TACLOBAN CITY – Citing the need to uplift the condition of the unemployed poor in the 2nd district of Leyte province, the regional chief of the Department of Labor and Employment, Director Elias A. Cayanong and Rep. Henry Ong agreed to deliver programs that will provide alternative livelihood, particularly to youth, women, disabled persons, and parents of child laborers. During a meeting held on July 21, 2016 at the Office of the DOLE Regional Director, the two government officials expressed their commitment to extend livelihood assistance to the informal sector workers who are oftentimes left out in the highly competitive labor market. Director Cayanong explained that the DOLE under its Integrated Livelihood Program has been providing self-employment through livelihood, with the hope of providing productive and gainful employment for the marginalized and unprotected workers. “I am very happy that congressman Ong expressed his interest to partner with us in the implementation of our livelihood program. And I would like to match that commitment by strongly working with him to speed up the processing of livelihood proposals that may be submitted to our office”, the labor chief said. Rep. Ong thanked Dir. Cayanong for the support to his advocacies despite being a neophyte legislator, particularly of his livelihood program. (PR)

GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO,Leyte- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Regional Office VIII during its 6th Monthly Coordination Meeting at the DPWH Multi-Purpose Building, Baras, Palo, Leyte on July 19, 2016 tackled the following policy instructions from acting Secretary Rafael C. Yabut on the first Regional Director Meeting held at the Central Office, Manila, on July 11, 2016. · Performance will be based on disbursements made against obligations and allocations. · All Implementing Offices should already check their proposed projects for 2017 and succeeding years to avoid future modifications which are one cause of delay in implementation.

· Road Right of Way should be settled and cleared first from encroachment and obstruction prior to funding of civil works to avoid delay in the implementation.
· Implementing Offices (IOs) need not charge certain infrastructure damage to a typhoon whose occurrence happened quite a long time already.
· On-going DOT projects with ROW problem shall coordinate with the concerned LGU.

OIC-Director Edgar Tabacon bared 36.85% overall accomplishment versus 37.38% target of CY 2016 Infrastructure Program of DPWH RO 8 as of June 2016. Of the 13 District Engineering Offices (DEOs), Biliran DEO is the TOP PERFORMER with 76.97% percent accomplishment. Biliran DEO has a total number of sixty-six (66) infrastructure projects; of which 52 projects are completed, 10 are ongoing and only 4 projects which are not yet started (NYS) due to delayed delivery of materials for the projects. The NYS projects include the repair of National Bridges in the province with a total cost of P 12 million. RD Tabacon commended all engineers and field workers for their hard work in speeding up the projects in order to improve road accessibility for better mobility of people and products. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY- More than 400 job order (JO) workers assigned at the different departments and offices of the City Hall, this city, were retrenched with lack of budget cited as reason. Teofila Brosas, head of the human resources department, said that while it was “difficult” on the part of Mayor Cristina Romualdez to dismiss these workers, she had to do it for the greater interest of the city government and ensure that needed basic services intended for the residents will not be affected. “It was a very difficult part for Mayor Romualdez (to dismiss them) considering that they have their respective families to support and we’re still in the recovery period (due to supertyphoon Yolanda) but she has to do it nevertheless,” she said.

Tacloban, considered the ground zero of Yolanda, world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland, has resulted for it to suffer financial losses due to closure of business establishments. Thousands of workers lost their jobs in the process.  It was learned from Brosas that considering that the salaries of these JO workers were only taken from its savings, the city government has to do this drastic move. She said that for the months of July to December this year, P34 million is the projected savings of the city government. The amount is just enough to pay 605 job order workers, Brosas added.  JO workers are those hired by the city government for short working period, three months at the maximum though their work contract could be renewed, receives P260 a day, the current daily minimum pay in the region. Brosas, however, said that while they have to retrench these workers, they could still expect to return to work once the local income of the city would improve. “They will be the first priority. The mayor does not like to see them working but without any salary. That would not be fair to them,” she said. Brosas added that some department heads could still continue the services of the JO workers assigned at their respective offices as long as they could fully justify their presence. The retrenchment started this month just after the Mayor Cristina Romualdez assumed, succeeding her husband, Alfred, who finished his nine years in office.

TACLOBAN CITY- One of this city’s top illegal drug pushers was arrested in a buy bust operation by the city police on Monday (July 18). Arrested by the members of the City Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Group (CAIDSOTG) of the Tacloban City police and the members of the Police Station 2 was Almer Nacario. Nacario, 31, was arrested by the joint elements in a buy bust operation in Barangay 37, this city at 2:20 pm. Seized from him were two plastic sachets containing suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu and three pieces P100 bills used as marked money during the operation. The buy bust operation against Nacario, said to be the number 2 among the city’s notorious drug peddlers, was headed by Chief Inspector Steve Castillote, chief of the CAIDSOTG and Chief Inspector Rudy Conejo, head of the Police Station 2.
The buy bust operation targeting Nacario was made possible on the information relayed by an asset that the notorious drug pusher was in the area. The joint police elements immediately conducted their operation against Nacario. It was learned that the suspect did not heed “Operation Tokhang” of the police authorities for suspected drug users and pushers to voluntarily surrender. Nacario, a resident of Brgy.37 was operating his illegal drug trade at their village and nearby barangays, was immediately brought to the Tacloban city detention center as he was charged for selling illegal drugs. Under “Operation Tokhang,” which started on July 1, 485 drug users and pushers across Tacloban has voluntarily surrendered to the authorities, City Police Director S/Supt.Rolando Bade said.  “Operation Tokhang” is part of the campaign of the national government, carried out primarily by the Philippine National Police, seeking drug users and pushers to voluntarily surrender with the end aim of ending the country’s problem on illegal drugs. (LITO A. BAGUNAS)

TACLOBAN CITY – The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) has reported that about 4,470 projects were completed under its flagship anti-poverty program Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS).  In a press conference Tuesday (July 19), DSWD 8 shared a recent regional update on the Kalahi-CIDSS program in the region which has already disbursed a total of P 3.2 billion in funds under a P 3.7 billion total fund allocation for the region. As of June 2016, the DSWD has already provided the program the financial requirements of P 1.5 billion for Leyte; P 785 million for Samar; P 658 million for Northern Samar; P 402 million for Eastern Samar; P 218 million for Southern Leyte; and P 122 million for Biliran. These funds went into the construction of 1,018 school buildings and day care centers, 265 health stations, 73.65 kilometers of drainage canals, 2,668.8 linear meters of seawalls, 749 water systems, 1,284 electric lamp posts and 1,245.76 kilometers of roads, access trails and bridges all over the region. Capability trainings were also conducted for recipient barangays.
About 827 of these projects are on-going while 183 are in the procurement stage. DSWD-8 Regional Director Restituto Macuto said their office will continue to involve the communities through its Community-Driven Development (CDD) strategy. The CDD involves the engagement of the residents in the communities in the local development wherein they themselves determine what projects that should be implemented that could uplift them from poverty. Community projects under the program are being completed through the various modalities which include Kalahi-CIDSS Additional Financing, which expanded the first phase of Kalahi-CIDSS; Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Project, Australian Grant project from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Japan Social Development Fund-Livelihood for Vulnerable Urban Communities (JSDF-LVUC) Project, Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), Kalahi-CIDSS-Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan, and the Kalahi-CIDSS Bottom-up Planning and Budgeting. In the region, Kalahi-CIDSS is being implemented in all of its six provinces covering 138 municipalities and 3,785 barangays.
The DSWD-8 lists a total of 738,548 households in the region. (AHLETTE C. REYES)