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)
Mayor confirms presence of NPA members in his town
DOT E. Visayas saddened over underreported tourist arrivals
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office here has expressed concern over incomplete reporting of tourist arrivals among local government units in Eastern Visayas, a major setback in reaching the target number visitors last year.
Rodel Balierbare, DOT statistics point person, said the region only recorded a 7.91 percent arrival growth in 2016 when it only welcomed 1.1 million tourists based on official tally.
The target for tourist arrivals for 2016 was 1.2 million.
Citing official statistics, Balierbare said the region’s top five most visited destinations last year are mostly in Baybay City because of their effective data collection and frequent submission of data in terms of same day visitors.
“We have a lot of tourist destinations frequently visited by touristswhich are not included in the list of most visited sites because their statistics are not submitted,” Balierbare said on Tuesday (August 22).
For this year, the DOT has no available arrival data since there are only three local government units that submitted their tourism data.
The government is expecting to welcome at least 1.4 million foreign and domestic visitors in Eastern.
The tourism department is highly dependent on the data submitted by provinces and cities to come up with the regional situation of tourism industry. The data serves as basis for budget allocation and investments from the private sector.
Last week, the DOT held a statistics training for tourism officers to refresh them on generating statistics strategies.
The training guarantees data reliability and allows countries and territories to have a common tool and reference in tourism data generation and to strengthen DOT’s campaign on generating relevant tourism statistics that serves as indicators of industry performance. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO/ALECXIS L.PANGANIBAN, OJT/PNA)
Building vibrant local economies in Eastern Visayas through DepEd Order No. 13
The Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 13, series of 2017, presents an opportunity for agri-startups in the country to capture the market in public schools and DepEd offices.
Agri-startups, particularly those into food and beverages, now have an opportunity to expand their market and to increase purchases from farmers who supply the raw materials.
DepEd Order No. 13 articulates the department’s policy and guidelines on healthy food and beverages in schools and DepEd offices. The order intends to make available to school children and DepEd personnel healthy food and beverages and provide guidance on categorizing them.
The order also suggests that local governments regulate the sale of food and beverages in school vicinities.
For the longest time, local beverage and food processorshave difficulty penetrating the local market as big companies dominate the market often with millions of pesos allotted for product packaging and promotion.
The limits in the market of startups also limits the volume of their purchases from farmers, who are not motivated to expand production areas or replace crops no longer as prolific as they used to.
Schools represent a big chunk of the potential market of food and beverages for agri-startups.
The DepEd Division of Eastern Samar, for example, has 417 public elementary schools, 27 of them are central schools, and 53 are public secondary schools. The grade school population is placed at 52, 351 and the high school population is 33,000.
If all the 27 central elementary schools and the 53 high schools in Eastern Samar have canteens, which are probably the case, then there would be at least 80 school canteens in the province.
A few of the remaining schools might also have canteensbut let’s start with the 80 and do the math.
If 200 students would enter each of the 80 canteens every school day,that would mean 16,000 students entering the canteenswhich is not improbable given the student population of the province.
If each student spends at least P5 to buy food or beverage from the canteens, that means students in the province spend at least P80,000every school day.
A school year has at least 200 school days. In one year, students in the whole of Eastern Samar could spend as much as P16 million to buy food and beverages from their canteens.
If the amount will go to buy the products of local startups, then more jobs will be created by these startups, and more produce will be purchased from local farmers. This would also mean income for the canteens and more business taxes for local governments.
DepEd can facilitate the entry of these startups into the school canteens. But to gain access, these startups need to enhance their products to comply with the DepEd standards, particularly those articulated in DepEd Order No. 13.
Somebody should provide product development assistance to the startups, which would include analysis of nutrition content, licensing of the products and enhancing their quality and packaging.
DepEd only intended to keep the kids healthy when it issued the orderbut the order can also make local economies vibrant if locally-made food and beverages would make it into school canteens. Should this happen, DepEd will be contributing a lot to the reduction of poverty in Eastern Visayas sooner rather than later.
(DEROPBIE MINDA D. ASEO)
Over 130 families now resettled at their new homes in a Leyte town
CARIGARA, Leyte- About 132 families whose houses were totally destroyed when supertyphoon “Yolanda” hit this town have transferred to their new houses in one of the resettlement sites here.
The families that were transferred last August 17 were from the barangays of Barugohay Norte, San Mateo, Jugaban, Nauguisan, and Sagkahan.
They were resettled to their new homes in Eco Ville last August 1 and 17, Mayor Eduardo Ong said.
About 3,524 families from different villages of the town are to be relocated to five resettlement sites.
The National Housing Authority has allocated about P1 billion for this housing projects in this town for families who either totally lost their houses due to Yolanda or living in areas declared as not safe by the government.
In Eco Ville 1, about 1, 640 houses are to be constructed while another 680 units in Eco Ville II in Barangay Cabdigahub are undergoing construction.
Also, about 1,524 housing units are to be constructed in Brgy. Parga-um.
It was learned from Mayor Ong that an additional 680 units was recently bided out and the construction of these units started immediately.
According to Ong, the small number of families who now occupies the permanent shelter was due to the fact that NHA has very strict conditions.
“The condition set was to destroy all houses built in flood prone areas. It would be difficult because it is close to their livelihood. Our proposal is for the recipients to stay in their old houses during day time and return to their new homes at night,” Ong said.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
Court convicted a woman for misrepresenting herself to claim SSS benefits
A woman was convicted by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Naga for misrepresenting herself as the dependent mother of a deceased member to claim death benefit and by the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) of Naga for pretending to be the legal wife of her common-law husband, to claim funeral and death benefits under the Social Security System (SSS).
