The German Embassy in the Philippines has granted a rice mill to poor farmers from Barangay Tag-Alag of Marabut town,Samar.
The rice mill started successful test operations in December 2023. This was facilitated through the efforts of Leyte Center for Development(LCDe).
Currently, the rice mill is providing cheaper milling prices for “palay” as compared to the commercially owned rice mills.
Furthermore, residents of Barangay Tag-alag do not have to travel five kilometers or spend for transportation to the nearest commercially owned rice mill.
The rice mill is owned and managed by the Farmers and Fisherfolk Association of Tag-alag, which is registered with the Department of Labor and Employment(DOLE).
“We are very much thankful to LCDe who supported us to solve our problems on the high cost of rice milling, this rice mill can add to our meager income,” says Abraham Galangue, chairperson of the Farmers and Fisherfolk Association of Tag-Alag.
Minet Aguisanda-Jerusalem, LCDe director, expressed her gratitude to the German Embassy for providing a rice mill to the people of Tag-Alag.
“We would like to thank the German people, through the German Embassy in the Philippines Ambassador Plaffernoschke, for granting us this rice mill worth P 650,000. These projects are all part of LCDe’s efforts to help the government solve poverty and contribute to making poor communities disaster resilient,” she said.
“We are honored by a coming project visit from the German Ambassador in the coming weeks,” Jerusalem added. (PR)
A travel and tour company is offering pilgrimage tour with guests getting the chance to visit and offer prayers to several centuries-old churches in Leyte and Southern Leyte.(Photo Courtesy)
TACLOBAN CITY– More than 20 pilgrims joined a one-day pilgrimage tour to seven old churches in Leyte and Southern Leyte on Jan.7.
A travel and tour company is offering pilgrimage tour with guests getting the chance to visit and offer prayers to several centuries-old churches in Leyte and Southern Leyte.(Photo Courtesy)
Sponsored by the IM Travel Corporation in partnership with the tourism office of Baybay City and the Diocese of Maasin, the pilgrims were able to explore century-old churches that define the Philippine’s Catholic rich history and culture.
The seven centuries-old churches that were part of the tour are the Maasin Cathedral in Southern Leyte; St. Joseph Church of Matalom Leyte; Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Hilongos, Leyte; Sto. Niño de Malitbog Church, in Malitbog, Leyte; the 18th century Immaculate Conception Church, the Diocesan Shrine of St. Anthony de Padua, and the 16th Century old St. Isidore of Laborer Chapel, in Baybay City, Leyte.
The pilgrims also visited the Visitation Shrine of Mother Mary at Lintaon Peak in Baybay City.
Rochelle Alfonso, owner and CEO of IM Travel Corp., said that the pilgrimage package started in 2019 in cooperation with the Department of Tourism(DOT)-8‘s ‘Sinugdan’ tour for the 500th year anniversary of the First Mass in Limasawa in Southern Leyte.
“During the training, I did not fully embrace the notion of having a pilgrimage tour maybe because I was young, and even the cost for the tour for 3 days and 2 nights was expensive, I never thought that it was possible,” she added.
However in 2022 in a travel mart organized by the DOT, she was able to present the package to a potential pilgrim and it was taken positively, thus the first international pilgrim tour last 2023 in Leyte.
The pilgrims were about 37 people from North California including a bishop and two priests and mostly senior citizens.
Alfonso added that since then blessings for IM travel and tours kept pouring, thus, she decided to continue offering the said tour package locally in fulfillment of a promise she made to the churches she visited that she would bring more pilgrims to the said churches.
For this year her travel and tours corporation’s first offering was a pilgrimage tour package.
Meanwhile, the city government of Baybay through its tourism officer Josie Gutierrez said that what IM Travel and Tours doing now is a dream come true from the city government of Baybay.
“This is already an initiation coming from the private sector campaigning, promoting doing the pilgrimage. This is partly part of the establishment of tourism in the city,” Gutierrez said.
The Baybay city government is in full support of the pilgrimage tour having the three churches located in the city by providing better roads and more comfortable space for the pilgrims. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
TACLOBAN CITY – A coordination meeting was called by the provincial government of Eastern Samar last week as part of their goal to receive the 2024 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) award.
The meeting, held last Jan.10, served as a crucial preparatory step for the province to comply with the indicators and areas that were not met during the previous assessment and to lay the groundwork for the upcoming 2024 assessment.
Of the six provinces in the region, Eastern Samar and Southern Leyte failed to receive the SGLG award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
During the meeting, Gov. Ben Evardone provided each department head a deadline to ensure the timely fulfillment of the requirements setting the stage for Eastern Samar to attain the recognition from the national government.
He also stressed the importance of timely planning, urging swift action to ensure success in passing the assessment.
Although the provincial government failed to receive the SGLG 2023 recognition, three of its towns, namely, Arteche, Quinapundan, and Sulat were given the seal.
The SGLG, implemented under Republic Act No. 11292 or the SGLG Act, is an institutionalized award, incentive, honor, and recognition-based program that aims to boost LGUs’ commitment to continuously progress and improve their performance along various governance areas.
To win the SGLG, a local government must pass the assessment criteria in 10 governance areas: financial administration; disaster preparedness; social protection and sensitivity; health compliance and responsiveness; sustainable education; business friendliness and competitiveness; safety, peace, and order; environmental management; tourism, heritage development, culture, and the arts; and youth development. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Guiuan Mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan maintains that the mining operations in the historic island of Homonhon follows the government’s policy on ‘responsible mining,’ contrary to the claims of the local residents and the Church.
