Hopes to surpass last year’s accomplishments

PALO, Leyte- The regional head of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB-8), Gualberto Gualberto, said that they were happy of their last year’s performance.
And this early, they are confident that they could surpass their 2018 performance for this year, the LTFRB-8 chief said.
Gualberto said that last year, they were able to collect about P3 million out of the fines and penalties their office collected from erring bus and vehicle operators and owners.
He also said that because of their strict implementation of their mandate on apprehending abusive and erring bus drivers, 55 vehicles were apprehended, one of the biggest apprehensions made by the regional LTFRB.
“With this kind of performance, we are confident that we can surpass our records, to include our revenue collection,” Gualberto said.
He also said that LTFRB under his watch is also giving focus on their agency’s modernization program on public transport system.
And part of the modernization program is the mandatory requirement for all public utility vehicles to install free Wifi, GPS (global positioning system), and most importantly, CCTVs (closed circuit televisions).
Failure of the owners to follow this requirement, among others, would mean rejection or cancellation of their franchise, Gualberto said.
Meantime, the LTFRB regional director said that they are also addressing the concern of the residents at the resettlement sites in Tacloban City on the shortage of public utility vehicles.
Gualberto said that once they receive an order from their central office, they would immediately increase the number of public utility buses or jeeps in going to the site where families who lost their houses due to super typhoon ‘Yolanda’were resettled by the government.
At present, there are about 100 vehicles plying in the area.
About 30 more units could be added to help address the need of the families in the area, Gualberto said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte- The Philippine National Police (PNP) here in the region will lead a unity walk and inter-faith prayer rally this Sunday (Jan.13) aim to have a peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections on May 13, 2019.
Participants coming from various government and private sectors are to converge at the Coca-Cola Junction at 5 am.
Accordingly, the unity walk will be arranged into a one huge walk group approximately 1.2 kilometers from Tacloban City Convention Center or astrodome to be led by a marching band.
Aside from unity walk, the event will also be marked with an inter-faith prayer rally and signing of peace covenant among candidates seeking for elective posts in this year’s mid-term elections, Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, police regional director, said.
“We enjoin all the candidates to be part in the signing of the peace covenant for them to commit themselves to the real essence of the covenant which is to have a peaceful, non-partisan, honest and fair elections. At the end of the day, we are all citizens of this country working together for a better Philippines,” said Carlos.
The activity is also being coordinated with other government agencies, notably, the Commission on Elections; Department of Interior and Local Government; National Police Commission; Department of Justice; Department of Education; Commission on Higher Education ;Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Department of Public Works and Highways; and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Chief Supt. Carlos added that said activity will also be attended by NSTP/ROTC students and those from different religious groups and elections watchdogs like the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting).
Carlos encourages the public to actively participate in guarding the integrity of their votes relative to the May 13, 2019 balloting. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO,Leyte-The non-passage of the 2019 national budget has rendered the more than 3,700 job order workers of the regional office of Department of Public Works and Highways and its 13 district engineering offices out of work.
Based on records from the DPWH-8, the 3,786 job order (JO) workers of the said government office were told not to report for work effective January 1.
The failure to approve the 2019 P3.757 trillion General Appropriations Act was cited as reason why these JO workers were told not to report for work.
The national government is operating under the reenacted budget of 2018.
Tonette Lim, DPWH regional information officer, said that with the failure to enact the 2019 national budget, there is no way their office could provide the salaries of the affected JO workers.
“If they report for work, they could not expect that they will be paid of their salaries because our department has no funding yet for that,” she said.
She added that if the respective heads of the department where these affected JO workers are detailed would ask them to report, these head offices would be held responsible in paying the salaries of these workers.
Lim said that it would be unfair to the JO workers to ask them to report for work and not be given their due compensation.
She added that in the case of her office, five of their JO workers were affected.
“At present only two of us are doing the works. And without our JO workers, our works are really affected because they are really a great help to us,” she said.
Lim said that all the 13 district engineering offices of the DPWH-8 are also affected with the non-passage of the 2019 national budget.
‘Ana’, who asked not to be identified, said that she really feels bad that she find herself out of work on the beginning of the year.
“Our concern is we have our daily expenses to worry. I have four children who are all in school,” she said.
Ana has been working as a JO worker for the past 10 years now and earning over P14,300 monthly.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)