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Php 10 more for Eastern Visayas’ minimum wage earners - RTWPBBy Marie ToneTTe MarTicio

Ormoc hosts SWM deliberation of 40 LGU-delegates before envi department

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sEE SWM p. 10

TACLOBAN CITY – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Eastern Visayas an-nounced that the additional Php 10 daily minimum wage took effect Thursday, February 18.

RTWPB chairman and De-partment of Labor and Employ-ment (DOLE) 8 regional director Yahya Centi shared the increase is part of the second tranche of the wage adjustment approved by the Board last year, making the minimum wage Php 325 for non-agriculture workers.

He added that under Wage Order 21, those working in cot-tage industries and the agriculture sector would now receive Php 295 daily minimum wage.

The official noted that 2019 was a year of accomplishments for them, citing that the first tranche of the increase was approved on July 22, 2019, and took effect on August 18, which added Php 10 to the daily pay of the region’s labor force.

“The wage rates prescribed in the order applies to all minimum

wage earners in the private sector in Eastern Visayas, regardless of their position, designation or sta-tus of employment and irrespec-tive of the method by which their wages are paid,” he said.

The minimum wage for do-mestic helpers or “kasambay” was also prescribed to Php 4,500 from Php 2,500 in chartered cities and municipalities, and Php 4,000 from Php 2,000 in other munici-palities monthly.

The official shared that 94 percent of more than 1,600 regis-tered establishments are generally compliant to the labor standards based on their monitoring.

“In the context of labor inspec-tions, we are more than 11%, which is monumental in the history of DOLE 8. We have the highest rate throughout the country,” Centi said.

DENR (CENRO Ormoc) personnel carefully handles an adult Eastern grass owl (Tyto longimembris), which they rescued from the home and safekeep of Grade 12 student Mary Ann Mercolita, who contacted the DENR through its FB Page, with the help of friends, after the said owl flew to their backyard in Sitio Toril, Brgy. Masarayao, Kananga, Leyte; and never left. She thought the owl was sick. This prompted her to ask help from the environment department because she knew that they were experts on the matter. (PR & Story on page 2)

RTWPB chairman and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) 8 regional director Yahya Centi (2nd from left) as he leads a presscon on the implementation of the second tranche of the wage adjustment approved by the Board in 2019.

Participants and commissioners pose during the opening of the two-day Solid Waste Management (SWM) Plan Presentation and Deliberation of 40 LGU-delegates in region 8 before DENR done in the multiple-purpose hall of the new Ormoc city hall. Ormoc is host-city of the said event.

ORMOC CITY – The Local Gov-ernment Unit of Ormoc hosted the 10-year Solid Waste Manage-ment (SWM) Plan Presentation and Deliberation of 40 LGU-delegates in region 8 before rep-

resentatives of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on February 19-20, 2020 at various venues inside the new city hall.

An Environmental Manage-ment Bureau (EMB) Caravan also happened on the said dates.

The deliberation was chaired by the Solid Waste Management Board and Commissioners name-ly: DENR Assistant Secretary Jesus Enrico Moises B. Salazar; Eugenia Briones of the Depart-ment of Agriculture (DA); Marla

Clarisol Agas of the the Depart-ment of Interior and Local Gov-ernment (DILG); Alviden Asis of the League of Cities of the Philip-pines; Rita Regalado of the Manu-facturing and Packaging Industry Sector; Mary Cris Base of TESDA; and Engr. Gerardo Mogol, Romeo Hidalgo and Crispian Lao of the Recycling Industry Sector.

The city of Ormoc was one of the last presenters during the said deliberation. It was Mayor Richard

2 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

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Health office calls for ‘vigilance’ against Dengue

PUIs, PUMs decrease as Eastern Visayas continues COVID-19 surveillance

Grade 12 student rescues owl, calls on DENR for assistance

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas has noted a significant decrease of patients under investigation (PUI) and persons under monitoring (PUM) for Corononavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 based on their surveillance for almost a week now.

