TACLOBAN CITY – The plan of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to divert the Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark International Airport (CRK) in Pampanga has faced strong opposition from government officials, business leaders, and travellers from the region.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Eastern Visayas aired their concerns after Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade announced during a Senate hearing on Wednesday (August 10) that the three airlines – Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Air Asia – agreed to transfer all Tacloban-Manila flights to CRK located in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
On Wednesday, the regional PCCI chapters drafted a resolution to “reconsider and desist from implementing the full rerouting of all Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark international Airport.”
“The planned rerouting of all Tacloban-Manila flights by the three carriers serving this route to Pampanga is expected to cause grave negative impact on the fragile regional economy and effectively kill the tourism industry’s growth potential of Eastern Visayas,” the business group stated.
The major reasons cited that will hurt the tourism industry are higher airfares, increased land transportation cost, adjustment of airfreight cost, longer travel time, and inconvenience to passengers.
The DOTr initially planned to make Tacloban-Manila flights as pilot for rerouting to curb congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
“If the DOTr really wishes to make a significant immediate impact in minimizing the congestion at Manila International Airport, then it should consider other routes with really high flight volumes in the Visayas such as Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu with more than 50 plus flights per day combined,” the group pointed out.
“Another option is to study the moving of more international flights to Clark instead of domestic flights,” it added.
The PCCI regional chapter urged the DOTr to conduct a consultation with affected stakeholders in the region before announcing or implementing the rerouting scheme.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said the plan, if it pushes through, there will be a setback to the tourism development in the region.
“Remember that after supertyphoon Yolanda, tourism was the first sector to recover and provide jobs to disaster victims. It was the only sector that posted growth in our regional economy,” Tiopes said in a mobile phone interview.
“The rerouting plan will discourage tourists to visit not just Leyte, but other five provinces since Tacloban Airport is the gateway of the region,” she added.
Tiopes wondered why the transportation department chose Tacloban for the pilot rerouting when disaster-stricken communities are “still picking up the pieces” after Yolanda left a trail of destruction.
“It’s better to have their pilot flights in established tourist destinations since people will really go there. The idea of traffic decongestion is good, but not at the expense of our people,” said National Economic and Development Authority Regional Director Bonifacio Uy.
Of the three sectors contributing to the Gross Regional Development Product, the service sector posted the highest acceleration at 6.8 percent, largely driven by tourist influx.
For the first quarter of 2016, tourist arrivals inched up by 14.4 percent to 146,013 from 127,661 a year ago.
The increase in tourist arrivals generated tourist receipts of P1.34 billion, up by 35 percent compared to the first quarter last year.
The Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, one of the country’s busiest, is a gateway to Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar provinces.
In the first quarter of 2016, NEDA reported some 311,944 inbound and outbound passengers at the airport or a 12 percent growth than last year. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)
Business chambers, officials reject transfer of Tacloban- Manila flights to Pampanga
BIR failed to meet collection target for 1st semester of the year
PALO, Leyte – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) here in the region has failed to meet its collection covering the first six months of the year.
From January to June, the regional BIR, comprising of six revenue district offices, has only managed to collect P3.94 billion or a shortfall of 12.78 percent.
For the same period, the tax agency set a collection target of P4.52 billion.
“Since we are highly dependent on withholding taxes from government projects, our collection has decreased this year since there were less post-Yolanda recovery activities compared to 2014 and 2015,” said BIR Eastern Visayas assistant regional director Teodoro Galicia, citing the reason for the shortfall of the collection target for the period.
“Although we missed the target, we are happy to generate nearly half of the P8.67 billion goal for the year,” he added.
Of the total collection for the period, P1.60 billion was earned by Tacloban revenue district office (RDO) in northern Leyte and Biliran; P754.74 million by Ormoc RDO in western Leyte; P587.90 million by Catbalogan RDO in Samar; P342.75 million was generated by Catarman RDO in Northern Samar; P339.14 million by Borongan RDO in Eastern Samar and P316.84 million by Maasin RDO in Southern Leyte.
Among the six RDOs, only Catbalogan office exceeded the target by only 0.63 percent while the rest RDOs posted a deficit ranging from nine percent to more than 17 percent.
The BIR in the region is targeting a P8.67 billion tax collection this year even after it failed to reach the 2015 revenue goals due to impacts of supertyphoon “Yolanda” that struck the region in 2013.
The tax bureau said they are still optimistic to meet the target this year with the recovery of businesses and expansion activities of private establishments.
Of the P8.67 billion annual target, P5.68 billion will be from income tax, P2.17 million from value added tax, P10.72 million from excise taxes, P316.74 million from percentage tax, and P483.58 million other taxes. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
DILG Director-8 Noval out; Sacendoncillo in
TACLOBAN CITY- Pedro Noval Jr. bids goodbye on August 10, 2016 (Wednesday) as the regional director of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for Eastern Visayas after 41 years in government service.
Director Noval, who rose from the ranks, said that his most fulfilling accomplishment is helping the region rise from the devastation of supertyphoon “Yolanda” on November 8, 2013.
To date, nearly 100% of the first batch of projects for repair of municipal and city halls, markets and civic centers has been completed, while more than half of barangay facilities have been completely rebuilt or repaired, with the remaining projects nearly completed.
