BAYBAY CITY- A branch of Metro Gaisano is soon to open this city expected to provide employment to the locals and income for the city government. A memorandum of agreement was signed earlier between the city government of Baybay thru Mayor Carmen Cari and the officials of the Metro Retail Stores Group at the City Hall. The singing of the MOA sealed the long awaited investment of the company in Baybay. “This will not only give income to the city but will also address unemployment problem in Baybay because this will generate jobs,” Cari said. The company had made an advance payment for the land rental of P12 million and paid security payment of P600,000 at the city treasurer’s office. Mayor Cari added that the company also assured them that most of the employees that they will hire are from the city. “The company will start hiring of their employees because they still need to undergo training especially those who does not have experience,” Cari said. Now that the MOA had been signed, the company can now start the construction of their building that will occupy one hectare area of the reclamation project facing the Camotes Sea. The reclamation project of Baybay started in 2013 with an area of 9.5 hectares located adjacent to the Baybay City Public Market. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Leyte (1st dist) Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez
Gov. Tan offers P100K against suspect who killed a police officer during an anti-drug operation
TACLOBAN CITY- Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan disclosed that she is offering P100,000 reward to whoever could arrest or help them find the suspect dead or alive who killed a police officer and wounded another during an anti-drug operation. Tan said that by offering a reward money, suspect Ernesto Gonzales could be arrested and put in prison. “I have offered P100,000 reward money to whoever could arrest or at least help us find the suspect, dead or alive,” the governor said. The reward money was source from her office and part of it from the provincial police headquarters, the governor said. The Samar governor said that by offering reward money, she hopes that Gonzales, a known drug pusher in Marabut, would be apprehended immediately by police authorities.
Gonzales killed PO1 Gary Cabaguing during an anti-drug operation in Barangay Logero, Marabut, also in Samar, last August 24. Cabaguing, 32, was hit on the face by the suspect, a known drug pusher in Marabut town, who was inside a hole of his room. Another police officer, PO1 Nestor Villanueva, was hit at his right chest and is still recuperating at the Divine Word University Hospital (DWHU) in Tacloban City. President Rodrigo Duterte visited the wake of Cabaguing at his house in Catbalogan City last August 29 and Villanueva at his room at the DWUH. Gov. Tan said that she provided financial assistance of P100,000 to the family of Cabaguing, father to two children, and similar amount to Villanueva. Cabaguing received a posthumous award while Villanueva received “Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting” from police regional director, Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar. Tan, meantime, said that she is fully supportive to the anti-drug campaign of Pres. Duterte. In fact, she asked all provincial officials, heads of various departments of the provincial capitol and its employees to undergo a drug test on August 11. Fortunately, the governor said, all those who underwent the drug tests yielded negative results. “This only manifest of our full support to the thrust of Pres. Duterte against illegal drugs,” Tan said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
Goma nominated to become the next RDC chair
PALO, Leyte- Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez will not lobby before President Rodrigo Duterte for him to be appointed as the next chairman of the Regional Development Council (RDC) for Eastern Visayas. On Wednesday (August 31), Gomez, also known as “Goma,” together with Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez, Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan and Leyte Governor Dominic Petilla, the incumbent chair, were nominated to become the next RDC chairman representing the public sector. Roy Bernard Fiel, Oliver Cam and Tiburcio Morales were nominated as co-chairman representing the private sector. The RDC is the highest policy-making body in the region and serves as the counterpart of the NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) Board at the subnational level.
The RDC is the primary institution that coordinates and sets the direction of all economic and social development efforts in the region. It also serves as a forum where local efforts can be related and integrated with national development activities. “I am not that close with the President. There is no assurance that I will be appointed,” Gomez said. During the May 9 elections, Gomez campaigned for Mr. Duterte. However, Gomez said that in case he will be chosen as the next RDC-8 chairman,his priority projects will focus on poverty alleviation. “I will do my best to funnel big amount of funding for the region although it is not the job of the chairman alone but the whole team,” the actor-turned city mayor said. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
DPWH to bid out Leyte’s tide embankment project this month
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) here in the region will proceed with the bidding of some subsections of the P7.9 billion tide embankment project within this month after several design changes and consultations. Changes in project specifications particularly in some parts of Palo, Leyte have been approved by their central office, DPWH Regional Director Edgar Tabacon said. For this year alone, the allocation is P1.46 billion to start the construction of structures designed to shield coastal communities from the impacts of rising seas or storm surges.
The revised design incorporates recommendations of local government units, affected residents, and experts, according to Tabacon. “The project should have been started early this year. There will be spill over for few months for these batches and these will be extended until end of next year,” he added. Tabacon was unsure when the project covering the Tacloban section will start due to slow pace of relocation of affected families from coastal areas to northern resettlement sites.
The 27.3-kilometer tide embankment project, dubbed by some as “great wall,” stretches from Barangay Diit in Tacloban to Brgy. Cabuynan in Tanauan town. Sections 1 to 3 are in Tacloban, section 4 cover the coastal villages of Tacloban and Palo, section 5 are located in Palo and Tanauan, and section 6 in Tanauan town. The four-meter high structure, designed to shield coastal communities from storm surges, was pushed through by the previous Aquino administration after the 2013 storm surges wiped out neighborhoods in Leyte province generated by supertyphoon “Yolanda”. The P7.9 billion project include civil works and right of way acquisition broken down in four years – P1.46 billion for 2016, P1.19 billion for 2017, P2.64 billion for 2018, and P2.64 for 2019.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO)
DAR Leyte to conduct revalidation of CLOA
TACLOBAN CITY-The Department of Agrarian Reform(DAR)- Leyte office will conduct a validation of certificate of land ownership awards (CLOAs) amid complaints that many of the supposed beneficiaries were not qualified under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Renato Badilla said they will go over the list of CLOA holders and validate on the ground if the person on the list is the one actually tilling the land.
Five municipalities in Leyte have been identified where the revalidation will be conducted. The revalidation will be done from September 5 to October 31 in the towns of Alangalang, Barugo, Carigara, Jaro and San Miguel These five municipalities were the same areas that nongovernment organization Katarungan Eastern Visayas has done an initial validation last year. DAR Leyte recently conducted a workshop training on CLOA validation with Katarungan – EV to discuss how then joint revalidation will be done. Badilla said if the target deadline is met, they will be able to do a mass distribution of CLOA to rightful agrarian reform beneficiaries during the third anniversary of supertyphoon “Yolanda” on November 8.
Don Daganasol, president of Katarungan-EV, said their initial validation shows very few of the CLOA holders are actually tilling the land. He said some of the CLOA holders were not actually farmers but professionals including some lawyers and even employees of DAR. Daganasol said some of the CLOA holders appear to be tenants of the land awarded to them where the former owner continues to claim ownership to the land. “The farmers do not seem to know that as CLOA holders they are already the real owners of the land, not a tenant or caretaker,” he said. Records from DAR show 2,461 CLOAs have already been released to DARPO covering 3,004 hectares of land from the five municipalities, but only 1,397 of these covering 1,739 have been transmitted to the DAR municipal offices.
Of these CLOAs issued, only 47 of them have been received by agrarian reform beneficiaries covering only 22 hectares. There are still 1,087 CLOA on the hands of municipal agrarian reform officers yet to be distributed to ARBs. “In the previous years that some CLOA are registered on records but the physical copy have not yet been released to the farmers,” admits Badilla. Since last year, DAR- Leyte has been working closely with the Registry of Deeds for the release of CLOA to farmer beneficiaries.
(ELMER V.RECUERDO)