BUDDING LITERARY WRITERS. The provincial government of Northern Samar has come up with a writers workshop to help revive the interest of the young generations of the province rich culture and history thru poems and poetry.
(NORTHERN SAMAR PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE)
Through poetry and books
BUDDING LITERARY WRITERS. The provincial government of Northern Samar has come up with a writers workshop to help revive the interest of the young generations of the province rich culture and history thru poems and poetry. (NORTHERN SAMAR PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE)
TACLOBAN CITY – In its efforts to preserve its rich literary and cultural heritage, the provincial government of Northern Samar initiated a workshop attended by aspiring literary writers.
The five-day writing workshop, concluding on Tuesday (June 11), was attended by some of Eastern Visayas’ renowned literary writers.
Josiah Rei Echano, whose office, the provincial disaster risk reduction management office, is one of the main organizers of the event, said that the workshop aims to revive the interest of young Nortehanons in the rich culture and heritage of their province through poems, poetry, and book writing.
“We don’t want to lose the distinct voice of our culture and tradition. By immortalizing it in the semantics and literary devices of literature through these writing workshops, the next generations will never forget who they really are. They can march forward with pride as one people,” he said on Sunday (June 9).
Echano added: “If we lose our culture, the memory of our race, heritage, and our people will also be annihilated as if we have not existed.”
Among the invited literary artists from the region were Merlie Alunan, professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines-Tacloban and multiple Carlos Palanca Memorial awardee; Kristian Cordero, TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) awardee; Jerry Gracio, a multi-awardee writer and former commissioner of the Commission of Filipino Language; and literature scholar Michael Carlo Villas of the Visayas State University in Baybay City.
The workshop, attended by 40 individuals across the province, is part of the month-long celebration of the founding anniversary of Northern Samar, which is marked on June 19.
The celebration is known as the “Ibabao Festival,” signifying the ancient name of the province, the site of one of the first revolts by the natives during the Spanish period.
The event, which is mainly supported by Governor Edwin Ongchuan, is also in coordination with the University of Eastern Philippines, the only government-run university in the province, based in its capital, Catarman. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
TACLOBAN CITY– DPWH Tacloban District Engineering Office is pleased to inform the public about the completion of the Shore Protection Project at Old Road Sagkahan. This was an initiative taken into action in order to provide an enhanced protection around the coastal area against the threat of water-related disasters. Thus, this ensures the safety of the people living nearby.
The project was made possible through the budget allocated amounting P50 million. that was taken under the Appropriation Act of 2023. It involves the installation of various protective measures along the shoreline, including the placement of reinforced concrete pipe culverts (RCPC) to improve drainage and manage stormwater flow effectively.
The project area extends from the Tacloban-Baybay-South Road to the Astrodome, incorporating key features such as an access road, a basketball court, and the Yolanda Marker. The use of existing revetment and new concrete pipes, along with slope protection, are central to the plan, ensuring long-term stability and resilience of the shoreline.
“Our investment in infrastructure and protection is a demonstration of commitment to resilience and preparedness in the face of natural calamities.” OIC District Engineer Rebecca G. Yuse said in a statement.
The successful completion of the Shore Protection Project at Old Road Sagkahan is one of the testaments that DPWH Tacloban City District Engineering Office continues to provide high-quality and reliable infrastructure that would impose great benefits to the different areas of the City. (PR)
ARTECHE, Eastern Samar– The establishment of Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) – Arteche Campus, this town has provided significant opportunities for less fortunate parents to send their children to college, helping them secure better job prospects after graduation.
“Education should not only be free but must also be accessible, especially to less fortunate families,” said Arteche Mayor Roland Boie Evardone during the groundbreaking ceremony of two additional facilities at the ESSU-Arteche campus on Saturday (June 8).
ESSU-Arteche was established in 2018 after the local government presented the need for an extension campus to the Board of Regents of ESSU and the Commission on Higher Education.
ESSU-Arteche is the only state university in the municipality, about 120 kms away from the provincial capital of Borongan City.
During the program, Mayor Evardone shared that they fought hard for the establishment of the extension campus after a college student from his town committed suicide in 2016. The student’s parents had advised him to delay his enrollment due to financial difficulties.
