TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte provincial administrator Vincent Emnas is pinning high hopes that student-athletes from the Leyte Sports Academy (LSA) would figure prominently in this year’s Palarong Pambansa.
This after the LSA-honed athletes made strong showing during the recently-held Batang Pinoy 2014 staged in Bacolod City.
Among the LSA-trained athletes that reaped honors was Karen Janario, 14, who won several gold medals in athletics.
Janario is among the 40 athletes from the sports academy who would be compete for the Palarong Pambansa to be held in Laguna this summer.
And as parts of the preparation, the athletes would undergo rigorous trainings to ensure that they would win medals during the national games, Emnas said.
He said that student-athletes who would compete in swimming would train in Manila considering that the swimming pool at the LSA was damaged just like the other facilities during supertyphoon Yolanda.
They are to leave first week of March for the extensive training.
Emnas said that they are proud with the LSA-trained athletes considering the fact that despite of what they have experienced due to the supertyphoon, they still able to deliver during the Batang Pinoy competitions, citing particularly Janario who was named as one of the most valuable players during the competition.
The administrator said that the performances of the LSA-trained athletes only proves that they are getting the proper training, enough for them to compete not only in the regional level but even in the national or international levels.
The provincial government brought the students to Manila days after the supertyphoon hit Tacloban not only to debrief them but for further trainings.

By: LIZBETH ANN ABELLA

TACLOBAN CITY- Prisoners at the Tacloban City Jail are now facing scarcity of their daily rations, particularly on rice.
This was revealed by Chief Inspector Rill Sono, warden of the said prison facility who said that he is thankful that the Department of Social Welfare and Development has provided them with sacks of rice to meet their demands.
According to him, with more than 500 prisoners presently detained at the Tacloban City Jail, they need at least seven sacks of rice a day.
Rice supply in Tacloban has become scarce after the city was devastated by supertyphoon Yolanda with majority of its residents relies on their rice needs to the DSWD.
He added that the National Food Authority could not give them the needed supplies of rice as he added that they tried to resort other means like getting their rice needs in Baybay City.
However, procuring their rice needs in Baybay City would entail additional cost to them, Sono said during the February 18,2014 meeting of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council held at the Leyte Sports Complex(Grandstand), this city.
Sono said that after the massive typhoon, their rice supply was depleted and it was the DSWD that provided them 200 sacks of rice.

By: LIZBETH ANN ABELLA

TACLOBAN CITY – The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) committed to assist the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in helping out agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in heavily-damaged agrarian reform communities (ARCs) in Eastern Visayas rise from being shattered by super-typhoon “Yolanda”.
About eight ARCs in Leyte and Eastern Samar provinces covering nine pilot barangays, according to DAR Regional Director Eliasem Castillo, have already been validated by the CRS and included in their list which will benefit more than 4,000 farmers.
These areas, he added, are in Barangay San Jose in Palo; Barangay Lapay in Tanauan; and Barangays Malbog and Capangihan in Tolosa, all in Leyte province.
In the province of Eastern Samar the areas are in Barangay Coticot in Giporlos; Barangay Bulusao in Lawa-an; Barangay Sta. Rosa in Balangiga; Barangay Labtic in Quinapondan; and Barangay Siguinon in Salcedo.
Castillo said that this non-government organization (NGO) readily responded to their call to include ARCs in their assistance operation in the process of DAR’s preparation of the restoration and rehabilitation plan for these areas.
However, it was emphasized by CRS operations manager Terry Tuazon, that they will only be assisting farmers in coconut areas to avoid duplication of similar aid extended by other organizations to rice farmers.
Tuazon explained that in order for these farmers to be able to start rehabilitating their lots, CRS will provide financial assistance in clearing out debris brought by the typhoon.
The farmers are required to form into groups with 15 members and help one another clear (and plant if seeds/seedlings are available) 15 lots in 15 days.
Each farmer will be paid P3,900 for the 15-day work at P260 per day.
In addition, Tuazon said, each farmer will also get a P1,000 worth of voucher that could be used in procuring farm tools, seeds/seedlings and fertilizers at accredited stores.
Earlier, Castillo said, PCA has committed coconut seedlings and camote cuttings for the rehabilitation of typhoon-ravaged areas.
But Tuazon said that farmers could also plant vegetables as intercrops to coconuts for additional income.
Meanwhile, DAR’s Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development (BARBD) Assistant Director Ma. Elena Cabañes introduced to the ARB organizations in these ARCs the vermiculture as additional livelihood for them where they can recycle the debris as feeds for the worms thru a shredding machine.
If the farmers would be interested, DAR will provide 30 kilos of worms for every ARC and facilitate the sourcing out of the shredding machine from an international organization. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA)

