TACLOBAN CITY – The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) and the Tacloban Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Inc.(TFCCCI) turned over to the Department of Education (Deped)six new classrooms last May 19. The recipient schools were the Northern Tacloban City National High School (NTCNHS) in Barangay New Kawayan and Sto. Niño Elementary School (SNES) in Brgy.Sto. Niño. The NTCNHS received one-unit school building with two classrooms and two toilets while SNES got one-unit school building with four classrooms and also two toilets. The two schools were chosen by its donors Rotary Club of Chinatown Manila District 3810 because of the extent of the damages they sustained during the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda more than six months ago. Welcoming the team from the Rotary Club were Go Tic Ching and Reynaldo Go, president and treasurer of TFCCCI respectively and Tacloban City Vice Mayor Jerry “Sambo” Yaokasin. Donation of school buildings is a major undertaking of the FFCCCII under the “Operation Barrio Schools” Projects since the mid-part of 1960’s. All the elected officers of the federation and its umbrella organizations in the different parts of the country are encouraged to donate school classrooms as their corporate social responsibilities. This year’s president of FFCCCII is Dr. Alfonso Siy. The federation has already donation more than 10,000 classrooms all over the Philippines in order to fill in the gap of the government’s education program. Among the federation officials who joined the activities were Ang Cho Lim, vice president of welfare committee; Joseph Redulla, director of welfare committee; Andrew Co, vice chairman of youth committee and project coordinators Carlos Legaspi and Jemar Pascual. The regular size of the one-unit two-classrooms school building is 49-square meters with provision for two toilets and with a time-frame to construct within 20 working-days at a cost of P370,000 to P400,000 depending on the location in the remote areas. The Rotary Club of Chinatown Manila District will be led by its first class president Zeni Yao and District governor Karen L. Tama. (VICKY C. ARNAIZ)
Schools offers reduce fees to ensure storm victims continue their studies
TACLOBAN CITY- Anticipating of possible decline of enrollment due to supertyphoon Yolanda, different college schools this city has introduced a “soft package” to students for the incoming school year. Edward Chua, chief executive officer of Asian Development Foundation (ADF), said that soft package was introduced to ensure that students could continue with their studies this school year. As part of the package, entrance fees of the school was drastically reduced from the previous P850 to just P500. Enrollment for the first semester of the 2014-2015 school year started first week of May and is to end by third week of June. Tacloban, considered the ground zero of Yolanda, has more than 20 colleges. “We know how difficult the situation is. That is why we have to implement a soft package for our students just to ensure that they will continue with their studies,” Chua said. Chua said that with the introduction of this scheme, they hope that their enrollment would not be drastically affected as he admitted that with present economic condition remain uncertain due to Yolanda, enrollment for this school year may decline. Students who came from Yolanda-hit areas are to pay P500 for entrance fee, Chua said. Pablo Amascual, chief administrative officer of the state-run Leyte Normal University, said that the school imposed a P500 entrance fee among students which they can even pay in staggered basis within the semester. LNU has an entrance fee of P1,200 for first year students and P800 for old and continuing students. More than 5,700 students were enrolled at LNU last school year. Edwin Basillo, Leyte Colleges vice president for administration, said that aside from enforcing a P500 enrollment fee, they would also allow students, particularly first year, not to buy school uniform to lessen financial cost of their parents. “We also shorten our class schedule from the previous 7:30 am to 8:30 pm to just 7:30 am to 4:30 pm to ensure that our students could go home early,” Basillo said. He said that many of their students who were previously living in boarding houses have to go home to their home towns like in Basey, Samar as their boarding houses were either damaged or destroyed during the supertyphoon. Meantime, the Saint Paul Business and Law School in Palo, Leyte introduced a “socialized discount,” said its president, Erwin Vincent Alcala. Those badly hit by Yolanda, he said, could receive a 100 percent discount from the existing P900 entrance fee. Palo is one of the hardest-hit areas in Leyte due to Yolanda. The school, the only college school in Palo, had more than 3,300 students last school year. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
Typhoon-resilient schools to rise
