TACLOBAN CITY – Farmers from different towns here in Leyte were encouraged to go on mechanization to further boost their productivity.
The call was made by Patrick Renucci, who is behind of a company that promotes farming mechanization, during a rice summit held this town Tuesday (Oct.17).
Renucci, together with his wife Rachel Tan, is behind of the Che Yi Agventures which promotes rice mechanization through its program dubbed ‘Rice Revolution of Renucci Partnership Program.’
“Renucci partnership tries to aim to (help the) farmers improve their ways of farming and to improve their yield and income of course, “Renucci stated during the forum held at the Leyte Academic Center, this town.
In accordance with this aim, the group will provide seeds with a zero interest loan, inputs, pesticides, and help in problems like diseases and mushrooms.
The farmers will do the planting with Che Yi Agventures will do the harvesting through a mechanized process since it produces a good quality of rice because it has a low moisture content.
For farmer assistance, they have farmer technicians to attend to them. They will also conduct training on good farming practices, fertilization computation, fertilizer application, mechanized or manual transplanting and disease prediction techniques.
Interested farmers should meet the criteria for the partnership. First, their farmland must be irrigated and accessible to the harvester. Second, only one variety of seed which is the RC300 will be utilized and 100% of the harvest must be sold to Renucci.
A contract will be signed between the Renucci group and the farmers stating that they should follow the package of technology required by the company which will be followed by the land preparation and planting in order to reach their goal of 175 bags or more.
Renucci said that they are optimistic that if farmers in Leyte will follow their model or structure and join their program, they can show the rest of the country that farming is successful.
They envision to make Leyte as the country’s premier rice granary.
“The rice processing center is still in phase one. Soon on May or June, it will be done. It’s a landmark here in the whole of Visayas,” Tan-Renucci said.
The Chen Yi Agventures have recently started a partnership with the provincial government of Leyte to continue its effort for the resilience of farming communities after the devastation of super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013. (EMILY MONTALLANA, LNU Student Intern)
Group encourages Leyte farmers to go on mechanized farming
DPWH office in East Samar collected 15 kg during coastal clean-up drive
BORONGAN CITY – The Department of Public Works and Highways- Eastern Samar District Engineering Office (DPWH-ESDEO) joined the nation of the recently-held international coastal clean-up day.
The annual activity, held every September 16 of the year, is in pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 470 declaring every third Saturday of September as the international coastal clean-up day.
This year, over 61 employees of the district participated in cleaning the 200 meter stretch of the coastline of the Baybay Baybay in this city, District Engineer Manolo Rojas said.
The activity, which started at sunrise, resulted in the collection of 15kg of trash.
Among the most collected were dried leaves, dried coconut husks, plastic food wrappers, plastic bottles, bottle caps as well as tiny pieces of foam.
For three decades, 9 million volunteers all over the world have collected 87,996,919.78 kilograms of trash.
The Philippines, with 3,650,881 volunteers in two decades, has since collected 19,228,243 kilograms of trash covering 54,132 kilometer coastline.
Last year 504,503 volunteers picked up 3,346,055 kilograms of trash along more than 24,136 kilometers of coastline.
The trash in the ocean impacts the livelihood of many Filipinos who depend on fishing and could impact the economy. Trash mostly harms the seabed and the marine life. Those places engaged in tourism with the beach and the sea as its prime tourist attraction will also be affected.
The DPWH has been joining the International Coastal Clean Up every year as part of promoting and supporting better Ocean Health and environmental consciousness. (VICKY C. ARNAIZ)
Canadian ambassador pays tribute to soldiers who help liberate Marawi City from Maute-Isis group
PALO, Leyte- Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines John Holmes lauded the bravery of Filipino soldiers who fought to liberate Marawi City from the hands of Maute- Isis Group.
Holmes said that while they were saddened on what happened in Marawi City, they were at the same “salute the brave soldiers,” in liberating the city from the terror group.
“Our hearts go out to all of the victims of Marawi City and all of the brave soldiers who lost their lives and to all their families,” the ambassador said.
The Canadian ambassador said that his country is ready to assist the Philippine government if it will ask for its assistance.
Likewise, his country will continue to provide assistance to Mindanao.
Holmes was among the foreign dignitaries who attended a ‘barrio fiesta’ sponsored by the Palo municipal government on October 19 held at the municipal building.
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla and Palo Mayor Remedios Petilla hosted the occasion which was also attended by war veterans.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Gov’t worker among arrested in sting operations by PDEA against shabu
TACLOBAN CITY- A government employee was among arrested by the members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-8) in a series of buy-bust operations in the city.
Manuel Fausto,43, and an employee of the Tacloban city government was arrested in possession of one sachet of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu valued at P1,000 by PDEA operatives in Barangay 62-B, Sagkahan district last October 11 at about 2:50 pm.
