Princess Anne of the United Kingdom
American humanitarian group to turn over school buildings in Guiuan
TACLOBAN CITY- Teachers and students of the Ngolos Elementary School(NES) in Guiuan town, Eastern Samar are ready to welcome officials of a humanitarian group based in the United States to show their gratitude for their assistance in constructing new school buildings. When supertyphoon “Yolanda” hit Guiuan town, all the school’s facilities were washed out, said school principal Esperanza Esquierdo. But with the assistance of the Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund (HHRF), who count a Kennedy scion of the America’s most famous family as a member, the school has now new, better and typhoon-resilient school buildings. “Of course, we are happy and grateful to them. All our school buildings here were washed out when Yolanda hit Guiuan,” Esquierdo said. The school buildings, located in Barangay Ngolos which is 14 kilometers away from town proper, were constructed on October of last year and finished last February.
Esquierdo said that the school buildings, composed of four classrooms each and a basketball court and playground, will forever be a reminder not only to them teachers and students but to the rest of the Ngolos residents on the benevolence of the HHRF. The HHRF is the humanitarian arm of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, one of the world’s diversified manufacturing and technology leaders. Employees of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, when they learned on the devastations caused by Yolanda, donated more than $151,000 to the HHRF for it to provide assistance to the victims of Yolanda.
On March 24, top officials of the HHRF will personally visit the NES to turn over the school buildings that they donated. The delegation will compose Honeywell president for Southeast Asia, Jim Bujold; Kerry Kennedy, director of Honeywell Hometown Solutions and Richard Walden, CEO Operation USA, partner of the Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund. They will be welcome by the school’s more than 400 students and teachers as well as by Guiuan Mayor Christopher Sheen Gonzales and his sister, former mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan.
It was through the effort of Gonzales-Kwan why the HHRF was able to learn on the plight of the NES. The former mayor managed to find her way in contacting the Operation USA, an international relief agency of which HHRF is in partnership with in providing assistance to disaster victims.
And in showing their gratitude to the HHRF, the said school will now be known as the Ngolos Honeywell Elementary School. Gonzales-Kwan said that it was fitting that an American humanitarian group lent its support on the recovery effort of Ngolos which was once served as an important area of American forces during World War II. “We will forever be grateful to them,” she said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
50 finishes heavy equipment operation course at the “Araw” training school
PALO,Leyte- About 50 people finished a three-month course study on heavy equipment operations(HEO) at the “Araw” Vocational Training School, a facility put up by the South Korean contingents as part of their humanitarian mission after Leyte was devastated by supertyphoon “Yolanda” more than a year ago.
The HEO graduates were from the town of Tolosa, one of the areas in Leyte which saw destructions during the onslaught of Yolanda. The training on heavy equipment operations was supervised by the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Earlier, the said facility also offered HEO from the residents of Palo, Tanauan and Tacloban City, three of the areas in the province that bore the brunt of Yolanda. Out of the 50 new graduates, eight had specialized training for wheel loader; 10 for hydraulic excavator; 9 for truck mounted crane; 10 for bulldozer operation and 13 for pork lift operation and had successfully finished their 160 hours training that lasted for three months. As part of the new graduates employability TESDA Regional Director Cleta Omega announced that they will undergo a two month on-the-job training(OJT) which they will coordinate with the Department of Public Works and Highways and the provincial government of Leyte to link them with contractors. “This is to boost their self-confidence when they apply a job, because the training they had in the center was a simulation training that is different from actual operation,” Omega explained.
The OJT is part of their enhancement for the training facility which they conceptualized after TESDA and the provincial government. The trainees who will undergo OJT will be provided with group insurance. “We are doing this to strengthen this program, to make the trainees ready for the real workplace,” Omega stressed. Among the graduates was Maria Teresa Compas, 40, a resident of Barangay Opong, Tolosa and one of the three women in the batch. Compas, who only reached second year high school, said that while the training was largely seen as for men only, she nevertheless took the course and the challenge in order to help her husband. Her husband is working in Saudi Arabia to help feed and raise their eight children.
She said that at first she encouraged one of her son to take the course but decline. She decided to take the training herself instead. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
New fire equipment donated by Japan to Ormoc government
ORMOC CITY- The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), this city, received new equipment from the government of Japan. This was disclosed by city fire marshal Senior Inspector Romeo Jaca who said that the donation of the equipment was held at their national headquarters, coinciding on the month-long fire prevention observance on March 3. Received by his office from the Japanese government were fire truck pumper equipped with beacon light, antenna, spotlight, and a portable pump that has the capacity to sip water from its source and directly sprinkle to put off fire; fire truck high-altitude rescue that is useful in rescuing victims up to 3-storey building and ambulance with complete accessories. Jaca said that all units were converted to left-hand-drive and that the personnel are still familiarizing each of the units’ functions since the directions are written in Japanese. Given the additional facilities, Jaca asked for additional manpower from the city government to man these new equipment. With the additional fire equipment, Jaca assured that they could now easily respond any fire alarm and able to facilitate fire fighting without necessarily calling for support from neighboring stations. Mayor Edward Codilla, who witnessed the event that was led by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, thanked the latter for acceding to their request of new fire equipment. The new equipment given by the Japanese government has also the capacity to sip water from big bodies of water like river, swimming pool and the like and directly sweep in putting out fire. The recipients of the Japan equipments were the areas hit by supertyphoon “Yolanda” like that of Ormoc. (ELVIE ROMAN ROA)
Gov. Petilla turned over management of community hospital to Matalom municipal government
MATALOM, Leyte – Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla formally turn over the management of the Matalom Community Hospital (MCH) to the municipal government. The turn- over of the said facility was accepted by Mayor Eric Pajullo and witnessed by Dr. Ofelia Absin, chief of the Leyte Provincial Hospital and Marichu Borja, hospital- in-charge of the MCH. Pajullo said that the MCH will not only serve the medical needs of his people but even those coming from the nearby towns. During the simple turn-over rites, Gov.Petilla handed over financial assistance worth P2 million for the operations MCH to Mayor Pajullo. (RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
Coping more on K to12 program
Leyte schools superintendent Ronilo Al Firmo sees no hitch in the implementation of the K to 12 program of the Department of Education with state universities and colleges coping up on possibility of not having enrollees in freshmen level by 2016, while private schools anticipate an advance effect in July or August this year.
Firmo said that SCUs can accommodate about 30% of the students from public schools who are to enter Grade 11 this coming school year. He foresees no problem either in the absorption of students from public school who opt to enroll in private schools as DepEd assumes the layment of their tuition fees. He said there will be no delay in payment through the voucher system as soon as the private schools submit the requirements.
As to facilities, the DepEd is mapping out mechanisms and sourcing out funds to meet these requirements. The senior high school program dovetailed to K to 12 proved effective in two schools in Leyte, namely Palo National High School and Merida Vocational School. All of the 80 graduates, except one who proceeded to college, the first batch in fact, got immediately employed after passing the TESDA-administered assessment exams, according to Firmo.
In spite of this,there are schools which are crying for suspension of the implentation of K to 12. Is this a delayed realization or another ploy to lobby for another program that could cost the government another round of setbacks?They need to cope up.