A 42-year-old Filipina from Southern Leyte was recorded as the 17th PUI. She had a history of travel to Hongkong and arrived in the Philippines on February 11 via Cebu, and traveled

back to Southern Leyte last February 15 with no com-plaints or symptoms.

She was home-quaran-tined for five days wherein she complained of body weakness and requested to be admitted to a hospital on February 18.

DOH said the PUI had an episode of epigastric or upper abdominal pain with vomiting but had no fever and has normal vital signs. She is now asymptomatic and is in good condition.

Meanwhile, two ad-ditional PUMs were also recorded with both having

travel history to Hongkong.The PUMs, a 35-year-

old, Filipino from Southern Leyte, and a 24-year-old female from Leyte are both asymptomatic.

A total of 22 PUMs have already been recorded in the region. Eleven of which have been cleared, while 11 are still under monitoring.

Despite the decrease, DOH-8 regional director Mi-nerva Molon said they would continue to do all interventions in preventing the risk of infec-tion and local transmission.

“We will continue to

provide technical assistance by giving the necessary updates for the guidelines, protocols, advisories and even logistical support. We also intensified our advo-cacy and health education campaigns down to the barangay level, as we are going to start deploying our human resources for health who will actively partici-pate as a member of the Ba-rangay Health Emergency Response Team (BERT), as formed by the local govern-ment units,” Molon said. By Marie Tonette Marticio

ORMOC HIGHLANDS II NOW ALMOST READY FOR OCCUPANCY. On Febru-ary 18, 2020, a Tuesday, Ormoc City Mayor Richard I. Gomez had a joint onsite inspection with the National Housing Authority (NHA) of the city’s housing project in Brgy. Dolores.

According to Mayor Richard I. Gomez, the said housing project named, Ormoc Highlands II, is by far the “largest” among the existing housing projects, either LGU-initiated or that of the NHA, as it is 5.4 hectares big, with 699 housing units. It is set to be turned over within the next three weeks to the 2017 earthquake victims residing in barangays Dolores, Milagro, Lake Danao, Liberty and Ga-as. (By Mary Ann Reusora)

TACLOBAN CITY – The City Health Office (CHO) here calls on the public to maintain the cleanliness of the environment amidst the increasing number of dengue cases this year.

Dr. Gloria Fabrigas, city health officer, said they have already recorded 117 cases and three deaths be-cause of the disease.

“We continue to call on the public to search and destroy breeding areas of mosquitoes and to practice the 5S advocacy,” she said.

The Dengue 5S are: (1) Search and destroy the ar-eas where the mosquitoes breed; (2) Secure self-pro-tection by wearing long-

sleeved clothes and use anti-mosquito products; (3) Seek early consultation especially if fever does not stop within two days; (4) Start early hydration; and (5) Say no to indiscriminate fogging and spraying except for areas where there are recorded clustering of cases.

“If you have fever for more than two days you should have yourself checked immediately and drink lots of water because the most common cause of death for children is dehy-dration. This usually results to accute renal failure or accute tubular necrosis,” Dr. Fabrigas explained. By Ma-rie Tonette Grace Marticio

DOH-8 to deploy 2,116 health workers to underserved communitiesTHE DEPARTMENT of Health regional office has started processing appli-cation and deployment of 2,116 health workers to un-derserved and geographi-cally isolated communities in Eastern Visayas.

DOH regional director Minerva Molon said these “human resource for health staff” are composed of nurs-es, medical technologists and midwives who will not only help the department

in attending to the health needs of the people, but will also do the monitoring of different DOH programs in the local government units and far-flung communities.

Aside from the geo-graphically isolated and de-pressed areas, priority areas for deployment will also be given to identified municipal-ities with indigenous people (IPs), 4th / 5th / 6th class municipalities, and areas with urban poor communities.

Molon said the de-ployment of health work-ers is timely in the light of the existing corona virus or the COVID-19 scare as well as the re-emergence of dengue cases.

