Imee woos EV voters as she seeks Senate seat
TACLOBAN CITY- The daughter of former first lady Imelda Marcos, Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, appeals to the voters of Eastern Visayas to support her Senate bid.
The younger Marcos was in the city Sunday (March 31) to campaign here, the region’s most vote-rich city with 139,422 voters.
The Senate aspirant toured around the city and was accompanied by her cousin, Alfred Romualdez who is running for mayor.
This was the second time that Marcos was in the city after she formally sought for a Senate seat.
Marcos was in the city during the regional grand rally of the administration- backed Hugpong ng Pagbabago last March 19.
The outgoing Ilocos Norte governor said that it has been decades since the region had a representative at the Senate and it’s about time that the region, among the poorest in the country, should have one.
“The region needs a representative sa Senate who will for see the region’s issues,” she said.
During the 2016 elections, her cousin, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, ran unsuccessfully for senator. He is now running as a congressman for Leyte’s first congressional district currently occupied by his wife, Yedda Marie Romualdez.
Rep. Romualdez is now the first nominee of party-list group Tingog with Jude Acidre as the second nominee.
Marcos, in her campaign sortie here, asked the people to also vote Tingog.
Gov. Marcos said that she has so much plans for the region once she gets elected to the Senate, particularly in addressing its poverty situation by providing its people, particularly the economically marginalized, opportunities.
Among these plans, she said, is the revival of the Kadiwa Centers which will sell cheap but better qualities of basic necessities like rice.
Kadiwa Centers or terminal food centers, were established during the time of her father, former president Ferdinand Marcos, aimed to bring down prices of basic commodities.
“Kung kaya pa-ubson an bugas, kaya liwat an iba nga papliton, kon kaya namon ha Ilocos, kaya liwat naton dinhi ha Rehiyon Otso,” she said.
Marcos claimed that the poverty incident in her province of Ilocos Norte was addressed and reduced drastically under her administration.
Aside from former mayor Romualdez, Marcos was also joined by council candidates, namely, Aimee Delgado Grafil; Evangeline “Vangie” Esperas and Dr. Elvira Galapon Casal, all incumbent councilors; radio broadcaster Marvin Modelo; Elizabeth Lesiguez, Rody Padillo, Leo Bahin, Brian “Yan-Yan” Granados, Dalisay Tolibas Erpe and Wena Pfleider.
BY: GAY GASPAY, CONTRIBUTOR
Local candidates start their campaign
About 3,391 candidates are seeking for posts in EV
TACLOBAN CITY- Candidates seeking for local posts in this year’s midterm elections officially kicked off their grueling,45-day campaign on Friday (March 29).
This early, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has renewed their call for candidates to follow the elections law and conduct their campaign without resorting to mudslinging or violence.
Here in the city, former mayor Alfred Romualdez led his team on their initial barnstorming by attending a Mass at the Santo Niño Church, followed with a motorcade going to Barangay Suhi, a resettlement site for families who lost their houses during the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
And during his speech before their supporters and media, Romualdez, who was the mayor at the time Tacloban was pummeled by Yolanda, vowed to fully continue the rehabilitation of the city.
In particular, he said, this would include transfer of families who have yet to be relocated to the housing units constructed for them by the government.
“We are still having problems with the housing; not all utilities are in place. There are still houses without electricity and worst, water,” he later said during a brief interview.
He asked the voters of the city to vote all his candidates seeking for the council seats, among them is Aimee Delgado Grafil, who is the current chairman on the committee on Urban poor and Housing Resettlement.
Other major candidates in the region also plunged on the first day of campaign period.
In Northern Samar, Governor Jose Ong and his nephew, Rep.Edwin Ongchuan took their first day of campaign at their home base in Laoang town.
Gov. Ong is seeking for the congressional seat of his nephew at the second district of the province while the younger Ong is running for governor. Both are unopposed.
In Eastern Samar, congressional candidates Mayors Sheen Gonzales of Guiuan and Maria Fe Abunda of Borongan, together with outgoing congressman and gubernatorial candidate Ben Evardone have their grand rallies.
In Biliran, Rep. Rogelio Espina and his ‘Bando Espina’ team also held their first day of campaign.
Other major candidates are expected to start their maiden rallies today, Saturday, like former congressman Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who is seeking a seat for Leyte’s first congressional district and reelectionist Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino.
For the May 13 elections, a total of 3,391 individuals have filed their certificates of candidacy in the region.
These candidates are to contest the following elective posts: 12 for congressional seats; six for governors and for vice governors; 56 for provincial board members; 143 for city and municipal mayors; 143 for city and town vice mayors; and 1,088 for city and town councils.
For Lydia Morante, head of the Graduates School of the Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU), based this city, she hopes that these candidates would truly push programs that would benefit their respective constituents.
For one, she said, these candidates should come up with a sustainable livelihood program so that their people would stop depending on the government for their daily needs.
“I think what the people need in Region 8 is livelihood. The citizens should have work. Build factories, industries that will provide continued work that they become self-reliant. They will not depend on government subsidy but earn their own living,” she said.
Morante also said that education should also be given another priority, especially in sustaining the budget considering that education has become free, to include in the tertiary level.
Eastern Visayas, composed of the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar is among the country’s poorest provinces.
Based on the 2015 data of the regional office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the region has a poverty incidence of 30.7 percent, making it the third poorest region in the country.
The region remain largely a predominant agricultural region with majority of its more than 4 million depends on agriculture, particularly on palay and copra production.
