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Tacloban now on its road to recovery, said Mayor Alfred

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TACLOBAN CITY- This city ravaged by supertyphoon Yolanda more than nine months ago is slowly getting back its feet. In fact, investors remain to have their confident to Tacloban, considered the ground zero of Yolanda, said City Mayor Alfred Romualdez. “Slowly but surely, we are recovering. We are slowly gaining so long as more businesses will open up,” Romualdez said. He told Leyte Samar Daily Express that the operations of these business establishments will be a big factor for Tacloban to return to normalcy after it was devastated by Yolanda.

Records from the City Licensing Office has indicated that out of the 12,900 businesses that were in operations before Yolanda struck Tacloban, only 3,770 businesses have return for operations with 84 others signified their permanent closure.The operations of the 3,770 business establishments generated employment to 11,250 workers and earned for the city government of P85.76 million as income. Mayor Romualdez said that he remain confident that Tacloban could still attract new investments in the coming months. He said that the operations of big establishments in the city like the Robinsons and Gaisano malls are indications that they remain bullish of Tacloban as an investment haven in the Visayas.

Mayor Romualdez said that the opening of the Save More, a branch of the Shoe Mart(SM) this year and the opening of a Robinsons Mall at the Tacloban New Bus Terminal in the city would further help attain his goal for the recovery of Tacloban. The operations of these big establishments would not only help the city’s income but more so provide employment to the people of Tacloban, Romualdez said. Yolanda has resulted for the city government to revise its annual budget for the year from its original amount of around P800 million to just P600 million was due to the closure of thousands of business establishments in the aftermath of Yolanda. The city government earns around P400 million from its tax collection, almost the same amount it received from the national government on internal revenue allotment (IRA). (LIZBETH ANN ABELLA)

2 10-wheeler trucks collide in Ormoc City

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ORMOC CITY- The collision of two 10-wheelers trucks Saturday night along the national highway, this city, and raised fear among residents of possible gas leaks. One of the trucks was carrying several empty liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks coming from Tacloban City while cruising along Barangay Valencia, hit head on with another 10-wheeler truck, a sugarcane conveyor.

The driver of the vehicle carrying the tanks sustained minor injuries together with a passenger. They were brought to the hospital by the Ormoc Rescue Unit. While the other vehicle’s driver and a companion fled right after the accident going to the direction of Kananga town, said police investigator SPO1 Jonathan Tomada of Police Station 2 citing bystanders’ observation. Clarissa Giganto, 38, expressed fear that the dripping gas might create explosion after a tank’s valve went damaged following the accident. The truck was parked near her residence.

Personnel from the Bureau of Fire and Penology managed to control the oozing LPG that produced what Giganto and other residents said nose-throbbing odor.
FO3 Noel Parrilla stated that contents of LPGs were not really drained though considered empty. However, SFO2 Roel Wenceslao said the leak has less chances of creating explosion considering that it was located in an open area. But just to satisfy the neighborhood and to provide them a sound sleep that night, the police and the BFP ensured to provide them safety. (ELVIE ROMAN ROA)

Carigara mayor pushes construction of new public market

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TACLOBAN CITY – Mayor Eduardo “Boy” Ong said that he is planning to construct a new and better public market for his town. The planned public market will be constructed before the year is over with a budget of P11 million taken from its own source, Ong said. According to him, the new wet market will have a 1,000 square meter area and is to be located just near the wharf which is facing the Carigara Bay. During the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda, the town’s public market sustained damages. In 2012, the facility also suffered damages after a tornado hit it. Ong said that existing public market, where the fish and meat vendors are located, is already congested and has become ‘inconvenient’ for market goers. “What we plan to do is construct another wet market with a bigger and better space for our vendors,” he said. The existing public market was constructed in 2010.

The construction of the new public market is expected to start within the year to be undertaken without any bank loans. Mayor Ong said that the local government may not afford another loan as it is still paying an existing loan with Land Bank of the Philippines for the construction of market complex and terminal until 2017.

Economic activity in the town has been noted to be upbeat with new businesses locating after Yolanda in November 2013. New businesses included a gasoline station, grocery stores and a government-run bank. A multi-million hardware is also setting up its business in the area. (AHLETTE REYES)

“Roscas” makers in Barugo reels on drop of sales

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BARUGO, Leyte – Makers of the “roscas”, a locally made cookie, are now feeling the heat as their incomes have suffered considerably due to low demand in the market. This was revealed by Victoria Astorga, president of the Barugo Roscas Producers Association (BRPA) who said that that their incomes was seen to have dropped after the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda.

This after their sales every month dropped almost half from their previous monthly sales of 2,000 pieces. Astorga said that before Yolanda, each of the 11 member of the BRPA received P4, 000 to P5, 000 as their share every end of the month. But after the onslaught of Yolanda, each of the members could only managed to receive P2, 000, a small amount for them to meet their daily needs. Astorga admitted that the low demand of the product could be due to the increase of its price. She said that a box of cookie, for example, was set at P150 before Yolanda but because of scarcity of ingredients, they were forced to increase the price at P200. Astorga said that they get the ingredients of roscas, a locally made cookie made of flour, butter, sugar and milk, among others, from Tacloban City, considered the ground zero of Yolanda.