Molon added that the deployment will be gradual as the regional office is en-suring that all the neces-sary documents of the staff are complete before taking the assignment. By Elmer Recuerdo

Ormoc’s “dream” boxing gym finally opened

KANANGA, LEYTE – “We were ecstatic to see unique species of bird right at our backyard, but we never thought of keeping it as pets. I know they should be in their natural habitat,” shared Mary Ann Mercoli-ta, a grade 12 student from Ormoc City, as recalls her encounter with an adult Eastern grass owl (Tyto longimembris), which flew to their backyard in Sitio Toril, Brgy. Masarayao, Kananga, Leyte.

“They were three, two

of the birds flew and the other one stayed, and this concerned me a bit. Maybe it wasn’t in good condition, so I thought it has to be res-cued by animal protection experts,” Mary Ann said.

M a r y A n n a d d e d that their Science lesson at school was on wildlife and biodiversity when she encountered the owl. “My learning made me aware of its value. Wildlife needs to be protected and preserved, and we need to conserve our forest resources, their

home,” Mary Ann stressed.“With the help of my

classmates, I immediately requested the Department of Environment and Nat-ural Resources (DENR) through their social media account to rescue the owl, which my father first kept at home to ensure its safety. We were happy that it was immediately rescued by the DENR CENRO in Ormoc,” Mary Ann added.

The rescued owl was

sEE OWL p. 7

ORMOC CITY – Mayor Richard I. Gomez along with SP Member Vince Rama, Chairman of the Committee on Infrastruc-ture, and two other coun-cilors Engr. Esteban Lau-rente and Lalaine Mar-cos, together with City Engineer Rani Oliveros finally turned over – and

officially opened – the boxing gym that the city has been dreaming of for many years now to the team managing the Ormoc City Sports Complex on February 20, 2020.

Accordingly, the box-ing gym is the third sports facility donated by LGU-Ormoc to the sports com-

sEE BOXING GYM p. 7

3FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Mga mag-uuma sa Ormoc nipadangat sa ilang mga kasagmuyo sa DAR

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ORCHAM HOLDS FIRST KAPIHAN OF 2020. The dynamic and active Ormoc Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (ORCHAM) held its first “ORCHAM Kapihan” for the year 2020 last February 19, Wednesday, at the Ormoc City Museum. In the lead was current ORCHAM President Ms. Aileen Suarez-Aviles together with fellow ORCHAM member Maricel Ngo. In attendance were ORCHAM member and non-member businesses and government agencies such as the city’s BPLO, OBO, ENRD, BFP, City Health, and City Planning offices. Councilor Nolito Quilang was present, too, to lend his support to the event. The “kapihan” discussion focused on the theme, “LGU and the Business Community working hand-in-hand towards a business-friendly Ormoc”. (By Mary Ann Reusora)

ORMOC CITY – Huwebes sa buntag, Pebrero 20, dili mominus osa ka gatos ka mga mag-uuma nga nag-kupot ug Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) ang nagpaabot sa taga Department of Agrar-ian Reform (DAR), didto sa covered court sa barangay Sumanga, aron magpaki-sayud gikan sa ahensiya kanus-a gyud sila hatagan ug katungod nga matikad na ang yuta nga gihatag sa gobiyerno kanila.

Sa bongbong sa cov-ered court makita ang mga nakapaskin nga placards nangutana ug nagpakilooy kang Presidente Rodrigo Duterte nga unta mainstalar na sila sa DAR. Sa unang balita, ang Regional Director sa DAR Stephen Leonidas ang makighimamat sa mga maguuma apan ang niabot mao si Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Renato Badil-la, kuyog niya sila MARO Pit Sabandal ug MARO-Ormoc Arthiereza Manalo.

“DU30, among ama-han sa nasud, asa na ang katumanan sa DAR? Asa ang implementasyun sa CARP, para sa mga maguuma. DAR, iskwater gihapon mi,” pipila lamang kini sa nakapaskin sa mga placard aron ilang mapakita ug mapabati sa DAR ang ilang mga katun-god ug kasagmuyo.