BY: JOEY A. GABIETA w/ Rachel V. Arnaiz,
Jennifer Sumagang Allegado
DOT extends financial support to peoples’ organizations engaged in tour guiding in Palompon town
PALOMPON, Leyte– The Department of Tourism (DOT) here in the region provided tour equipment to three peoples’ organizations (POs) based this town worth P1.5 million.
The money donated to the three POs, Liberty Eco Adventure Park, Palompon Eco Park and Palompon Tour Guides Association, were sourced from the Yolanda Comprehensive Recovery and Rehabilitation Project-Tourism Infrastructure and Livelihood Project, said Karina Rosa Tiopes, DOT-8 director.
“I’d rather have a people’s organization as a beneficiary every time we have a project because it really benefits the community,” Tiopes said during the turn-over ceremony.
Tiopes added that the gears and equipment given to the POs will help them in promoting other destinations in the town aside from Kalanggaman Island that is already the prime destination of the region.
“I hope that you will take care of these equipment and use it to make the mainland shine and not only Kalanggaman so that we you can earn more,” she said.
The Liberty Eco Adventure Park tour guides received equipment worth P873,000 while Palompon Eco Park members, they received equipment worth P218,250 and Palompon Eco Park,P218,250.
Among these gears and equipment were rope, harness, rescue pulley, outdoor pants, rescue helmet, head lamp, tents, sleeping bags, hammock, rain coats, cook set, solar camping lantern, survival knife, trekking shorts, compression pants, water sports shoes, compass, trekking pole, flashlights, among other.
“With these gears, tourists who will visit Palompon will really enjoy because they have lots of things to do, aside from going to Kalanggaman. Their long hour of traveling will be reciprocated with the numerous activities that they can do while they are in this town,” Tiopes said.
“Whatever income Palompon is gaining now, it will now spread to the community because of these destinations that the town developed,” she added.
Aside from equipment and gears, the local government unit of Palompon also received a budget for the repair and rehabilitation of its tourism building worth P 2.9 million; P1.89 million for the rehabilitation of Tabuk Marine Park, Fish and Bird Sanctuary and more than P388,000 for rehabilitation of Kalanggaman Island.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Scientists work to curb PH’s plastic waste problem
TACLOBAN CITY — The National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) has been gathering ideas from scientists and researchers nationwide to put an end to plastic pollution in the country.
At the end of the two-day Visayas Regional Scientific Meeting held at the Summit Hotel here Friday, NAST president Rhodora Azanza said plastic pollution has become a major concern being a central feature in modern living.
Azanza said they have been holding meetings in the country’s three island groups to learn from one another, share opinions, and produce significant recommendations to curb plastic pollution.
“If we decide as a group, we will recommend to appropriate bodies. We need everybody’s help to campaign against plastic use,” he told reporters.
The city is the host of the Visayas regional scientific meeting on March 20-21. The gathering is anchored on the theme, “Caring for our country’s carrying capacity”.
This is the first scientific meeting this year. Other gatherings will be held in Alaminos, Pangasinan in April for Luzon and in General Santos City, South Cotabato in May for Mindanao.
NAST is eyeing to synthesize all recommendations in an annual meeting July. The output will be presented to the House of Representatives, Senate, and Cabinet officials.
Fabian Dayrit, NAST academician and professor of Ateneo de Manila University, said about 15 percent of solid waste in the country is made up of plastic materials and the volume is consistently rising due to increasing demand.
“The management of plastic waste must be based on an understanding of the physic-chemical nature of the various plastics, in particular, their polymer composition and properties. Strategies to minimize plastic pollution should consider the different types of plastic pollution: macro pollutants, microplastics, microfibers, and chemical additives,” Dayrit said.
The waste management strategy of 3Rs — reduce, re-use, and recycle — must be augmented with a fourth strategy: redesign, according to Dayrit.
“New management strategies for plastics now advocate for a circular economy, which includes the conversion of waste plastic into raw materials and the development of new polymers and plastic materials,” he added.
The scientific meetings decided to make plastic pollution as the main topic after plastics were found in the digestive systems of dead dolphins and whales.
NAST said the Philippines had been identified by Ocean Conservatory in its 2015 report as a significant contributor to the plastic found in the world’s oceans.
Citing studies, NAST revealed that the country generates some 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste with more than 50 percent find its way to bodies of water.
NAST is an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology mandated by law to advise the President and Cabinet on matters related to science and technology.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)
Man stabbed by ‘miron’ while intervening fight of his girlfriend, brother
TACLOBAN CITY- A 21-year old man was stabbed while he was trying to intervene a fight involving his girlfriend and his brother.
But the culprit was neither his girlfriend or his brother but a man who just happened to pass by while the two were having a heated argument along Paterno and Gomez streets, this city, at about 1:50 pm on March 19.
The victim, Nico Amparadolo, said to be mute, sustained deep wounds at his back, was brought to the Divine Word Hospital for treatment.
Based on police report, the victim was trying to pacify his girlfriend and his brother when a group of men passed by in the area.
One of the men, without provocation, drew a knife and stabbed Amparadolo, hitting him on his back.
The suspect and his companions immediately run.
Police authorities are still conducting their probe to identify the suspect and his arrest.
The suspect, identified as Ronel Corre,18, was arrested and is now detained at the lockup facility of the Tacloban City Police Station
(GLADYS CORTEZ, MICOTT FARON, JOHN LOUIS CABIDOG, MARISON GALLARON, EVSU Interns)