TACLOBAN CITY- Two beautiful young ladies were separately crowned as this year’s fairest in two different beauty contests in Tacloban.
Reena Vivienne Pineda, 18 and a student of Asian Development Foundation College was named this year’s Miss Tacloban on June 28 in a glittering ceremony held at the Tacloban Convention Center. Meantime, Niña Sherra Tagalog, 22 who is a student of the St. Paul Business School and from Palo town, Leyte, bested 11 others equally beautiful ladies for the Miss Pintados crown.
The search for this Miss Pintados, now on its 25th year, was held at the Leyte National High School gymnasium last June 25.
Tagalog, among other prizes, won P50,000 cash prize. Actor-singer turned politician, Dingdong Avanzado, was among the judges in this year’s Miss Pintados.
Pineda, daughter of Tacloban Councilor Eden Chua-Pineda, also won People’s Choice Award, Best in Swimwear, Miss Talent, Best in Production number and Best in Philippine Terno, among other special awards.
Along with her crown, Pineda received P50, 000, additional cash prizes and gifts from various corporate sponsors, and a round-trip to Tacloban-Cebu-Japan.
She will also act as goodwill ambassadress of the city government of Tacloban.
The new Miss Tacloban defeated 11 other candidates as she joined her elder sister, Rachelle Erica, to bag the crown. Rachelle Erica won the title in 2009.
The Miss Tacloban was hosted by upcoming actor Victor Basa while the Miss Pintados was hosted by noted television host Boy Abunda.
Both beauty searches were held in connection to the annual fiesta of Tacloban. The Miss Tacloban is backed by the city government and Sangyaw Foundation while the Miss Pintados is supported by the Pintados Foundation and the provincial government. (RONALD O.REYES/ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Pineda, Tagalog named this year’s festival queens
Aquino: Calbayog is still a peaceful city
CALBAYOG CITY- Despite of the spate of killings that rocked this city, it remains to be peaceful. This was the assertions of Mayor Ronald Aquino who backed his claim based on a survey indicating that majority of the city residents still prefer to live rather relocate to other areas.
Aquino, who chairs the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) for Eastern Visayas, lamented on the perceptions that the killings were related to politics. He said that these killings have yet to fully establish by police authorities to political intramurals. Majority of the victims were barangay officials, the recent of which involved the barangay chairmen of Dagum and Carayman. Police authorities in the city reported of 15 killings since the start of the year. Last year, there were 47 shooting incidents in Calbayog. Calbayog is always considered a hot spot area during elections for years now.
But Mayor Aquino insisted that Calbayog remains to be orderly and peaceful despite these series of killings with the result of a survey conducted by a private survey group funded by the Department of Interior and Local Government thru the Citizen Satisfaction Index System Report telling otherwise. Based on said survey, it indicated that 96% of the city residents said that they would still stay in Calbayog City with the remaining 4% opting to relocate elsewhere. Although the survey was conducted last year, Aquino said that the result was still a good indication that majority of the residents of the city have confidence on his administration in solving the killings and other illegal activities occurring in the city.
Aquino also said that services for the betterment of the public are not affected despite of the killing incidents which saw the local Church officials condemning them. Meantime, Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan, speaking at the Samar Island Partnership for Peace and Development (SIPPAD) meeting which is a Church led-convergence of government agencies and civil society groups, declared her total support to the pastoral message of Bishop Isabelo Abarquez. (ROEL T.AMAZONA)
Church condemns killing spree
CALBAYOG CITY – The Diocese of Calbayog through the Justice and Peace Desk of the Social Action Center issued a statement condemning the series of killings that rocked this city. The statement signed by Bishop of Calbayog, Isabelo Abarquez, stressed that taking of human life, and inflicting injury and suffering on anyone, whether as an act of aggression or revenge, can never be justified.
Abarquez also said that the diocese does not tolerate any form of repression especially through extra-judicial killings. “The right to life is a gift for everybody and no one has the right to take it,” the bishop said. It further explains that the “wheel of justice” is the proper venue for resolution of any case. Obviously alarmed over the series of killing incidents in Calbayog, Abarquez called on the “proper authorities to conduct a thorough and speedy investigation…and bring into the bar of justice the ones responsible.”
Based on records of the city police, since the start of the year, there were 15 shooting incidents that hit the city, a perennial “hot spot area” during election period issued by the Commission on Elections. The latest victims were village chiefs Edgar Belleza of Carayman and Rio Lebario of Dagum and his councilor Dionesio Lungsod. Meanwhile Calbayog Mayor Ronaldo Aquino condemned the killing incidents who involved mostly barangay officials. “These are acts of savagery, not expressions of normal persons, and do not in any way characterize Christian formation and being peace loving people,” the mayor said who is also the chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council.
Aquino assured the public that he will pursue every effort, and take every opportunity to bring justice to the victims and place criminal elements to the clutches of law for them to pay the price of their actions and to vindicate the lives of those slain. He also offered a P75, 000 cash reward to anyone who could help police authorities identify the perpetrators.
(JENNIFER SUMAGANG-ALLEGADO)
Back to school
PALO, Leyte – More than one million students are to return to their respective classes this Monday as the Department of Education(DepEd) reiterated anew of their no collection policy. Education officials said that beginning Monday, regular classes will start as all the 4,000 public schools across the region have already been cleaned up during the holding of the weeklong “Brigada Eskwela.”
The region has 31,828 classrooms for all levels with 10,978 of these damaged facilities were repaired and 2,215 were reconstructed in partnership with various groups, said Mercy Sarmiento, DepEd-8 regional information officer. Of the 1,092,824 students, 56,999 are in Kindergarten, 679,271 in the elementary and 356,554 in secondary.
“We are prepared because based on our monitoring, all our schools conducted Brigada Eskwela where grounds were cleaned up, furniture were fixed and classrooms were repainted. Students will not be discouraged to show up on the first day because everything is ready,” Sarmiento said. Help desks have been set up in all DepEd division offices in provinces and cities as well as in the regional office to receive complaints related to school opening from parents.
“We have convergence meeting with different government agencies earlier to ensure the safety of students and no overpricing of materials,” Sarmiento said. No collection policy Teachers and school officials were told not to make non-payments of contributions as a reason from barring pupils and students to school admission and receiving report cards. “No collection policy is strictly imposed. Upon enrollment, the child should not pay anything,” Sarmiento said.
Starting August until the end of the new academic year, schools may collect the some fees on voluntary basis. These are contributions to the Boy Scout of the Philippines, Girl Scout of the Philippines, Philippine National Red Cross, Anti-Tuberculosis fund drive, parents teachers association, school publication, and membership in student organization. The central government has also provided “substantial” increase in school’s maintenance and operational fund, thus giving no reasons for schools to ask contributions, according to DepEd.
By Sarwell Q. Meniano
Muslim community in Tacloban urged Congress to pass BBL
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)
Farmers decried slow action of DAR in resolving land dispute
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)