TACLOBAN CITY -Scores of devotees participated in the pre-Balyuan rites held Monday (June 18).
Considered as a prelude to the Balyuan rites happening on June 20, the event commemorates the historical swapping of Sto. Niño images between Tacloban and the town of Basey in Samar.
The convoy, which departed for Basey at 8 am, included devotees of Sto. Niño de Tacloban and city government officials and employees.
It made the 28 kilometer-land travel to Barangay Buscada for the religious rites commemorating the exchange of Sto. Niño images between Tacloban and the municipality of Basey.

The motorcade featured the revered image of the El Teniente – a replica of the Sto. Nino de Tacloban –the primary object of the Balyu-an reenactment.
Upon arrival at Brgy. Buscada, the faithful and the town’s cultural performers greeted the delegation from Tacloban with a ritual performance.
After which, the motorcade around the town proper of Basey followed, and a Holy Mass was said at the Old Buscada Church attended by Tacloban city government officials and Basey Mayor Igmedio Junjie Ponferrada.
The image of El Teniente will be returned to Tacloban through a fluvial procession on June 20 for the Balyu-an Rites at the Balyu-an Amphitheater.
The Balyu-an rites on June 20 will signal the start of the nine-day novena mass for the city’s 129th fiesta celebration.
It commemorates a religious tradition that can be traced back to the time when Tacloban was but a mere Sitio of Basey Town.
As Kankabatok—the early name of Tacloban—grew in prominence it was decided by the parish priest of Basey to swap their bigger image of the Sto. Nino with the smaller image of the former. – HENRY JAMES ROCA/CIO)

TACLOBAN CITY – Members of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) from the National Capital Region(NCR) visited their counterparts in the region to learn and possibly adopt their best practices.
The NCR-RPOC members met with their counterparts in the region at the regional office of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday (June 19).
“We want to personally hear from them and also learn several other programs which we can also adopt in Metro Manila like the Women Peace Table,” Maria Laurdes Agustin, DILG-NCR director, said.
“We wanted to see how the women are able to participate in governance and in peace-building. This is more of an exchanging of information and program that we can learn from,” she added.
Women Peace Table is a program of the RPOC-8 and the DILG launched during the 1st quarterly meeting held in Catarman, Northern Samar, the aim of which is to include women as active players in peace-building and not view them as mere “victims” of conflicts and not “actors” to end wars.
The Women Peace Table initiative is an integral part of Eastern Visayas Regional Peace and Prosperity Roadmap produced through brainstorming of all the six governors of the region providing a venue for the inclusive discussion of issues relevant to peace and development by stakeholders, create consensus on issues, plan and collaborate on actions, appreciate the diversity of identities and views, and promote healing and reconciliation.
The program is supported by five pillars that serve as purpose to attain just and lasting peace. These pillars are sound business and economic development, responsible use and equitable distribution of resources, high levels of human capital, social cohesion, and strong and stable inter-local government ties.
“Although Metro Manila and Leyte have different settings, interventions to address the issues can be replicated by reconfiguring it to attune it with the condition of NCR,” Agustin said.
“We should adopt peer to peer learning. Why do we have to create our own if there is already one that is working. We are here to know how it works and how we can adopt it to our own conditions,” she added.
Prior to the meeting with RPOC-8 members at the DILG regional office, the group along with Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan,RPOC-8 chair, made a courtesy call to Leyte Gov.Leopoldo Dominico Petilla.
Gov. Petilla presented to them the programs and interventions of the provincial government in hard-to-reach and conflict-affected barangays under its More Income to the Countryside Program (MIC-P).
Agustin said that after their meeting with Gov. Petilla and the RPOC-8 members, they will convene again to talk and discuss the programs in Eastern Visayas that are doable in Metro Manila.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY- As part of the annual fiesta of this city, a jet ski competition was held on June 16-17 participated by more than 50 competitors coming from different parts of the country, to include foreigners.
The jet ski competition was held at the Cancabato Bay and sponsored by the Tacloban City government.
Joey Millonado, race director, said that Tacloban City is the most convenient and center for racing.
Enzo Pontino, 11 years old and the youngest racer from General Santos City won in the Novice Ski Lites division, defeating Akemi Ekoma, an international racer, and Andrew Canlas.
The champions in other different divisions were Jan Robert Perales in the Pro/am Runabout Stock; Jay Gualiza in the Novice 1500; Bianca Perales in the Novice Runabout; Akemi Ekoma, women’s Ski Lites and 1500;BJ Ang in the Pro/am Runabout open; Novice 2-stroke open winner was Pong Lee.
Also declared as winners were Felix Pontino Jr. in the Expert Lites division; Enzo Pontino, Novice Ski Lites; Jan Robert Perales, Expert Runabout stock;Pro/am modified Ski (Division 1)winner was Ryoji Higashino; Expert Runabout open winner was Louie Buhisan; Pro/am 2 Stroke Open Runabout winner was Pong Lee;Women’s Runabout 4 stroke winner was Bianca Ysabel Perales.
Veterans Runabout winner was Jun Ekoma while in the Pro/am Modified Ski (Division 2) winner was Ryoji Higashino.
All winners received cash prizes and trophies. (MARIA FELINDA CADA, EDEN TEJERO, HYDE OPADA, GILAMAE RONCALES, Student Interns Eastern Samar State University)

