Day: July 27, 2021

CEBU CITY – The business community in Cebu has welcomed the commitment made by President Rodrigo Duterte to revive the pre-pandemic “commercial vibrance” in the country.

Felix Taguiam, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), expressed support for the President’s assurance to help local businesses recover from the pandemic.

“What President Duterte said in his last SONA (State of the Nation Address) that the government is committed to assist the private sector reclaim the commercial vibrance of the country prior to the pandemic is most welcome and has been evident at the local level, where the Chamber has partnered with the national government for strategic interventions for the small, medium and even micro-businesses that drive our economy,” Taguiam told the media here.

The business leader also cited the recognition made by Duterte, who delivered his final SONA on Monday, on the private sector’s role in fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

He urged the administration to address challenges being faced by various sectors in the business community.

Taguiam said there is still much to be done to address the cost of doing business in the country as it remains a challenge.

“The government should put more focus on the development of these areas that make our country and our cities a much better place to live in. The utilities sector is an essential industry that plays a vital role in economic and social development, yet, it remains an area our country has been struggling with in terms of cost and supply,” he added.

For his part, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Steven Yu said they were pleased to hear Duterte’s appreciation to private stakeholders in the Covid-19 fight.

“Without the open arms of the administration towards the private sector, the private sector cannot be effective partners of the government, thus, much credit goes to the administration who embraces the private sector as equal partners in progress,” he said.

Yu also expressed hopes for the recovery of the tourism and domestic service sectors, which have been severely affected by the crisis.

“Inasmuch as we recognize the limitations of our financial capability as a country, what worries us is the recovery of the tourism and domestic service sectors in Cebu,” he added.

Yu said the tourism industry plays a crucial role in the country’s economic recovery, and urged for more focus on helping the industry post-pandemic.

Business leaders here agreed that existing laws passed during the Duterte administration, such as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, have helped the businesses.

Duterte has urged the Congress to prioritize the bills for the amendments of the Foreign Investments Act, Public Service Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act.

These laws, once amended, would open the country to more foreign investment and ownership. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Joint police and military operatives seized early Tuesday some PHP8 million shipment of smuggled cigarettes in an east coast barangay here, a top police official announced.

Brig. Gen. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Police Regional Office-9 (PRO-9) director, said the cigarette shipment was seized around 2:15 a.m. in Barangay Divisoria, some 6 kilometers east of the city proper.

Ylagan said the troops were manning a fixed checkpoint when they flagged an eight-wheeler cargo van that was traveling towards the east coast coming from the city proper.

Ylagan said upon inspection, the cargo van was found loaded with 439 master cases of assorted cigarettes worth PHP8 million covered with 30 empty blue plastic drums.

He said the cargo van driver, Jereel Hofelina, 41, and his truckman, Alnasher Arraji, 36, failed to show any documents of the cargoes.

He said the van and its cargoes, as well as the driver and the truckman, were placed under the custody of the Zamboanga City Police Office’s (ZCPO) Station 5 for proper disposition. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency

CEBU CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday has renewed the hope of the Filipino people for a better and brighter future as he ushered a “golden age of infrastructure”, the presidential assistant for the Visayas said on Tuesday.

Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said the President has transformed the three central Philippine regions as he balanced the Build, Build, Build’s civil work initiatives with social development and programs designed to solve various maladies such as proliferation of illegal drugs, corruption, and insurgency.

“As part of the Philippines’ golden age of infrastructure, the Visayas has been a recipient of major flagship and development projects that will further pave the way for its metro cities, tourism destinations and IT (information technology) hubs to be an economic stronghold,” Dino said in a statement.

He said world-class masterpieces such as the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal 2, Panglao-Bohol International Airport, development of Siquijor, Dumaguete, Santa Fe-Bantayan, and Calbayog airports, and the soon-to-be-completed Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway are some of the notable projects.

He noted that the 29,264 kilometers of roads completed through the Build, Build, Build program, along with 451 seaport and 214 airport projects completed as of June this year, have benefited the agriculture, tourism, commerce and other sectors.

Addressing insurgency issues

Dino also said Visayas officials support the President’s will to crash insurgency in the countryside through actions over decade-old maladies in social imbalance in terms of social development programs.

The President’s whole-of-nation approach in directly dealing with the communities affected by the existence of Maoist teachings of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has the concurrence of town and village officials in Samar, Negros island provinces and Bohol, he noted.

