TACLOBAN CITY- Members of the Muslim community based in the city are calling members of Congress to speed up for the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
This measure should be approved by Congress as this will give them the framework wherein they could carve their own address their own problems. Abdullatiph Abeth, an “imam,” of the Muslim community in Tacloban, said that Mindanao stability and economic viability is now critical and BBL offers one of the best hopes for the local democracy and peace of the entire Mindanao region.

This assertion of Abeth was shared by another Muslim leader, Akil Tanggo, who said that the BBL could just be the key for them to achieve lasting peace and development.
“We are Muslims. We are from that place and we experienced the harshness of life living in Mindanao with full of terror and chaos,’ Tanggo said in an interview.
“We are appealing to our dear congressmen and senators, especially to Sens. Bongbong Marcos and Allan Peter Cayetano to help us for the (passage of the) BBL…” he said.
He also appeals to the solons not to water down the BBL version by amending some of the “important provisions” of the proposed law which include having their own sharia law.

Meantime, Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto expressed his support for the approval of the BBL saying this could lead to development and stability in Mindanao.
The Aquino administration according to Loreto has been trying to pursue peace and prevent corruption in Mindanao and what the people believe, in a democracy such as ours is important according to Loreto. “We cannot really be peacemakers unless we seek to protect the lives and dignity of people. We must stand up for human life wherever it is threatened and this is the essence and starting point for a genuine peace in Mindanao,” Loreto said. (JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

TACLOBAN CITY-The journey towards owning their land after 15 years of struggle remains far from over for the 21 farmers in Ormoc City. A supposed ceremonial agreement between the Bugho Farmers Association, the group of concerned farmers in Barangay Matica-a, Ormoc, and the Department of Agrarian Reform(DAR) scheduled on May 12 fizzled out. The agreement could have formalized the “self-installation” conducted on April 30 by the farmers who were originally given their certificate of land ownership awards (CLOAs).

The failure of having the agreement signed was decried by the farmers saying their struggle will continue and as if the situation was the same in 1999, the year the CLOAs were awarded to them.  “The land was promised to us by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law since December of 1999,”said Rosenda Apay, leader of the Bugho Farmers Association. “While we are grateful that DAR has acknowledged and assisted us after our bid for self-installation, the never-ending accommodation of demands from the other farm workers’ group has rendered the validity of our certificate of land ownership awards useless,” she added.

The contested agricultural land covers 25 hectares with other farmers belonging to a private company also challenging ownership. Baby Reyes, project coordinator of land rights advocacy group Rights-Network who is helping the farmers on their fight, said Bugho farmers are the genuine owners of the land by virtue of CLOA Numbers 00276805 (TCT-780) and 00276806 (TCT-781) they are holding.

After they were driven out from their land, Bugho farmers went into what they called “long and tedious legal processes which always yielded victory for our group.”
There were originally 31 holders of the certificate of land ownership yet their number has gone down to 21 today.

“Despite these, DAR was still unable to install us back in our land. In 2002, wanting to possess our land, we agreed to a compromised agreement, authored by DAR (legal division), giving the 21 hectares of land to the Fran Farm Workers who occupied our land, and keeping the 25 hectares to ourselves. Again, DAR failed to install us even with this compromised agreement,” Apay said.

The numerous meetings and dialogues which happened thereafter keep the group away from their farm for 15 years.
According to Reyes, the rival group of farmers is still not totally relinquishing their claim on the 25 hectares of land during the scheduled signing of agreement.
As Bugho farmers’ demand for swift action continues to fall on deaf ears, they called anew for DAR to “put an end to the tedious process of negotiations with the other group.”
“Consummate the installation of the 21 agrarian reform beneficiaries, “Apay said. (RONALD O.REYES)

PARANAS, Samar – Government troops will not only ensure a peaceful province but its forest products protected by nefarious individuals. This was vowed by Colonel Leo Cirunay, commanding officer of the 801st Infantry Brigade which is based in Hinabangan, also in Samar. Recently, soldiers under his brigade joined an anti-illegal operation conducted by the local police of Paranas and a team from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in this town. The operation resulted for the seizure of the composite team of 600 board feet of illegally cut logs strewn along the Ulot River at the vicinity of Barangay Tenani and sitio Campo Uno, Brgy. San Isidro. The seized logs were turned over to DENR for proper disposition. “It is our mandate to arrest and file charges against those violators of the law and ensure they be made to answer for their actions in coordination with the other law enforcement agencies,” Cirunay said Meanwhile, the DENR will continue to strictly enforce Executive Order (EO) 23, which declares a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests nationwide. The intensified anti-illegal logging operations of the military and police are part of a campaign to save the Samar forests against poachers who proliferate in the province. Illegal logging remains to be a top concern of Samar which has reported activities in its protected forest covers as well as its watersheds. (JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