“People have less money to buy non-basic food items after the disaster as their incomes reduced considerably,” Astorga said. The group is now looking for bigger production area where they can boost the industry’s sales. As of now, their production and selling area is located at the second floor of Barugo public market building with lesser chance to be visited by the buyers. “Our major constraint is that we don’t have the logistics and linkages to bring our product outside of Leyte,” said Astorga.
Formed in 2006, the BRPA is beneficiaries of various programs designed to enhance production by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for technology upgrading, Food and Drug Administration for sanitation, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for good manufacturing practices and packaging as well as bar code certification of products. On the other hand, the local government of Barugo, provided baking pans, trays, and display racks for finished products. (JOLLIE MAE B.VERANA, LNU Intern)

Tacloban councilor urges DSWD to set guidelines on their cash assistance program to Yolanda survivors

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TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) should set a clear guidelines as to who should be given the cash assistance.
This was the unsolicited advice of Tacloban City Councilor Evangeline Esperas amid report that the DSWD would provide financial assistance to survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda.
Earlier, the DSWD had announced that they would provide assistance to Yolanda victims in the amount of P30,000.
The City Social Welfare and Development Office(CSWDO) had said that they already provided their regional office of a list of home owners who are to receive the financial assistance.
However, the CSWDO said that the amount ranged to P10,000 for those whose houses suffered partial damages and P30,000 for those who sustained totally damages.
“The DSWD should not only look into the list of the beneficiaries given by the representatives in every barangay but rather they must conduct survey with their own together with the barangay officials of the place so that they will know who will receive the cash assistance,” Esperas added.
(ELIZABETH HUGO,LNU Intern)

Regular examination

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CIMAGALA

IT’S usually associated with school life, often striking fear and terror on the poor students. But it actually should be associated with all of us, and in fact, in all the levels and aspects of our life. It’s a necessity for our effectiveness, if not, for our very survival.
Thus, in our more collective life of business and politics, there are regular auditing and reporting to be made. We have just heard, for example, the President’s report on the state of the nation (SONA) which, in a way, is precisely an exercise of examination.
To do regular examination is a must for all of us to see if our life, our behavior, our conscience are still on the right track. Otherwise, we open ourselves to all kinds of deviations.
It’s part of our human condition that we go through our life having to make decisions, or at least to react to all kinds of stimuli, internal or external, personal or social, material or spiritual, etc.. All these we need to judge whether they are right or wrong according to some relevant moral criteria.
Let’s hope that this need for regular examination be felt by all of us, especially in the personal level, since the vitality and effectiveness of our life, from its personal level to its most global and even cosmic dimensions, greatly depends on that exercise.
It’s there in the examination of conscience where we review our performance of the day in the moral sense. After all, the moral quality of our life, the result of our moral human acts, holds ultimate value over the other aspects of our life.
It’s in the examination of conscience where we sort out things, trying to identify the motives of our thoughts, desires, words and actions, and seeing if these motives are good or bad. This is not an easy task at all. But with regular examination, somehow we can get a good picture and devise the appropriate strategies.
It’s in the examination of conscience where we would have a running account of the state of our soul. If we truly recognize the objective value of our soul, then it would be most logical for us to do everything to keep it healthy, strong and fruitful. The condition of our soul ultimately determines the quality of our life.
And so, we would give priority to this act of piety that actually would require just a little time, about 3 minutes, and usually done at the end of the day, just before going to bed.
Obviously, some effort has to be exerted, and sometimes, heroic effort, since we have to contend with our usual weaknesses of laziness, mental and physical, and complacency, lukewarmness, shallow thinking, and all kinds of distractions.
Our tendency is to get easily dominated by our here-and-now conditions and often failing to see the bigger picture that usually requires more investment on our part in terms of time, interest and effort. We have to be ready to do battle against this tendency.
Besides, to make the examination of conscience, we need to put ourselves first in the presence of God, since that exercise is not simply a matter of psychologizing ourselves, or tweaking our emotional state, or doing some introspection.
We have to be wary not to fall into downgrading this crucial act of piety into a mere psychological or emotional exercise.
We would not see things properly that way. Worse, we most likely would get unnecessarily entangled with complicated situations.
To be able to see the objective state of our soul, we need to see it together with God who gives us the true light, more penetrating than our X-rays and more extensive than what the sun can cover.
With God, that is, with faith and trust in him, no matter how ugly the state of our soul may be, we can always be reassured of his mercy and help. When the examination of conscience is done this way, there will always be peace and joy in the end.
Sure, there will be elements of fear, embarrassment, etc., involved, but love and mercy will win at the end of the day. We just have to make sure that our examination of conscience is an intimate, filial encounter with God our Father who is all too eager to understand us, to pardon us and to help us in our needs.
If done properly, the examination of conscience is actually a very happy moment for all of us, and a very good way to end the day. When we say, “Sorry, Lord,” somehow things are patched up.

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