CARIGARA, Leyte- If you have done nothing wrong, there is nothing to fear.
This was the reaction of Mayor Eduardo “Boy” Ong of this town as President Rodrigo Duterte has named several elective officials, among others, as either directly involved or serves as protectors to those in the illegal drug trade.
Ong, who has just won his second term as mayor of this town, said that he fully support the campaign of Pres. Duterte to end the proliferation of the illegal drug activity in the country.
“If you have done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear but if you have made a mistake, admit it,” he said.
The name and shame campaign of the President, however, is being criticized by some groups.
In the region, among those mentioned by the President who are allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade were Laoang Mayor Hector Ong and his wife, Madeleine, herself a former mayor and governor of Northern Samar and the late judge Roberto Navidad of Calbayog City.
Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and his son, Kerwin, were tagged by the President as the top drug lords in the region.
The President has ordered the immediate revocation of police supervision from the mayors and licenses of policemen were cancelled tagged as such.
According to Mayor Ong, the surveillance made by the government itself does not threaten privacy unless they uncover illegal activities.
Mayor Ong said that they are intensifying their campaign against illegal drugs and those behind it.
“We will pay extra attention to drug suspects who have arrest warrants issued against them,” he said.
Since the local police in coordination conducted “Oplan Tokhang” in Carigara, about 350 drug users voluntarily surrendered.
“The situation is very good now though we must maintain a high level of awareness in our crackdown on (illegal) drugs,” Ong said.
(JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

ORMOC CITY- At least eight luxury vehicles, a jet ski and a speed boat belonging to Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and son Rolan or Kerwin were surrendered voluntarily to the police by the family’s trusted aides.
Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, town police chief, said that Mayor Espinosa instructed one Chona Milan to hand over to the police seven luxury cars, two jet boats and a single motorcycle that were parked at one of their three houses in sitio Tinago, Barangay Binulho.
Milan, accompanied by barangay councilor Jun Pepito, turned over a Toyota Hilux 3.0 D4D with plate number HBC 184; black Frontier Navarra YKA 275; white Toyota HiAce AAH 7451; Fortuner ABA 6123; black Ford Ranger AXA 6430; Red Toyota YEN 445; and green Suzuki multi cab ANA 2447.
Also turned over were 230 Challenger speed boat, RXP 260RS Jet Ski (Rotax) and a single motorcycle.
Also on Monday(August 8), Cipriano Diano, 43, and Ryan Labandria, 21, both neighbors of Kerwin appeared at the station and surrendered a silver metallic Toyota HiAce Commuter with plate number AAX 9208.
They also surrendered a weighing scale for illegal drugs allegedly owned by Kerwin, said to be the region’s number one drug lord.
Espenido claimed that the vehicles were “fruits of illegal drugs” activity of the Espinosas.
Milan is a resident of Brgy Linao, this city, and said to be the contractor of an unfinished poultry project of the Espinosas located in their village.
Diano was said to be the driver of the Espinosa family.
Espenido disclosed that the Highway Patrol Group is currently verifying the records if these are hot cars. (ELVIE ROMAN ROA)

