P2-B new diversion road to rise in Ormoc

ORMOC CITY, Leyte, Feb. 1  -- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 4th Leyte district engineering office (DEO) will implement PHP2.06 billion worth of infrastructure projects this year in northwest Leyte.

Among the biggest projects the office will start soon is a diversion road that will link the coastal villages of Naungan and San Juan in this city.

Both communities are close to each other but are separated by marshlands. Reaching one village to the other requires a boat ride or driving 11 kilometers by land. Building a road in between will connect the two villages and cut short the travel distance to only four kilometers.

“Since San Juan serves as boundary to the next town of Merida, the proposed road will also reduce the distance from downtown to nearby town to 20 kilometers from the present 27 kilometers,” said district engineer Lino Francisco Gonzales said on Thursday.

The coastal road will prove useful vehicles going further to Leyte Industrial Development Estate in Isabel 47 kilometers away.

The DPWH has initially released PHP300 million to cover one kilometer of the project. Gonzales assured the project will be included in the department’s multi-year programming until the entire undertaking is completed for PHP2 billion.

Aside from having the six-lane, 30-meter wide road parcellary titled, the field will not observe the tradition of developing from the inner lanes out, but instead will concretize the outer four lanes and place an island in between to prevent encroachment by illegal settlers. (Felix N. Codilla/PNA)

Samar guv hopes tourism heads reshuffle temporary

CATBALOGAN CITY, Jan. 31  -- Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan had expressed hope that the reshuffle of regional tourism officials would only be temporary, saying it was a setback to the region’s tourism industry.

Tan said the deployment of Department of Tourism (DOT) Eastern Visayas director Karina Rosa Tiopes to Zamboanga Peninsula was not good for the sustainability of projects.

“I know that the (DOT) secretary has good intention why she reshuffled the regional directors, but I would like to stress that in Region 8, this is not favorable to us,” Tan added.

Reassigning the top regional official might affect the implementation of the tourism program they had conceptualized in 2017, she said.

“My worry is that this might lead to delays in the implementation of tourism programs and projects because the new regional director will still have to study it and be familiarized with our region,” Tan added.

Among the tourism programs Samar province has lined up for 2018 is the three-day Spark Samar campaign in Metro Manila on March 9 to 11.

The activity aims to promote Samar’s tourist destinations with the Tandaya Trail on the first day, a fashion show highlighting woven mats on the second day, and the campaign for people who have roots in Samar to visit the province, on the last day.

“I believe that locals here in Eastern Visayas have a different attitude and cultural background. I hope that the new director can easily adopt and not be frustrated if some local governments are slow in pushing tourism-related programs and promotion. I hope that the new director would easily adjust,” Tan added.

Tourism officers in Eastern Visayas also shared the same sentiment, saying that a tourism regional chief should be familiar with the place where he/she is assigned to have a better concept and be more effective in the implementation phase.

Tiopes started her work in Zamboanga on Monday. Based on the directive of Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo, her replacement was Nelly Dillera, the DOT regional chief of the Soccsksargen region.

As of this week, the DOT regional office here had no regional director since Dillera was asked to head the Office of Industry Manpower Development at the central office.

Trina Dacuycuy, a senior tourism officer is the officer-in-charge of DOT-Eastern Visayas. (SQM/PNA)

Safe water assured in Leyte amid standoff

TACLOBAN CITY, Jan. 31  -- The Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) has assured consumers of safe water despite the ongoing standoff that has affected its operation in the past two weeks.

LMWD acting general manager Pastor Homeres said there are enough stocks of chlorine and alum to ensure that distributed water is safe to drink and appropriate for other uses.

“It is good that we procured stocks for three months in anticipation of impacts of weather disturbances and climate change,” Homeres told reporters on Tuesday.

The official said the processes of screening, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection had not been affected by the power struggle.

These processes work together to remove the unwanted substances from water supply distributed to nearly 34,000 water consumers in this city and seven nearby towns.

Homeres feared that once all stocks were consumed, they would be unable to replenish the supply as the board of directors picked by Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla moved to freeze the water district bank accounts.

Some members of the governing board backed by Petilla have been the signatories of the account deposited at Land Bank of the Philippines Tacloban branch.

“The most affected aspect of our operation would be the maintenance of water treatment plants,” he added.

Approximately 60,000 cubic meters of potable water are delivered to LMWD service areas daily with the main bulk of supply coming from Dagami and Pastrana towns.

The water district also suspended the collection of payment in town halls as they shut down its online system set up in its office in Nula Tula village here.

The standoff began on Jan. 17 when the new set of board of directors appointed by Tacloban Mayor Cristina Romualdez entered the LMWD office, saying they had the right to govern the office.

Majority of LMWD’s 500 employees, including Homeres, withdrew their support from the officials backed by the governor and recognized the authority of new officers to rule the water district.
Since then, the board of directors appointed by Petilla had been prevented from entering the premises of the water district.

