CAMP VICENTE LUKBAN, CATBALOGAN CITY-The government troops repelled Communist NPA Terrorists (CNTs) who were planning to disrupt the implementation of government’s livelihood trainings in two remote villages of Can-avid, Eastern Samar in a gunfight about 10 am,October 20, 2020 in Barangay Salvacion, Can-avid, Eastern Samar.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Joven D Bugarin, commanding officer of 52nd Infantry Battalion, soldiers were sent in order to conduct security operations for the upcoming Agrikultura at Kabuhayan tungo sa Kaunlaran at Kapayapaan (AKKAP) Project launching on Thursday, October 22, 2020 in the villages of Boco and Balagon of Can-avid.
However, during the conduct of security operations the troops clashed with more or less 25 CNTs in Barangay Salvacion who scampered to different directions after the 15-minute firefight.
Three soldiers were wounded while an undetermined casualty was reported on the CNT’s side.
“Traces of bloodstains in the area they abandoned suggest that many in the NPA were wounded,” said Lt.Col. Bugarin.
Utilizing K9 teams, recovered were two anti-personnel mines (APM), blasting caps, and electrical wires that will be used by the NPA to sow terror.
To recall, on December 13, 2019, three innocent civilians were killed while 14 were wounded including two minors and an infant caused by NPA’s roadside bombing in Barangay Libuton, Borongan City.
While on April 2019, a nine-year-old boy died in another NPA bombing in Barangay San Miguel, Las Navas, Northern Samar. And recently, four civilians including two teachers were also wounded in an ambush in Barangay Tagbayaon, Jiabong, Samar.
“This only shows how cruel and heartless the NPA’s are. They ignore the safety of the civilians and put their lives at risk for their own gain,” Lt.Col. Bugarin added.
The livelihood training under AKKAP is part of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) program in order to address the insurgency problem in the remote Barangays in the town of Can-avid. At the same time offer livelihood opportunities to the residents who have been suffering from poverty.
The commander of 801st Infantry Brigade, Brigadier General Camilo Z Ligayo, said the collaboration among the military, Local Government Units and different Government agencies were already in place but the CNTs hinder the implementation of the government programs and projects.
“Ang mga teroristang NPA ay salot at perwisyo. Sinasabotahe at pinipigilan nila ang pagpasok ng mga pangunahing serbisyo ng pamahalaan sa mga Geographically Isolated and Disadvantage Areas (GIDAs). Pinagkakait ng mga NPA na makaranas ng pag-unlad ang mga kababayan natin sa mga pinakaliblib na mga kumunidad. Mga Teroristang NPA ang tunay na pagpapahirap at nagpapanatiling mahirap dito sa buong Samar,” BGen. Ligayo said. (PR)
Army foils NPA’s plan to disrupt gov’t livelihood opportunities in Can-avid, East Samar
90- year old woman from Southern Leyte among region’s new COVID-19 patients; appears to be asymptomatic
TACLOBAN CITY- A 90-year old woman from a town in Southern Leyte province is among the latest persons from the region to have acquired the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
On Thursday night, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region reported that its COVID-19 cases is now at 6,151 with the additional 96 new cases.
The new cases were reported in Northern Samar with 37 cases; Samar,33; Leyte,19; and Southern Leyte,5.
The 90-year old woman who was tested positive of the virus is from Macrohon, Southern Leyte.
The elderly was said to have acquired the infection from her grandson whom she lived with.
Mayor Alan Jose Aroy said that the woman appears to be asymptomatic though is suffering from her hypertension. She and her grandson are now at the town isolation facility and contact tracing is now being undertaken among identified close contacts of the two.
Macrohon, at present, has 33 confirmed COVID-19 cases of which 22 remains active.
As this developed, the entire province of Southern Leyte is now placed under general community quarantine(GCQ) which took effect last October 20 and is to end on November 3.
Meantime, its provincial capital city of Maasin was also placed to a stricter quarantine status of modified enhance community quarantine (MECQ).
The move was in response to a surge of COVID-19 cases of the province.
The province has 463 COVID-19 cases of which 164 are from Maasin City.
In Northern Samar, which is also seeing spike of COVID-19 cases, Governor Edwin Ongchuan has also placed the entire province under MECQ for 15 days that started on Oct.20 and to end on Nov.3.
The province has 384 confirmed COVID-19 cases with two deaths.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Mayor Romualdez presides meeting on COVID-19 update in the city
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
TACLOBAN CITY- The Local Health Board of this city convened on Thursday, October 22, chaired by Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez, to discuss the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation of the city and possible strategies to continue the delivery and uptake of immunization services amid the pandemic.
With the nine additional cases logged last night, acting City Health Officer Dr. Gloria Fabrigas reported Thursday morning that Tacloban City has a total of 878 confirmed cases with 63 active cases and 15 deaths.
Of the total number of COVID-19 cases presented during the third quarter meeting, it was revealed that Sagkahan District has the most number of infections with 232, followed by San Jose District with 145; Abucay, 136, CHO Main with 126, V&G with 124; Diit, 64 and New Kawayan, 42 cases.
