TACLOBAN CITY- The National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP) has announced the temporary suspension of some of courses it is offering. This was disclosed by NMP executive director Forter Puguon who said that temporary suspension of the courses was made pending results on the assessment of their compliance and accreditation from the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).  The suspension was enforced since September 22, 2014 which includes courses on engine, deck, safety medical and security, environmental protection and maritime allied, while still offering faculty development courses.  “We are closely looking into reviewing all the requirements including facilities, the trainors and of course the courses itself,” Puguon said in a press conference held at their office located in Barangay Cabalawan, this city.

Puguon added that they had a meeting with MARINA on July 31 of this year and requested for an inspection so that they will know what are still needed. During the inspection it was found out that some of the courses lack some requirements prompting MARINA to temporarily suspend its trainings while complying with the requirements. “As to our view we can continue conducting but they have the final decision. We have to respect their decision to suspend. But MARINA respected our trainings up to September 19 this year,” Puguon said. Puguon said that there are still other maritime training schools in other parts of the country although NMP is the only such facility that is run by the government. More than 50 percent of the trainees of the NMP are from the region while the rest are from Central Visayas and Mindanao regions.
“More than fifty percent of our seafarers are from Eastern Visayas followed by Cebu which comprise twenty five percent then Mindanao around ten to fifteen percent while others from different places in Luzon, they are the ones fully affected by the devastation and while waiting for our efforts to restore its full operation,” Puguon said.

Puguon added that seafarers chooses NMP for maritime training because not only because due to its low fees but due to its good quality and high standard services. The NMP has submitted its application for accreditation to MARINA August of last year which the latter has yet to take action. He further added that NMP is now having a problem on how they can refund the money of those who already paid for the training. He said that NMP has an annual master list schedule of trainings. And there were clients who already paid and scheduled their trainings up to December this year. “Our problem now is how we can return the money to those who already paid for the trainings up to December and they cannot wait when we can fully operate. How can we return their money that we already submitted to the Bureau of Treasury, and we could not get that easily,” Puguon said. Puguon assured their clients that NMP will resume its services once they comply all the needed requirements adding that they are now fast tracking its rehabilitation after the devastation of Yolanda. (JENNIFER SUMAGANG-ALLEGADO)

STA.FE, Leyte- An official of this town said that bidding for the repair of two structures damaged during the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda would be scheduled soon. Councilor Eddie Lantajo, chairman on the committee on infrastructures of the town council, said that the bidding is for the repair of the municipal gymnasium and public market, both sustained major damages due to Yolanda.

According to Lantajo, the repair of the two public structures would be financed under the Recovery Assistant to Yolanda (RAY) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The official said that their town received P3.6 million of which P1.1 million would be used for the repair of the public market with the remaining amount of P2.5 million for the rehabilitation of the town’s gymnasium. The town gymnasium was undergoing repair with the funds coming from Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin “FM” Romualdez. Lantajo also said that the on-going repair of their municipal gym was one of the proposed projects submitted by Rep.Romualdez to the Department of Public Works and Highways in which they started the implementation last July 7 of this year.

On the other hand, the Committee on Infrastructure of the SB of Sta. Fe they wants to fast track the implementation of these projects for they are afraid that the fund may be returned to the DILG once the projects will not be implemented within this year. Aside from this, they want the people of Sta. Fe to see and know that they are not preventing the LGU of implementing this project. Lantajo said that they are aiming to hasten the repair works of the two structures for fear that the budget allocated for the works might be reverted back to the national treasury if they could not finish them before the end of the year.

Earlier, DILG Regional Director Pedro Noval issued a warning to all local government units provided with funds under RAY to finish their rehabilitation works before December of this year otherwise the funds would be returned to them. Aside from this, the Local Government of Sta. Fe, as an adopted municipality of Quezon City, received also funding from the City Government of Quezon amounting to 22 million which will be used for the renovation of their municipal town hall. The project to be implemented under the fund which was given by the Quezon City is also in the process of bidding in which they already submitted already the program of works and other documents to the City Government of Quezon. With the various projects implemented and to be implemented in municipality of Sta. Fe, the Committee on Infrastructure expects that all of the projects will be finished before the year ends. (RYAN GABRIEL ARCENAS)

TACLOBAN CITY- A total of P13 billion were donated by is country to the Philippine government when supertyphoon Yolanda hit the country close to a year now. This was disclosed by British Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad during his visit to Tacloban on September 23. “Most of it was spent directly to help feed and provide emergency shelter, washing facilities and hygiene. The remaining funds will enable them to unlock what is needed to be done for preparedness for future disasters,” Ahmad said in an interview during his visit in Barangay 88, San Jose district, worst hit area in Tacloban. Ahmad said that the fundamental shift now or what the Philippine government wants is to take responsibility and ownership for long-term rehabilitation and their relationship with the local government units. He added that they want to see the national government “ultimately resettle everybody in a safe place,” referring to the survivors who are still living in temporary shelters or tents, almost a year after the November 8, 2013 massive typhoon.
However, he conceded that it would be difficult for the country to recover given the magnitude of destruction if the international community would not provide enough assistance. “There are still people living in tents and it really need to come to an end. But I understand that the government will transfer families in tents within this year,” he added. (DONNA BULA, LNU Intern)

TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas business outlook drastically jumped to 51% for the fourth quarter of 2014 from 20.7% in the third quarter, citing businessmen confidence to rise up from the rubble as a result of supertyphoon Yolanda’s devastation. Fernando Silvoza, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Department of Economic Statistics deputy director, said there is “positive perception for the region to move on and be able to rise from destruction.” “I would say that because of continued assistance provided by local and international NGOs, it raised the expectation of higher recovery,” he aded.
However, he warned that Yolanda-related assistance “should be taken as something that is not infinite.”

“That should be picked up by other industries here so that if the situation is normal, the local business will be able to sustain that growth,” Silvoza, who attended a BSP gathering here last September 16, said.
Asked to comment about economic impacts of the limited operation of the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, region’s main airport based in Tacloban, the official stressed that it is only temporary. “From many respondents perspective, the airport concern is temporary in nature. What is important is that the government is doing something and it removes negative short term sentiments. The response is long term and that spells out short term concern,” Silvoza said.

Since early September, the airport’s runway is closed to Airbus fleets, resulting to flight cancellations. The business confidence survey is a quarterly study of the central bank with the Business World’s list of top 1,000 corporations in the country as respondents. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY- Entrepreneurs who have suffered economic losses due to supertyphoon Yolanda are encouraged by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to avail of a financial loan they are offering.
The DTI, through its Small Business Corp. (SBC), is offering financial loan to businessmen under its rehabilitation financing program (RFP). According to Luna Cacanando, SBC officer-in-charge president and chief operating officer, said that out of the P700 million that they have earmarked under its RFP, only P400 million have been released so far. This means, close to 400 small and medium enterprises have availed the loan being offered by the DTI, he said. The DTI targets to release the remaining amount before the end of this year.  Cacanando call businessmen still reeling from the economic losses due to Yolanda to avail the loan which offers 8 percent interest, payable in five years and with a grace period of one year after availing it. The official said that the loan application could be secured at the DTI provincial offices. Cacanando emphasized that they are looking for SMEs to avail of their program who in one way or another were able to recover even in small percentage because it is a sign of a true entrepreneurs. Those who were at least able to recover at least 20 percent of their businesses are qualified to avail of the program, he added. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)