did,” he said.
He said the increase in additional slots has been complemented by an increase in personnel in charge of processing documents.
For example, in the Aseana office, the DFA’s main processing center for passports, he said the increase in personnel has resulted in a 73.6 percent increase in the capacity to accept and process daily appointments—from 1,900 to 3,300.
The increase in personnel has also led to the moving up to earlier dates of about 900 appointments, and has resulted in the reduction of suspended applications under investigation—from 33,000 on Aug. 2 to zero (0) as of Aug. 18, Cimafranca said.
“Let’s take one step at a time. But so far, so good,” he added.
To prevent the unnecessary use of slots, Cimafranca issued the reminder that senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo parents, pregnant women and minors (seven years old and below) may just walk in without prior appointment with the DFA when renewing or applying for passports.
Cimafranca said they may use the courtesy lane upon arrival, and make a presentation of their respective IDs.
Cimafranca also reminded the public that the appointment slots are free.
He said fixers should not be entertained. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- Gathering and eating of shellfish has been banned in four major water bays in the region due to presence of red tide toxin.
The four bays that have been detected with the red tide toxins are the Matarinao Bay in Eastern Samar; Villareal and Maqueda Bays both in Samar and the Carigara Bay in Leyte.
Dr. Nancy Dayap, head of the laboratory of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said that due to the presence of the red tide toxins on these bays, gathering, transporting and eating of shellfish has been banned.
Except for Carigara Bay, red tide toxins were detected in these bays last August 15 based on their meat samples taken from these bodies of water.
Carigara Bay, which covers the towns of Barugo, Capoocan, San Miguel, Babatngon and Carigara, was found of the red tide toxin just last Tuesday(August 22).
Based on the shellfish samples they have gathered, the toxicity levels of these bays ranges from 74.82 to 657.92 saxitoxin microgram/ 100 micrograms of shellfish meat.
“The tolerable limit is just 60 saxitoxin microgram/100 microgram of shellfish meat,” Dayap said.
“We are soliciting support from our local government units located in these bays to help us disseminate the information and that a ban was imposed on these bays,” Dayap said.
According to her, red tide toxins are “inherent” to these bays and were just waiting for favorable weather to “bloom again.”
BFAR asked the public to refrain from eating, gathering or harvesting, transporting and marketing shellfish from the affected bays until the toxicity level has gone down below the said limit.
Red tide is a term used to describe the coastal phenomenon in which the water is discolored by high algal biomass or concentration of algae.
Red tides are harmful as they could cause poisoning and death if not properly treated immediately.
There is no antidote and direct treatment for red tide poisoning as treatment is symptomatic and varies with the severity of symptoms, which include pumping the stomach and inducing vomiting.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY-Members of the communist group, the New People’s Army, could still be seen in some remote villages of his town.
And their presence has frightens his people, Burauen Mayor Juanito Renomeron said.
In three occasions, the rebels engaged in firefights with government troops.
The first incident took place last August 15 in Barangay Roxas which resulted for the members of the 78th Infantry Battalion to seized a rebel camp.
The following day, another fire fight occured in between the villages of Roxas and Candag-on and resulted for one soldier to sustain injury. The third encounter happened last August 20 in the boundary of Kagbana and Mahagnao.
These series of firefights resulted for some residents, to include teachers assigned in these areas, to worry on their safety, Renomeron said,
“(But) told them to go back. I advised them to return and to remain calm and continue their work,” the town mayor said.
And should there be an advisory from the military to leave their respective areas, they should immediately heed the advice, Renomeron added.
Renomeron said that although there are rebel members operating in the hinterlands of their town, most of them are not far their area but coming from other municipalities.
During the recently-held Provincial Peace and Order Council Meeting, Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said that the military informed him on the sightings of the rebel members in Burauen.
“The rebel members comes from other areas and goes to Burauen to operate there,” Petilla said.
Petilla expressed his concern on the safety of the people living in the places identified by the military with rebel presence as some of these barangays are beneficiaries of his More Income in the Countryside Program.
“We have organized farmers in some of these barangays and they are very productive and we are trying to improve their infrastructures as much as we could. Our request is for the military to help these farmers to have normal life,” Petilla said.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)