TACLOBAN CITY – A shellfish ban is up in six bays in Eastern Visayas as red tide toxins plague coastal waters, including a bay in this city known as a major source of clams for export, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) reported on Thursday.
BFAR confirmed that the seawater of Cancabato Bay here tested positive for red tide toxins. The bay is a rich source of cockle clams being shipped to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“The toxin level is 946 cells per liter of water, way beyond the regulatory limit of 10 cells per liter. We have to strictly prohibit harvesting, trading, consumption, and shipment of shellfish from this affected area,” said BFAR Regional Director Juan Albaladejo in a phone interview.
The field office here is still waiting for a confirmatory test of shellfish samples sent to the BFAR main office.
“To safeguard human lives, we are issuing this warning as precautionary advice to the public to refrain from gathering, selling, and eating all types of shellfishes,” Albaladejo said.
Other bays identified as red tide positive are San Pedro Bay in Basey and Marabut, Samar; Maqueda Bay in Jiabong, Samar; Silanga Bay in Catbalogan City, Samar; Irong-irong Bay also in Catbalogan; and Cambatutay Bay in Tarangnan, Samar.
Red tide toxins have been present in different bays in Samar for several months already.
Among the most affected areas is Jiabong, Samar, the region’s top producer of green mussels, with harvest of about 200 sacks daily.
Each sack is sold for P1,500. The town has been losing P300,000 daily or over P2 million since the shellfish ban on July 12.
Jiabong serves as a central trading center from where mussels are shipped to Metro Manila, Davao City, Bicol, Cebu City, and other parts of the country.
If an area is red tide-positive, the fisheries bureau prohibits the public from eating, harvesting, marketing, and buying bivalve marine products and Acetes sp. (small crustaceans) from it until such time that the toxicity level has gone down below the regulatory level.
Local government units are advised to regulate the gathering, marketing and transporting of shellfish in infested areas.
Fish, squid, shrimp, and crab are safe to eat “provided that they are fresh and washed thoroughly and internal organs such as gills and intestines are removed before cooking,” BFAR said.
Red tide is a term used to describe a phenomenon, when the water is discolored by high algal biomass or the concentration of algae.
The discoloration may not necessarily be red in color, but it may also appear yellow, brown, green, blue or milky, depending on the organisms involved.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO/PNA)
Red tide alert up in 6 bays in Samar, Tacloban
Comelec readies for the polls in Southern Leyte
Result of the creation of 2 congressional districts
TACLOBAN CITY- The more than 292,000 registered voters of Southern Leyte are to elect their new congressmen representing its two newly-created congressional districts on October 26, this year.
And the regional Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that it is ready for the conduct of the special balloting, lawyer Felicisimo Embalsado, polls assistant director, said.
By virtue of Republic Act 11198 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 1 of this year, Southern Leyte was split into congressional districts.
The law called for a special elections to be held within six months after its enactment.
All candidates running in the October 26 congressional special elections are to campaign starting on September 11 until October 24.
The entire election period will run from August 26 until November 10 with all the prohibitions like liquor and gun bans to be enforced within the period.
“We are now ready for the special congressional polls which will be using vote counting machines,” Embalsado said.
The elections official said that this early, they are confident that the conduct of the special polls in Southern Leyte will be peaceful just like the recently-held May 13 elections.
The filing of the certificates of candidacy, which started on Monday (August 26), ended on Wednesday (August 28).
The incumbent congressman of the entire Southern Leyte, Roger Mercado, is running for the first congressional district which covers the towns of Macrohon, Padre Burgos, Limasawa, Malitbog, Tomas Oppus and the city of Maasin.
The first congressional district has a voting population of 132,114 registered voters.
Mercado, a former governor and running under the PDP-Laban, is facing two rivals, Albert Esclamado, a former board member, and Vicente Geraldo, both running as independents.
Meantime, for the second congressional district, among the candidates is Vice Governor Christopherson Yap who is running under the PDP-Laban banner.
He is facing four opponents who included former vice governor Sheffered Lino Tan (United Nationalist Alliance), and former congressman Aniceto Saludo of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.
The second congressional district has 160,223 registered voters covering the towns of Libagon, Liloan, San Francisco, San Ricardo, Pintuyan, Saint Bernard, Anahawan, San Juan, Hinundayan, Hinunangan, Silago, and Sogod.
Vice Gov. Yap, meantime, was personally endorsed by lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
Carpio joined Yap in a political gathering at the municipal gymnasium in Sogod town last Tuesday (August 27).
