Some 2,000 people attended the 100th day gathering for remembrance to scores of victims of the strongest-ever Yolanda typhoon that hit Tacloban and other areas of Eastern Visayas, November 8, 2013. They felt so elated by the inspiring message of Mayor Alfred Romualdez at the Tacloban astrodome, Sunday the 9th day of February 2014.
The mayor pledged to create a “better Tacloban,” now effectively undergoing massive rehabilitation efforts. He revealed that he has come up with a master plan to make this happen.
While he revealed that vast local resources have been and will be employed to realize the “better Tacloban” objective, he expressed optimism that the national government will come up with its share to make this happen.
The occasion was attended by evacuees, other typhoon victims and a host of humanitarian groups of other nations who have been part of the rehabilitation activities. These groups have expressed their desire to continue helping Tacloban as articulated by one speaker from the United Nations.
All hands are on deck for the rebuilding activities, but Taclobanons, the immediate beneficiaries should not simply watch with folded arms and does nothing but should actively join in the activities.
Mayor Alfred inspires Tacloban “Yolanda” victims
Grateful heart
From the fullness of one’s heart the mouth speaks, says a proverb in the Holy Bible, a precept repeatedly enunciated in the pulpit by homilists and repeatedly heard in retreats and recollections. This is a dictum that is not simply taken as bible truth, but an experience that cannot be naysaid by human experience. The lips utters what wells from within one’s innermost thoughts and deepest emotion.
In the manifold crises that humans encounter day by day, one’s resilience and endurance are put to test. Patience is another virtue that is stretched to its limit. Prudence and determination are likewise weighed in the balance. Though these qualities of a person said to be tough and feisty are determinants in his survival, there is one attribute that should not be discounted, that is his gratefulness.
No man is an island, another maxim states. Just as it was in the recent situation in Leyte and Samar islands battered by supertyphoon Yolanda on November 8 last year, the survivors ably stood up and endeavoured to move on as a matter of human instinct in defying death. They struggle to overcome the tribulations that beset them following a worst encounter with nature. Such sweet conquest would not have been possible sans the help of other persons.
Here in this turf, international humanitarian groups primarily the United Nations through its commissions and funds, did not waste time to extend help to the survivors, including the government. The UN bodies were adeptly assisted by other private typhoon emergency response groups. There are those who did their relief operations distinctly, such as the church-based organizations. Cash donations and relief goods flowed where they are and were of course delivered.
The contributions of private individuals and civic groups in the country and abroad, in cash or in kind, regardless of quantity are likewise worth a million thanks from those who directly and even indirectly benefitted from these help. Foundations and societies, like the Child Fund International, are also deserving for the effort in conducting psycho-social anti-trauma and stress debriefing sessions on survivors, including children of school age in and out-of-school.
Medical teams are equally commendable. Religious institutions, such as the local Roman Catholic Church, which conduct prayer and spiritual counselling sessions with the survivors, are praiseworthy, as well. They supply the most important factor that make a survivor capable of recovering fast – faith in their abilities and trust in their Supreme Creator, God the Father, or any other religious divinity their venerate.
Truly, above all these, though, is one unseen heavenly might on whom all good things rest and who deserves the gratitude of an appreciative soul – God Almighty. If there is one being who should be thanked more than any of the persons, institutions and groups who have extended help to the labouring fighter it is God, the Almighty, the ultimate source of all help and strength.
Cash-for-work programs to be implemented by the DSWD in Yolanda-hit Eastern Visayas areas
TACLOBAN CITY- The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will initiate cash-for-work programs intended to help victims of supertyphoon Yolanda.
This was revealed by Nestor Ramos, DSWD regional director, who said that the cash-for-work programs is part of the government’s rehabilitation effort, over three months after Yolanda pummeled the region on November 8,2013.
The DSWD will enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with various local government units, areas hit by Yolanda, to implement the cash-for-work programs, Ramos said.
Under the agreement, the LGUs would implement the program with the DSWD giving the funding.
Those who will benefit the cash programs would receive their salaries based on the current wage standard in the region. At present, a worker in the region is entitled to receive P260 pay a day.
“We have proposed to the LGUs various kinds of cash-for-work such as cash-for-repair of house, cash-for- repair of boat, cash-for collecting debris and other similar scheme,” Ramos told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Ramos disclosed that the DSWD would create a monitoring team whose main duty and responsibility is to monitor the developments of the cash-for-work programs to be implemented after their relief distribution would end next month.
The DSWD official also encourages the public to do their own monitoring and report to their office if they believe the program is not being implemented according to its purpose.
“The people have the bigger responsibility on the implementation of these cash-for-work programs because the money which will be used is not just come from the government but from the taxpayers, “Ramos said.
The giving of relief items by the DSWD would end on March 31 though so-called “vulnerable sectors” would continue to receive them.
The implementation of the cash-for-work programs would help the families that would no longer eligible to receive the relief goods.
Ramos said that the provinces of Biliran, Eastern Samar, Samar and Tacloban City were the identified areas under the cash-for-work programs of the department.
Ramos also said that the World Food Program (WFP) had identified Eastern Samar as the main beneficiary for their cash-for-work program which will focus more on the agricultural side.
The WFP and other food and agriculture organizations are gearing up for a medium- to long-term recovery intervention by supporting livelihoods through cash-for-work and other livelihood opportunities such as vegetable, pig and poultry farming in the target affected areas.
