Catbalogan mayor’s speech highlights dev’t plans

CATBALOGAN CITY, Aug. 2 (PNA) -- The city government here has bared development plans during the mayor’s fourth State of the City Address (SOCA) delivered on Monday.

Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan informed the public of new investments - Prince Warehouse in Canlapwas village and SM Savemore near the city’s public market.

In terms of housing, the construction of relocation site will start this year as two lot owners signed a partnership agreement.

At the start of her speech, the lady mayor thanked the Duterte administration for including Catbalogan Airport upgrading as priority project for Samar province.

Mayor Tan picked Silanga as a venue of her SOCA since the village is the host of the soon-to-rise mini-hospital.

“Delivering our speech in a place outside the city center is part of my advocacy for inclusive, participative, transparent and empowering government,” she said.

Pag-ibig Fund President and Chief Executive Officer Darlene Marie B. Berberabe listened to the mayor’s speech. She later joined the official in the ground breaking ceremony of housing project in Payao village.

She also provided updates on the Sky City Mega Project - a 440-hectare township where the local government offices will be relocated along with commercial, residential and educational components - is the city government’s flagship project.

The Department Education city division will build their office at the new township as well as the Eastern Visayas Regional Science High school building.

San Miguel Corp. also signified its interest to construct its regional office at the Sky City.

The mayor's SOCA ended with a people's caravan in the villages of San Andres, Bunu-anan, Mercedes, and Rama Sierra. Among the services offered are medical, dental seedlings distribution, civil registration, haircut, and massage.

Witnessing the SOCA are residents, teachers and staff of Silanga Elementray School, national offices head, department heads of the city government, village officials, the city council led by Vice Mayor Sherwin Gabon. (PNA)
LAP/SQM/LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/EGR

Leyte governor welcomes 'narco' mayor’s surrender

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 2 (PNA) -- The Leyte provincial government has welcomed the move of Albuera town Mayor Rolando Espinosa, accused of involvement in illegal drugs trade, to surrender to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said that with the mayor under police custody, the official will have a chance to explain his alleged links to illegal drugs.

“This is a welcome development to the anti-drug campaign of the President. This will also encourage other drug personalities in the province to surrender,” Petilla said.

Espinosa, who ran as independent candidate in the May 2016 elections, is not a political ally of the governor, but the former responded to the invitation of Petilla to join the mass oath taking on June 26 in Palo town.

“That was the first time that I talked to him, but we only discussed about developments in the province,” he recalled.

Espinosa is new in politics, but he enjoyed a landslide victory in the mayoralty race, obtaining 12,242 votes. He defeated incumbent Ramon Dela Cerna and Vice Mayor Norman Mesina, who got 5,065 and 2,847 votes, respectively.

On Monday night, Malacañang asked the mayor and his son, Rolando Espinosa, Jr. or known as “Kerwin” to surrender within 24 hours or face the “shoot on sight” consequence.

“I was not really shocked or surprised to hear the call to surrender because I heard reports that he’s allegedly involved in illegal drugs,” Petilla said.

The mayor surrendered to the PNP general headquarters Tuesday morning, but his son is still at large.

 The younger Espinosa is reportedly out of the country.

Albuera, a third class town in Leyte province is about 123 kilometers northwest from Tacloban, the regional capital. Its more than 40,000 population is distributed in 16 villages. (PNA)

PGL/SARWELL Q. MENIANO

Concerns raised over declining share of farming sector in Eastern Visayas’ economy

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 1 (PNA) –- The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has expressed concern over the declining share of the farming and fishery sector in the economy of Eastern Visayas, even though it remains a source of income for a majority of the region’s population.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the agriculture hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF) sector had a share of 16.7 percent in the 2015 Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP).

Of the PHP152.21 billion generated from various economic activities last year, AHFF only contributed PHP25.41 billion to the total output.

“Natural threats, such as the effects of El Niño and the impact of typhoon Nona, have aggravated the already fragile agricultural production of the region after the 2013 super typhoon Yolanda,” said NEDA Regional Director Bonifacio Uy.

The farming sector’s share in the regional economy also declined from 20.1 percent in 2013 to 18 percent in 2014, according to the PSA.

Two sectors remained the top contributor to the 2015 GRDP – services (41.9 percent) and industry (41.4 percent).

However, Eastern Visayas is still a predominantly agricultural region, with at least 723,048 hectares of the region’s total land area of 2.32 million hectares devoted to farming.

The region had 721,724 farmers as of 2014, according to the Department of Agriculture. Presuming that each farmer supports a family of five, about 3.6 million of the more than 4 million population in the region depends on AHFF.

“A lot of people here are supported by the agricultural sector. Productivity must be improved because there is the potential to generate more income,” Uy said.

He also noted the worldwide trend that less young people are interested in venturing into farm-related activities.

