A day before New Year’s Eve, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) warns that any person who is caught manufacturing, selling, distributing or using illegal firecrackers and pyrotechnics may be fined or imprisoned or suffer both penalties.
DILG Officer-in-Charge Catalino S. Cuy says the government is serious in regulating firecrackers and will deal with those who do not abide by the law and regulations.
“Taon-taon ay nag-aabiso tayo sa publiko tungkol sa pagbebenta at paggamit ng paputok. Kaya pasensyahan po tayo kung kayo ay mahuhuli at mapapatawan ng kaukulang parusa o makakaloboso,” says Cuy.
Republic Act 7183 or An Act Regulating the Sale, Manufacture, Distribution and Use of Firecrackers and Other Pyrotechnic Devices states that any person who manufactures, sells, distributes or uses firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices in violation of the provisions of this Act shall be fined from P20,000 to P30,000, or imprisoned between six months to one year, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.
The license and business permit of manufacturers of illegal firecrackers shall likewise be cancelled and their inventory and stock confiscated.
Cuy, however, says allowable consumer pyrotechnics or ‘pailaw’ may be used outside places of residence.
“Naglabas naman po tayo ng listahan ng mga firecrackers o pailaw na puwedeng gamitin. Huwag na po tayong gumamit ng bawal kung ayaw ninyong maperhuwisyo sa paglipas ng Bagong Taon,” he says.
According to the law, the manufacture, sale, and use of the following firecrackers are strictly prohibited: piccolo or “scratch bangers”, pop pop, Goodbye Philippines or Crying Bading, Yolanda or Goodbye Napoles, Watusi, Pla-pla, Giant Kuwitis, Watusi or “dancing firecrackers,” Super Lolo, Atomic Big Trianggulo, Mother Rockets, Lolo Thunder, Pillbox, Boga, Big Judah’s Belt, Big Bawang, Kwiton, Bin Laden, Kabasi, Atomic Bomb, Five Star, Og, and Giant Whistle Bombs.
All firecrackers with gunpowder exceeding two grams or 1.3 teaspoons is also banned.
Only the following firecrackers and pyrotechnics are allowed: baby rocket, bawang, small triangle, pulling of strings, paper caps, el diablo, and sky rocket (kwitis), sparklers, luces, fountains, jumbo regular and special, mabuhay, Roman candle, trompillo, airwolf, whistle device, and butterfly.(PR)
DILG to public: Use only allowed firecrackers or be fined or imprisoned
Vicky Arnaiz dies due to cardiac arrest; 54
TACLOBAN CITY—Victoria “Vicky” Arnaiz, a correspondent of Leyte Samar Daily Express (LSDE) succumbed to a massive heart attack on Wednesday night. She was 54.
Arnaiz was survived by her seven siblings and four children—John Paul, Vanessa, James, and Joshua.
Prior to this, Arnaiz was confined at the RTR Hospital, this city, on Dec. 22.
She died at 5:40 p.m. on Dec.27.
Aside from being a correspondent of LSDE and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Arnaiz was also known for her other mostly humanitarian activities.
She was a board of director of the Philippine Red Cross-Leyte chapter and worked with the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Tacloban.
Arnaiz, a survivor of supertyphoon “Yolanda,” spoke before a world gathering on climate change in Istanbul, Turkey last May 23, 2016.
She was also the president of the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (PRO-8) Press Corps and vice president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Tacloban Chapter.
Arnaiz was the daughter of the late Agustin “Gus” Arnaiz, considered the “dean” of journalists in Eastern Visayas and founder of The Reporter, one of the first regional papers.
Her brother, Jani, now runs the online edition of The Reporter and is also a correspondent of Inquirer based in Maasin City.
Her body was brought to St. Peter’s Memorial on Real Street in Tacloban for an overnight vigil before she would be brought home to Maasin City, Southern Leyte, on Friday where she would be buried on Dec. 31.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Natural disasters remain the biggest plague and news story for Eastern Visayas in 2017
EV in 2017: Mother Earth calling
In what could be the most disastrous typhoon to hit the region-four years after Eastern Visayas was pummeled by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’, the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland- ‘Urduja’ pummeled much of the region leaving a trail of destructions and loss of lives.
The region’s smallest province, Biliran, bore the brunt of Urduja’s fury when it barreled its way on December 16, causing several landslides that entombed 52 people, several of them children.
The storm resulted in the destruction of public properties in Biliran alone at P400 million.
The provinces of Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar also suffered devastations both in infrastructures and people killed due either to landslide or flooding incidents.
While several earthquakes shook the region, the July 6 incident was the most destructive.
The 5.6 magnitude tremor that hit Leyte resulted in the deaths of three people and destructions of roads and bridges as well as buildings, homes and public facilities like the Ormoc City Airport reaching to hundreds of millions of pesos.
The tremor was so strong that the region was without power supply for nearly two months, affecting major industries and businesses.