Likewise, Director Noval assisted then-DILG Secretary Manuel Roxas in the relief and recovery efforts right after the typhoon.
He proudly notes that aside from looking after the rehabilitation of LGU facilities, he helped ensure that damaged office structures of DILG were not neglected.
A mechanical engineer, Noval supervised the rehabilitation of the DILG-8 regional office which houses the training center and Local Governance Resource Center in the second floor, motor pool, records room and supply room as well as construction of wellness center, guardhouse, power generator, dormitory, and the two-story DILG Leyte and DILG Tacloban City offices.
The employees’ dormitory will save the office funding in the long-term by providing field officers and central office staff accommodation instead of having to billet them in hotels.
Director Noval will be succeeded by Director Marivel Sacendoncillo, a native of Villareal, Samar.
Director Sacendoncillo will serve as director of DILG – 8 in concurrent capacity as Executive Director of the DILG Local Government Academy (LGA) to which she has been connected for 28 years. (PR)
Mother and child building now open at the new EVRMC
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health (DOH-8) has opened the new four-storey Mother and Child Building at the new Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) on Monday (August 8).
The government constructed the new facility located in Barangay Cabalawan through a P300 million donation from the Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc.
This is the first building completed at the new regional hospital site in the northern part of the city.
DOH Regional Director Minerva Molon has called on the public to maximize the use of this birthing facility especially those living in Samar provinces.
The 100-bed capacity hospital which has a floor area of 4,715 square meters, formally opened on Monday after 16 months of construction.
“The EVRMC Mother and Child Hospital will be a globally competitive center of excellence in health care delivery that provides highest standards for safe quality care for birthing mothers and healthy newborns and as the leading maternal and newborn care training resource in Region 8 by 2030,” Molon said.
Its outpatient department offers prenatal immunization, preventive care, growth monitoring, program for young parents, family planning, newborn screening, under five clinic, and care for small babies.
In-patient services include normal deliveries, uncomplicated pre-term labor, unang yakap, kangaroo mother care, exclusive breastfeeding, newborn care, human milk bank, and caesarean section.
The hospital also offers ancillary services such as radiology, laboratory, dietetics nutrition, and blood bank.
Part of the EVRMC modernization program is to transfer the entire facility from the city center to a storm surge-safe area in Brgy. Cabalawan. The transfer has started this year and will be completed in 2018.
There is an ongoing construction of a new six-storey hospital and ancillary building in a new site. It has a total floor area of 30,000 square meters with 420-bed service wards and 180-bed private rooms.
The P2.2 billion modernization program is expected to enhance the quality of services of the medical center, improve health outcomes, and achieve equity in access to healthcare in the region. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
Mayor Romualdez: Trees are essential in protecting the environment
TACLOBAN CITY- Planting trees will help increase the public awareness on the importance of trees in protecting our environment. Thus said City Mayor Cristina Gonzales Romualdez as she led a tree planting activity in Barangay Tagpuro, a village located in the northern part of the city where a community-based tree planting program was piloted on Tuesday (August 9). “We don’t just want to plant trees. We also want to increase local awareness why the forests matter so much to us and to the local community,” Romualdez said. “We’re trying to enable local people to carry out similar projects by themselves. This will allow our efforts to have greater impact and make them ultimately sustainable in the long term,” she added.
According to the mayor, similar undertaking will be carried out in other barangays in the city which witnessed what scientists and environmentalists all over the world claimed a climate change-induced typhoon. On November 8, 2013, Tacloban was devastated when it was hit by supertyphoon “Yolanda” considered the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland that resulted to the deaths of more than 2,200 people and destruction of properties of almost P10 billion. “We are promoting tree planting activities in and near the city and it will be a good opportunity for raising people’s awareness on its importance to our environment,” Mayor Romualdez said.
“We will carry out a reforestation program to try and restore degraded areas of the local forests. These will eventually be repopulated with not just trees but also local fauna. We will be working with the local village councils to do this, to include children from the local school,” the mayor added. Around 500 trees of different varieties like mahogany, talisay, bituon and tuog were planted by those who joined the tree planting activity who included other city officials, City Hall workers and those coming from non-government organizations. (JAZMIN BONIFACIO)
Samar Gov. Tan, others undergo drug testing
TACLOBAN CITY- Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan led on Thursday (August 11) officials of the province for a drug test underscoring her cooperation with the anti-drug campaign of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The members of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) of the Philippine National Police took urine samples from the officials who also included Vice Governor Stephen James Tan and the 10 members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
“We should be an exemplar in following the law and must be clean and free from any abuse of illegal drugs,” Board Member Lee Zosa said in a phone interview.
“This is our way of showing our full support on the relentless campaign of President Duterte to stamp out the proliferation of the illegal drugs in the country,” he added.
The result of the drug tests taken from the Samar officials will be known probably by next week.
Asked what would happen if any one of them would be discovered to be positive of using illegal drugs, particularly shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), Zosa could not say what could be its sanction.
According to Zosa, they will first consult with the Civil Service Commission on this matter and what particular law would apply to them.
The board member also said that after them, all heads of the various departments and offices as well the close to 1,000 employees of the provincial government will also be asked to undergo drug test.
“But this will be a surprise drug test,” Zosa said.
It was learned from Zosa that the Thursday drug testing activity was the first time to be ever conducted at the provincial capitol. (JOEY A. GABIETA)