TACLOBAN CITY- The population of this city has increased by 8 percent making it still the most populated area in the entire region. Based on the 2015 census conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Tacloban has a total population of 242,089 or an increase of 8.6 percent compare to the 2010 survey. In 2010, Tacloban was only populated by 221,174 people. The population survey was conducted two years after Tacloban was pummeled by supertyphoon “Yolanda” which reduced its population by more than 2,200 people who perished due to the typhoon considered the world’s strongest to hit inland. Interestingly, the barangay that was considered as the worst-hit by Yolanda, Barangay 88 in San Jose district, remain to be one of the city’s most populated based on the survey.

The village, which has a population of 5,880 people, is Tacloban’s number six most populated barangay. However, its population was reduced by 3,926 compare to the 9,806 in 2010.  “This is not actually surprising considering that Tacloban City is the regional center. The immigration that was noted after Yolanda hit the city was among its reasons,” Cielito Esquibel, city population officer, said. She added that the population of the city during day time could even reach to a million as people coming from across the region are coming in for some purpose like studies, work and business. Esquibel, however, said that they do not have a figure on the number of people coming from other parts of the region who resettled in Tacloban after the November 8, 2013 massive disaster that hit the city.

“But they settled here in Tacloban on the hope that they could availed many opportunities after Yolanda like housing and even employment,” the population officer said.
After Yolanda hit the city, nongovernment agencies, both local and international, as well as government agencies from around the world have provided assistance to the survivors like housing and jobs albeit on temporary basis. But Esquibel admitted that while the increase of Tacloban’s population could be seen on a positive sign, they are still alarm. For one, she said, this could result to problem on illegal settlers and degradation on the quality of life. “We have also to consider the kind of people coming in which could impact its peace and order situation,” Esquibel said. Her office is planning to put up its migration information center that could help them monitor the people coming in to the city. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in partnership with Southern Leyte State University (SLSU)-Sogod Campus and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) held a one-day jobs fair on July 13, 2016 at SLSU-Sogod multi-purpose covered court in Sogod, Southern Leyte. The jobs fair aimed to help the unemployed and underemployed graduates of SLSU-Sogod and other people from Sogod and its neighboring towns find a window of opportunity for possible employment locally and abroad.

Prose Ivy Yepes, the university president thanked the participating agencies for their valuable time and support to the jobs fair.  She added that the recruitment activity is a manifestation of SLSU-Sogod’s social responsibility to extend assistance to the unemployed people of the municipality particularly its graduates. She also proudly announced to institutionalize the conduct of yearly jobs fair to facilitate employment not only for their graduates but also for the entire jobseekers in Southern Leyte.

DOLE Southern Leyte Chief Fe Norma Valuis, who relayed the message of DOLE Regional Director Elias Cayanong, said that the labor department is collaborating not only with the local government units but also with academic institution like the SLSU-Sogod in looking for opportunities for graduates to find jobs. “The DOLE’s employment facilitation services like this job fair would spare our jobseekers from having to incur so much expenses just to look for job, by bringing this opportunity right at the backyard of the SLSU-Sogod”, Valuis added.