CATBALOGAN CITY- Less than a year before the conduct of the general elections, soldiers are now in the thick of things on their security preparations to ensure the conduct of polls in the region will be peaceful and orderly. Major General Jet Velarmino, commanding officer of the 9th Infantry Division based in this city, said that this early, they are now closely coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the region on this matter. Velarmino said that by ensuring a peaceful conduct of elections, voters will feel secure that they could exercise their right of suffrage without fear that something untoward incident will happen to them. He also said that by working with their counterparts at the PNP, any movements of the armed groups could be neutralized. The military official was referring to both the members of the New People’s Army and the so-called private armed groups said to be maintained by some local politicians. The military has claimed that NPA members collect permits to win and campaign among candidates during election time. “Soldiers are prepared for every possible eventuality and they don’t lack the confidence to do their jobs,” Velarmino said. He also said that their presence, the military and police, help lessen political tensions. (JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

KANANGA, Leyte- Five island towns in Samar are to be declared as insurgency free by the military. This was disclosed by Major General Jet Velarmino, commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan City. Velarmino, however, declined to identify the island towns of Samar, once considered the hot-bed of insurgency of the country. The region’s highest military official also declined to say as to when they would declare the five areas as completely without the presence of the rebel group, the New People’s Army.

Just recently, the military declared 15 towns in Leyte to be insurgency-free.  Of the six provinces of Eastern Visayas, only the provinces of Biliran and Southern Leyte were declared as insurgency-free. However, all the four remaining provinces of the region were declared by the military to be manageable areas, short for the declaration as an insurgency-free. Velarmino, who was in town for the celebration of the founding of the 19th Infantry Battalion based in Kananga, said that declaring a town as an insurgency free area is the next step before a province is declared as such.

Velarmino said that in the course of their campaign against members of the Maoist-inspired group, which has been waging armed battle with the government for more than four decades now, skirmishes between the two warring groups is “inevitable.” Meantime, Kananga Mayor Elmer Codilla said that the campaign against insurgency is not only the obligation of the soldiers. “The Army and the local government units cannot do it on their own. We need help from the communities that are now cooperating since they had seen that soldiers are now more approachable and they are partner in development,” said Codilla. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- If one is given a second life, he would rather offer his talent to God in thanksgiving. The undertaking started as an economic venture with all the feasibility studies in place, but after surviving the harrowing encounter with supertyphoon “Yolanda” in November 2013, nine well-known local paint artists decided to make remembrance in thanksgiving for extended life. At the entrance of the iconic Sto. Niño Church, this city, can be seen in its ceiling the mural depicting the history of the local church’s faith and devotion to Señor Sto. Niño de Tacloban. This the painters describe as a legacy, a once in a lifetime unique project for them. According to Crispin Asensi, a member of KasiKasi Art Association that undertook the painting of the ceiling mural, working on the project gave the nine of them different feelings.

“We got closer to God and felt our work was being blessed because we were doing our work while the mass was going on,” he recalled. “For each of us, to do this mural is a thanksgiving. We are survivors of typhoon Yolanda and are still here given the chance to paint once more and to thank God for this new life,” Asensi said. The painting was finished last March after two months of intricate work. Asensi was joined by his fellow professional artists in this work namely Ernie Ybañez, Rico Palacio, Dante Enage, Archie Zabala, Archie Prisno, Billy Pormida, Jass Diaz and Jun Olimberio. Although the original plan of painting the whole ceiling of the church took four years before typhoon Yolanda struck, the final output was the mural at the ceiling by the main entrance door.

The church was among the city’s landmarks that sustained major damages due to Yolanda. The 18-foot in diameter oil canvass painting portrays the salient details that explain the transfer of the fiesta celebration of the Sto. Niño from January to June 30. History conveys that in the return voyage to Tacloban, following repair made on the ivory image in Manila, the ship that was carrying it was gutted by fire. The image was jettisoned before the ship completely sank in the middle of the sea.

In the meantime that the icon of the Taclobanons faith was missing cholera epidemic broke which toll on the lives of many Taclobanons. Following long days of search, some individuals informed the local government and church leaders that the image was seen being venerated in a remote community in Semirara Island in Antique province. A group of men were tasked to retrieve the icon, which they did but stealthily as the community folks did not like to return the image. The icon was finally returned to Tacloban on June 30, 1889. On that same day, people sick with cholera started to recover from the illness and the economy flourished once more. This marked the beginning of a more fervent devotion to Señor Sto. Niño de Tacloban. (EILEEN NAZARENO-BALLESTEROS)