The 1986 capitulation national unrest historically remembered as People Power EDSA revolution of August 25 actually sparked with the assassination of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in Aug. 21, 1983. From that time on, we saw that the pangs of Martial Law began to lose its chilling effect on people’s behavior. Daily demonstrations became part of the life of the nation. Marcos gave orders to his generals to break up the mass of humanity who voluntarily joined the mass protest against his dictatorial rule. They ranged from 300,000 to 400,000 angry people at EDSA chanting “Tama na! Sobra na! Alis Na!
But Metropolitan Commander Maj. General Prospero Olivas said he could not. Armored vehicles appeared immobilized and could not plough through the crowd, being stopped literally with but their bare palms of people and noticeably nuns of various orders.
-oOo-
At the Office of Media Affairs then, I was the provincial information chief of Maasin, So. Leyte. Like the many who know we were the information (propaganda?) arm of Dictator Marcos government. During that week of Feb. 22-25 I was advised to stay at our regional office in Tacloban city.
All the while, in spite of the news on massive build up of people at EDSA, I had a very strong confidence in the President; they called Dictator Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. I was a loyalist to the core. I never entertained any possibility of his ouster. He was strong, intelligent and visionary.
I believed in his battle cry that this nation can be great again!
-oOo-
The shattering news of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Fidel Valdez Ramos, PC/INP head and other generals who declared their withdrawal of support to Marcos, came shaking fears in my spines.
From there I began to worry. All my 6 children were still in school. I did not have other income but from my salary in government.
-oOo-
Even when Marcos, his family to include close cronies were finally driven out of the country, we simply reported to office almost doing nothing. At that time OMA/National Media Production Center (NMPC)and all other propaganda outlets during the Marcos era were abolished.
OMA’s function got resurrected with Cory Aquino Proclamation that of creating a new office now, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in December 24, 1986, 9 months after the restoration of Democracy.
Incumbent employees of OMA had to apply like new recruits seeking government posts. Others resigned or retired. I re-applied! And the rest is history.
I remember (the real) EDSA People Power Revolution
Who is in and out?
Three and a half months after the storm surge and hurricane-like wind of the traumatizing supertyphoon Yolanda have rendered thousands of families in 63 towns and 2 cities of Eastern Visayas homeless, hundreds of families yet linger in evacuation centers, tents and makeshift dwellings simply because there no resettlement made available for them. Worse than that, in utter desperation and urgent need to hide their frail bodies from the harmful elements of nature, there are those who have started reconstructing and have in fact rebuilt their homes in their original sites, which are categorized as “no-build zone” areas. They are gradually sprouting like mushrooms near riverbanks and shorelines.
Presidential Decree No. 1067 of 1976 (The Water Code of the Philippines) mandates an easement of certain distance from banks of river and streams and from shores of seas and lakes in either urban, agricultural and forest areas. The law explicitly provides an easement of three meters in urban areas, 20 in agricultural and 40 in forest areas. This easement is for purpose of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage. As the Department of Environment and Natural Resources authorities have stressed time and again, and in fact seen in signages posted in concerned areas, people are not allowed to build houses in areas for mangroves and beach forests across the archipelago, as well as in river banks in urban areas.
Locally, in Tacloban City, an ordinance was passed in December last year that restrains residents within the 40-meters distance from shorelines from erecting their homes again. As the city government authorities have disclosed, no building permit will be issued to those who will seek such document. Notwithstanding this preventive edict, there are those who put up their houses of light materials within the prohibited area. As aforementioned, this is in apparent hopelessness for a permanent shelter either they or the government could produce for them outside the proscribed area of 40 meters from the shorelines.
Clarifying this issue in its Kasugbong ha Pagtindog paid weekend morning program over local radio station DYVL, Dept. of Social Welfare and Development Assistant Regional Director Virginia Idano declared that the transfer of residents whose houses nestled erstwhile within the easement zone of 40-meters are no being scheduled.She further disclosed that the resettlement to the bunk houses which are but temporary shelters are being prioritized to those in the 30 barangays identified within Tacloban City. The transfer, as she added, has started and being done in coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways.
To hold back the residents from rebuilding their homes within these “no-build zones” is a primary task of the local government unit concerned, according to the DSWD official. The social welfare office’s responsibility is in identifying the families entitled to resettle at the temporary shelters. Like in the controversy that hounds the cash-for-work, family access card and relief assistance distribution of the social welfare agency the perennial question as to who are in and who are out reverberates. The DSWD, nevertheless, assured that no politics and partiality should mar the list of qualified beneficiaries.
DOT implements its own cash-for-work program among tourism students in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY –The Department of Tourism (DOT) has forged partnership with four colleges in this storm-ravaged city to clean up parks wrecked by supertyphoon Yolanda last year.
About 100 students taking up tourism-related studies at the Asian Development Foundation College, Eastern Visayas State University, Leyte Normal University, and ABE College were listed as beneficiaries in the implementation of the DOT’s cash-for-work program dubbed as tourism students’ welfare program.
DOT Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said the program will run until the end of semester, covering major parks in the city damaged by the supertyphoon.
“We tap students to clean up parks in the city to increase their appreciation of our local tourism destinations. This will also augment the income of their families whose livelihood were affected by the supertyphoon,” Tiopes said.
Participating students receive P260 daily stipend and P80 meal allowance for a total of P340. The students work every Saturday and Sunday, the day they receive their pay.