It was also in 2017 that all six governors of the region decided to belong to one common political party which happens to be the party of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Governors Leopoldo Dominico Petilla(Leyte), Gerry ‘Boy” Espina(Biliran), Christopher Yap(Southern Leyte), Sharee Ann Tan(Samar), Marcelo Ferdinand Picardal(Eastern Samar), and Jose Ong(Northern Samar) pledged their political loyalties to the President by jumping to PDP-Laban.
And save for Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza, all the other congressmen of the region now consider themselves as members of the PDP-Laban.
All of them, to include mayors, have vowed to continue to support on the controversial anti-illegal drug campaign of the President.
After being devastated by supertyphoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013, economic officials of the region has projected that the regional economy is now recovering.
In fact, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in the region had projected that Eastern Visayas economy would grow between 5.2 to 5.7 percent.
Tacloban City, the regional capital and main economic hub of Eastern Visayas, reported of new and big investments in 2017.
This year, the Robinsons Mall opened its second branch in Tacloban as it also soon to operate in the cities of Ormoc and Calbayog.
The tourism industry is also fast contributing to the regional economy as tourism officials eye an increase of about 20 percent from the current seven percent levels.
It was also during this year that the city government of Tacloban, under Mayor Cristina Romualdez, ‘took’ control of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) from the supervision of the provincial government.
Romualdez issued appointment papers to five new board of directors of the LMWD, a move that right away questioned by the ‘ousted’ officials, to include its general manager.
Despite of the natural disasters that struck Eastern Visayas, leaders of the region are optimistic that the New Year will bring not only stability but further economic growth for Eastern Visayas, still considered as among the poorest regions in the country.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Death toll due to ‘Urduja’ now climbs to 46
The province of Biliran, particularly its capital town of Naval, continues to grapple the devastation caused by typhoon ‘Urduja’ that hit the area on December 16.
On Monday (December 18), President Rodrigo Duterte visited Naval wherein he ordered for the restoration of major bridges that were damaged by the typhoon and provide relief to the victims.
Governor Gerardo Espina, Jr., placed the entire province under a state of calamity on Monday due to the ‘massive damage to infrastructure, agricultural crops, livelihood, private and public facilities and buildings’ amounting to P400 million, caused by Urduja.
Biliran, a small-island province, is considered the hard-hit area in the region due to Urduja.
About 30 people have died in the province, majority of them were from Barangay Lucsoon, Naval. About 19 dead bodies, to include a headless remains of a boy, were so far recovered by a retrieval team with the help of heavy equipment from the Department of Public Works and Highways.
As of Tuesday afternoon, nine residents of Lucsoon remain to be missing.
Based on the reports from the regional office of the Philippine National Police (PNP), 46 people have died across the region due to Urduja, either because of a landslide or by drowning.
Aside from Biliran province and several of its towns, the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, and several towns in Leyte and the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban have declared state of calamity due to the damages they have sustained because of Urduja, the most destructive typhoon to hit the region after the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
In Eastern Samar, about 49,459 families were affected due to Urduja which also killed three people.
Damage to infrastructures reached to P1.37 million and P260.40 million worth of crops were destroyed in the province, provincial administrator George Erroba said.
In Northern Samar, 20,851 families or 96,923 individuals from its several towns were displaced due to the massive flooding spawned by Urduja.
Several of its roads and bridges were also washed out due to the flooding.
In Samar, 48,309 families or 216,388 individuals were also affected by the typhoon which also resulted in the destruction of a road in Barangay Laygayon, Pinabacdao which rendered it impassable to vehicles.
About 30,316 families, representing 118,109 individuals from different towns in Leyte, were also displaced by the typhoon which also resulted in the killing of three persons, including a seven-year old boy in Mahaplag.
It was all too sudden.
Thus said Paquito Jampas, a resident and former village chair of Lucsoon which was hit by a tornado followed by a massive landslide that buried several of the residents, to include children.
Jampas, in a phone interview, said that all the residents of the village’s more than 1,870 were inside their houses as Urduja was pounding Lucsoon, just about five kms away from the town proper.
“It was raining heavily coupled with strong winds. Then all of a sudden, we saw a tornado hovering at the top of the mountain, then quickly, there was a landslide cascading down to the houses,” he said.
“I was lucky that our house was not hit by the landslide but just like the rest of the people in the village who survived the landslide incident, I was shocked,” Jampas said.
Jampas said that he is ‘grieving’ on the tragedy that struck their farming-village.
“Practically, we consider ourselves not just mere neighbors but relatives,” the former barangay official said.
Gerardo de la Cruz, school principal of Lucsoon Elementary School, which was not hit by the landslide, said that he is also feeling the grief of the residents on the tragedy.
“Four of those killed were my students and one is a teacher who is teaching in high school,” de la Cruz, in a separate phone interview, said.
de la Cruz said that he is helping in the retrieval operations of those killed by the landslide though he is also a typhoon victim himself.