Gipakita sa mga mag-uuma ang ilang CLOA nga gikuptan, pero si PARO Badilla niingon nga ila pa kining susihon sa listahan. Matud nila adunay na-pulo ka titulo anaa sa ilang datus apan dili sila segu-rado hain niini nga titulo nalista kining mga mag-uuma nga ilang naatubang. Mahimong mogamit sila ug Google aron matultulan hain kini nga yuta base sa kopya sa CLOA nga anaa sa ilang mga kamot. “Plano-hon kini segun sa direktiba sa Presidente,” pahayag ni PARO Badilla. Desidido si Presidente Duterte nga iapod-apod sa mga mag-

uuma ang mga yuta aron ila matikad, basta ang patag nga dapit, igahin kini para sa military reservation.

Si Rosalina Naong, taga barangay Patag, nangangkon nga nainstalar na daw siya ug ang iyang pahat gikan sa programa sa gobiyerno, ang Comprehensive Agrarian Re-form Program (CARP), anaa sa 1.5 ektarya, gikan kini sa tag-iya sa yuta nga si Eufracio Penserga. “Didto ko sa DAR sir, matud nila may bayronon daw ko nga Php 300,000 pero wa man koy ikabayad ug wala man sab ko makatikad sa yuta nga kuno para ako. Wala sad ko makatultol asa ning dapita,” polong ni Mrs. Naong.

Si Asuncion Agcang nga asawa ni Vevencio Agcang nga maoy nalista sa CLOA, nga nahinabi niingon nainsta-lar na daw sila ug naa na silay papel; pero sa pag-adto niya sa DAR Ormoc, nadeskubre-han nga may bayronon daw siya nga Php 173,000.

Asa man daw siyag ibayad, ug wala daw siya

makatikad sa yuta sumala sa nasuwat sa CLOA. Wala daw siya makatultol asa kini dapit, labaw sa tanan, wala daw siya makaila kinsa ang tag-iya sa yuta.

Si PARO Badilla nga naka mikropono niangkon atubangan sa mga mag-uuma ug niingon, “Naay nagpogong”, pero wala siya mopangan kinsa.

Sa panapos sa nahis-gotan nga tigum, si PARO Badilla nisaad nga himuon ang tanan aron mahatag na ug matikad sa mga mag-uuma ang yuta nga gihatag sa gobiyerno kanila. Dili kini libre kay matud sa mga mag-uuma, bayronon nila ang yuta nga para ila.

Si Agapito “Yongyong” Pongos nga didto sa tigum nimandar sa iyang mga tawo nga ilhun kadtong kaniadto nga trabahante sa iyang amahan aron mahata-gan ug pahat nga yuta aron matikad sa karon nga nag-sunod nga kaanak sa kanhi nila saup. Ni Paul Libres

ORMOC CITY – Duha katawo ang nangaangul sa nahitabong aksidente niadtong Pebrero 17, ug ang mga nalambigit nga sakyanan mga motor.

Ang una nga insedente nahitabo alas onse pasado sa buntag sa barangay Liloan ning siyudad diin ang nabik-tima mao ang siete anyus nga batang babaye. Sa police log-book sa Traffic Management Unit (TMU), ang biktima giila nga Fritz Trixie Doria , taga sityu San Roque, Liloan. Sila P/SSgt.P atricio Canete ug P/SSgt. Willard Collera ang niresponde. Wala na nila maabti ang biktima sa dapit sa nahitaboan kay gi-dala na kini sa nagpakabana nga silingan didto sa Ormoc District Hospital.

Sa inbistigasyun sa mga pulis, nailhan ang drayber sa motor nga nakabangga nga si Felicisimo Romo, 66 anyus, taga Domonar ning siyudad. Nasayran ang bik-tima nilabang sa kalsada, dihang nabanggaan kini sa motor. Nakaangkon siya sa mga bon-og ug pangus sa lawas. Wala man hinuon magrabihe ug gipapauli na kini sa doktor human madapatig tambal.

Matud ni P/SSgt. Colle-ra nagkasabot na ang duha ka habig didto sa barangay hall sa Liloan nianang Pe-brero 17 sa hapon, nga dili na intresado ang ginikanan sa bata mopasaka ug kiha batok kang Romo.

