TACLOBAN CITY – Dengue fever cases continue to rise sharply here in the region, killing 16 people and afflicting 2,982 others since January until this week, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Roderick Boyd Cerro, chief of the DOH regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, said this year’s ballooning dengue fever cases is quite alarming.
“Number of cases increased by 228 percent compared to the same period last year. Dengue mortality rose by 300 percent this year compared to 2015,” Cerro said in a mobile phone interview.
Deaths have been reported in Catbalogan City and Catbalogan City; Maasin City; San Miguel, Abuyog, Baybay City, Palo, and Tanauan, all in Leyte; Borongan City; and San Vicente, Northern Samar.
Clustering of cases have been noted in Baybay City, Capoocan, Palo, Sta. Fe, Tacloban City, and Tolosa, all in Leyte; Guiuan and Lawaan, both in Eastern Samar; Lavezares in Northern Samar; Naval in Biliran; and Padre Burgos in Southern Leyte.
The DOH field office here sent a team of health workers to the island town of Sto. Niño in Samar to check as local authorities have reported of a dengue outbreak in their area.
“For areas with many dengue cases, our advice is to conduct fogging operation to kill any adult mosquitoes. This can be done once a week for three weeks to control the mosquito population,” Cerro added.
Other strategies of the health department to combat rising cases are intensified mosquito control efforts, coordinate with local government units in information drive, conduct fogging and larviciding in areas with clustering of cases, install dengue express lanes in hospitals, purchase and preposition of fluids.
Dengue fever is marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and pain in muscles and joints. Some may also have a rash and varying degree of bleeding from various parts of the body.
Cerro urged those who suffer the symptoms to immediately seek consultation from local health workers to prevent deaths from this mosquito-borne disease.
(SARWELL Q.MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY – The municipal government of Carigara will be giving more focus on infrastructures and implement projects that could stir more economic activities among its local businesses as it charts its local agenda for 2017.
Town officials together with department heads, selected employees, and representatives from national government agencies recently gathered to formulate its Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) in Cebu City.
Carigara Mayor Eduardo Ong disclosed that he would be prioritizing for more investments and businesses to generate more jobs and livelihood opportunities for the people.
“More investors would mean more jobs and economic opportunities for our people,” Ong said.
Meanwhile, Ong said that they will be providing a special program for those who surrendered under the Philippine National Police’s “Oplan Tokhang” which would include food- for- work and counseling classes.
About 350 drug users and pushers in the town have voluntarily surrendered since “Tokhang” was enforced last month.
“The surrenderees underwent several trainings for self-renewal as they were integrated back to the community” said Ong.
The mayor said that since they don’t have limited fundings, the plan to put up their own rehabilitation center is remote at this time.
“The LGU may be able to construct a rehab center but with the limited funding, we cannot operate our own since it will require staff, counseling, and food,” Ong said.
The mayor emphasized other target priorities such as improved health service; program for basic services; housing programs for families living along the coastal areas and permanent danger zones; business industry promotion and marketing for more economic activity and, effective disaster preparedness and management.
Mayor Ong said formulation of the ELA is important as it guides and enables the executive and legislative branches to agree on priority problems and issues and focus on a set of interventions.
“This activity also promotes the judicious use of LGU budget and resources,” Ong added.
Carigara works on P102 million internal revenue allotment and an P 18 million local revenue. (AHLETTE C.REYES/
LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

CALBAYOG CITY-Anticipating of a possible violence on the forthcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, the city government will be seeking for additional police force.
Mayor Ronaldo Aquino said that the request was contained in a resolution aproved by the city council which aim to ensure that the conduct of the barangay and youth polls in Calbayog will be peaceful.
“In our quest for peace, we feel the need of urgency. We’ve decided to pass a resolution to request for addition number of police forces here especially in our remote villages, so that we can stop violence,” he said.
However, the city mayor did not say as to how many additional police they need to ensure a peaceful and orderly barangay polls in Calbayog.
At present, the city has 86 policemen.
The country is set to hold barangay and SK polls this October.
“There has been a history of violence and conflicts being incited by some political parties here in previous elections,” Aquino said.
“Politics is politics. We cannot blame anyone. We all know that barangay and SK election is a litmus test for our young democracy,” the mayor added.
Calbayog has always been tagged as among the region’s hot spots during elections.
The city is politically subdivided into three districts (Calbayog, Tinambacan and Oquendo) and has 157 barangays.
According to Aquino, he has received reports that as early as now, there are “conflicts” monitored in the different barangays in the city with the forthcoming village polls as the reason.
“In our quest for peace, we feel the need of urgency. We’ve decided to pass a resolution to request for addition number of police forces here especially in our remote villages, so that we can stop violence,” he said.
However, the city mayor did not say as to how many additional police they need to ensure a peaceful and orderly barangay polls in Calbayog.
(JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

TACLOBAN CITY – Teams will be deployed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office to three Samar provinces to assist farmers in the identification of priority farm commodities, heeding Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol’s directive to transform Samar Island into a “food basket.”
DA Regional Executive Director Wilson Cerbito said the department will embark on participatory governance through community-based consultation, striking a balance between farmers’ preferred crops and suitable commodity in specific areas.
Initially, the initiative will cover five poorest towns in each of the three provinces or a total of 15 areas.
“We want to make sure that after the project, there should be an impact. Success of the project will be measured by evaluating the poverty incidence,” Cerbito said.
The three provinces – Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar – were tagged as priority areas in the implementation of Special Area for Agriculture Development (SAAD), the strategy of the Piñol in attaining agricultural development and poverty alleviation.
Through this program, the national government aims to bring down poverty incidence in Samar provinces to only 25 percent.
Recently, DA organized a technical working group with local government units for a specific identification of the beneficiaries and determines the exact location, preferably create a database.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has identified Samar provinces as among the 10 areas with the highest poverty incidence in the country.
Eastern Samar had 55.4 percent while both Samar and Northern Samar posted 43.5 percent poverty incidence.
“Development will not only focus on crops, but fisheries as well. This can be done through collaboration with other agencies such as Department of Social Welfare and Development because the targets are conditional cash transfer beneficiaries,” Cerbito added.
The DA will also tie up with the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, DA-attached agencies and bureaus, and local government units in the implementation of SAAD.
During his visit to the region last month, Piñol committed to organize project management teams in the three provinces, hire additional workers to assist designated agricultural extension workers, and prioritize projects with a turnaround of six months to one year to “achieve much awaited changes.”
DA regional information Francisco Rosaroso said SAAD program has been proven successful in North Cotabato, where Piñol served as its governor for nine years.
“SAAD, a comprehensive program focusing on the country’s ten priority provinces, will assess the strengths and weaknesses of an area and its potentials in food production,” Rosaroso explained.
(SARWELL Q.MENIANO)