TACLOBAN CITY-The Philippine Information Agency (PIA), regional office 8 was adjudged as this year’s “Best NSM Agency” in Eastern Visayas in recognition for its significant contribution through various information dissemination activities during the month-long celebration of the 29th National Statistics Month in the region.
Venus May H. Sarmiento, officer-in-charge of PIA-Region 8, received the plaque of recognition during the awarding ceremony held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Tacloban City on October 30.
“We are so much honored for having been chosen as the first-ever Best NSM Agency in the region and our NSM-related activities were recognized by the Regional Statistics Committee,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento also said the major activity which PIA conducted, despite limited budget, was the regional essay writing contest participated in by the six provincial winners wherein the provincial contests were facilitated by the respective PIA Information Centers.
Other activities which PIA-8 conducted include kapihans, guestings of PSA officials in PIA radio programs, social media blasting of the NSM activities and sharing of infobits, news and photo releases, hanging of NSM tarpaulins at the regional office and in all PIA provincial offices, poster making contest, and coverages of other NSM activities, Sarmiento added.
“We are also grateful for the support extended by our generous government and private partners, as well as our PIA Information Center Managers and staff whose contributions were instrumental in our efforts for wider information dissemination extended to grassroots communities,” Sarmiento further said.
The RSC’s search for the Best NSM Agency 2018 aims to encourage wider participation to the NSM celebration and was designed to promote the conduct of activities to further promote the objectives and spirit of NSM celebration in the region.
In consonance with the Presidential Proclamation No. 647, PIA-8 conducted several information dissemination activities “to promote and instill awareness on the importance and value of statistics, this year, highlighting the theme, “Exploring Philippine Wonders in Numbers: Statistics Towards Sustainable Tourism Development.” (LDL/PIA8-Leyte)

‘Yolanda’ 5th anniversary commemoration

PALO, Leyte – There is nothing wrong in development but please, do take care of our environment.
Thus said Fr. Sunny Quijano, parish priest of Our Lady of the Poor, this town, in his homily for the fifth commemorative program of the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ on Thursday (Nov.8).
“Development is good but it should not sacrifice Mother Nature,” he said.
“Part of our sin is our destruction on the environment. That is why, we should lead in helping, cleaning and protecting it,” Quijano added.
“This is a challenge to us but we can do this by doing simple acts like picking up garbage or throwing our trash in a garbage bin and by planting more trees,” the priest said.
Yolanda has been considered to be a climate change-induced natural disaster that resulted in the deaths of more than 6,500 people and the destruction of properties worth in billions of pesos.
Fr. Quijano said that communication between humankind must not be broken to foster good relationship with each other.
“We don’t know when we are going to die that is why it is important that we always act and do good things for our brothers and sisters. It is proper for us to have good relationship with others and we do this through prayer,” he said.
Mayor Remedios ‘Matin’ Petilla led in a commemorative program held at a mass grave located inside the compound of the Palo Cathedral.
About 500 people who died due to Yolanda were buried at the said mass grave visited by Pope Francis on January 17,2015.
Relatives and friends of those who perished offered flowers and candles at the grave site.
A balloon formed as a rosary and doves were released into the air.
Mayor Petilla said that while remembering those who died due to Yolanda should continue, it’s now time to ‘move on.’
“We have to move on but we cannot put that aside, we always need to remember. I always tell the people that their departed loved ones will be at peace if they see those who survived are able to accept what happened,” Petilla said.
Around 1,050 residents of Palo died on November 8, 2013 while more than 100 residents are declared missing after the super typhoon.
Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, on his part, said that the people affected by Yolanda should sustain the recovery after the catastrophe.
“This recovery was initiated by the people who are affected by Yolanda. We need to sustain this. It was a painful experience. We were shocked and traumatized but we need to overcome it and move on. That is what we saw in our local economy, it became vibrant,” the governor said.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- An alliance composed of storm survivors has called President Rodrigo Duterte as “inutile” as the nation marked the fifth anniversary of the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ on Thursday (Nov.8).
Efleda Bautista, the president of People Surge, said that the past five years since Yolanda hit Eastern Visayas “was supposed to be enough for the recovery and rehabilitation phase of the region.”
Yet for the People Surge, they marked the Yolanda rehabilitation under Pres. Duterte as “slow-paced, segmented and anti-people” and likened it to what happened during the time of his predecessor President Benigno Aquino III.
“We are more than ready to occupy once again the streets of Tacloban, rain or shine, to air out our state and our demands. We are the Yolanda survivors and we are ready to surge,” said Bautista.
Bautista said that “there is a zero percent progress in the government’s bogus Yolanda rehabilitation project.”
“The project is only aimed at attracting investors and creating businesses profiteering from the people’s vulnerability to disasters,” she said.
The People Surge official disclosed that Yolanda housing project in the region “remains incomplete while relocated families still suffering from the lack of basic utilities and livelihood.”
Aside from the criticizing the “bugled” rehabilitation in the region, Bautista also hit the increasing prices of commodities particularly the rice, saying this “is a result of the government’s neglect over the agriculture sector, most affected in times of disasters.”
But for former Special Assistant to the President Christopher ‘Bong’ Go, the recovery is “fast” in Tacloban and Leyte.
He added that Duterte is “always thinking about the betterment of the Filipino people.”
In his speech during his visit to the city on Wednesday (Nov.7), Go recalled how Mr. Duterte, then the mayor of Davao City, immediately arrived in Tacloban to deliver help to the Yolanda victims and ordered for the continuation of the rehabilitation during his administration.
He said that housing “is now 80 percent complete” in the different resettlement sites at the northern part of Tacloban.
These resettlement sites also have an electric connection while its water system is on its bidding process, Go added.
Go also highlighted the 27. 3-kilometer tide embankment project under Duterte which aims to protect some 30,800 houses and infrastructures in Tacloban-Palo-Tanauan areas from similar storm surge in the future.
(RONALD O.REYES)