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said that Merly Solano Balquin first misrepresented herself as Rosita S. Buena, dependent mother of Cesar S. Buena Jr., who died in 2001. The second misrepresentation was committed in 2003, when Balquin pretended again to be Rosita, wife of deceased Cesar Buena Sr., to file funeral and death benefits.
“It was very clear that Balquin intended to defraud SSS by misrepresenting herself not only once but twice just to qualify as a beneficiary to claim SSS benefits. We are saddened that there are people who would do such act for their benefit but at the expense of the SSS and the real beneficiaries,” said Dooc.
According to Dooc, by misrepresenting herself as the dependent mother of the younger Buena, Balquin was convicted for violating Republic Act 8282 otherwise known as Social Security Act of 1997. She was ordered to serve a jail term of six years and to pay a fine amounting to P5,000.
On the other hand, for pretending to be the wife of the older Buena to claim funeral and death benefits, she was convicted for violating RA 8282 in relation to Article 172 of the Revised Penal Code. She was ordered to serve a jail term of six months and to pay a fine of P500.
Based on the decision from the RTC, Balquin pretended to be Rosita per instruction of Buena Sr. She signed the necessary documents including the Sinumpaang Salaysay, a requirement that both parents will sign and file the death claim application.
During the pendency of the case, Balquin refunded to the SSS the death benefit she received in the amount of P6,000 in three installments.
“While we understand that the family has financial needs due to the death of Buena Jr.,that did not justify the act of Balquin in misrepresenting herself to qualify as the beneficiary. Despite returning the money she received, she was still liable since she already committed the misrepresentation before the case was filed against her,” said Dooc.
On the second case, Balquin pleaded guilty to both charges of fraudulent funeral benefit claim and fraudulent death claim filed in MTC. No objection was raised by the SSS, hence, the court ruled against Balquin.
“May this serve as a warning to everyone that misrepresenting yourself as someone else to qualify for SSS benefits is punishable under the SS Act. We do not tolerate such fraudulent act and we make sure that those who commit it will be punished accordingly,” said Dooc.
At present, Balquin appealed the case which was decided by the RTC. (PR)
Tacloban, most improved HUC nationwide
One of the most difficult functions of government operations at any level is the realization of an efficient tax collection. Some bigtime business establishment owners, and some high- level income professionals to include several others use technicalities to evade paying the right taxes.
Of course to some of them, evading taxes is reasonable and justified when they see no impressive laudable projects and other needed improvements to benefit constituents in their areas; and the other one which is nauseating is the prevalence of graft and corruption in government. There are as well many of them who are simply unpatriotic who only think about their own welfare, that paying taxes to them is just bothersome.
-o-
Tacloban, a Highly Urbanized City however is experiencing these days a new positive twist, far different from what some other local governments and highly urbanized cities experience on the issue of tax collection.
Atty. Irene Chui, city Mayor’s alter ego and a trusted City Administrator revealed that there is already noticeable improvements in the tax collection efforts in the city. She attributed the impressive tax collection avtivity to good governance that Tacloban especially under Mayor Cristina, is undergoing. It is an indication she says, that taxpayers in the city are impressed by this good governance so they are now paying taxes regularly, correrctly and willingly.
-o-
Tacloban is a recipient of an award – the Most improved Highly Urbanized City of the Philippines, given last August 16, 2017 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). The award was handed to Mayor Cristina Gonzales Romualdez in the presence of City Administrator Atty. Irene Chui and other city government officials present.
The occasion was the 5th Annual Regional Competitivness Summit. DILG Undersecretary Austero Panadero, Antonio Luz, National Competitive Co-Chairman and Ruth Castelo DTI undersecretary handed the award to Mayor Critina G.Romualdez.
Of the 34 HUCs, Tacloban ranked No. 16. But let us take note of what happened before; that in the 2016 evaluation of the same competition, Tacloban was No. 34 or an embarassing tail ender. A lot of improvements have happened since then therefore.
Factors employed in the choice of the most improved HUCs in the country include, economic dynanism, Government efficiency, Infrastructure and Resiliency.
Tacloban City Administrator Chui identified and noted improvements in the city government operations that led to receiving the award. Classrooms have significantly been repaired and improved after most of them were destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda. Local economy has risen to a certain higher level, that is now generating production and employment opportunities especially those who have less in life Tacloban city residents – the poor among us.
-o-
Go around Tacloban and observe business establishments sprouting city-wide to include new banks being established.
Banco de Oro (BDO) in Tacloban is one of the recognized booming private banks in the Far East. It has already opened and expanded branches within the city limits – at Rizal Avenue, Justice Romualdez St., inside SM Mega Mall and the One Network Bank also of BDO’s at Del Pilar street in Tacloban city.
Road networks is undergoing construction to connect all interior barangays for the needed residents access to the city.
Over1,000 Senior Citizens, the less privilleged ones are regular recipient-beneficiaries of P1,500 from the city’s social funds.
Tacloban became a Highly Urbanized City in 2008 under the initiation of Mayor Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez, father-in-law of Mayor Cristina. As an HUC, Tacloban has ceased to be part of the administrative jurisdiction of the provincial government of Leyte. It now relates directly to the national government.
With this happy turn of events Mayor Cristina and the city officials certainly will be inspired to do more innovations and improvements for betterment and Taclobanons can now with confidence see a bright and prosperous future.