MAASIN CITY- This city will get an alternative link to the commercial district – a 4.71-kilometer coastal bypass road with reclamation component meant to ease traffic woes and expand the city’s development.
The planned road, which will cost P1.5 billion, will get an initial budget of P50 million this year, said Ma. Margarita C. Junia, chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Southern Leyte district engineering office.
The proposed road, one of the key infrastructure projects in the region, will connect the city’s commercial center in Barangay Lib-og to nearby populated village of Mambajao. It will traverse coastal barangays of Abgao, Tunga-Tunga and Combado.
The preliminary release, strongly lobbied by Rep. Roger Mercado for inclusion in the 2017 appropriations, will be used for the preparation of feasibility study for multi-year implementation, initial road construction, and some slope protection.
“The main roads leading to the city center are already congested even if those roads are restricted to one lane,” Junia said, referring in particular to R. Kangleon and Tomas Oppus Streets.
“We cannot expand to the other side of the city since it’s mountainous,” she added.
Maasin, a fourth class city and capital of Southern Leyte province, has a land area of 211.70 square kilometers with a population of 85,560.
The city’s terrain is characterized by relatively flat lands along the coastal plains where population areas lay, and becomes rugged and mountainous towards the interior
DPWH Southern Leyte planning section chief Vincent Sy said the proposed budget for the project in 2018 is P200 million.
“Releases in the next years will mainly depend on the outcome of feasibility study, which will be completed within the first half of the year,” Sy added.
The project is in compliance to Secretary Mark Villar’s directive to decongest traffic through construction of by-pass roads in populated areas. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- The 63- year old mother of a former mayoralty candidate in San Jorge, Samar was shot to death Sunday (February 19), just minutes after attending a Mass.
The victim, Luz Bisnar, was hit at her head and died while being brought to the Gandara District Hospital at the nearby town of Gandara, also in Samar, for treatment.
Bisnar, 63, has just attended the Sunday mass when still unknown assailants shot her at about 9:15 am while she was walking along Mancol Street of said town, just 50 meters away from the Church.
Local police, as of press time, have yet to identify the suspects and their reason for shooting and killing the old woman.
The victim was the mother of Lester Bisnar who ran for mayor but was defeated by Mayor Joseph Grey during the May 2016 elections.
Bisnar himself figured in an ambush try last January 28.
Four days later, bombs were lobbed at the three houses of Mayor Grey while his wife, Vice Mayor Nancy Grey, was also ambushed but survived the attempt on Feb.6.
San Jorge has long been identified as one of Samar’s “hot areas” during elections.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

Vows to support Mayor Romualdez as new RDC head

ORMOC CITY- Mayor Richard Gomez said that he will be lobbying several high-ticket projects for his city before the Regional Development Council (RDC) as he extended his congratulation to the newly-named chair of the said council, Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez.
Gomez, a movie actor, said that he has several projects that he would like for the RDC to endorse and support which are all aim to help improve Ormoc.
Among the projects that he would seek support from the RDC are infrastructure projects like access roads, bridges and reclamation projects.
The Ormoc city mayor will also ask for the RDC support to invite investors who are into sugar milling to help support the sugarcane industry not only in Ormoc but the nearby town of Kananga.
“We will also ask from the RDC to help us in providing housing projects for residents in the city who are living along coastal areas,” Gomez added.
Meantime, Gomez extended his congratulation to Mayor Romualdez with her appointment as the new RDC chair.
Romualdez, who is serving on her first term like her co-actor Gomez, was officially named to the post by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 9.
She vowed to help implement projects not only for Tacloban but for the rest of the region, particularly in the three provinces of Samar which are among the most depressed provinces in the country.
“She’s the choice of the President. Who am I to oppose it? We have to respect that. What we can do now as mayors and leaders is to support the new RDC chair on her plans for the region,” Gomez said.
Gomez was among the four nominated by the 60-member council to head the highest policy-making body of the region.
Also nominated were Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan and Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, the outgoing RDC chair. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

The spirit of love is still up in the air this February as Secretary Ismael ‘Mike’ D. Sueno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government hovers the welfare of domestic workers or kasambahays in the country.
In a directive to local chief executives, Sueno urges them to ensure the implementation of Republic Act (RA) No. 10361 or Batas Kasambahay which requires every employer to register all domestic workers under their employment in the Registry of Domestic Workers in the barangay also called as Barangay Registration of Kasambahays.
“Kasambahays have a big role in keeping socioeconomic activities running. They take care of households and look after their employers’ children in order for their bosses to go to work or attend to their enterprise,” he said.
“Their wellbeing ought to be taken cared of just like workers in the formal public and private sectors,” he added.
The DILG Secretary also called on all punong barangays through a directive to enact local ordinances in support of the Batas Kasambahay and to implement the Barangay Registration of Kasambahays in their area of jurisdiction.
“Registering kasambahays is both beneficial to kasambahays and their employers,” he emphasized.
“I also encourage barangay officials to discuss your implementation of the Batas Kasambahay during the coming law-mandated conduct of Barangay Assembly Day this first semester of the year, which will be on March 25,” he said.
Under Batas Kasambahay, a domestic worker or kasambahay is any person engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship such as, but not limited to: general househelp, nursemaid or “yaya”, cook, gardener, or laundry person, but shall exclude any person who performs domestic work only occasionally or sporadically and not on an occupational basis. (PR)