TACLOBAN CITY – The national government is set to provide P50 million to construct road access to one of the famous waterfalls in Calbayog city. Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento said that the P50 million will be used to construct a concrete access road going to Bangon Falls, one of the most well-known waterfalls of Calbayog but remain unexplored by visitors due to road difficulty. According to Sarmiento, the construction of more than three kilometers access road is expected to start next year.

The Samar solon said that the development of road access to Bangon Falls is under the Eastern Visayas Tourism Roadmap of the Department of Tourism. Bangon Falls, one of the more than 20 waterfalls of Calbayog, is located in Barangay San Joaquin and entails a one hour and 15-minute ride to Brgy. Tinaplacan, and from there the falls is still about 3 kilometers away from the highway which can be reached through a ‘habal-habal’.

According to Rep. Sarmiento, once the road access is developed, tourist activities in the area can be explored and maximized to lure more visitors to the site. Meanwhile, Calbayog Mayor Ronaldo Aquino said they have been pushing for the development of a number of their waterfalls and make tourism as a prime economic driver in the city. “We don’t have large spaces for bigger malls; we don’t have big ships that dock in our port. Thus we look at our tourism potentials to provide us the economic benefit it can give us,” Mayor Aquino said during a recent press conference. Bangon Falls has an estimated height of 60 meters. At the topmost part is a circular pond about 30 meters in diameter which is wide enough for swimming and deep enough for diving.

It was one of those identified by the DOT-8 as tourism-development area for Calbayog City and as part of the Eastern Visayas Tourism Roadmap.
The Tourism Roadmap envisions to heighten the competitiveness of the region as alternative destination of tourists and increase their length of stay, thus, spreading the economic benefits of tourism to all parts of the region. (AHLETTE C.REYES)

MOTIONG, Samar- Soldiers are becoming partners to farmers of this impoverished town by helping them sell their produce and ensuring a peaceful condition for them to have a safer and productive lives.  The members of the 87th Infantry Battalion headed by Lt. Col.Antonio Dulnuan helped the farmers plant other crop varieties like vegetables and peanuts. Farmers of this town continue to feel the economic losses they sustained due to Yolanda’s fury, reducing their already poverty-stricken lives to almost to nothing. Poor road condition also hinders the farmers to sell their produce to the market at the town proper. They have also to contend the unscrupulous middlemen. Aware on such situation, the 87th Infantry Battalion (87IB) planned to help the farmers establish a productive and friendly agricultural market closer to home. Not only would the farmers save on travel costs, they would also avoid paying middlemen, as buyers come directly to them thereby increasing their profits by nearly 50%. Rosita Gabin of Barangay Hinicaan, of this town, just like over a hundred farmers from nearby villages, has re-established again their farmlands amidst the hardship of poverty. With the expected earnings coming from their small vegetable gardens, they would be able to send their children to school and imagine a better future for them. “We are praying that peace and abundance will stay here forever,” Gabin said.

Gabin is one of the more than 100 hundred farmers in Samar who are rebuilding their livelihoods through the Cadac-an Peanut Growers Association (CPGA). The 87IB is helping these small farmers to improve their incomes and recover from the destruction cause by Yolanda. Conflict and poverty are inextricably linked, Dulnuan said. “Conflict is one of the traps that keep under-develop countries remains poor. It’s a vicious cycle-conflict reduces incomes, whole poverty heightens the risk of internal instability. On the other hand, economic growth reduces the risk of conflict,” Dulnuan said.

“Giving people the opportunity to earn a living is one of the best ways to guarantee a lasting peace,” he stressed. “We want to secure the rights of the people living in poverty to food and income security and decent work within the context of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; thus, reducing inequality, and ensuring the sustainable use of land and water.” Dulnuan added. The members of the CPGA were trained to learn proper farming techniques for peanuts; strengthen their internal administration; and influence participation of the local government unit and other organizations. (JAZMIN BONIFACIO)

TACLOBAN CITY – After staying close to a year, members of the South Korean Joint Support Group, which are conducting humanitarian missions, are to leave Leyte by December of this year. This was revealed by the mission’s chief of public relations, Major Kwon Doo Young, who added that much as they want to stay longer in Leyte, worst hit by supertyphoon Yolanda, they could not do so unless there is an order from their national government.

However, Young, speaking through his interpreter Corporal Sungho Park, said that during their almost a year stint in Leyte, they were able to so far repair 45 public buildings that were destroyed by Yolanda.
He added that the Korean government allocated P1.25 billion for the group to undertake their humanitarian mission. The Korean group, also known as the Araw contingent, conducted their mission in the towns of Palo, Tanauan and Tolosa, among the areas in Leyte that suffered much devastation due to Yolanda, world’s strongest typhoon to make landfall.

