TACLOBAN CITY – Dignitaries from the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom will grace today’s 71st commemoration of the Leyte Gulf Landings headed by the provincial government of Leyte.

Invited to attend this historic event which led to the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese Imperial Army are Tetsuro Amano, deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of Japan; Lain Mansfeld, trade and investment director of the British Embassy; Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddell; Glenda Taylor, head of the Veterans Service Center, US Embassy; US Marine Attaché Lt. Col. Mark Broekhuizen together with Lt. General Ernesto Gonzalo Carolina, Administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) as the commemorative speaker of the program to be held at the national shrine named after American legendary general, Douglas MacArthur in Barangay Baras, Palo town.

This year’s commemoration kicked off with a series of cultural activities launched by the local government of Palo through Mayor Remedios Petilla which engaged the youth in the appreciation and commemoration of the Leyte Gulf Landings like historical quiz bee and song and dance competitions. This year’s commemoration carries the theme “Liberation: A Paradigm for a Renewed Leyte”. Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said the theme best describes Leyte’s renewed sense of liberation after all the setbacks it has suffered. “Our liberation as a people now comes with a new face, that of a renewed province, better and stronger than we once were,” Gov. Petilla said.
For his part, Vice Gov. Carlo Loreto called on the people not to waste the ultimate sacrifice that our heroes paid during the war, by making better choices and better decisions.

“Our heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we may have the freedom we now cherish and enjoy. Our choice is not between life and death. Our choice is between honesty and petty corruption, between developmental projects and ghost projects, between doing what is right and good,” Loreto said. The Battle of Leyte lasted from Oct. 20 to Dec. 31, 1944, resulting in a victory for the Allied forces. It was a milestone in the Second World War in the Pacific that culminated in the end of almost three years of Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The Leyte landings also marked the re-establishment of the Commonwealth government on Philippine soil after years of government-in-exile in the US.

TACLOBAN CITY- A new way of constructing houses using bamboo as the main material is being introduced by the Hilti Foundation (Base Balay Inc.) in partnership with the Operation Blessing intended for families in Tacloban who completely lost their houses due to supertyphoon “Yolanda.” The bamboo-made housing units are to be constructed in Barangay Palanog.

Jessimar Gallarde, project site engineer of Base Bahay, said that using bamboo in the construction of houses is environment-safe. He also said that the technology will also provide employment as they intend to put up a factory in Tacloban once they get the needed supplies of bamboo. He added that they are using “kawayang tinik” or thorny bamboo in the construction of houses in Palanog which is abundant in the province. “There are still laboratory tests being conducted for other bamboo species but as of this time, this specie is the only acceptable and the only approved specie for construction use,” he added.

Gallarde added that they are hoping that this new technology will be incorporated with the building code of the country. “This bamboo technology was laboratory-studied to ensure that structural design of the house is very resilient from disasters like typhoons and earthquakes,” added Gallarde.

Houses made of these materials are designed to withstand an 8 intensity earthquake and winds of up to 280 kilometers per hour. Base Balay and Operation Blessing are constructing 324 housing units in a 1.5 hectare land in Palanog area for families from Barangays 89 and 90 in this city who lost their houses during the onslaught of super typhoon “Yolanda.”

Each unit cost PP350,000 and measures 25 square meters and two meters away from the next unit. The company is hoping to reduce the construction cost of this type of houses once they are able to set up a plant in Tacloban. About 20 units were initially targeted to be finished by November 24 of this year while the rest are expected to be finished before the end of 2016. Aside from Palanog, Base Bahay is using the bamboo technology in projects sites of Operation Blessing in Jaro, Estancia both in Iloilo and in Bagong Silangan in Quezon City.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)