BAYBAY CITY- Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla has issued his challenge to the officials of the two cities and 19 towns of the province to maintain their being drug-cleared status.
Petilla pointed out that after the declaration of these areas, what is more challenging is sustaining the efforts to maintain them as drug-cleared.
The declaration is part of the ongoing crackdown on illegal drugs by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Edgar Jubay, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said that their office has declared two cities and 19 towns of Leyte as drug-cleared.
Director Jubay identified the LGUs as Baybay and Ormoc cities and the towns of Mahaplag, Inopacan, Hindang, Hilongos, Matalom, Capoocan, Matag-ob, Villaba, Tabango, San Isidro, Jaro, Barugo, San Miguel, Sta. Fe, Babatngon, Pastrana, Javier, Tolosa and Mayorga.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

ORMOC CITY-The city government of Ormoc presented before members of the media the 20 candidates vying for this year’s Miss Ormoc title, a beauty and brain search which is one of the highlights of the city’s annual fiesta, Saturday(June 16).
And on the evening, 10 LED-lighted floats paraded around the city’s main streets as part of it’s first-ever Parade of Lights.
Mayor Richard Gomez said that the holding of the Parade of Lights is part of their campaign to ‘enhance’ the city’s Piña Festival which aim to promote the pineapple products of Ormoc.
“Today is the actual kick off of our enhanced Piña Festival with the Miss Ormoc presentation and our Parade of Lights. We are doing these to make our people happy and make our fiesta more colorful,” Gomez said.
For this year’s Miss Ormoc, the 20 candidates were presented before members of the press, namely,Charo Galicia Dayandayan;Daniela Lois Tariman;Karen Joy Hawkins Degorio;Gia Leigh Maris Chu Carreon; Shanice Kae Omega Suarez;Micah Andrea Duarte Abarquez;Fhern Alyanna Magada;Alexa Shane Holanda Dolina; Kassandra Mayol; Meljoy Dacera Cairlang;April Rose Tabudlong Elejorde;Alexa Marie Saavedra Matuguina;Lyka Mae Barbac Torcende;Roijane Fae Paje Plazo;Allyza Shen Pesabille Bartolini;Maria Nathalia Parilla Veloso;Micah Maglasang; Nica Zosa Nabua;Trixie Alvia Ong;and Princess Donah Ortega Paraiso.
During the same event, held at the activity area of the Robinsons-Ormoc, the 10 Piña Festival queens for this year were also presented.
The Miss Ormoc will be held on June 28 at the Ormoc Superdome with KC Montero and Karla Henry as hosts. The winner will be the candidate of Ormoc for Miss World-Philippines.
At past 6 pm, the Parade of Lights immediately followed using animated movies as the theme used by the 10 participating floats.
The 10 floats decorated with movie themes included Frozen; Beauty and the Beast; Cars; Avatar; Turbo; Little Mermaid; Lion King; Avengers; Tinker Bell and Moana.
Mayor Gomez expressed his gratitude for the support of the city residents on the Parade of Lights as they came in thousands catch a glimpse of these well-lighted and fully-decorated floats.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)

CAMP GENERAL VICENTE LUKBAN, CATBALOGAN CITY – The Candidate Soldier Course Class 552 & 553-2018 composed of 241 new aspirants was officially opened at Headquarters 8th Infantry (Stormtroopers) Division, Philippine Army, Barangay Maulong, this city with Maj. Gen. Raul M. Farnacio AFP, commander, as the keynote speaker on June 16.
The majority of the new selected batch of candidate soldiers came from Samar and Leyte provinces. On their educational profile, one is license professional; 51 of them are college graduates; 121 are college level and 68 are high school graduates with skills training from Technical Education Skills and Development Authority.
They will be honed for the duration of four months in basic military training and tactics and will serve as additional soldiers that will beef-up the personnel strength of the Stormtroopers Division.
Maj. Gen. Farnacio in his message, “To the 241 physically and mentally strong candidate soldiers, muli kong pinapaalala na ngayong araw ang hudyat at simula ng panibagong yugto ng inyong buhay. Sa inyong desisyon na pumasok sa pagsusundalo, gabayan nawa kayo palagi ng Poong Maykapal. Huwag ninyong bibiguin ang inyong mga magulang at lahat ng taong nagmamahal at nagtitiwala sa inyo at umaasa na mapagtatagumpayan ninyo ang hirap na ito. Kaya ninyong malagpasan ang lahat ng pagsubok. Tiwala sa sarili, positibong asal at pag-iisip ang inyong magiging puhunan at sandigan. Higit sa lahat, huwag na huwag ninyong kakalimutan ang pagtawag sa Panginoon para sa gabay at patnubay. 241 kayong nagsimula, hangad ko na 241 din kayong magtatapos at maging karapat dapat na tawaging STORMTROOPERS.”
Immediately after the program, enlistment clothing allowance were distributed to the new recruits, the Army ensures that they have already their needed equipment upon the start of their training. (PR)