(Photo Courtesy)
On mining activity in Homonhon Island
Guiuan Mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan maintains that the mining operations in the historic island of Homonhon follows the government’s policy on ‘responsible mining,’ contrary to the claims of the local residents and the Church. (Photo Courtesy)
TACLOBAN CITY– The mayor of Guiuan town in Eastern Samar said that she is for responsible mining which would benefit her people.
Mayor Annaliza Gonzales-Kwan was reacting to a story that appeared on Inquirer wherein an official of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau maintained that the mining operations in Homonhon Island have not resulted in ‘grave abuse’ of the environment, a claim disputed by a group opposing the operations on the historic island.
Gonzales-Kwan said that she is disappointed that those who are opposing the mining operations in Homonhon Island make it appear that it is already in ‘bad shape.’
“They make it appear that Homonhon is in bad shape. We the people of Guiuan are quiet on the mining issue because we know the truth. It is the people from the outside who are creating much noise,” the town mayor said on Sunday via Viber.
“I am for responsible mining. I understand the issue on the environment but if people have no jobs, the rest of the environment will be destroyed: illegal fishing, logging, etc. And criminality. Now that there is mining in Homonhon, some people from Guiuan are already working there,” Gonzales-Kwan added.
According to her, the mining operations in the island has resulted in employment of 2,300, some are residents from the mainland.
Gonzales-Kwan also said that aside from employment generation, the mining activities have also resulted in income and taxes to the government, and the mining companies have become partners of the local government in the social development projects that benefited the villagers.
“Poverty is the bigger problem. To me the economic benefits outweigh the intense emotional noise being bandied around. This has been a PR issue,” she said.
She said that balancing the economy and environmental protection is possible if all concerned sectors would help and not just criticisms.
The town mayor also claimed that the photos circulating on the social and mainstream media that appeared to be pits were deceiving saying what appeared to be pits are silting ponds of the mining company where water from mining operations are collected until all the sediments are settled.
“The photo(s) are the silting ponds of a mining company. The photos seem to be enhanced and enlarged. That is not the true picture of Homonhon, otherwise, the people of Homonhon will have no more land to live if that is true. There are 8 barangays with more or less 4,000 people. Homonhon’s land area is around 10,000 hectares and only less than 10% is being mined,” Gonzales-Kwan said.
She said that mining companies have their land development plan, restoring the mined area.
“When ore is taken out of the surface, it is now fit for agriculture activities,” Gonzales-Kwan.
“My job is to give jobs to my people and to live a better life. We are working on a comprehensive environmental development plan for Homonhon Island which will be funded by the social development management program fund of the mining companies which is 1% of its operating cost. This will be participated in by our UP consultants doing our comprehensive land use plan,” Gonzales-Kwan said.
Earlier, the regional director of the MGB, Glen Noble, despite some allegations, their office has not found any ‘grave abuse’ committed by the mining companies operating on the island involving the destructions of Homonhon’s environment.
Noble also said that last year, the mining companies operating on the island have paid P182.62 million last year of excise tax to the government.
But a group opposing the mining operations, the Homonhon Environmental Advocates and Rights Defender, Inc. (HEARD), said that no amount would compensate for the ‘destructions’ caused by the mining operations on their island, where Ferdinand Magellan landed in 1521.
“No amount is worthy enough for the damages, bad effects, and destructions the mining has brought to the island,” Daipen Montes, a board of director of HEARD, said.
At present, three mining companies are operating in Homonhon, namely, Emir Mineral Resources Corp., Chromite King, Inc., Nickelace, Inc., and Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Philippine Airlines (PAL) has announced its plan to offer additional flights to Borongan City starting in July this year.
This was announced on Friday (Jan.12) by PAL Tacloban manager Dan Quincy Moquia during the ceremonial signing of a memorandum of agreement between the city government of Borongan headed by Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda and the airline company.
Starting this July 3, PAL’s additional flight will be every Wednesday until the month of October.
PAL is the only airline company that is currently servicing the Borongan City Airport since December 2022.
Currently, the airline company offers two flights a week, every Monday and Friday, from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Borongan City Airport via Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Since its operations, city information chief Rupert Ambil said that the city government has recorded 7, 439 passengers booked for the Manila-Cebu-Borongan flight at the LGU run ticketing office.
The peak of passengers’ arrival in Borongan starts from July to October, Ambil said.
Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda welcomed this development as he expressed his hopes that more airline passengers from and going to the province of Eastern Samar will book their flights directly to Borongan City Airport.
He also encourages businessmen particularly those who are engaging in the seafoods industry to deliver their cargo to Cebu and Metro Manila using the PAL flights.
Earlier, Rep. Marcelino ‘Nonoy’ Libanan of the 4Ps party-list group disclosed that the national government has allocated a P200 million budget for the upgrading of the airport’s facilities.
The party-list representative said that this budget for the improvement of the airport facility will help in facilitating the transfer of people, goods, and could help bring in more tourists to the province. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
ORMOC CITY– A man who is among in the priority target list of drug personalities in the region was arrested on Friday (Jan.12) in Palo, Leyte.
Arrested during a buy-bust operation was Adelardo Lacandazo,46 in Barangay Libertad at about 8 am, the local police said.
Lacandazo is said to be on the number 4 on the regional drug list of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Recovered from the possession of the suspect was one sachet containing a white crystalline substance suspected to be shabu procured by an operative in the amount of P1000.
Further search on the suspect yielded two more medium sachets containing the same white crystalline substances also suspected to be shabu with an estimated weight of about five grams with an estimated street value of P35, 000.
Charges of violations for possession and selling of prohibited drugs were filed against the suspect who is now detained at the lock-up facility of the Palo police office. (ROBERT DEJON)
