TACLOBAN CITY – Ahead of the New Year’s celebration, police authorities in the region asked the public to use only firecrackers and fireworks sold in stalls accredited by them.
Based on the record of the regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police(PNP), there are only 120 retailers were given permits to sell firecrackers and fireworks across the region.
Of this number, eight are in Tacloban City; 31 in Leyte; 27 in Northern Samar; 10 in Biliran; five in Samar; 17 in Southern Leyte, and 22 in Eastern Samar.
The PNP also gave permits to three fireworks and firecrackers distributors in the region.
On Tuesday (Dec.26), police regional director, B/Gen. Reynaldo Pawid personally led an inspection of stalls selling firecrackers in Tacloban City.
“Ang pinaghahandaan natin ngayon is to ensure na this coming New Year’s celebration wala talagang mangyaring insidente lalo na yung iwasan natin ang paggamit ng bawal na paputok para walang masaktan at masunog na ari-arian,” Pawid said in a brief interview.
The PNP-8 top official added that the Tacloban City Police Office had apprehended individuals who were selling firecrackers without permits and confiscated illegal firecrackers.
Since December 22 monitoring of the Department of Health, the health agency has recorded one incident of firecracker related injury throughout the region.
The firecracker-related injury was reported from Palo town, involving an eight-year-old boy who was injured by “boga.”
The victim was brought to the Palo Rural Health Unit and was later sent home. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
TACLOBAN CITY – Nearly 35,000 barangay (village) officials in Eastern Visayas will undergo leadership training beginning January 2024 to better equip and prepare them as development partners of the national government.
The training aims to ensure that village officials are capacitated to perform their tasks to ensure peaceful and progressive communities, Arnel Agabe, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Eastern Visayas regional director said in an interview Wednesday.
“The training is not only for the newly elected officials but for everyone in the barangay leadership. We want our barangay government to be a partner in all our development efforts,” he said.
The training program will start with a two-day basic orientation course to introduce them to the fundamentals of barangay governance, particularly the relevant provisions of the Local Government Code, development planning, budget and finance, participation, and public ethics and accountability.
Apart from the orientation course, it will also provide technical assistance in the implementation of specialized courses on barangay governance, enriching citizen participation, and performance management.
The Seal of Good Local Governance for Barangays will be discussed extensively in the program.
Agabe said the training would also highlight priority campaigns such as the formation of a barangay anti-drugs council and enhancing the capacity of the anti-drug council and peace and order council.
“We will conduct training needs assessments since there are special concerns for each area,” he said.
On Oct. 30, 2022, the region’s over four million voters elected 4,365 barangay chairman and 30,555 barangay council members.(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)
CATARMAN, Northern Samar– Through its sustainable intervention programs in combating and eradicating malnutrition, especially among children, the Provincial Government of Northern Samar, was named as the 2022 Green Banner Seal of Compliance Awardee during the 2023 Regional Nutrition Awarding Ceremony in Palo Leyte on November 21, 2023.
Along with the province, the local government units of Bobon and Mapanas also received the same award.
The Green Banner Seal of Compliance supersedes the Green Banner award, which requires a local government unit to attain the highest score in each administrative level to be eligible for the award.
Using the Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Level Plan Implementation Protocol (MELLPI) Pro, the evaluators scored LGUs on the following dimensions: (1) vision and mission; (2) nutrition laws and policies; (3) governance and organization structure; (4) local nutrition committee management functions; (5) nutrition interventions and services; and (6) nutritional status.
With a strong commitment from the provincial government of Northern Samar, emphasizing key nutrition initiatives like the First 1000 Days Program, the rehabilitation and treatment of severely wasted children, ensuring food security, and enhancing governance for the effective implementation of nutrition programs, we can attain a province that is ‘Marig on, Mainuswagon ngan Malipayon.’ (THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF NORTHERN SAMAR)
Employees of Leyte’s 2nd District Engineering District based in MacArthur town, received each a sack of rice from Vice Gov. Sandy Javier and his wife, Rep. Karen Lolita Javier. (PHOTO COURTESY)
Employees of Leyte’s 2nd District Engineering District based in MacArthur town, received each a sack of rice from Vice Gov. Sandy Javier and his wife, Rep. Karen Lolita Javier. (PHOTO COURTESY)
TACLOBAN CITY-Leyte Second District Representative Karen Lolita T. Javier, along with Vice Governor Sandy Javier, gave rice incentives to all employees of the Leyte 2nd District Engineering Office (L2DEO) of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
A total of 449 employees, comprising of permanent, job order, and roadside maintenance employees, were delighted to receive one sack of well-milled rice.
This has been the 5th year of the Christmas season that all employees have taken home a sack of rice since Rep. Javier assumed the position as a congresswoman representing Leyte’s second congressional district.
“On behalf of the district office, I am incredibly grateful for the generosity and thoughtfulness of Vice Gov. Sandy and Congresswoman Karen. They have been consistent in sharing their blessings with all of us,” said District Engineer Leo Edward Oppura.
“We are thankful and blessed for these sacks of rice, as the Christmas spirit is embodied in these presents. These presents are well-deserved and an indication of the dedication and hard work of our colleagues, who have served the public with great skill and diligence during the entire year,” he added.
In an interview, Jeremy Macalinao, a roadside maintenance worker, said that he is profoundly grateful for the sack of rice other than any gifts, as this is a big help to the needs of his family to lessen their expenses, especially during this time.
The sacks of rice were distributed on December 22, 2023, spearheaded by District Engineer Oppura and his assistant, Francisco Robin, Jr. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Eastern Visayas Regional Development Council (RDC) has endorsed the extension of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) project delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
RDC vice chair and National Economic and Development Authority regional director Meylene Rosales said in a phone interview Wednesday the region’s highest policy-making body formally endorsed the extension during its meeting on December 6.