Although college education at state universities is already free, students still need funds for necessities like boarding, transportation, food, and school projects.
Jennifer Baje, a solo parent with two children studying at ESSU-Arteche, shared, “This really helps me in sending my children to college because we no longer need to allocate funds for their boarding house.”
Baje, who has no sufficient income, finds it a struggle, making the presence of a tertiary institution in their town a significant help to her family.
ESSU-Arteche offers courses in Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management, Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, Bachelor in Elementary Education, and Bachelor in Secondary Education.
This year, the school produced 53 graduates who successfully passed the licensure examination for teachers, with 25 graduates in Secondary Education and 28 in Elementary Education.
The number of enrollees has grown from 180 in its initial year to more than 800 last year, with expectations to surpass 1,000 enrollees this year, according to ESSU-Arteche administrator Engr. Arnaldo Villalon.
This growth underscores the need for more classrooms to provide a conducive learning environment, with at least 13 additional classrooms needed this school year.
On Saturday, a groundbreaking ceremony for two additional facilities was held, led by 4Ps party-list Rep. and House Minority Floor Leader Marcelino Libanan.
The new facilities include a two-storey academic building worth P21 million that can accommodate 400 students and a two-storey multipurpose building worth P5 million, which will feature a student lounge. These projects are targeted to be completed within four months.
“This facility will provide greater opportunities to ESSU students. By providing them with modern facilities and equipment, we help improve our education system and produce competitive graduates,” Rep. Libanan in his message.
The party-list solon assured the ESSU administration that he will continue to work to secure government funding for additional facilities to ensure the production of quality graduates. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
PARADE. About six contingents coming from different towns and cities in Leyte participated this year’s ‘Kananga Kaanyag Festival’ held on Sunday (June 9). (Photo Courtesy)
PARADE. About six contingents coming from different towns and cities in Leyte participated this year’s ‘Kananga Kaanyag Festival’ held on Sunday (June 9). (Photo Courtesy)
KANANGA, Leyte– Kananga District I’s Kanangahanong Mattahom and Hiraite Festival of the municipality of Leyte were declared champions in the school and open categories, respectively, at this year’s ‘Kananga Kaanyag Festival’s grand finale ritual showdown held on Sunday(June 9), this town.
This year’s festival featured six competing contingents: three from school-based groups in Kananga and three from the open category, with participants from neighboring towns and cities.
Special awards were also given to the participating contingents.
Among these special awards include the best float given to the Kanangahanong Mattahom of Kananga District I; most disciplined contingent to Maanyagong Mananayaw of Kananga District II; best in musical score and festival costume and street dancing, Kanangahanong Mattahom; and best in visual presentation, Pundok Ugmokanon of Ormoc City, among others.
Kananga Mayor Manuel Vincente Torres expressed his elation over the new developments in their festival, which, in its second year, included the addition of an open category allowing cities and municipalities participating.
The Kananga Kaanyag Festival itself has been invited to join the Sinulog Festival in Cebu City. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
TACLOBAN CITY– Beloved Filipino Redemptorist priest Amado Picardo, who was known for his anti-corruption and anti-rights abuses initiatives in the country, passed away, his religious order announced on May 29. He was 69.
Picardal’s passing was announced by Father Edilberto Cepe, the provincial superior of the Redemptorist Province of Cebu.
“Fr. Picx was a brilliant and courageous missionary. He was a passionate advocate of peace and social justice and a professor of theology who has touched and transformed the lives of many. May the light and joy that he left this world radiate through us as we continue to become beacons of truth and social transformation,” Cepe wrote on their official Facebook page.
Picardal, who lived a hermit life following his retirement, died on the same day he was celebrating his 47th anniversary of his “religious profession of the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience as a Redemptorist.”
He was found lifeless near the retreat house garden, just a few steps away from his hermitage in the mountain of Busay, overlooking the Cebu City metropolis at around 1 pm of May 29.
AI-aficionado, digital spiritual guru
Days before his death, Picardal expressed his newfound joy and enthusiasm in experimenting with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the church ministry.
He even took time to share AI-generated Gospel reflections in his study of the Bible on social media, and urged the public and other Church workers to try AI.
