TACLOBAN CITY – The United States government is eyeing a $142.5 million budget to rebuild communities pounded by super typhoon Yolanda last year, concentrating on improving education, health services and livelihood. US Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Assistant Administrator for Asia Denise Rollins said the US government is renewing its commitment to help central Philippines build back better, after the devastating typhoon. “Our government is committed to help restore normalcy in the lives of the affected families. We will continue our work with our local partners to help provinces build back better, to be more resilient to future disasters, and ultimately work towards a more stable, prosperous nation that can achieve broad-based and inclusive growth,” Rollins said in her visit here last week. For the education sector, USAID will build 165 climate-resilient classrooms and provide teaching kits in the Visayas. At least 10 health facilities will be reconstructed, including the provision of equipment and supplies. Among the sites are Tacloban City, Tabon-tabon and Burauen towns, all in Leyte. The US government is also introducing climate-adaptive technologies to farmers and fisherfolks by training 3,000 farmers on short term food production, crop diversification study, provide tools to 5,000 fishermen on high value marine products production. “We will construct 30 critical infrastructures supporting agriculture and fishing activities. This includes public markets, boat landings, trading centers, warehouses and grain dryers,” Rollins said. Approximately 1,000 sari-sari stores will be constructed and rehabilitated by the USAID and American multinational giants, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. The partnership will provide inventory and train store owners on basic store management. This initiative is expected to help restore livelihoods and help stabilize the supply and prices of basic consumer goods in typhoon-devastated communities, Rollins said. Asked when all these rebuilding projects will be completed, Rollins said: “It’s gonna take time because construction firms that cannot work on too many at one time. It’s a long-term effort, but we’re here to stay.” The US government will also provide technical assistance to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) in the coordination of recovery efforts. As of April, US has already provided $90.86 million grant for post-Yolanda response. Of the amount, $35 million was from USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), $34.5 million from US Department of Defense, $20.15 million from USAID Office of Food for Peace, and $1.20 million from USAID Philippines. In a USAID report, of the $90.86 million provided by the US government since the typhoon battered the region, 31% have been used for logistics and relief commodities; 28% for shelter and settlements; 23% for water, sanitation and hygiene; 10% for economic recovery and market system, 6% for protection; 1% for risk management policy and practice, and 1% for humanitarian coordination and information management. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
Former bank manager under probe for defrauding depositors
TACLOBAN CITY – Eralita Apalit was shocked to discover that the money that she deposited at the Philippine National Branch in Baybay City could be withdrawn without her permission. The 56-year old businesswoman from Barangay Tinago, Inopacan, Leyte, has a deposit of P190, 000 at the said PNP branch. But to her shocked, her deposit “vanished” after she withdrew P60, 000 two years ago, her last time to withdraw an amount from the bank. “I could not really believe that the hard-earned money that I deposited and entrusted to the said bank could just be withdrawn that easily without my knowledge and permission,” Apalit said. Apalit was just one of the depositors of the PNB-Baybay Branch allegedly defrauded of their deposits purportedly instigated by Gabriel Kirom, former manager of the said bank. Kirom’s whereabouts is no longer known after his scheme was discovered when a prominent businesswoman in Baybay, Lydia Palermo, wrote a letter to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan requesting for an investigation on the matter. The letter was addressed to Vice Governor Carlo Loreto, presiding officer of the provincial board, who immediately asked the committee on banking and financial institutions to conduct a probe on the matter. And on June 17, the said committee, chaired by Board Member Florante Cayunda, Jr. conducted the investigation though it as the vice governor who presided the more than two hours investigation held at the session hall of the legislative building. Palermo, who owns one of the hotels in Baybay, said that her deposit at the said bank was P2.5 million which she wanted to withdraw but only to be informed that it was already withdrawn. It was not clear yet as to how many depositors of the said bank were allegedly victimized by Kirom. But majority of those who filed a complaint were retired government workers like teachers. But Apalit