For instance, in Leyte, the 2013 National Farmers Registry System (NFRS) revealed that 52 percent of farmers in the province are 50 years and above, while 25 percent of the farming workforce are 40 to 49 years old.

Farmers within the 30 to 39 age bracket account for 17 percent of farm owners and workers. Those in the age of 20 to 29 are only 6 percent, while those aged 20 and younger cover less than 1 percent of the workforce.

“There is a general observation that our young people see more income opportunities in other sectors. That is why our state universities and colleges are encouraging more students to enrol in agriculture courses by offering scholarships,” Uy added.

The NEDA official however said he is optimistic about the future of agricultural development, given the commitment and budget support of the new administration and local government units. (PNA)

LAP/CVL/SARWELL Q. MENIANO

Better banking fuels economic growth in Eastern Visayas - NEDA

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 1 (PNA) –- The government tagged banking as one of the growth drivers in the 2015 economy of poverty-stricken Eastern Visayas region.

“The financial intermediation subsector increased by 1.5 percentage points from the previous year’s growth. We highlight the positive performance of the banking sector in particular,” said NEDA Regional Director Bonifacio Uy.

Financial intermediation falls under the services sector, one of the three sectors of the Gross Regional Domestic Product. In 2015, services grew by 6.8 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Overall, the region’s economy rebounded from 2.4 percent decline in 2014 to 3.9 percent growth last year.

Bank deposits in Eastern Visayas grew by 20.3 percent to PHP85.06 billion in 2015, showing a sustained economic recovery from the devastation of the 2013 super typhoon Yolanda.

The region’s deposit portfolio managed to maintain its annual growth rate in the past three years despite impacts of the monster typhoon that worsened the region’s poverty incidence in 2014.

“Multiplier effects of government spending for rehabilitation as well as increased savings and volume of remittances from international non-government organizations,” Uy added.

Loan portfolio also increased by 7.8 percent to PHP19.9 billion on the back of business expansion and increased consumer loans, which could be associated to the reconstruction activities in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda.

Number of banks increased to 196 in 2014 from 181 in the previous year. All provinces also posted significant growth in both accounts and deposits. (PNA)
LAP/SARWELL Q. MENIANO

Leyte bizmen sends wish list to Malacañang

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 1 (PNA) -- The Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry is seeking assistance from Malacañang for the expansion of the Leyte Industrial Development Estate (LIDE), establishment of economic zone in this city, and more support to tourism development.

Oliver Cam, one of the officers of LCCI said he presented the proposal to Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Diño during the latter's visit to the province last week.

“In line with the government’s thrust of countryside industrial and agricultural development, especially in our region, where we are primary agricultural and fishery dependent, we are really pushing for several key developments,” Cam said.

On the expansion of LIDE, the chamber hopes to bring in more “inclusive types” of industry.

“Right now the existing industry there is the copper smelting plant, which their effect on the province is not inclusive simply because they import everything they export it all out,” Cam said.

Although the smelting plant has good impact to labor and its surrounding areas, Cam said what the chamber wants is to convince more industry to come in and establish operation in LIDE to generate more jobs "not only for Leyte residents, but also for Samar people."

LIDE is a 425 hectare special economic zone located in Isabel, Leyte, which was established in 1978 thru Letter of Instruction 962.

It is the home of two major industries - Philippine Associated Smelting & Refining Corp and the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp.

Meanwhile, the establishment of economic zone in the northern part of Tacloban is a long-term solution that will provide great impact to more than 80,000 city dwellers, according to LCCI.

The northern part of the city has been tagged as permanent relocation sites for families of supertyphoon Yolanda survivors in danger zones.

The National Housing Authority, along with private donors, are building 16,000 housing units in the northern part of the city.

“The absence of livelihood is one of the challenges why it is hard to move these people to that area. 

There is no job in the north, but only houses. If you are moving people, you should not only focus on housing, but on holistic approach. That is why we are really pushing for the establishments of economic zone in that area,” Cam said.

“These are all medium to long term projects that we are looking at, but this will have a great and long lasting impact to the region if we are able to diversify this type of infrastructure, in fact more resilient to our economy,” he added.

LCCI is also pushing for support on the region's tourism industry that was able to recover immediately after the devastation of supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.

He, however said funding for the proposed major tourism rehabilitation program remains a problem.

DOT Eastern Visayas reported that after the supertyphoon, tourism industry turned out to be the region's most resilient industry, posting positive tourist arrival.

From 731,000 in 2013, tourist arrival in 2014 reached 964,000 or a 31.9 percent increase. In 2015, the region reached a million mark with 1.099 million tourist arrival with a total PHP9.4 billion tourist receipt.

“That is why we are really struggling with our tourism effort because our office of tourism here is not given the budget. They just become creative in trying to address the needs of our tourism industry here in the region,” the chamber official added. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/ROEL T. AMAZONA/EGR