With that, Mayor Romualdez reiterated the call to follow the minimum health standards such as the wearing of face mask and face shield and practicing physical distancing and flatten the curve by staying at home, going out only when necessary, and avoiding social gathering, as this has been found out to be one of the causes of the spread and rise of COVID-19 in the past few months.
Meantime, highlighted also was the discussion on how to strategize the conduct of catch-up immunization drives amongst children 0-23 months per district to hit the 95 percent (5684) target this year.
The meeting, held at the City Mayor’s Boardroom, was attended by Executive Assistant Christian De Dios and representatives from the Tacloban City Rescue Unit and Department of Health.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
North Samar now under GCQ amid spike of COVID-19 cases
BY: ROEL T. AMAZONA
TACLOBAN CITY – The entire province of Northern Samar is now under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) after the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (RIATF8) and Regional Task Force on COVID-19 (RTF8) approved the request of Governor Edwin Ongchuan to place the province on a higher quarantine status.
The two councils issued Joint Resolution No. 33 on October 19, granting the request that will last for 15 days starting October 20.
The body also approved the request of Gov. Ongchuan to temporarily suspend the arrival of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning residents for 14 days.
Under the joint resolution, except for the 23 villages in the municipal proper of Catarman, the capital town of the province that was placed under Modified ECQ, all other villages in the town and other municipalities in Northern Samar are placed under GCQ.
“As of October 18, 2020 The Department of Health Center for Health and Development VIII reported that there 343 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province of Northern Samar in 21 affected municipalities, with the capital town of Catarman recording the most number at 130 confirmed COVID-19 cases. In addition, the province has the second highest number of active COVID-19 cases in the region with 164 cases, 61 of which are in Catarman,” the resolution reads.
As of October 20, Northern Samar has a total of 384 COVID-19 cases where 299 are active cases, while 153 had already recovered, and two recorded deaths.Only two towns of the 24 municipalities of the province are still COVID-19 free or have no cases since the region first recorded COVID-19 in March.
These are the island towns of San Vicente and San Antonio.
Of the 22 towns with confirmed cases, Catarman has the most cases with 135, followed by Laoang with 97.
Other towns with double digit cases of COVID-19 are Gamay (18), Palapag (17), Mondragon (16), Allen (15), Lavezares (13), and San Roque (12).
Town with single digit cases of COVID-19 are San Isidro (9), San Jose (8), Capul (7), Victoria (6), Mapanas, Silvino Lobos, and Lope de Vega (4), Bobon (3), and Catubig, Lapinig, and Las Navas (2).
Majority of the COVID-19 cases Catarman are from 23 villages that are placed under MECQ, while most of 97 cases in Laoang are from the sub-provincial jail.
Leyte students have to walk for hours just to catch mobile signal
TACLOBAN CITY – As blended method of learning is now being implemented in the country in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, students either will take the modular method or online class.
But while modular learning has been adopted among schools in the region, students have still to go online in some instances.
In Barangay Mahagnao, about 20 kilometers away from the town proper of Burauen, Leyte, secondary students need to walk for about 30 minutes to its nearby village of Lanawan, which is part of MacArthur town, just to have mobile phone signal when they need to ask some clarifications from their teacher.
Although there is a spot in the village which could catch a signal, but this only work to old model of mobile phones and students have to wait until midnight to receive a signal.
This is why at least twice a week, students would hike up to the village of Lanawan which is about three to four kilometers away if they need some clarification on their lessons.
Aside from the cellphone signal, there is also one particular spot in Lanawan near the primary school campus where they can access mobile data and research their topic in the internet and access the messenger where they can view the discussion in their class group chat.
The students would sometime stay there for two to three hours depending on how quick their teachers are in answering their messages. Before they go to the village, questions that they wanted to ask to their teachers are all written in a piece of paper.
Friza Joy Agrava, 15, a Grade 10 student of Burauen National High School (BNHS), said that they are lucky if they will get an immediate reply from their teachers, they can go home early, but if not, they need to wait, even for hours.
Friza Joy, together with her cousins Jaymaima Banzale, Bethzaida Mae Paza, both 15, Pearly Ann Agrava, 16, and Jaira Crystal Paza, 17, with other high school students in the village would leave their house at around 100 pm to Lanawan, and would go home before 3:00 pm, or sometimes before 5:00 pm.
It is a tiring walk to Lanawan according to her because of its uphill slope but with her cousins and friends joining her, travel become easy.
“Our classmates are lucky that they live in places with a good signal. But for us, obtaining signal is a big sacrifice,” said Pearly Ann, who also studies at the BHNS.
The cousins added that although, the new mode of learning had saved their family P600 a month on fare for each of them, they still prefer the face-to-face education because it allows them to understand their lessons easily and they have actual conversation and interaction with their teachers when they wanted to make some clarification on their lessons that they do not understand.
“We have to deal with the modular now because of COVID-19. This is the only way that we can continue our studies and to make sure that we are safe from being infected by it,” Jaymaima said who studies at Atty. Roque A. Marcos Memorial School (ARAMMS) in La Paz town. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)