He also said Duterte’s signing of Executive Order (EO) No. 70 has changed the course of the country’s fight against the CPP-NPAs, involving all agencies of government in finding solutions to problems directly felt by the village folks.

“As the Cabinet Officer for Regional Peace and Development for Central Visayas (CORDS), I have also witnessed firsthand our peace and development efforts through the Regional Task Force 7 on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF 7 ELCAC) by way of basic services, former rebel reintegration and amnesty programs, and sectoral unification efforts,” Dino said.

He reported that over PHP6 million worth of assistance has been given to a total of 128 former rebels through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).

For 2022, the RTF-ELCAC-7 endorsed 86 barangays in Region 7 for inclusion in the Barangay Development Program (BDP) where each barangay will get a fund of PHP20 million each for their locally-identified programs, activities and projects.

“This administration really takes peace efforts seriously as its way of paving sustainable growth and development,” Dino said.

Social and economic developments

In the Central Visayas region alone, a total of 32,014 individuals were given a total of PHP113.24 million through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

Since the start of the Duterte administration, a total of 229,289 hectares of land has been distributed to poor and deserving farmers for agriculture through the issuance of EO 75, identifying lands owned by the government devoted to or suitable for agriculture for distribution to qualified beneficiaries.

Dino said more than 2,245 farmer-beneficiaries in the Visayas were granted land ownership totaling over 3,000 hectares, along with millions of pesos worth of support services projects.

These were made possible by the implementation of the President’s EO 70 instituting a whole-of-nation approach on ending local communist armed conflict (ELCAC program), he said.

“When he signed RA 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, some 1,623,628 students were able to avail free college tuition and other school fees. With this, more students will be enjoying free, quality tertiary education as a right and no longer a privilege like before in the coming years,” he said.

Dino also lauded Duterte’s effort to eradicate bureaucratic red tape through Republic Act (RA) 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act.

The law, he said, has expanded the powers of the Anti-Red Tape Authority, thereby streamlining basic government services and processes, minimizing the bureaucratic red tape that has painfully caused inconvenience to the transacting public in the previous years.

Also, the passage of RA 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act has paved the way for the healthcare coverage of 109,035,343 Filipinos.

“This is timely since the country, as with the rest of the world, is now in the midst of a global health emergency. Even before the Universal Health Care Act was enacted, through the efforts of Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, the nationwide rollout of Malasakit Centers was well underway,” he said.

There are currently 130 Malasakit Centers across the country, 26 of which are in the Visayas, where some 2 million individuals were already assisted. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency

ILOILO CITY – The Western Visayas Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF6-ELCAC) is committed to pursuing just and lasting peace by ending local insurgency next year through the Whole-of-Nation approach.

“Before the President’s term ends, we shall strive to put an end to the 52-year-old insurgency by bringing basic social services to the grassroots level, building roads to far-flung barangays, winning the hearts and minds of the masses, depriving the communist terrorist groups of their lairs, safe havens and community bases,” Associate Provincial Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, the spokesperson of the regional task force, said in a statement on Tuesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte, in his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, highlighted the efforts of the national task force in addressing the root cause of the armed conflict.

Gonzales said members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) who will return to the fold of the government will not be left behind in the provision of the necessary government services.

“We will ensure that you and your families will be provided with adequate livelihood, a peaceful community, and hope for a better future,” he said as he called on their remaining members to “abandon their lost cause and dying ideology”.

Maj. Cenon Pancito III, the spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s (PA) 3rd Infantry Division (3ID), welcomed the President’s mention of the efforts of the task force.

“We know that this is the meat of what we are doing in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. We wanted development and progress but there are problems on insurgency,” he said in a phone interview.

He said the acknowledgment by the President is a testament that it is not only the AFP that is working but the government as a whole, driven by the political will of the country’s leader to end the insurgency.

“This would somehow also suggest that the AFP is not left alone to do the job. But we have been telling this that insurgency cannot be solved by merely pure military solution but should be a whole-of-nation approach,” Pancito added.

Within the area of operation of the 3ID, a total of 102 Yunit Militia members or “NPA in the Barrios” surrendered to the government while 440 supporters and sympathizers withdrew their support from the armed group in the first semester of 2021.

