Leyte board members asked to prioritize anti-poverty legislation

TACLOBAN CITY, July 5 (PNA) -- The Leyte provincial government asked its lawmakers to prioritize anti-poverty measures in the next three years as the province works towards total recovery after super typhoon Yolanda struck nearly three years ago.

Speaking before old and new provincial board members during its first regular session in the current term, Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla urged lawmakers to sustain cooperation showed in the past three years.

“The main priority is to fight poverty because more people have become poor after the super typhoon. 

That’s the biggest damage Yolanda had done to our province and the region,” Petilla said.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that poverty incidence in Leyte has increased from 40.2 percent in 2012 to 46.7 percent in the first half of 2015. The province is the 17th poorest of the 81 provinces in the country.

Its region, Eastern Visayas is the country’s poorest in the first semester of last year with 47.3 percent or nearly half of the population were considered poor.

“After Yolanda, we have made significant progress especially on agriculture, but we have to be economically competitive. Make Leyte a very progressive province. Give Leyte a bright future ahead of it,” Petilla told board members.

The composition of the provincial board is a mix of new and old officials. In the first district are Gina Merilo and Ranulfo Abellanosa. The second district is represented by Nicollo Villasin and former vice governor and congresswoman Trinidad Apostol .

Former town Mayors Alan Ang and Maria Corazon Remandaban represent the third district. In the fourth district, board members are Mesias Arevalo and Manuel Vicente Torres in the fourth district.

Same faces represent the fifth district - Florante Cayunda and Emmanuel Gasis.

Association of Barangay (village) Chairman President Edwin Faller, who just won as town councilor of Hilongos was replaced by Noli Caña as an ex-officio member of the provincial board. He will serve until the barangay elections in October.

During the session, new members Apostol, Remandaban, Torres and Caña delivered their inaugural speech, expressing support to provincial government priorities. (PNA)

BNB/SARWELL Q. MENIANO