said that in Inopacan alone, she knew at least 22 depositors who appeared to have lost their money they deposited at the PNB-Baybay Branch. “What I knew is the amount involved could reached to P42 million,” she said. During the public hearing, officials of the PNB appeared to be cooperative as they expressed their willingness to help the victims defrauded by Kirom, a resident of Inopacan and a close friend of Apalit’s husband, Rodrigo. Lawyer Stephanie Castaneda, legal officer of PNB in Cebu, said that they are willing to provide legal assistance to the victims though she could not guarantee that they could help them get their money back from Kirom adding that there were no records at their bank that the money of the victims entered the coffers of the bank. She also said that the PNB, one of the biggest commercial banks in the country, has immediately conducted their own probe when they learned on this issue involving Kirom. Castaneda also stressed that the integrity of the bank was not comprised on this fraudulent act of Kirom. She also said that a case of falsification of commercial documents was filed against Kirom and whose retirement was withheld pending the resolution of the case filed against him. Kirom reportedly was able to “withdraw” the deposits of his victims by enticing them to invest in one of the alleged products of the bank. All transactions were personally made by Kirom inside his office while he was still the manager of the PNB-Baybay. Loreto said that their investigation is only in aid of legislation and come up with legislative measure that would help bank depositors not to be lured with a similar scheme. Meanwhile, the SP on their June 10 session approved a resolution authorizing Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla to transfer all bank accounts of the province deposited in PNB to other banking institutions. Gov.Petilla, when asked to comment about the resolution of the Sanggunian, said that he had not yet received the resolution. Petilla said that they will wait first and study the course of action of the Sanggunian and of the PNB management on the complaint prior to making any action. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Spark Philippines, Apl.de.ap Foundation conducts creative arts training in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY-A training program called “Connecting Communities through the Creative Arts” was held at Leyte Normal University (LNU) by Spark Philippines with the Apl.de.ap Foundation on June 17-19, 2014. The training is an approach for trauma healing and community reconciliation through the use of different forms of arts in the affected areas of the supertyphoon Yolanda. The training was participated by educators, barangay health workers and people who are dealing with children (facilitators) for them to learn and gain knowledge on how to use arts for recovering from the trauma that Yolanda caused. The entire training program for the facilitators covered different procedures such as the creative arts, theatre of the living, hands-on activities, individual/group discussion, sharing, and presentation; teaching moments, personal/group reflections, storytelling, case studies, scenario-building, simulations, and documentary snippets. The Spark Philippines and the Apl.de.ap Foundation organized the gathering for children to learn and enjoy something, in the same way that facilitators will be able to use different procedures in dealing with children. “We are one nation; whatever happens in one place also happens in the whole country. So, we want to tell them that we are doing everything that we can to help them in the best way that we can,” Kate Alyzon Ramil, Sparks Philippines project coordinator, said. After the three3-day training program, a practicum well be held at the New Kawayan for children with the facilitators. The pilot training was in Tacloban and they will also visit the other places who are hit by disasters such as Cebu, Bacolod and Bohol. (KAYE ANNE ORALLER LNU-Intern)
Foreign grants to boost country’s fight against TB, set to reach Calbayog
CALBAYOG CITY – Foreign investments of up to P1 billion per year for the next three years pour in to the Philippines as we now reach number 4 among the 27 high-burden countries in terms of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with an estimated 13,000 cases as of 2012. This after two international funding organizations, The Global Fund and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), granted funds on March this year through the PBSP (Philippine Business for Social Progress) worth USD$70M (from The Global Fund) and a separate USD$28 million (from USAID) for the implementation of projects to support the goals of the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) in the Philippines. PBSP, a corporate-led, non-profit social development foundation in the Philippines, will extend support to anti-TB programs of local government units (LGUs), and one of those identified to receive such support is the city government of Calbayog. Kurt Baltero of the PBSP organization, during