The group rehabilitated school buildings, senior citizens buildings, police stations, fire stations, day centers, post office and hospitals found in the three towns. The contingent also repaired two public structures in Tacloban City, Yolanda’s ground zero, Manlurip Elementary School and the building at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan (Justice Building) which they considered as their special projects.

 The Korean group also conducted heavy equipment training course to the residents of Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa and Tanauan. Kwon also said that they will also open this month a training school for farm equipment/machinery operation in Palo. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY –The P345.46 million foreign-funded Pinipisakan Irrigation Project (PIP) in Northern Samar has been suspended citing inaccessibility problem that hampered the delivery of construction materials. As of mid-August 2014, five contract packages have not yet started while eight segments posted a negative slippage ranging from negative 16% to 71%.
The overall accomplishment is pegged at 8.29% in the construction of 22.5 kilometers main canal that would supply irrigation to about 2,000 hectares of rice farms in the towns of Las Navas and Catubig in Northern Samar. In a report to the Regional Project Monitoring Committee (RPMC), the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said that other contracts have been affected by negative slippage of other contract packages.

“We cannot force contractors to fast track the project although we have been telling them to make catch up plans, but we understand that it’s hard to access the area because of the terrain and it’s been raining there,” said PIP project engineer Cesar Echano. Suspended are two contracts worth P56.73 million for preparatory works for canal and construction of service road. The government awarded the contract on November 2013 and scheduled for completion May of this year.

Another suspended project is the P25.73 million for canal preparatory works and service road repair up for implementation between November 2013 to May 2014. A similar project scheduled from June 2013 to January 2014 amounting to P37.03 million was also put on hold. reason is that other projects could not proceed because of the delay of other contract packages. It’s like a domino effect,” Echano said.
Two projects have not yet started since the site is not accessible. These are the P11.98 million Hinaga siphonic box culvert and P34.89 million Hinaga Bridge. The RPMC will meet with NIA officials, 12 contractors, and local government units in Northern Samar next month to discuss catch up plans. “We have already raised the alarm in our level so that this problem will not have implications to other foreign-funded projects,” said RPMC chairman and NEDA regional director Bonifacio Uy. Launched in 2012, the PIP is funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The project covers some segments of the unfinished project of the long-delayed Help for Catubig Agricultural Advancement Project (HCAAP).

For both HCAAP and PIP, the government has already spent P2.48 billion, according to RPMC report. its recent monitoring visit, RPMC members concluded that inaccessibility of the project site impedes the other contract to start the project. projects under these contracts are access roads, which with their completion will hasten the construction of other packages,” the report members noted that that there has been no significant activity in site. Filling, clearing and grubbing has started, but has been suspended due to breakdown of equipments. By Sarwell Q. Meniano

TACLOBAN CITY-“We too wanted to see the Pope!” Thus said some 250 families displaced by supertyphoon Yolanda now temporary taking shelters in bunk houses in Palo, Leyte. The families are asking Catholic Church officials to intervene on their behalf amid reports that they would be relocated to other areas by the municipal government before the arrival of Pope Francis to Leyte next year.

According to the victims, who most of them have lost family members and loved ones during the disaster, they will be moved away from their present bunk houses in the Government Center Area in Barangay Candahug to another resettlement areas in upland villages because the site is said to be used for a vigil during the Pope’s visit. Delia Coritana, 45, who lost her husband and a child, said she felt being deprived of an opportunity to see the Pope in person if the plan will push through either on October or November. “We were informed that this area will be cleaned. We are hurt; we feel like we are being thrown away. We feel that they are ashamed of us. Please help us,” Coritana said in an interview. Reports said that the families would be sheltered in Barangay Tacuranga where several bunk houses remain unused up to this time since these were constructed by the national government. Coritana said that once the Holy Father leaves Leyte after his visit, they would be asked to return again to their bunk houses.

Jose Aldeza, another survivor, said he is opposing the plan because the bunk houses in the village of Tacuranga, about 7 kilometers away from their present location, will bring further inconvenience to them.
“We are requesting that if they are going to proceed with the plan, we hope that they can wait until Christmas vacation so that the schooling of our children will not be stopped,” he said. “We are saddened by the news. We are asking for help that the plan will not happen,” said Ronalyn Sabala, 34, shelter leader in the area. Although Sabala said that they are left with no choice if the plan will be implemented, she is also appealing to Palo Mayor Remedios Petilla that their impending transfer will be deferred until classes will take a break on December this year.

According to Sabala, they were not told exactly when they would be asked to move out from their present temporary shelters. “If we will be transferred next month or by November, what would happen to our children who are still in school? The travel time and cost of transportation will be an additional burden to us,” Sabala said. Sabala said that they are having a signature campaign for their petition to the mayor, hoping that their move “will soften her heart and that she will listen to our plea.” Sabala added that that are also willing to transfer if the new area where they will be brought into is already ready for permanent housing. The survivors said that they would transfer to the new site if it would mean permanent shelter for them. (RONALD O.REYES)