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)

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

TACLOBAN CITY – More than three months after super typhoon Yolanda pounded Eastern Visayas, the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) here is still unsure of the official death toll.
The OCD have been visiting hardly-hit villages, believing that names of dead persons were reported twice and some were kept from the knowledge of authorities.
Angelo Bacho, OCD regional assistant operations officer, said that for more than three weeks now, their office has been going around in the villages to exactly determine how many of the residents there perished during the November 8, 2013 storm.
The OCD’s pre-disaster assessment needs teams, have so far visited the towns of Palo, Tanauan and Tacloban City, considered to be the worst-hit areas of Yolanda’s fury.
“So far, we couldn’t say if the number will increase or decrease since we have to revisit all municipalities with reported casualties. We are just 95% done with our assessment of casualties in these three areas,” Bacho told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (RDRRMC) has reported of 5,803 deaths in the region. In Tacloban, 2,606 persons were said to have died due to Yolanda.
The OCD is providing financial assistance to the member of the families of those who perished reason why they have to validate the number of those who were killed by Yolanda, Bacho said.
A financial aid of P10,000 would be given for each person who died due to Yolanda. Injured due to the typhoon is also to receive P5, 000.
Several companies like those which are engaged in insurance and lending have sought assistance with their office, Bacho said.
As of February 11, 69 applications for financial aid have been accepted by the OCD for 101 casualties in Tacloban City, Palo, Julita, and Pastrana in Leyte; and Basey, Samar.
In one community in San Jose district, one of the hardest-hit areas in Tacloban, there are about 200 deaths that were not reported by local officials to the local disaster and risk reduction management council (LDRRMC), Bacho said.
Based on the initial validated report of the OCD, at least 969 residents died in the area, nearly half of the 2,606 official count of death of the entire city.
Of the 2,606 casualties, 1,565 were validated by OCD as of February 11.
The death toll in the city could be higher, according to Bacho if non-Tacloban residents will all be included such as transient students and workers.
About 54 out of Tacloban’s 138 villages have reported casualties due to Yolanda. The city with more than 220,000 inhabitants is the regional capital of Eastern Visayas.
In the neighboring town of Palo, Bacho confirmed that there was a double entry of dead persons after checking the list with village officials and relatives of the victims.
“For Palo town alone, we found about 100 names counted as casualty twice,” he added.
In the last week of November, official death toll from Palo was 1,089. The figure was reduced to 902 last month. Of its 33 villages, 18 have casualty report.

By: SARWELL Q.MENIANO