his visit to the city recently, said that they are set to put up PMDT (Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) Treatment Facility in the city which will be a DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy-Short Course) facility as well. Activities in the facility, he added, will start from case detection, treatment, surveillance, and monitoring of patients suffering from MDR-TB. MDR-TB is tuberculosis that is resistant to at least isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP), the two most powerful first-line treatment anti-TB drugs. Treatment for those diagnosed as MDR cases will take minimum of two years, according to Baltero. Aside from the facility, other PBSP’s support that Baltero mentioned are manpower augmentation, staff trainings, equipment to start up operations, diagnostic services, financial assistance to patients, and facility budget for operational expenses. Baltero likewise stressed that the “would-be” counterpart of the LGU for this project is only an infrastructure support in place that can cater 10-20 patients, and one HR support that will ensure security and upkeep of all project-provided equipment and supplies in the facility. Other partners of PBSP in their fight against MDR-TB are the WHO (World Health Organization), MSH (Management Sciences for Health) and IMPACT (Innovations and Multisectoral Partnerships to Achieve Control of Tuberculosis). (AIMEE CATALAN/PR)
Healthy walk marks this year’s nutrition month celebration
TACLOBAN CITY – The regional National Nutrition Council (NNC-8) has lined up month-long activities for the national nutrition month on July According to Dr. Catalino “Kattie” Dotollo Jr., NNC nutrition program coordinator, said that this year’s theme is very timely in the light of frequent and devastating disasters that struck the country and how the families can cope without sacrificing the good nutrition of each one in the communities especially the children. This year’s theme observance is “Kalamidad Paghandaan: Gutom at Malnutrisyon Agapan,” with the celebration now on its 40th year. The month-long activities will start with a healthy walk on July 1 at 6:00 a.m. to start at the Balyuan grounds along Magsaysay Boulevard, this city. The government and private agencies are enjoined to participate in the healthy walk. “We are expecting 300 participants from our partner agencies, the government and the private sectors, the barangay nutrition scholars (BNS), UNICEF and other international humanitarian organizations,” said Dotollo. NNC is the lead agency in the nationwide launching and observance of the National Nutrition Month every July. After the healthy walk, Dotollo said that a short program follows with Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez as guest of honor. The theme for this year’s celebration will be unveiled by Mayor Romualdez, Dr. Dotollo and Emma Grande of the United Nations International Children’s Fund, the partner humanitarian agency of NNC for the event. There is also an agri-fair which will be open to the public. Among the month-long activities are symposium: Nutrition in Emergency Preparedness; government agency-hopping for nutrition counseling; cooking contest with recipe for cooking contest; Barangay Nutrition Scholars in Action (audio-visual presentation how the BNS responded in the aftermath of Yolanda) and culminates with the Nutrition Summit to be hosted by the UNICEF. The National Nutrition Month is observes pursuant to Presidential Decree 49 or the National Nutrition Act of the Philippines, signed on June 25, 1974. (VICKY C. ARNAIZ)
“A Useless Nonsense”; “Where’s the Evidence?”
Senator Koko Pimentel III sounds quite credible, when he described the digital file of whistle blower Ben Hur Luy relative to the PDAF scam as a “useless nonsense” Observers of this scam are beginning to be blurred by recent happening on account of so many lists of suspect legislators in both houses of Congress involved in this thievery to include personalities of agencies in government. With over a hundred suspects allegedly involved in this unprecedented corruption of the century in the Philippines, it will take years before this is going to be terminated with the guilty suspects behind bars. Then again and out of the blue, we read the banner story that appeared in the June 1 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer saying that the affidavits executed by the queen and mother of all scams, Janet Lim-Napoles, charging legislators as recipients of P10B pork barrel scam, would just be mere scrap of paper without strong evidences to support her allegations. If the National Bureau of Investigation officials who expressed these doubts will only depend on paper-signed evidences by suspects then no solution is at hand to put these “honorable” officials behind bars for the crime committed. No one among these suspects would sign any “receipt” for what they “stole” from this scam. The NBI however can employ and extensively explore other viable strategies to strengthen their cases against these traitor-politician in our midst.