PALO, Leyte – Soon-to-rise school buildings are more climate change resilient, but not designed to provide shelter for families displaced by natural calamities, said Department of Education Secretary Armin Luistro. New school buildings, according to Luistro will be able to withstand strong quakes and up to 250 kilometers per hour wind. The construction cost for a single classroom rose to P1 million from P650,000. “Even a single storey school building is already designed to be climate change resilient,” he added. However, Luistro said that even if they are reducing the risk of classrooms to damages, it doesn’t mean that structures are designed as evacuation centers. “Our classrooms are not ideal evacuation centers. Our arrangement is that it becomes a makeshift evacuation place for up to four days. After that, some problems would arise like health, nutrition, and security because classrooms are not designed to house families,” the official said. The education department asks local government units to build separate evacuation centers to ensure that there will be no disruptions of classes after a natural calamity. The education cluster reported that over 2,500 schools with 17,000 classrooms reported damages while 2,500 day care centers have been damaged or destroyed during the onslaught of Yolanda. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
Wheels of justice grind not only slowly but releases doubtful results
Former President now Representative of Pampanga Gloria Macapagal Arroyo could be celebrating profusely now with the decision of the Ombudsman clearing her of any involvement of that much talked-about corrupt practice in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam of 2004. The Ombudsman says they see no “factual or legal basis” for the former President to be held liable for illegal acts committed by subordinates. The P728 million worth of fertilizers was released by the Department of Agriculture under its program Ginintuang Masaganang Ani project to finance the purchase of farm inputs like fertilizers and pesticides intended for 181 farmer-beneficiaries nationwide. The Commission on Audit findings, however, revealed that many of the beneficiaries did not receive these farm inputs. It was alleged that these funds were diverted to finance GMA’s presidential campaign in 2004. It took almost a decade for the Ombudsman to finally rule that charges against the former President lack “factual and legal basis” of her involvement in the scam. The Ombudsman was too slow in coming up with such decision and yet we doubt its findings. What happened to command responsibility? Former DA Secretary Luis Lorenzo and his undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante are still in the list of those charged with the scam. With such a large amount of P728 million fertilizer fund is it possible that they were the ONLY ones responsible with full confidence to release this without approval or go-signal from higher authorities like the President, the chief executive who implements such projects? Maybe a credible explanation is in order by the Ombudsman.
Another delayed reaction from government (Part I – Who/Which Entity/s are Culprits?)
Two days ago, The Philippine Star carried a news “DA bans trade of brown algae and sea grass in the wild”, which we involved in conservation campaign of protecting and preserving the country’s resources, find such a warning quite delayed! For, indeed, gathering of wild seaweeds has been going on for some time already. The DA pronouncement is very incomplete as it fails to specific the particular species of ‘brown algae and sea grass’, considering that Philippine waters host many species of the above 2 marine plant groups’! The concerned government offices could have just called up any of the Filipino biologists to help them identify which group/species of the marine plants are the subjects of their pronouncement! However, myself of the few Filipino Phycologists (researchers on marine algae/seaweeds), I would believe that both DA and BFAR refer to the larger/macro-brown algae as those classified under Genus Sargassum. This brown seaweeds are the most dominant marine vegetation in the Philippines’ rocky seacoasts from the southern tip of Tawi-Tawi and up to the northern end of Batanes Provinces, including its northernmost island of Y’Ami. Recently, an informant e-mailed me an alarming information that gathering of Sargassum in the Provinces of Leyte and Samar has reached a point when the plants are just grabbed and pulled from its rocky substratum. The illegal brown seaweed gatherers easily gets workers from fisherfolks displaced by Typhoon Yolanda, who accept the job out of necessity, their means of livelihood having come to a halt after the destruction of their fishing boats, nets and other fishing paraphernalia. But what appears puzzling is the question, we in marine water-based research are asking: WHO/WHICH OFFICE HAS ISSUED THE PERMIT TO GATHER SEAWEEDS AND SEA GRASSES IN THE PHILIPPINES? And, WHO CAN STOP AND PUT TO JAIL THESE OFFENDERS FOR DESTROYING THE COUNTRY’S MARINE ECOSYSTEM? By mandate, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an agency under the Department of Agriculture, is supposed to implement the Philippines Fisheries Law and other such laws meant to protect the country’s marine resources, seaweeds, sea grasses, corals, fish. Shell-fish, and mangrove vegetation. However, we are all aware of the limitations of BFAR in monitoring activities taking place in the country’s coastal lines, dubbed much longer than continental USA!
ooo000ooo
NEXT TOPIC : Continuation – Part II – “Conserving, Protecting, Documenting, and Publishing the Philippines’ Marine Resources” SHARE S & T THOUGHTS through E-Mail: drpacjr@yahoo.com.