She also gave helpful tips to the jobseekers on how to conduct themselves during interview.  “In applying for jobs it is like selling yourself. Hence, you have to convince the company that you are the best person they are looking for”, Valuis explained. Seven overseas recruitment agencies and twelve local employers participated in the mega jobs fair with 1,801 job vacancies. A total 209 applicants were interviewed, 137 of whom have qualified, and 29 applicants were hired -on –the- spot (HOTS) representing 21% of the total qualified applicants. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY – For prospective overseas workers living in remote communities, securing a passport means waking up early, enduring a long trip, go to different agencies to process requirements, and queue at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) regional consular office here.
Eric Lara, 28, left their village of Botaera in Zumarraga, Samar at 4 a.m. on Thursday (July 28) to take an hour boat ride to Catbalogan City.
From Catbalogan, he travelled nearly three hours by bus to get to this city, where the regional DFA office is located.
This is his second time to be at the DFA office. He was here three weeks ago, only to be told that he needs to return home to bring more requirements.
“I just heard from our neighbors who secured passports few years back what the basic requirements are but I found out that I still have to bring more legal identity documents,” said Lara, a carpenter, who wants to obtain a job in Israel.
Accompanied by his wife, Lara has already spent about P4,000 in the processing of requirements, to include fare, food and even lodging.
Since there’s only one daily trip back to Zumarraga, they have to stay overnight in Catbalogan and catch the next day trip.
Every day, hundreds of people, mostly prospective overseas workers, showed up at the DFA office to process the requirements. They write their names down in a book that will gain them first preference in processing.
Waiting nearby the door of DFA field office was Rowena Sabandal, 32, of Barangay Taglibas in Matalom, a town in Leyte, 169 kilometers south from the regional capital.
She left home before sunrise, took a single motorcycle ride to the town center and took a four-hour bus ride to Tacloban.
Sabandal, a single mother, needs a passport to be able to secure a domestic helper job in Saudi Arabia.
This is her second time to be in the city. She was here last Monday (July 25) to get her certificate of live birth from the Philippine Statistics Authority regional office and National Bureau of Investigation clearance.
“It’s very hard for me to travel here. I just borrowed money from a friend. I speak Bisaya and I don’t understand the Waray dialect. Last Monday, I paid a penalty of P200 for violating the jaywalking ordinance,” Sabandal shared.
Both Lara and Sabandal completed their requirements on Thursday. They will come back after more than two weeks to get their passport.
The DFA admitted the inconvenience, but they are implementing measure to reduce the burden of processing. The consular office kicked off the online appointment system on July 1.
“We are implementing the system, but we still entertain walk in applicants since we are still on the transition period. We have been encouraging people to get online appointment because eventually we will not entertain walk-ins,” said DFA Tacloban consular head Karen Terado.
Appointments may be obtained by visiting the website: https://www.passport.gov.ph/
Exempt from obtaining confirmed online appointments are applicants entitled to the courtesy lane – senior citizens, minors aged seven and below, overseas Filipino workers with contracts, and persons with disabilities. The exemption is, however, subject to certain conditions.
“The system aims to make passport application and renewal more efficient. This will address the problem of queuing,” Terado added.
But for Lara, the online appointment will not work in their coastal town where most people are computer illiterates; no computer shops; no internet connectivity; and mobile phone signals are weak.
The system accepts 180 online appointments for Tacloban office daily. The DFA reserves up to 70 slots for walk-in applicants who are exempted from the system.
During his first State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered to simplify the process of securing passports to alleviate the inconvenience of applicants.
Responding to the clamor for timely issuance of Philippine passports, Duterte vowed to work towards amendment of the 1996 passport law to lengthen the validity of the passports from the current five years to 10 years.
The consular office is still waiting for new directives from the DFA central office, heeding the President’s order, according to Terado. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY-Average diets of Filipino school-age children 6 to 12 years old are poor in quantity and quality, according to the 2013 National Nutrition Survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST).  Of these children, four in five were at-risk of inadequate energy intake and almost one in two was at risk of inadequate protein intake. Coming to school on empty stomachs compromises the productivity of children, as they tend to become sluggish, less attentive and less participative. School performance may be affected over time if this situation becomes protracted. Given the link between diets, nutrition and performance in observation studies, these findings could play a significant role in the school-age children’s performance in school as well as school participation rates.

School feeding programs (SFP) bridge this hunger gap, at least for the period that a child attends school. Private companies had partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) in its “Adopt-a-School” strategy in order to complement and maximize resources. Initiatives from private companies came in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) function. A retrospective evaluation of school feeding programs (SFP) implemented by a private renewable energy company in 24 partner-schools for the school year 2012 – 2013 in five host communities was conducted by the FNRI-DOST from July to August, 2013.