The provincial government-backed officials and 22 employees have set up a temporary office at the Leyte Academic Center.

On Dec. 11, Romualdez appointed the new set of officers for LMWD after the Supreme Court handed down a decision declaring Presidential Decree (PD) 198 unconstitutional.

The decree mandates that a local government that has 75 percent of water consumers of a water district has the authority to manage the agency.

A case elevated to the Supreme Court that declared PD 198 unconstitutional, ruled that a city component that did not vote for provincial officials needed only 51 percent of the total number of water consumers to have the authority to manage the Water District.

The city government said that based on the 2014 LMWD published report, 67.5 percent of the water district’s consumers were in the regional capital.

The mayor said that her decision to appoint the board of directors stemmed from the case of Cebu Mayor Michael Rama, Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) et. al. vs. Home Gilbert Moises.

The provincial government argued that the High Court’s decision on MCWD case was not applicable to LMWD since the latter was created by the provincial government through Provincial Board Resolution No. 52 adopted on February 19, 1975. (SQM/PNA)

Leyte’s MacArthur Park to undergo major facelift

PALO, Leyte, Jan. 31  -- The national shrine here named after the legendary American general Douglas MacArthur will undergo a PHP52 million major facelift.

The rehabilitation of MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park will come at a time as the nation will celebrate the 75th year of the Leyte Gulf Landing anniversary next year.

The PHP52 million for the redevelopment was sourced from the Department of Tourism under the Yolanda Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program for tourism, said Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla on Tuesday.

Rehabilitation works will cover landscaping, construction of view deck and visitor center, and improvement of lights and sound system.

On top of this, the local government of Palo town will also undertake some beautification projects for the historic site.

Petilla added that since the 75th Leyte Landing commemoration would be a milestone year, the national government would lead the preparation of the program and not the provincial government.

Aside from the rehabilitation of the historic landmark, the local government will also improve the adjacent property - the Government
Center - where most regional offices of the government agencies are located. The improvement will include the installation of solar-powered streetlights.

“Although our source of electricity is clean because its’ geothermal, we want to use solar power to promote and support and I hope eventually many people will use it to reduce power cost,” Petilla said.

On Oct. 20, 1944, MacArthur, as the head of the largest US fleet of transport and warships, and accompanied by Commonwealth President Sergio Osmeña and General Carlos P. Romulo, landed at Red Beach of this town to reclaim the Philippines from the Japanese.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf is remembered as the largest naval battle ever fought in modern history.

It was fought in four separate engagements near the islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon from October 23 to 26 in 1944. (RTA/PNA)

Revalidation of conflict-stricken Samar areas sought

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar, Jan. 30  -- Top leaders in Samar Island were urged to reassess the areas to be included in the implementation of road for peace projects by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPPAP).

The reassessment will help poor communities get a bigger share of budget for OPPAP-funded projects intended to end decades of insurgency, according to Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan-de los Santos in an interview Monday.

The provincial governments of Northern Samar and Eastern Samar passed resolutions for the reassessment of areas covered by the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana).

The roads and bridges projects are the national government's convergence program that extends development interventions to isolated, hard-to-reach and conflict-stricken communities, ensuring that they are not left behind.

Only 10 local government units in Eastern Visayas are currently included in the list of Pamana areas.

These are San Jose de Buan and Matuguinao in Samar province, Silvino lobos, Las Navas, Catubig, Lope de Vega, San Roque and Mondragon in Northern Samar; Maslog and Jipapad in Eastern Samar.

In the resolution of Eastern Samar province, they want to include Borongan City, Arteche, Oras, Dolores, Can-avid, San Julian, Hernani, Llorente, and General Macarthur towns.

Last year, Samar Island got a meager budget in the implementation of Pamana with only PHP447 million funding from the PHP20 billion budget in 2016.

The insurgency-free declaration in some areas in Samar by the military prompted the government to cut funding for the three Samar provinces despite the presence of New People’s Army in some villages, according to Tan, the chairperson of the Eastern Visayas Regional Peace and Order Council.

“I am really sensitive in the declaration of insurgency-free. Yes, I know that there are areas that are free from insurgency, but there are also communities where presence of rebels is still felt,” Tan explained.

“I always raise this issue during my discussion with top officials of the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police not to sugar coat the situation just because of the directives from the higher-ups. I always tell them to assess the real situation on the ground before issuing such declaration,” she added.

Pamana Samar Area Manager Emilda Bonifacio asked local government units in Samar province to hasten the submission of their new recommended areas as she confirmed that insurgency-free status declarations have lowered allocations for such projects.

“I think this has to be revalidated if the information is true. It would be better if we will base our information from the ground than base it from the central office,” Bonifacio said.

She added that aside from insurgency problem, their agency was also looking to include poverty as basis for an area to be listed as recipient. (RTA/PNA)