TANAUAN,Leyte-With the declaration of a national social emergency on teenage pregnancy, schools have an important role to play to help address this problem.
Thus said Rose Guino, education program supervisor of the regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd) during a media forum organized by the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) on Tuesday (Nov.11) held this town.
Guino said that they are fully aware that cases of teenage pregnancy in the region involving female students are in the rise reason why there is a need for the DepEd to step in to help address the problem.
She also said that teachers are ‘equipped’ to teach about sex education on their students as teaching them on the matter would provide essential informations to their students, particularly the girls, and in the process, drive them the ill-effects of bearing a child at an early age.
“We make sure that our students will listen to us and will not trivialized the matter and not make a fun out of it but rather take it seriously,” she said.
“As teachers, we are here to guide them,” Guino added.
According to her, teachers have enough knowledge and information on teaching their students about sex education as they have attended seminars on the issue initiated by proper agencies like the Popcom and not just rely on books.
Earlier, Popcom said that teenage pregnancy is now a national social emergency due to high number of female teenagers getting pregnant.
Based on the Popcom-8 records, cases of teenage pregnancy in the region stand at about 6.9 percent comprising the population of 10 to 19 years old of teenage girls.
And of this number, what two percent of them have repeated pregnancies.
Also disturbing is about 247 schools across the region reported of teenage pregnancy cases.
The Popcom-8, headed by Elnora Pulma, has intensified on their campaign against teenage pregnancy with the aim of at least reducing its cases.
She, however, appealed to the parents and other stakeholders like education personnel, to help them on their campaign saying Popcom could not solve it by itself. (JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- A barangay watchman was killed while a village councilor and another village watchman were hurt during a shooting incident in Oras, Eastern Samar on Tuesday(Nov.12) night.
Killed was Arnulfo Opon,56, ‘tanod’ of Brgy. Sta. Monica of said village while Noel Balaca and Carlo Nebrida, village councilor and village watchman respectively and both 53 years old, were hurt when they were shot by two armed men at about 8:30 pm.
Based on the initial investigation conducted by the Oras police office, which is under Police Staff Sergeant Arnel Quitorio, the three were having a drinking spree at the house of Balaca when the two suspects who were wearing black jacket with a hood, appeared and shot them several times.
Opon sustained multiple gunshot wounds at the different parts of his body that resulted to his instant death while Balaca and Nebrida were injured as they were also hit from the arm attack.
Both Balaca and Nebrida were brought to a hospital for treatment.
The victims, on board a motorcycle, fled towards sitio Canbantol which is still part of Brgy. Sta. Monica using a motorized pump boat.
The police recovered 11 empty shells for M16 and 15 more for M14 at the crime scene.
Investigation is still ongoing to identify the suspects and what could be their motive in shooting the three victims.
The shooting incident was reported by Sta. Monica village chairwoman Gladys Amos.(JOEY A. GABIETA with reports from ALREN BERONIO)

TACLOBAN CITY- The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is stepping up its partnership with stakeholders with just less than two months left before the full implementation of Universal Health Care (UHC) law.
PhilHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Morales said on Tuesday (Nov.12) they have been refining the mechanism for the full implementation of the law, constantly conducting forums to deliver proper information to the stakeholders and come up with unified action to their concerns.
“With the approval and publication of the implementing rules and regulations, the first year of implementation would be next year starting in January and from now until then, we will put all the elements together and will be conducting similar forums in different parts of the country,” Morales said.
Morales led a forum at the Summit Hotel here attended by governors, vice governors, mayors, hospital executives, and national government agencies officials in Eastern Visayas.
The state-run health insurance firm has requested P153 billion from the central government to finance the first year of UHC law implementation, however only P63 billion was approved.
“We will still be negotiating this to the Congress and Senate to provide the fund requirement at least for the first year of implementation,” he said.
Morales warned if the proposed budget will not be released, the UHC coverage will just be limited to the direct members or those who pay the insurance premiums.
As of now, there are 55 million registered PhilHealth members or a total of 104 million Filipinos covered including their dependents.
The figure comprises 98 percent of the country’s total population.
“By next year, 100 percent of the country’s population will be under this program that is around 106 to 108 million Filipinos, but of course they have to register to avail the UHC,” Morales said.
Aside from the premium of the direct members, fund sources for UHC include the Department of Health’s annual budget, PhilHealth subsidies to indigent families, allocations from the Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, PhilHealth membership contributions and sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
The UHC, signed last February 20 by President Rodrigo Duterte, ensures that every Filipino, including overseas Filipino workers, are eligible for preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care upon automatic enrollment to the government’s health insurance program.
Under the law, all Filipino citizens are automatically enrolled in the government’s health insurance program. (PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla is calling on the farmers to design and practice farming activities that will lessen methane and other greenhouse gases emission to the atmosphere and help in climate change mitigation.
Petilla, in an interview, said that farmers should design and practice farming systems that will lessen methane emission and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
He pointed that methane gas is one of the primary greenhouse gases along with water vapor, nitrous oxide, ozone and carbon compounds which causes greenhouse effect and eventually warming the Earth resulting to climate change.
The governor said that the deadly super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ that pummeled the province and the rest of Eastern Visayas six years ago was a product of climate change.
Petilla suggested that the farmers should not burn farm wastes because in the process, carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere or let them decay in the open as the decaying matter produces and emits methane gas to the atmosphere.
These farm wastes should rather be made into compost and be made as fertilizers to lessen farm production costs, the governor said.
Petilla claimed that under his agricultural program, dubbed as “More Income in the Countryside,” farmers were being taught to practice farming systems and activities that lessen the emission of methane gas and other carbon compounds.
He said that the livestock program of his administration is designed to lessen methane gas emission in the process like the “babuyan walang amoy.”
Petilla added that the program is also teaching the farmers for composting of the farm wastes and make them organic fertilizers to lessen the methane emission to the atmosphere.
It was learned that methane gas which is flammable and being used as a fuel by several countries producing greenhouse gas.
It was further learned that the major sources of methane gas include the decomposition in natural wetlands, decay in landfills and leakage from the oil and gas industry.
But most sources of the methane gas are from human activities like in livestock production, farming systems and biomass burning.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)