By: RYAN GABRIEL LLOSAR ARCENAS
Negros-based group donates boats to fishermen in Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY- About 50 fishing boats made of fiber glass under the program Peter Project 2 of the Negrense Volunteers for Change a non-profit organization from Negros province were turned over to fishermen residents of Barangays 88, 89 and 90 of this city.
Mellie Kilayko, president of NVC, explained that their project is only intended for residents of Negros who wanted to become fishermen but after the devastation of typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas region which badly hit the fishing sector, they extended the project to Yolanda affected provinces in the three regions in the Visayas like in Tacloban City.
A total of 1,600 fiberglass fishing boats is planned by the group to be distributed to affected fishermen in the identified areas in Yolanda-hit areas in the Visayas.
Here in Eastern Visayas, fishermen from Tacloban and Ormoc cities and the towns of Dulag and Javier in Leyte and some parts of Samar are to be given their boats, Kilayko said.
He said that they would return next month to give fishing boats to those who were not able to receive during their visit here last week.
Kilayko also explained that using fiberglass as material for making fishing boat would help save the environment as trees would not be cut to build one fishing boat.
Boats made of fiber glass are more efficient than wooden boats when it comes to maintenance and fuel use, he added.
Tacloban City Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin said that it is better to give the survivors fishing boats than give them food to eat.
The fishing boat gives new hope to every fisherman and will not only provide food for their respective families but also for the entire community, added Yaokasin.
By: ROEL T.AMAZONA
PNP to hire more cops this year
CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, Palo,Leyte- As part of the modernization program of the Philippine National Police, the PO1 Recruitment Program for this year is to be implemented.
For this year, about 28,827 would be hired by the PNP under this program distributed as 13,000 for uniformed personnel regular quota; 6,000 uniformed attrition (proposed); 2,358 uniformed unfilled (2013 attrition) and 7,469 non-uniformed personnel.
For the region’s quota allocation, processing and date of oath-taking will be disseminated as soon as this Office will be furnished with a copy of the Letter of Instruction (LOI).
Police Regional Office 8 under the leadership of Police Regional Director Chief Superintendent Henry Losañes, has activated its screening committees that will process the mandatory minimum requirement and other documents submitted by the applicants.
The following are the general qualifications for appointment in the police service: Filipino citizen; with good moral character; passed the psychiatric/psychological, drug and physical tests to be administered by the PNP;possess a formal baccalaureate degree from a recognized learning institution; eligible in accordance with the standards set by the commission which are NAPOLCOM PNP Entrance, RA 6506 (Licensed Criminologist) RA 1080 (Bar and Board Examinations), PD 907 (Honor Graduate), or CSC Professional; not have been dishonorably discharged from military employment or dismissed for cause from any civilian position in the government; have no pending criminal case in any court, including at the Office of the Ombudsman or administrative case if he/she is already an employee of the government; not have been convicted by final judgment of an offense or crime involving moral turpitude; at least 1.62m in height for males and 1.57m in height for females and
weigh not more or less than 5kg from the standard weight corresponding to his/her weight, age and sex; and must not be less than 21 nor more than 30 years of age. (PR)
Lesson learned from Yolanda: DENR to plant more trees as natural barriers
TACLOBAN CITY- In order to protect the communities against the devastating effects of future storms, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is targeting 380 kilometers of coastline for the restoration of mangrove and beach forest in Eastern Visayas which was ravaged by super typhoon Yolanda.
In an interview, DENR-8 regional information officer Purificacion Daloos said that the tragedy caused by Yolanda call attention to the need to revive the region’s damaged coastal forests to make its coastlines less vulnerable to extreme weather events.
The DENR started in 2014 its massive tree-planting activity under the government’s National Greening Program (NGP) in the coastal areas in the provinces of Eastern Samar, Samar and Leyte including the city of Tacloban in order to minimize the impact of storm surges, flooding and calamities following Yolanda’s devastation.
Daloos said that the DENR is looking at the reversion of abandoned government-leased ponds to mangroves in order to boost coastal protection, food resources and livelihood opportunities for coastal communities.
She said that the implementation of NGP in the region have been “reconfigured” to give more priority to “coastal intervention” over reforestation in upland communities.
Daloos added that the DENR have allocated around P347 million for the restoration of mangrove and natural beach forest in coastal areas devastated by Yolanda.
“The massive coastal rehabilitation program shall cover worst-hit areas in Region eight particularly the province of Leyte including the city of Tacloban as a major concern given its being a major population center, but the undertaking will cover practically the entire eastern seaboard of Eastern Visayas,” she said.
She said that their main objective is to restore the region’s degraded coastal forests to make its coastlines less vulnerable to extreme weather events.
“If the mangroves in Leyte and Eastern Samar have not been decimated, the storm surge in those areas would have been dissipated its strength,” Daloos said.
“The surge can only destroy the leaves, but it cannot uproot the mangroves because they are so deep- rooted and strong that they will re-grow in time,” she added.
Mangroves are natural barriers against tsunamis, storm surge and other wave action, and therefore, should not be destroyed, the DENR information officer said.
Under their plan for 2014, some 19 million seedlings and propagules from mangrove trees and beach forest species like Talisay will be planted over 1,900 hectares of coastline under the NGP.
The establishment of “coastal green belts” will be done in clusters to allow fisher folk access to the shorelines, as well as other sustainable activities like ecotourism and coastal management.
By: RYAN GABRIEL LLOSA ARCENAS