Nianang alas sais pasado sa gabii sa maong petsa, osa na sad ka aksidente ang nahitabo diha sa national highway sa barangay San Isidro ning siyudad, diin ang

ginganlan og Cleto Logronio, 51 anyus, kasamtangang nagpuyo sa nahisagotan nga dapit, ang nabanggaan ug motor. Matud sa mga nire-spondeng pulis, namidmid sa daplin sa kalsada si Log-ronio dihang gipunggit siya sa motor nga gimaneho sa ginganlan ug Joel Baclaan, 27 anyus, taga Alta Vista.

Natumba ug nadanas ang biktima, tayming nga may niagi nga sakyanan sa Ormoc Rescue Team ug nadala ang biktima sa Ormoc District Hospital (ODH). Gibiyaan sa drayber ang sakyanan kay nahadlok dihang gilibotan na siya sa mga tawo. Didto na-sayran ni P/SSgt. Collera kinsay tag-iya sa motor, kay abli pa ang tindahan sa Skygo, nasubay ang tag-iya sa sakyanan nga taga Alta Vista. Didto sab nasayran kinsa ang nagmaneho sa sakyanan adtong higayuna.

Pebrero 18 sa buntag, si Logronio kuyog sa iyang pamilya nianha sa buhatan sa TMU aron makigkita ni Baclaan. Lagum sa ulo, mata, ug bukton ang naang-kon sa biktima.

Gusto sa pamilya nga gastoan sa drayber ang pagpatambal sa ilang pa-dre de familia hangtud nga mamaayo. Kinahanglan nga maeksamin sa doktor ang ulo sa biktima tungod kay magsinakit kini. Sa didto pa sa ODH ang biktima nawad-an siyag panimuot, nakalimot siya sa nahitabo. Magpalit unta siyag isda sa Talipapa dapit sa pikas tampi sa kalsada dihang nadasmagan siya sa motor. Ni Paul Libres

ORMOC CITY – Nidangup sa Police Station 1 (PS1) si Jas-min Nesbit, 42 anyus, osa ka nurse, kay ang iyang mahalon nga cellphopne nawala.

Matud ni Nesbit nga nagtrabaho sa Cotting Edge Bag Manufacturing nga may opisina sa ikaduhang andana sa A-Mall sa dalan Rizal, ang kantidad sa iyang cellphone Php 80,000. Ang iyang tuyo pag-anha sa buhatan sa pulis aron siya matabangan nga unta mabalik kaniya ang nahisgotan nga butang nga gawas nga mahal ang kan-tidad, mahinungdanon sab gyud ang mga kontak niini.

Sa kuha sa CCTV nakit-an nga ang maong cellphone

nahulog kay wala masulod sa iyang bag human niyag gamit. Nasayran base sa kuha sa CCTV nga napunitan ang cellphone sa osa ka batang babaye nga may kuyog nga hingkud na ang edad.

Gihimuan ug pakisusi ni P/SSgt. Raegan Degilio sa PS1. Didto nasayran nga ang kadtong hingkud nga babaye niadto sa A-Mall ug nakuha sa pulis ang iyang pangalan nga si Marilyn Arabes, taga Masarayao, Kananga. Giadto sa mga awtoridad ang pinoy-anan ni Arabes ug nabawi ang cell-phone sa nurse. Wala hinuon magpakita ug kasilo si Arabes matud sa mga pulis, butang nga gipasalamatan sa tag-iya.

Ang mga awtoridad ni-ingon nga dako gyud kaayo ug gamit ang CCTV, busa kinahanglan gyud nga matag establisemento, angay gyud magtiner ug mga CCTV, pero kining mga high definition. Osa ka kasaligan nga tinobdan nitug-an nga may mga CCTV nga hanap ang kuha, labi pa kining mga gitaud sa mga barangay, usik lang ang gasto.