Also, a total of 153 barangays have been cleared from the influence of the communist terrorist group.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Pancito said the Philippine Army is happy with the President’s mention of his efforts to help soldiers not just through capability upgrade but also by boosting their morale and increasing their salary. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency

TACLOBAN CITY – Mayor Aran Boller of Matuguinao, a former rebel-infested town in Samar, on Tuesday said the national government should look into the sincerity of local government unit (LGU) officials in fighting the New People’s Army (NPA) in their communities.

Reacting to President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Boller said the national government will only be able to fully address the root causes of insurgency if local governments have the political will.

“There should be a system to make local governments accountable if they are not serious in the fight against insurgency. Even if the central government is making double efforts to build safe and conflict-resilient villages, if local governments are not committed, we will not achieve lasting peace,” Boller said in a phone interview.

“I feel that the President is sincere in fighting NPA, but this commitment should be matched with efforts of local officials,” he added.

In his sixth and final SONA, Duterte said the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has resolved the root causes of the communist armed conflict in the country.

“With the creation of the National Task Force to End [Local] Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC, we have made great strides in addressing the root causes of this conflict by empowering our kababayans (countrymen) who have been used by the communists for so many decades,” he said.

Efforts of the local task force ELCAC have led to the surrender of over 300 NPA fighters and their die-hard supporters in Matuguinao town between 2019 to 2021.

“All of our 12 conflict-stricken villages are now cleared with no sightings of armed rebels in the past six months. I hope the national government agencies will be consistent in delivering services and the army should regularly conduct patrol in these communities or else the NPA will come back to extort food from residents,” Boller told the Philippine News Agency.

Each of these 12 villages is eligible to receive the PHP20 million under the Barangay Development Program in 2022 to finance farm-to-market roads, water and sanitation system, health stations, school buildings, assistance to poor families, and livelihood training assistance.

The weakening of NPA in Samar is a result of a whole-of-nation approach by linking arms between basic service providers from the central government, community participation groups from the local governments, and the security sector from the military and police.

In support of the fight against NPA, several local government units have formed their task force ELCAC operationalizing Executive Order 70 issued by Duterte on Dec. 4, 2018.

The directive also institutionalizes a “whole-of-nation approach” in attaining an inclusive and sustainable peace.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA, which has been waging a five-decade armed struggle against the government, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Job order nurses and doctors at the city government-run Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital (DJPRH) will get significant increases in their salaries next month.

Glenville Gonzalez, DJPRH department head, said Tuesday the local government is currently finalizing its implementation effective Aug. 15 providing new salary scale for job order employees.

He said it will specifically cover the city hospital’s nurses, medical specialists, and medical officers.

Gonzalez said they pushed for the upgrading of their basic salaries to provide them with proper compensation amid the continuing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

He said it is also aimed at preventing them from considering other employment options or offers and eventually resigning from the hospital.

He admitted that since January, some 25 job order nurses have already resigned for various reasons, among them the higher salary rates in other hospitals in the area.

“We can’t stop them from transferring to other hospitals with higher or better offers and it is really a valid reason if they want to resign,” he told members of the city council during its session.

DJPRH currently has a total of 97 job order nurses while over 30 are regular or permanent employees.

Gonzalez, who was called by the city council to shed light on the reported resignations of DJPRH personnel and other related concerns, said job order nurses currently receive a monthly salary of 17,099.

He said such rate was among the highest in the area for several years but other hospitals offered higher rates when the pandemic started.

He admitted, however, that it was much lower than the basic rate for permanent Nurse 1 positions, which increased to PHP35,575 last year.

Gonzalez said they requested the city’s human resource management and development office to review the salary scale of their job order workers and it eventually came out with new proposed rates.

He said City Mayor Ronnel Rivera approved the increase in December last year but was not included in this year’s budget, prompting them to push for its funding and implementation effective Aug. 15.

Under the new salary scale, he said job order nurses will receive a basic salary of PHP26,192.10, with an increase of over PHP9,000.

The salaries of medical specialists will increase from PHP40,603.86 to PHP46,064.04 while those for the Medical Officer III from PHP35,218.92 to PHP43,439, he said.

He said such rates exclude the mandatory benefits and incentives for medical and health care workers.

“We also proposed for their inclusion in the giving of overtime pay,” Gonzalez added. (PNA)

Source: Philippines News Agency