TACLOBAN CITY – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in the region is pushing for the establishment of a ‘Yolanda’ memorial center to preserve the memories of suffering and recovery from the monster typhoon that pummeled Eastern Visayas in 2013.
Officials from four national government agencies and the Tacloban city government will form a technical working group to come up with a proposal for the center.
Initially, the museum needs P50 million, but agencies will come up with more accurate estimates after the proposal’s completion within two months.
It will be constructed in Tacloban City, considered the ground zero of the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
“It will be a site where people can go to learn about our experiences and how we recovered from the disaster,” Bonifacio Uy, NEDA regional director, said.
The proposed project will be patterned after a museum in Sendai, Japan, which features photographs and other items showing the damages sustained by the said city after it was hit by a massive tsunami in 2011 and its rebuilding effort.
NEDA, the agency tasked to monitor post-Yolanda recovery efforts, will lead in the drafting of the proposal.
Other members of the technical working group are the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Tourism, Office of the Civil Defense, and Tacloban city government.
Uy is lobbying for funding for the proposed museum under the remaining funds for the 2016 Yolanda Rehabilitation and Recovery Program (YRRP). The proposal will be submitted to the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council.
“As an alternative source of funds, we can also include the proposal in the 2018 budget of the Department of Tourism,” Uy added.
YRRP is the government’s blueprint to help Yolanda-hit communities recover from the country’s deadliest typhoon on record, which killed at least 6,300 people on Nov. 8, 2013. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO, PNA)

LIMASAWA, Southern Leyte- With the centennial celebration of the First Mass just five years away, Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado is mulling of filing a bill making the historic event as a national holiday.
On Friday, Mercado led provincial and local officials on the 496th anniversary of the First Mass that marked the entry of Catholicism in the country.
“March 31 is a momentous event that should be celebrated by the whole country with a population that are faithful to the Roman Catholic Church,” he said.
At present, the First Mass celebration is considered as a provincial holiday.
Rep. Mercado, Gov. Damian Mercado, and town Mayor Nilo Petracorta led the officials in the holding of the 496th First Mass celebration amid downcast skies held at the Limasawa National Shrine.
An image of the Santo Nino de Cebu was brought from Maasin City, the provincial capital.
Limasawa was the second stop of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his men after docking in Homonhon Island off the town of Guiuan, Eastern Samar discovering the country in their journey to Moluccas, the “spice island”.
The first First Mass was officiated by Father Pedro de Valderrama at the shore of Limasawa, universally recognized as the first Catholic Mass held in the Orient.
After celebrating the mass in Limasawa, Magellan and his crew went to Cebu where he died at the Battle of Mactan.
Meantime, Mayor Petracorta said that this early, they are now preparing for the 100th year celebration of the historic event.
The centennial celebration will take place in 2021.
“It will be a big celebration,” the town mayor said.
Meantime, Bishop Precioso Cantillas of the Maasin Diocese, in his homily, renewed the strong opposition of the Church against death penalty approved by the House of Representatives.
“The First Mass tells us to protect life and communion with our community because this mass represents Jesus Christ that symbolizes giving of life through the Eucharist,” Cantillas said.
“As a Catholic country, we should live in protecting in life and have unity,” the Maasin bishop said.
Incidentally, Rep. Mercado was one of the congressmen who approved for the passage of the death penalty. (ROEL T. AMAZONA/VICKY C. ARNAIZ)

TACLOBAN CITY- This city was chosen by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) as one of the recipients that will receive a seed grant of more than P7.5 million that will be used for the construction of three pilot projects as part of the rehabilitation and recovery efforts in the aftermath of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ that pummeled this city in 2013.
The grant will be used by the city government to fund projects concerning on coastal protection.
Earlier, the PRA requested the Netherlands government to access its Dutch Risk Reduction (DRR) facility which immediately responded.
The Dutch DRR team help the city government developed a master plan for a coastal protection strategy in Tacloban, to include Palo, another hard-hit town due to Yolanda in Leyte.
The grant will be used for the construction of identified pilot projects on selected areas in the city which will involve a series of training to be executed by local participants in partnership with the city government. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY – The diarrhea infections, which killed a five-year-old boy and afflicted 43 others in Dolores, Eastern Samar in the past four weeks, is now under control, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday (March 29).
The DOH categorized the incident as serious since it resulted to fatalities, prompting them to continue the close monitoring in the town, about 254 kilometers northeast from this city.
“Everything is now under control after a team from the regional office worked with local health workers to prevent the spread of the illness,” said DOH regional epidemiology and surveillance unit head Roderick Boyd Cerro.
The young fatality from Barangay 2 suffered dehydration. At least 15 victims were rushed to the Dolores Community Health Center since early March, Cerro said, citing a March 28 report.
Patients vomited and suffered abdominal cramps, watery stools, body weakness, and fever after drinking contaminated water, he said.
The illness was noted in eight villages, but the health department has not declared an outbreak in Dolores since the cases were sporadic. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO, PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY- An official of the Department of Education (DepEd), this city, assured the public that unlike in other areas, no report of sexual abuse involving students has taken place.
However, Nilo Eder, spokesperson of the city schools division, issued an appeal to the students, in particular, to be vigilant.
“The Tacloban city (schools) division is prepared and convergence meeting is done regularly with the schools information officers to disseminate information for the safety and welfare of the children,” Eder added.
Earlier, DepEd has issued its alarm after several cases of sexual abuses involving school children were reported in different parts of the country.
Eder said that while they have not monitored such incident in Tacloban, they are not taking the issue lightly, thus, they are taking some preventive measures.
He said that he directed all the information officers of the city schools division to report any incident, if there is, so the division can act on it immediately.
He also calls on the teacher to remind them their responsibility over their students.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)