“The RDC saw the need to support the extension as the implementation of the project was hobbled by pandemic-related delays. The extension is seen to help improve the agriculture industry in Eastern Visayas, which has seen declines in recent years,” Rosales said.
Started in 2021, SPLIT is supposed to end in 2024, but with the extension, the program is expected to end by 2027.
Earlier, DAR Eastern Visayas regional director Robert Anthony Yu said aside from pandemic restrictions, the slow absorptive capacity of other partner agencies also affected the pace of the project.
Among its partners are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Land Registration Authority, Registry of Deeds, Land Bank of the Philippines, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and Department of the Interior and Local Government.
During the first two years of the SPLIT implementation, the DAR regional office has covered at least 13,705 hectares of farmlands in Eastern Visayas.
These titles have been received by 4,372 agrarian reform beneficiaries tilling the lands included in the department’s target for individual titling.
Under SPLIT, the DAR seeks to validate and distribute 206,221 hectares of farmlands that were earlier awarded to farmers’ groups through collective certificate of land ownership awards (CCLOAs).
Parcelization is subdividing and determining the exact meters and bounds of the areas covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
It also involves the awarding of lands to agrarian reform beneficiaries in a CCLOA, the determination of common-use areas, portions with common service facilities, and the establishment of areas capable of being alienated and disposed of by the government.
Having individual land titles would also allow farmers to access bank financial services.
The project is funded by the World Bank with a total program cost of P24.62 billion, comprising 78 percent loan proceeds amounting to P19.24 billion and 22 percent of Philippine government counterparts amounting to P5.38 billion.
In Eastern Visayas alone, the funding requirement is more than PHP1 billion.
AHEAD OF CHRISTMAS DAY. A head-on collision and a fire incident resulted in the deaths of seven persons and injured five others hit Calbayog and Maasin cities, respectively, ahead of the Christmas Day celebration.
(KABALIKAT CIVICOM 427 CHAPTER/EVA MACALDO)
Ahead of Christmas Day celebration
AHEAD OF CHRISTMAS DAY. A head-on collision and a fire incident resulted in the deaths of seven persons and injured five others hit Calbayog and Maasin cities, respectively, ahead of the Christmas Day celebration. (KABALIKAT CIVICOM 427 CHAPTER/EVA MACALDO)
ORMOC CITY– Separate incidents that snuffed out the lives of seven persons and injured others took place ahead of the Christmas celebration in the region.
In Maasin City, a massive fire burned down 22 houses while one person died on December 23 while a vehicle collision in Calbayog City on the wee hours of Dec.24 resulted in the death of six persons and five others injured.
The road mishap occurred along Barangay Matobato at about 2:50 am after a ‘Chariot,’ an expanded vehicle was hit by a passenger bus.
This resulted in the death of six persons and injured five others, all passengers of the Chariot.
Killed were James Castila, 20;Arnold Juaton, 19; Angeline Velasco, 34, Shiela Mae, 16 and her sibling Paquito, 14, and Justine Arsenal, 20.
The injured were identified as Princess Mae Arsenal, 20; Trixie, 14; Lissa Luaton, 22; Richard Magcasi, 32, and Lara Jane, 15.
All are residents of Purok 6 Brgy. Malopalo.
It was learned that they were on their way home after attending a Christmas party, the local police said.
The local police said that Chariot, driven by Castila, was traversing from Calbayog City going to Brgy. San Policarpo area and upon reaching Brgy. Matobato, he maneuvered his vehicle going to the opposite lane to escape the early warning device placed near a parked damaged backhoe.
However, a passenger bus operated by CIBL Tourist Transport driven by Rowan Gino, 46, a resident of Road 4 Tinga Labac, Batangas City, was in the other lane resulting in the collision.
The impact of the collision resulted in the vehicle passengers to fall from and unkempt in the middle of the road.
Local residents in the area lambasted the unidentified owner of the backhoe that was left in the middle of the road causing the mess.
After the incident that killed six victims another incident followed when the driver failed to see the equipment in the middle of the road causing another collision.
A resident informed Leyte Samar Daily Express that the backhoe was parked in the middle of the road after an oil spilt from its engine.
Responding rescue groups immediately conducted first aid to the victims but the six victims died on the spot and were declared dead on arrival at the Calbayog District Hospital while the six other survivors are still recuperating for their injuries in the same hospital.
The driver of the passenger bus is now detained at the Calbayog city police station and faces appropriate charges.
Meantime, the fire incident in Maasin City also resulted in the death of one fire victim, Felicito Bulan Zamora, 59.
The 12:30 pm fire took place in Brgy. Tagnipa where most of the houses were made of light materials. Fire out was declared at 3:20 pm.
The Maasin city fire office disclosed that faulty electrical wiring at the rotten ceiling of the house owned by Lando Pedrera started the blaze.
The conflagration, which reached up to alert level 3, spread quickly, burning 22 houses, displacing 24 families consisting of 99 individuals.
Fire Trucks from the neighboring municipalities of Southern Leyte such as Macrohon, Padre Burgos, and Tomas Oppus, and from the neighboring municipalities of Leyte like Matalom, and Hilongos joined the local fire in putting off the fire.
Residents of the village and even those coming from other areas conducted a bucket relay, getting water from the nearby sea, to help firemen put out the fire.
The lone casualty of the fire, according to the police, had already gone out of his house but returned to get his money only to be trapped which caused his death.
Damage from the fire was placed at P10 million.