Downsides in “build back safer” drive
The entire world knew the enormity of destruction that the central Philippines, especially Leyte and a number of coastal towns and cities in Eastern Visayas, suffered in the Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan attack November last year. Millions of lives were adversely affected with tens of thousands having lost their homes and livelihood. Rebuilding lives with difficulty could be an understatement because beneath the critical assessment lie more intricate challenges that need to be addressed more seriously and collectively. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its Humanitarian Bulletin April 2014 issue reported “2 million people are still living without adequate or durable shelter nearly six months since Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan destroyed or damaged their homes.” It added that while more survivors started rebuilding their homes, the need for support for them to complete construction and ensured their access to basic services like water and sanitation as well as education and livelihoods persist.” This it disclosed without necessarily pointing an accusing finger at any agency in the government or other sector. In the approximately 520,000 houses damaged and 490,000 destroyed, the DSWD Shelter Cluster Monitoring Assessment Report informed that 80,000 houses have been completely repaired or rebuilt during the first six months of the response. 140,000 houses that had been severely damaged by wind and flood, have been partially repaired and only show minor damage now. The UN OCHA noted, “as soon as the storm had passed, the survivors started rebuilding their lives with the support of more than 70 Shelter Cluster Partners. In the five months that lapsed after sty Yolanda/Haiyan’s strike in Eastern Visayas, the UN has helped 133,000 households to build back, provided tools and other materials as well as training including storm frisk mitigation. The agency further disclosed that the rebuilding happened faster than in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake or in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami. The UN partly attributes this positive outcome to the donors’ generous contributions that allowed the UN and its partners to implement the emergency relief phase of the response. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the Philippines, Klaus Beck, the humanitarian community’s response was made possible by timely funding. “It was made more efficient by the fact that this country, Government and people are accustomed to dealing with disasters, many emergency structures were already in place,” he said during the press briefing UN OCHA called for the six-months-after-typhoon assessment. He added, “The Philippine authorities, including national and local government, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations an the Filipino people all contributed to the massive response.” He said further that to date the humanitarian situation is stable. He however noted that the “life-saving gains we have made remain fragile.” Beck declared, “Millions of survivors require ongoing assistance, with the most pressing needs related to shelter and restoring livelihoods.” He explained that although the most basic emergency shelter needs were met at the beginning of the response, “millions of those whose homes were lost or damaged now live in inadequate shelter, leaving them extremely vulnerable.” He disclosed that over 5,000 of the most vulnerable families live in evacuation centers and tent cities, such as in Tacloban City and Guiuan (Eastern Samar). This is scene is patent in areas hard hit by typhoon Haiyan’s whirlwind and storm surge, in spite of the collective efforts from the corss section of the society in helping the survivors whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged to build back their homes. Beck advanced that supporting an additional 380,000 households is now critical. A crucial factor is the timely release of the funds needed to fuel the rehabilitation before another storm or the rainy season sets in that could. He stressed, “The $788 million appeal is now 56 percent funded,” admitting that the agency “urgently need fresh funding to support critical programming over the next six months. He said that over the next six months, the UN and its humanitarian partners will continue to prioritize shelter and livelihoods programming, while continuing to provide that most vulnerable people with additional assistance and protections services. While it may seem that funding is the major concern in the build back safer endeavor, the Shelter Cluster noted some more critical concerns. It noted, “Up to 200,000 families potentially face relocation from areas deemed unsafe due to the risk of storms and floods. However, the continuing policy gaps related to the proposed “no dwelling zones “is deeply distressing to the affected survivors.” The Clusters pushed that these issues need to be resolved quickly. It added, “property rights and ownership issues make it difficult to access enough land for building and reconstructing both transitional and permanent shelters. A report of the International Organization for Migration showed that some of the country’s most vulnerable and devastated areas are critically short of evacuation centers. The IOM ssurvey disclosed that of the 634 buildings designated as evacuation centers before Haiyan, only 8 percent remain usable today. It added. “Over 400 other edifices would need major rehabilitation before they can be used, while a quarter of them are totally destroyed.” The “build back safer” is losing its sense with the not so quite durable houses that are now being rebuilt or built, those that could withstand the next major storm, due to lack of good quality bilding materials such as fixings and corrugated iron sheeting. UN’s Shelter Cluster expressed fear that the focus on relocation from these areas makes life very uncertain for the families living there. “More emphasis needs to be put on alternative risk mitigation measures, as well as livelihoods opportunities,” it stated. UN OCHA reported, “The government and the Humanitarian Country Team partners have embarked on a search for more useable land, particularly in Tacloban City and the heavily affect ted municipalities in Leyte, and Municipal land-search committees are being established for this purpose. Beck finally commented that the UN want to help survivors to build back safer “so that the next massive storm does not bring the terrible levels of devastation that we saw with Haiyan.”