Also arrested was Jess Virgil Cordero, 26 and his live-in partner Joyce Anne Leona,28, in a buy-bust operation in Brgy. Poblacion, district 11 of La Paz town in Leyte at about 5:30 pm on October 17.
Seized from the two drug suspects were two sachets of shabu valued at P1,000 and six dried marijuana leaves.
And in another sting operation conducted by the PDEA agents was Diego Aurelia,36 who was arrested in Barangay 66, Paseo de Legaspi and in possession of two sachets of shabu valued at P1,000.
All four drugs suspects were charged for possession and selling of illegal drugs. They are now temporarily detained at the detention facility of PDE-8. (PR)
PDEA in EV needs 100 agents to combat drug abuse
As sole authority to conduct anti-illegal drugs operations
TACLOBAN CITY- With President Rodrigo Duterte directing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the sole agency to carry out operations against illegal drugs in the country, an official of the anti-drug agency in the region said that they need additional personnel to carry out such mission.
Rogelette Urgel, PDEA’s regional spokesperson, said that their current strength is not enough for them to carry out anti-drug operations across the region, composed of six provinces and seven cities.
Urgel, however, said that they welcome the order of Mr. Duterte, issued on October 10, as it is the mandate of PDEA to address the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.
“Of course we welcome this directive of the President. However, our campaign may be hampered due to lack of personnel,” Urgel said.
“For us to cover the entire region, perhaps we need an additional 100 agents,” she added.
At present, PDEA-8 has about 100 personnel which is headed by Regional Director Edgar Jubay.
She also said that while the President now gave PDEA the sole authority to conduct anti-drug operations, they would continue to work closely with the Philippine National Police (PNP), which earlier played a significant role in the anti-drug campaign.
She, however, stressed that the police organization could not conduct any anti-drug operations without the consent or coordination with their agency.
The campaign to eliminate illegal drugs in the country under the administration of Pres. Duterte has turned out to be controversial due to reported extrajudicial killings which now runs to close to 3,000 as claimed by the administration’s critics, to include human rights groups.
The huge number is being contested by the Philippine National Police.
In the region, lawyer Desiree Pontejos, officer-in-charge of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said that they have monitored 36 so-called extrajudicial killings across the region.
These killings include that of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who was gunned down inside his cell at the Leyte subprovincial jail in Baybay City on November 4, 2016 by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Angelika Bonita, 18.
Urgel said that aside from giving PDEA additional personnel, they also need cooperation from the people in the communities.
Meantime, Urgel said that out of the 4,390 barangays in the region, more than 350 of them have been declared as ‘drug-cleared’ by their office.
She also said that the towns of General MacArthur, Maslog, both in Eastern Samar; Limasawa in Southern Leyte; Pagsanghan and Motiong, both in Samar, have been declared as drug-cleared.
By drug-cleared it means absence of a drug supplier in a particular area though there could still be drug dependents, Urgel said.
Icons of saint against storm to be submerged in Leyte areas hit by storm surge
Yolanda’s 4th anniversary
TACLOBAN CITY – Spiritual activities and environmental protection should be highlighted during the yearly commemoration of the onslaught of super typhoon ‘Yolanda.’
And in doing so, it is just fitting to put up the icons of St. Medard along the coasts in areas that suffered devastations due to Yolanda that pummeled the province on November 8, 2013.
Thus said Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto who disclosed that a group of divers will be coming to the province next week to identify particular areas where the icons of the saint would be placed.
But initially, the plan is to ‘submerge’ the icons in areas where storm surges occurred. The storm surge was blamed as the cause for the deaths of thousands of people when Yolanda devastated Leyte and some parts of the region.
“The yearly commemoration of the Yolanda devastation should have more meaning(and) impact by taking care of our environment and strengthen our spiritual faith,” Loreto said.
Thus, the plan to put the images of Saint Medard of Noyon considered as the patron saint against bad storms.
“Divers are due to come next week to pinpoint a good location for these (icons),” Loreto disclosed.
Scientists were one in saying that Yolanda was a result of climate change, blame mainly to man’s abuses to the environment.
St. Medard of Noyon, France is a sixth-century bishop considered as the patron saint for protection from bad storms. Legend has it that as a child, he was once sheltered from the rain by an eagle hovering over him.
Proposed areas for the project are Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa and other areas which were devastated by the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
However, for Tanauan town, the plan is for the icon be placed at one of its junctions facing the sea, Loreto said.
Loreto added that while many natural disasters are unavoidable such as Yolanda, some are linked to human activities which direct a connection towards environmental stewardship.
He said catastrophic natural disasters continue to occur nowadays and these devastating events always take their toll on human life, whether through immediate devastation and destruction or through their crippling impact on food production and ecological systems.
In the long run, these areas where the icons of St. Medard will be placed can be promoted for pilgrimage tourism, it was learned. (AHLETTE C.REYES)