Rica Mae Davin, 17, a 2nd year Hotel and Restaurant Technology student of EVSU said the program would help ensure that she will be able to continue her study this school year.
“Aside from earning, we are also helping the city restore the sense of normalcy by clearing storm debris scattered in parks,” said Davin, whose father’s income from self-employment was reduced after the storm.
The 100 students were divided into two groups to render a park clean-up work during Saturdays and Sundays. The two teams will work on alternative weekends starting February 22 until the ends of the academic year on May 2014.
Maria Cristina Caintic, dean of EVSU’s College of Technology said only students from poor families along Yolanda’s path were listed as program beneficiaries.
The initiative kicked on February 22 at the Madonna of Japan along the city’s Magsaysay Boulevard. The park fronting the Cancabato Bay is a former encampment site of Japanese soldiers in World War II.
Identified as priority sites for clean up are Family Park and the Balyuan Park, both located along Magsaysay Boulevard.
The DOT asked the Leyte provincial government under Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla to provide heavy equipment for the removal of uprooted trees and other debris. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
PCA ask coconut farmers to clear their areas to pave way for fast replanting program
TACLOBAN CITY- The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has asked coconut farmers to clear their respective areas to hasten the replanting activity of their agency and at same time, avoid possible spread of beetle infestations.
PCA Regional Manager Edilberto Nierva said that if the debris which was due to the toppled coconut trees would remain uncollected, it would hamper their planting and replanting program which is part of the rehabilitation plan to the industry hard hit by supertyphoon Yolanda.
“There are farmers who cannot start planting coconut seedling due to the fact that there is still coconut debris stock in the plantation,” Nierva told Leyte Samar Daily Express in an interview.
More than three months after the devastation of supertyphoon Yolanda, the PCA still receives reports regarding coconut debris which remain uncollected.
The PCA donated chain saws to different local government units to help the coconut farmers clear their areas and at the same time, made to good use the toppled coconut trees.
The PCA regional manager said that they want to hasten collection of coconut debris in order to avoid any diseases which may affect other trees especially to those newly planted coconut.
On the other hand, the PCA warned the farmer that debris of cut or sliced coconut lumber, especially the crown, has to be thrown immediately otherwise it will cause beetle infestation.
“There may be diseases and other pests that may arise once this coconut debris will not be collected. This is the reason why we are on the process of fast tracking the collection of coconut debris,” Nierva emphasized.
In the region, the PCA reported that some 33 million of the 72 million coconut trees have been damaged by the typhoon.
By: RYAN GABRIEL ARCENAS
New branch of Dettie Panis Salon and Spa opens in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY– Homegrown Dettie Panis Salon and Spa opened its new branch on February 26 in front of Robinsons Place, offering youthful skin care as the new service.
Salon owner Demeter “Dettie” Panis said along with the new branch is the youth plus skin and laser center under the watch of her daughter Yohanne Kae S. Panis, a diplomate of Philippine Dermatological Society.
“We believe that beauty is a need. There’s no such thing as recession in beauty and I’ve proven than even in the aftermath of supertyphoon (Yolanda). A lot of people have been coming to our salon when we opened our Burgos branch 10 days after the disaster,” Panis said.
Among the guests were couple Engr. Eman Casal and Dr. Elvira Casal,former Ormoc City mayor Eric Codilla and wife, Julida; Rotary Club of Tacloban District governor Peter Rodriguez and Rotary Club of Kandaya president Caroline Lee.
The newest branch is specifically located at the ground floor of JGC Building in Marasbaras, fronting Robinsons Place.
The salon has been known for investing human resources by sending staffs to trainings in Manila and abroad. Before Yolanda, there were six Dettie Panis Salon and Spa branches in Tacloban and in Ormoc City. More than three months after the typhoon struck, five branches are now operational.
Two of salon’s smaller branches were heavily damaged by storm surges and subsequent looting incidents.
By: SARWELL Q.MENIANO
LSA athletes gears for this year’s Palarong Pambansa
TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte provincial administrator Vincent Emnas is pinning high hopes that student-athletes from the Leyte Sports Academy (LSA) would figure prominently in this year’s Palarong Pambansa.
This after the LSA-honed athletes made strong showing during the recently-held Batang Pinoy 2014 staged in Bacolod City.
Among the LSA-trained athletes that reaped honors was Karen Janario, 14, who won several gold medals in athletics.
Janario is among the 40 athletes from the sports academy who would be compete for the Palarong Pambansa to be held in Laguna this summer.
And as parts of the preparation, the athletes would undergo rigorous trainings to ensure that they would win medals during the national games, Emnas said.
He said that student-athletes who would compete in swimming would train in Manila considering that the swimming pool at the LSA was damaged just like the other facilities during supertyphoon Yolanda.
They are to leave first week of March for the extensive training.
Emnas said that they are proud with the LSA-trained athletes considering the fact that despite of what they have experienced due to the supertyphoon, they still able to deliver during the Batang Pinoy competitions, citing particularly Janario who was named as one of the most valuable players during the competition.
The administrator said that the performances of the LSA-trained athletes only proves that they are getting the proper training, enough for them to compete not only in the regional level but even in the national or international levels.
The provincial government brought the students to Manila days after the supertyphoon hit Tacloban not only to debrief them but for further trainings.
By: LIZBETH ANN ABELLA