He said that he is backing the congressional bid of Yap ‘all the way,’ describing the vice governor as a ‘close friend.’
“I am here to personally show my support and I told Sara that I am going to Southern Leyte to personally show my support to Coco,” Carpio said.
Marie Marjorie Jaramilla, regional president of PDP-Laban, said that the party will throw all its support to Yap.
“The vice governor is one of my silent supporters during the presidential election of President Duterte, (he) personally endorsed (the President) and I will support him. The PDP-Laban will support him 100 percent,” Jaramilla said.
US-based Filipino novelist Gina Apostol returns to Leyte for book talk
TACLOBAN CITY-Acclaimed Filipino novelist Gina Apostol, who is now based in New York, USA, talked about her latest book “Insurrecto” with fellow authors and students at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban Campus (UPVTC) in Tacloban City, August 10.
The event was part of the August edition of “Harampang” organized by KATIG Writers Network, Inc. and UP Runggiyan, in cooperation with the UPVTC Leyte Samar Heritage Center.
A graduate from the University of the Philippines Diliman, Apostol earned her Master’s degree in creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
Her other award-winning novels are “Bibliolepsy,” “The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata,” and “Gun Dealers’ Daughter.”
She teaches at the Fieldston School in New York City. Apostol is a native of Barugo, Leyte. (RONALD O. REYES)
Eastern Visayas enters FinTech with Paytaca launch
TACLOBAN CITY–Paytaca, Eastern Visayas’ first locally developed Financial Technology Application (FinTech App), was launched at Cafe Lucia, this city, on August 23.
“Paytaca is a new app that intends to enter the FinTech market with a particular focus on cashless payments. The primary goal of Paytaca is to capture the interest of potential users and merchants in Eastern Visayas,” said Joemar Taganna, Paytaca president.
“Paytaca’s soft launch also introduces users to the app and initial list of merchants for a short Beta Testing phase that will run from August to October 2019,” he added.
During the launch, the company also gave its beta testers free credits as gifts that they can use immediately at partner merchants.
Aaron J.P. Almadro, marketing director of Paytaca, said their FinTech app aims to have local businesses carry it as a payment option.
“Today, Paytaca is partnered with almost 20 local businesses from Tacloban and nearby municipalities, who will accept payments thru the app. Of course, expansion is our priority, and we are already talking with other businesses from Leyte, Samar, and soon in Biliran, so that we can cover the whole of Eastern Visayas,” said Almadro.
Paytaca is slated to roll-out starting October after the completion of the Beta Testing Phase.
“In the near future, we are targeting Paytaca to be a payment option for utilities, banking transactions, and then large-scale businesses like commercial malls and convenience stores,” added Almadro.
Paytaca is a mobile app that administers cashless payment transactions between a user and merchant.
It uses block chain technology that guarantees a virtually tamper-proof recording of transaction.
For more information, visit www.paytaca.com or contact Paytaca (Marketing) at 0967-687-6185/0919-216-2117. (RONALD O. REYES)
Comelec-Biliran chief tells millennials to register at ‘iRehistro’
NAVAL, Biliran-The chief of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Biliran province is encouraging the millennials who are not yet registered and wanted to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming May 11, 2020 Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections to register through iRehistro, an online registration system of the Comelec.
“What you need to do is to visit the Comelec website (www.comelec.gov.ph) and click iRehistro to do the online registration,” said lawyer Karen C. Cajipo, provincial election supervisor during the Pulong-Pulong ng Bayan of PIA Biliran at Radyo Natin-Naval recently.
Cajipo said that once the online registration is done, printout in three copies has to be submitted to their office through the Comelec staff in-charge of the registration.
According to Cajipo, the online registration provides comfort and convenience not only to the new voter-registrants but also to those who will be applying for transfer, updating of records, and reactivation.
In its efforts also to bring services closer to the people of Biliran, the Comelec has scheduled satellite registration in barangays to accommodate more registrants especially for those who does not have enough time to visit the Comelec office, she said.
Aside from the ongoing campaign for registration, Cajipo also encouraged women to actively participate in the upcoming elections as part of the agency’s drive for a gender-responsive electoral process.
“The Comelec wanted more women to become community leaders,” Cajipo said.
Comelec has been conducting Women in Election Seminar (WES) to the women sector as a way of empowering them and to exercise their right of suffrage.
The Comelec has resumed its voter registration since August 1, 2019 and will run until September 30, 2019 inclusive of Saturdays and holidays.
(LDL/RSV/PIA-8, Biliran)