In the last interview with this writer on May 15, Picardal, who was the former executive secretary of Basic Ecclesial Communities under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, urged the faithful to “learn to enjoy the benefits it brings but also be aware of the risks and dangers it brings.”
“AI can help the priest or deacon in preparing his homily. AI chatbot can come up with commentaries and reflections on the readings of the Mass. It can also suggest ideas or themes that may focus on,” Picardal suggested in his May 16 post online.
Despite his old age, Picardal continued to write spiritual and Gospel-related works for his personal blogsite and the CBCP bi-monthly news publication called The Monitor, along with entertaining media interviews online.
Tributes, social contributions
New-York based Human Rights Watch was generous in recollecting the contributions of Picardal in promoting human rights in the Philippines since the Martial Law period of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr., up to the “bloody drug war” of then firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Picardal helped activists, labor leaders, Indigenous peoples, and other victims of rights abuses for decades. During the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship, he was arrested, jailed, and tortured for his work. Aside from being a prolific writer, blogger, columnist, and poet (he posted a poem online hours before his death), Picardal also walked, ran, and biked across the Philippines and Europe to bring attention to human rights,” wrote former Filipino journalist and now HRW senior researcher Carlos Conde on May 30.
CBCP’s Episcopal Commission of Basic Ecclesial Communities also expressed sadness over Picardal’s passing.
“We remember him not only for his leadership but also for his unwavering faith and passion for social justice. May his spirit continue to inspire us to build a more just and loving world,” the commission said in a statement.
Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar also recalled the life and works of Picardal in a special tribute for his beloved Redemptorist missionary brother.
“Clearly, he took his missionary vocation very seriously. He lived up to the challenges of a highly committed Redemptorist, ready to take on any tasks no matter how difficult. In his spare time, he wrote poetry and shared these with me,” Gaspar wrote in his tribute article on May 29 for Mindanews publication.
Early life
Father Amado Picardal, or popularly known as Fr. Picx, was born on October 6,1954 in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte.
In August 1989, Picardal began his higher studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He joined the Pax Christi – a Catholic Peace movement – in 1990.
In 1991, after he got his licentiate in theology, Picardal went to Rome to finish his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
From May 1995 to March 2011, Picardal returned to Davao, as professor and dean of academic studies at the St. Alphonsus’ Theologate (later renamed St. Alphonsus’ Theological & Mission Institute).
In 2000, he rode his bicycle for peace advocacy across the country (from Davao to Ilocos Norte) covering 2,083 km. (RONALD O. REYES)
TACLOBAN CITY – A lay minister who also served as the municipal agriculturist officer of Leyte town, Leyte province, was shot to death by a lone assailant hours after he served in a mass on Sunday (June 9).
The police have yet to determine the identity of the suspect and the motive behind the killing of Marcelino Combate, 52.
An initial report from the Leyte provincial police office disclosed that the victim was driving his motorcycle when he was waylaid by the lone suspect at Sitio Purok Crossing, Barangay Cabungahan, Villaba town, at about 12:10 pm.
The suspect, using a .45 caliber pistol, shot Combate several times, hitting different parts of his body and resulting in his instant death, the police said.
Eight empty bullet casings were recovered on the crime scene by the members of the scene of the crime operatives.
The suspect immediately fled on foot towards a forested area near the crime scene, taking with him the victim’s sling bag containing his wallet, cellphone, and sacramental bread.
According to the report, prior to the incident, Combate held a mass in the villages of Baga-bao and Mataloto, both in Leyte town.
He was heading towards Leyte, Leyte using the by-pass road located in Brgy. Cabungahan, Villaba when the incident took place.
The local police in Villaba, led by police chief Major Edwin Tolibas, are still conducting their investigation into Combate’s killing.
Leyte police director, Colonel Dionisio Apas Jr., has dispatched a criminal investigation team to assist the Villaba police in this case.
“As the officer-in-charge of the Leyte Police Provincial Office, I am appealing to the public for any information that may aid in the apprehension of the suspect,” he said in a statement.
“Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact the Villaba Municipal Police Station or submit tips anonymously through the hotline numbers of our municipal police stations,” he added.
The Inquirer reached for comment Leyte Mayor James Arnold Ysidoro for his reaction on the death of the victim but has yet to respond as of this press time.