TACLOBAN CITY – A prisoner was killed when police operatives raided the Leyte Regional Penitentiary in Abuyog, Leyte early Thursday (August 11), the Philippine National Police (PNP) regional office reported.
Police identified the fatality as Edgar Allen Alvarez. He was shot to death while attempting to fight the raiding team from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Regional Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Group, Regional Public Safety Battalion, and the Regional Maritime Unit.
“During the implementation of the search warrant, subject lobbed a grenade at the raiding team. However, it did not explode. Subsequently, Alvarez drew a caliber 45 pistol and fired upon the raiding team,” Chief Insp. Maria Bella Rentuaya, spokesperson of the PNP-8 said.
This prompted the police to return fire, killing the suspect, according to Rentuaya.
Rentuaya said that recovered during the initial search were one unit caliber 45 pistol, one unit caliber 38 revolver, one big pack dried marijuana leaves and undetermined volume of suspected shabu.
The police raided the prison facility around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday after it was tagged as one of the sources of illegal drugs of notorious drug lord Kerwin, son of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.
When the elder Espinosa surrendered to PNP Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa last week, he disclosed that his son gets supply of illegal drugs from the penitentiary in Abuyog town.
(SARWELL Q.MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY – The plan of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to divert the Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark International Airport (CRK) in Pampanga has faced strong opposition from government officials, business leaders, and travellers from the region.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Eastern Visayas aired their concerns after Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade announced during a Senate hearing on Wednesday (August 10) that the three airlines – Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Air Asia – agreed to transfer all Tacloban-Manila flights to CRK located in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
On Wednesday, the regional PCCI chapters drafted a resolution to “reconsider and desist from implementing the full rerouting of all Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark international Airport.”
“The planned rerouting of all Tacloban-Manila flights by the three carriers serving this route to Pampanga is expected to cause grave negative impact on the fragile regional economy and effectively kill the tourism industry’s growth potential of Eastern Visayas,” the business group stated.
The major reasons cited that will hurt the tourism industry are higher airfares, increased land transportation cost, adjustment of airfreight cost, longer travel time, and inconvenience to passengers.
The DOTr initially planned to make Tacloban-Manila flights as pilot for rerouting to curb congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
“If the DOTr really wishes to make a significant immediate impact in minimizing the congestion at Manila International Airport, then it should consider other routes with really high flight volumes in the Visayas such as Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu with more than 50 plus flights per day combined,” the group pointed out.
“Another option is to study the moving of more international flights to Clark instead of domestic flights,” it added.
The PCCI regional chapter urged the DOTr to conduct a consultation with affected stakeholders in the region before announcing or implementing the rerouting scheme.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said the plan, if it pushes through, there will be a setback to the tourism development in the region.
“Remember that after supertyphoon Yolanda, tourism was the first sector to recover and provide jobs to disaster victims. It was the only sector that posted growth in our regional economy,” Tiopes said in a mobile phone interview.
“The rerouting plan will discourage tourists to visit not just Leyte, but other five provinces since Tacloban Airport is the gateway of the region,” she added.
Tiopes wondered why the transportation department chose Tacloban for the pilot rerouting when disaster-stricken communities are “still picking up the pieces” after Yolanda left a trail of destruction.
“It’s better to have their pilot flights in established tourist destinations since people will really go there. The idea of traffic decongestion is good, but not at the expense of our people,” said National Economic and Development Authority Regional Director Bonifacio Uy.
Of the three sectors contributing to the Gross Regional Development Product, the service sector posted the highest acceleration at 6.8 percent, largely driven by tourist influx.
For the first quarter of 2016, tourist arrivals inched up by 14.4 percent to 146,013 from 127,661 a year ago.
The increase in tourist arrivals generated tourist receipts of P1.34 billion, up by 35 percent compared to the first quarter last year.
The Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, one of the country’s busiest, is a gateway to Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar provinces.
In the first quarter of 2016, NEDA reported some 311,944 inbound and outbound passengers at the airport or a 12 percent growth than last year. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)

PALO, Leyte – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) here in the region has failed to meet its collection covering the first six months of the year.
From January to June, the regional BIR, comprising of six revenue district offices, has only managed to collect P3.94 billion or a shortfall of 12.78 percent.
For the same period, the tax agency set a collection target of P4.52 billion.
“Since we are highly dependent on withholding taxes from government projects, our collection has decreased this year since there were less post-Yolanda recovery activities compared to 2014 and 2015,” said BIR Eastern Visayas assistant regional director Teodoro Galicia, citing the reason for the shortfall of the collection target for the period.
“Although we missed the target, we are happy to generate nearly half of the P8.67 billion goal for the year,” he added.
Of the total collection for the period, P1.60 billion was earned by Tacloban revenue district office (RDO) in northern Leyte and Biliran; P754.74 million by Ormoc RDO in western Leyte; P587.90 million by Catbalogan RDO in Samar; P342.75 million was generated by Catarman RDO in Northern Samar; P339.14 million by Borongan RDO in Eastern Samar and P316.84 million by Maasin RDO in Southern Leyte.
Among the six RDOs, only Catbalogan office exceeded the target by only 0.63 percent while the rest RDOs posted a deficit ranging from nine percent to more than 17 percent.
The BIR in the region is targeting a P8.67 billion tax collection this year even after it failed to reach the 2015 revenue goals due to impacts of supertyphoon “Yolanda” that struck the region in 2013.
The tax bureau said they are still optimistic to meet the target this year with the recovery of businesses and expansion activities of private establishments.
Of the P8.67 billion annual target, P5.68 billion will be from income tax, P2.17 million from value added tax, P10.72 million from excise taxes, P316.74 million from percentage tax, and P483.58 million other taxes. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)