TACLOBAN CITY- Their intention was only to help four of the members of their organization whose families back home also suffered Yolanda’s wrath but the Tahiti-based Filipino organization ended up helping others who are still suffering from the aftermath of the supertyphoon.
Seeing the devastation personally was the reason why they decided to help their non-members as they could not afford not to extend assistance to those who were affected by the storm, Miguel Pedron said.
Pedron is the president of the Filipino Association in Tahiti-French Polynesia, composed of over 100 Filipinos working in Tahiti whose population of over 180,000 is less than compare to Tacloban’s more than 220,000 people, considered the ground zero of the typhoon.
“All we want was just to extend help to our four members whose respective families were affected by Haiyan (the international name of Yolanda). But seeing ourselves the massive devastation it caused and those affected by it, we cannot afford not to extend help to other victims,” the 64 year old Pedron said.
Pedron said that he never saw such a massive devastation caused by a natural disaster wherein everything his eyes could laid on were nothing but destructions whose magnitude was unparallel.
The group will provide livelihood assistance to the victims in the hope that they would, in turn, help other victims.
The fund that the group used to help Yolanda victims was sourced from the solicitations they made among the 100 Filipino now living in Tahiti, the largest island of French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean.
“We went to television and radio stations and newspapers in Tahiti City to solicit funds to maximize our campaign to raise funds which we intend to give to the victims of the typhoon,” Pedron said.
They also put up boxes in the shopping malls and churches where donors could place their donations. And the response was “moving and overwhelming” as they were able to collect about P1 million in less than a week.
Also, the country’s airline company, the Air Tahiti Nui, provided them free tickets when they informed the company that they would travel to the Philippines to provide assistance to the typhoon victims.
“The people of Tahiti are such a giving and generous people. They never think twice in giving us their monies when they learn that we are raising funds for the typhoon victims here,” Pedron said.
The amount that they raised was the amount that they brought to the country for the victims. With the massive scale of the typhoons resulting to millions of people affected, the amount raised by them was not just enough, Burca admitted.
“That is why, we will do another fund raising and return here once we have raised enough,” she said. They plan to return to this city any time next year.
Pedron was joined by Mary Clare Navarro, the group secretary and Joyce Burca, its information officer, during their visit in Tacloban City to carry out their mercy mission.

By: JOEY A. GABIETA

TACLOBAN CITY- Christian health organization MAP International, Medshare, Ayuda Foundation, community organization in Guam, telecommunication giant Smart Communications Inc., and Guam Telephone Authority recently joined hands to provide critical medical supplies to Leyte province through the Ormoc District Hospital in Ormoc City.
The medical supplies will come in a 40-feet container van which will be turn over to the Ormoc District Hospital through its chief of hospital Ma. Lourdes De Lara-Banquesio.
MAP International provided the pallets of medical supplies, while Medshare provided the 40-feet container van.
MAP International is a global Christian health organization that partners with people living in conditions of poverty to save lives and develop healthier families and communities.
It responds to the needs of those they serve by providing medicines, preventing disease, and promoting health to create real hope and lasting change. It works in partnership programs with over 300 organizations, agencies and medical missions around the world.
MedShare is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare and the environment through the efficient recovery and redistribution of the surplus of medical supplies and equipment. It collects surplus medical supplies and equipment from hospitals, distributors and manufacturers, and then redistributes it to qualified healthcare facilities in the developing world.
Ayuda Foundation is a Guam-based non-profit organization applied for the medical supplies donations, while the Filipino Community of Guam and the Guam Medical City raised the funds for the Medshare container van.
Other groups that put in their help were Smart Communications Inc which paid for all the expenses to transport the container; and Guam Telephone Authority for shouldering the first shipment.
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla welcomed this donation of medical supplies saying that with the huge devastation wrought by supertyphoon Yolanda to the hospitals in the province, the provincial government alone would not be able to fund the rehabilitation of facilities and re-stocking of medical supplies.
“I am pleased that private organizations and groups from other countries help us rebuild our hospitals. We alone cannot do the rebuilding of our hospitals. Even with the support from the national government, we can only do so much. Thus, help from the private sector, both here and abroad is always welcome here in the province of Leyte,” Gov. Petilla said in his message.

By: AHLETTE C. REYES