GANDARA, Samar- Lack of toilet among houses of this town is blamed why diseases due to poor hygiene are so common.
But thanks to the assistance of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Service (Kalahi-CIDSS), this problem is now being addressed.
Among the recipients of the Kalahi-CIDSS program is Barangay Tagnao, located along the national highway but is close to Gandara River.
Of the 273 households in the village, 138 households have no sanitary toilets, village chairman Virgilio Oliva said.
The barangay council had passed an ordinance prohibiting for the disposal of any kind of garbage at their village, the barangay chairman said.
The family of Catherine Manozo is one of the beneficiaries of the sanitary toilet project under Kalahi-CIDSS.
Manozo said that they are willing to share their toilet to families who do not have one.
“We’ve experienced not having a toilet. It’s very embarrassing to knock on someone’s door at night to ask permission if we can use their toilet,” she said.
With a toilet of their own, aside from guaranteeing hygiene, possible sexual exploitation among women could be avoided, Manozo added.
Gandara has 17 villages implementing Kalahi-CIDSS program.
Eleven 11 barangays are prioritizing water, sanitation and hygiene or WASH program, Juliet Abaratigue, DSWD area coordinator, said.
Abaratigue said that part of the program is the implementation of the zero open defecation or ZOD.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- Two women and a man were arrested by police authorities here for sniffing solvent at the city wharf.
Arrested by the police were Menard Manillo, 18 and a resident of Barangay 37; Genalyn Engracial, 18, jobless and a resident of Brgy.58, Sagkahan and Grace Leuterio, 20, single, who lives at Brgy. 83, San Jose district.
The three were caught in the act of using solvent, also known as “rugby” by police authorities at the old building of Maritime Police located within the city port complex at 10:10 pm last April 25.
A case for using and in possession of volatile substances was filed against the suspects who were detained at the lock-up facility of the Tacloban City Police Office.
(JOVY POMPAC, LSDE Student Intern)

TUNGA, Leyte – Leyte III Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Leyeco III), an electric cooperative based this town which is the smallest municipality in the province of Leyte, led the 121 electric cooperatives all over country as it was named as the “Electric Cooperative of the Year” during the 2017 National Electrification Administration (NEA)-EC LUMENS AWARDS ceremony last April 28 at the Big 8 Corporate Hotel in Tagum City.
Leyeco III, established and incorporated on October 30, 1975, made history being the first electric cooperative from the region to receive such distinction.
Leyeco III headed by its board president Cornelio Q. Brazil and general manager Allan Lamparaz Laniba, together with the rest of the board of directors, Officials of the Multi Sectoral Electrification Advisory Council (MSEAC) and LeCARES (League of Electric Consumers Advocates for Reforms and Empowerment of the Society), received the most prestigious award ever given to an electric cooperative.
“Electric cooperative of the year” award is given to an electric cooperative with an unprecedented record of exceptional performance for the year in all facets of operations and its continuing initiatives for improvements and innovations in rendering excellent service to its consumers.
Aside from being hailed as the “electric cooperative of the year,” Leyeco III also received special citations and certificates of appreciation from National Electrification Administration.
The power cooperative received special citations for being rated as AAA Electric Coop and for having a single digit systems loss for the year – On Grid EC.
Certificates of appreciation were also awarded to the Leyeco III for its active participation in the Task Force Kapatid during the onslaught of the typhoon ‘Lawin’ and typhoon ‘Nina.’
“We really did not expect to receive such high award as the ‘EC of the Year’ kasi, para sa amin, for as long as we give excellent service to our member-consumers, okay na kami. This award manifests our great hard work and genuine service to our member-consumer owners. We will not stop here.We will continue to give our 100% in the Rural Electrification Movement; for we aim to reach our vision of being the “top performing distribution utility in the Visayas by 2030,” general manager Laniba enthused. (PR)