According to him, their house in Barangay Caraycaray, also in Naval, was totally washed out due to the flooding spawned by Urduja.
It is in Brgy. Caraycaray where a major bridge connecting Biliran to Leyte province was destroyed by Urduja, rendering the island-province isolated from Leyte and the rest of Eastern Visayas.
“We are calling our government to send us relief assistance. We need food and water. Up to this time, we have yet to receive assistance from our government,” de la Cruz said.
The school principal said that he hope that the visit of Pres.Duterte to Naval will hasten the delivery of assistance to them.
Pablito Kuizon,55 and a resident of Brgy. P.I. Garcia, also in Naval, said that aside from lack of assistance, the town continues to experience power blackout since Saturday.
“Gasoline stations in Naval refuse to sell gasoline. We don’t have water after our sources located in Lucsoon and Talustusan were damaged due to the landslides,” Kuizon, who is the provincial chairman of People’s Surge, a group of ‘Yolanda’ survivors, said.
There are five gasoline stations Naval.
Naval was also hit by Yolanda in 2013 although the damage it suffered due to Urduja is comparatively worse, he said.
Dycen Cadiz, National Food Authority (NFA) manager for Biliran, said that there is enough supply of government-issued rice for the province.
Cadiz said that out of the 19,500 bags of rice downloaded from Cebu two weeks ago from the Naval port, 13,000 were for Biliran province.
“It’s enough for eight days but there is still enough NFA supply in the market,” Cadiz, in another phone interview, said.
The price of NFA in the province remains at P25 per kilogram.
She also said that town Mayor Gerard Espina had earlier called all the businessmen operating in the town not to take advantage of the situation and not to increase the prices.
Cadiz said the provincial government has already procured 150 bags while the municipal government of Naval procured 300 bags intended for typhoon survivors.
The towns of Cabucgayan and Kawayan have also procured 120 and 50 bags respectively from them, the NFA provincial manager said.
(JOEY A. GABIETA, ROEL T. AMAZONA, RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT, VICKY C. ARNAIZ, LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
DILG designates new federalism campaign administrator
Responding to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to be more aggressive in its public campaign advocating a federal system of government, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge Catalino S. Cuy has designated a new administrator of the department’s Federalism and Constitutional Reform program.
Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya, formerly Executive Director of the PDP Laban Federalism Institute, has been designated the campaign’s new administrator replacing Asst. Secretary Epimaco Densing III.
Malaya was a former assistant secretary of the Department of Education and of the Office of the President prior to joining the DILG.
Cuy says Malaya’s vast experience as executive director of the federalism institute, as a government official, and his wide network in the academe and other sectors would enable the DILG to propel the federalism campaign to the grassroots level.
“As directed by President Duterte, the DILG needs to let the local governments and the ordinary people appreciate and understand how federalism will be able to change the course of our country and lead it towards development. And with Asec Malaya at the helm of the campaign, I am confident that we can make this happen,” he says.
For his part, Malaya says that starting 2018, the DILG will undertake a coordinated effort with other national government agencies and work with the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to ensure that the entire government bureaucracy is part of the campaign.
“We have to have one voice and one messaging in the federalism campaign, otherwise, we would not be able to bring our message across to our countrymen on how a shift to federalism would impact on our country and our lives,” he says.
Malaya says that the DILG will also be working closely with the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2018. Recently, the lower house began plenary debates on a joint resolution calling for a Constituent Assembly to propose amendments to the Constitution.
In a speech during the PDP Laban’s Christmas Benefit Dinner for Marawi, Duterte urged members of Congress who are his party-mates to unite behind his proposal to amend the Constitution to address the Mindanao problem and to spur economic development across the country.(PR)
Leyte bridge hit by landslide now passable, says DPWH
CARIGARA, Leyte- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)’s Leyte Second Engineering Office (2nd LED) announced that the bridge located along Sitio Ansubas, Barangay Lemon in Capoocan is now passable after a landslide occurred in the area in the aftermath of typhoon’s ‘Urduja’ wrath.
Half of the lane was covered with mud and debris when the slope protection along the historic Breakneck Ridge collapsed, followed by a landslide due to the heavy rains spawned by Urduja which hit Leyte on Saturday (December 16).
DPWH maintenance personnel immediately conducted clearing operations in the area and restored traffic along the said route in the afternoon of Sunday, (December 17) for vehicles plying along the Palo-Carigara- Ormoc road, one of the region’s vital highways.
The 2nd LED is still assessing the amount of damage to infrastructure along the area as of this writing.
To recall, a road section of the same spot collapsed in December 2014 after heavy rains pounded Leyte province brought by typhoon ‘Seniang’.
The collapsed road section marred traffic during one of the country’s busiest days. The district engineering office undertook a multi-million road reblocking and slope protection project in the area.
However, incessant rains brought by the slow-moving Urduja softened the soil in Sitio Ansubas resulting in a landslide.
(AHLETTE C. REYES)