The SFPs were evaluated in terms of potential contribution of foods served to recommended energy and protein intakes, nutritional status and mean quarter grade average as compared with schools without the feeding program. Depending on meals served and duration of feeding, results showed that the SFP had the potential to increase energy, protein and iron intakes by as much as 41.6, 24.6 and 31.1 percent, respectively. By the end of the school term, a decrease in the prevalence of underweight by 9.5 percentage points among SFP participants, while a 5.1 percentage point increase in the prevalence of underweight among non-SFP participants, were observed. In addition, significantly higher mean quarter grade average was recorded among SFP participants with an average grade of 79.2 – 81.2 percent, compared to non-SFP participants with an average grade of 78.6 – 80.2 percent.

The sustainability of the school feeding program appears high with the strong support of the school and the parent-volunteers in the private company’s SFP.  A limitation of the evaluation study’s research design is that results are considered associations rather than attributions to the school feeding programs. The evaluation of this program is part of the research functions of the Nutrition Intervention, Evaluation and Policy Section of the FNRI-DOST. The FNRI-DOST recognizes the value of investments in packaging nutrition intervention delivery systems and nutrition policy research in addressing malnutrition among vulnerable Filipino population groups.(PR)

PALO, Leyte- Seventeen new patrol cars were distributed to the six provincial headquarters and city police stations by the regional Philippine National Police. The vehicles are to be used as staff cars or for administrative functions, Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar, acting police regional director, said. “This is more as a service vehicles for our staff and will not be used in police operations,”Beltejar. Beltejar led the distribution of the equipment on Monday (July 25) at the regional police headquarters at Camp Ruperto Kangleon, this town. Each vehicle cost around P878,000 and is different from the patrol cars used by the police personnel during their operations. The police cars are among the 398 service utility vehicle that was acquired by the PNP in 2015 worth P394.4 million. In 2015, the PNP distributed 1,490 patrol jeeps to municipal police stations— 669 in Luzon, 369 in Visayas, and 422 in Mindanao. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY—Fr. Virgilio Cañete of Palo Archdiocese has admitted that the Catholic Church is “helpless” in solving the spate of drug-related killings in the country. Cañete’s remarks came after three suspected drug personalities in Tacloban city were killed last July 29 at the vicinity of the Daniel Z. Romualdez(DZR) Airport where Pope Francis held Mass on January 17, 2015 for survivors of supertyphoon “Yolanda” that killed over 6,000 people. The victims, two of them were women, bore multiple gunshot wounds. A paper marked with crude writings “I am a pusher, Lord I am sorry” was also found along with the dead bodies.

A witness said that at least 10 gunshots were heard and men speeding on their motorcycles were seen in the area before the bodies were discovered early morning. “Only the police and the President can stop it by declaring moratorium. The respite might show whether it’s the drug syndicates who do the killings, but remember it can work both ways for them,” Cañete said in an interview. “The Church cannot do anything now. It had already warned of the consequences. Those who started these bloodbaths have the will to stop them,” he added. Cañete, however, noted that there is a growing affirmation from the public on the series of extra-judicial killings of suspected criminal and drug personalities in the country after Pres. Rodrigo Duterte was elected into office last May. Mr. Duterte earlier declared that his anti-drug campaign will be a bloody one.

Citing a news report, the priest said that there is a majority view on agreeing to the extra-judicial killing. “Though there are no surveys to back it up, more based on ventilated sentiments in social media and the pulse of the streets feeling frustration of the proliferation of drugs and the crimes it effects,” he said. Asked whether the Church is now powerless in its moral and spiritual teachings to its flock, Cañete said that the public “rather listen to those ranters who follow blindly every word of their idol.” “We hope the President calls it off. The drug war can still be fought but not this way. Leave the police to exercise the best of their expertise. This manner of conducting the war is easy,” he said. In Eastern Visayas alone, over 6, 000 drug users and pushers have reportedly surrendered to the authorities voluntarily after the government intensified its nationwide anti-illegal drugs campaign dubbed as “Oplan Tokhang.”
(RONALD O. REYES)