Ang establisemento nga adunay mga CCTV nag-panuko ug sulod ang mga kawatan, ug kun simbako adunay kremin mahitabo, makatabang ang kuha sa CCTV nga masubay kini. Nu-webenta por siyento madali pagsulbad ang kaso, labi pa

kun anaay mga saksi.Tungod sab sa CCTV

nasulbad ang osa ka hit-and-run nga kaso diha sa baran-gay Ipil niadtong buwan sa Nobiyembre sa nilabay nga tuig ug nakabayad ang tag-iya sa sakyanan sa biktima.

Nasulbad sab ang ka-song hit-and-run nga nahita-bo atubangan sa Robinsons Place Ormoc sa nilabay nga tuig nga nagresulta sa pag-kamatay sa osa ka pasahero sa traysikol nga nasaghiran sa sakyanan. Nakihaan ang drayber nga osa ka estudy-ante sa criminology sa Sto. Nino College pero kasamtan-gang gawasnon kay nakapi-yansa sa kaso. Ni Paul Libres

4 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Managing Editor: JIMA ZANDRA J. VERGARA

Tolerating but not condoning

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Correspondents / Columnists: DAILYN CABARSE, FR. ROY CIMAGALA, DR. NINO DOYDORA, HENRY GADAINGAN, ROLEX GELIG, ATTY. EMMANUEL GOLO, PAUL LIBRES, TED MARCOS, MA. TONETTE MARTICIO, RICARDO MARTI-NEZ, JR., DR. MANUEL K. PALOMAR Ph.D., ELMER RECUERDO, MYRA TAMBOR

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Oral Health Month 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE:The View From Ormoc columnist

is on leave until further notice.

sEE PASSERBY p. 8sEE HEALTH p. 10

New coronavirus vs. the flu

THE NEW coronavirus outbreak has made headlines in recent weeks, but there’s another viral epidemic hitting countries around the world: flu season. But how do these viruses compare, and which one is really more worrisome?

So far, the new coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, has led to more than 20,000 illnesses and 427 deaths in China, as well as more than 200 illnesses and two deaths outside of mainland China. But that’s nothing compared with the flu, also called influenza. In the U.S. alone, the flu has already caused an estimated 19 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That said, scientists have studied seasonal flu for decades. So, despite the danger of it, we know a lot about flu viruses and what to expect each season. In contrast, very little is known about 2019-nCoV because it’s so new. This means 2019-nCoV is something of a wild card in terms of how far it will spread and how many deaths it will cause.

“Despite the morbidity and mortality with influenza, there’s a certainty … of sea-sonal flu,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a White House press confer-ence on Jan. 31. “I can tell you all, guaranteed, that as we get into March and April, the flu cases are going to go down. You could predict pretty accurately what the range of the mor-tality is and the hospitalizations [will be],” Fauci said. “The issue now with [2019-nCoV] is that there’s a lot of unknowns.”

Scientists are racing to find out more about 2019-nCoV, and our understanding of the virus and the threat it poses may change as new in-formation becomes available. Based on what we know so far, here’s how it compares with the flu.

Symptoms and severityBoth seasonal flu viruses (which include

influenza A and influenza B viruses) and 2019-nCoV are contagious viruses that cause respiratory illness.

Typical flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, headaches, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue and, sometimes, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the CDC. Flu symp-toms often come on suddenly. Most people who get the flu will recover in less than two weeks. But in some people, the flu causes complications, including pneumonia. So far this flu season, about 1% of people in the United States have developed symptoms severe enough to be hos-pitalized, which is similar to the rate last season, according to data from the CDC.

With 2019-nCoV, doctors are still trying to understand the full picture of disease symp-toms and severity. In a recent study of about 100 people with the virus, published Jan. 30 in the journal The Lancet, the most common symptoms were fever, cough and shortness of breath. Only about 5% of patients in that study reported sore throat and runny nose,

sEE FLU p. 7

THE MOUTH is what we use when we eat but like many areas of the body, the mouth also contains bacteria — most of them are harmless. Normally the body’s natural defenses and good oral health care can keep these bacteria under control. However, without proper oral hygiene, these bacteria can reach levels that might lead to oral infections, such as tooth decay and gum diseases. For those bedridden individuals (post-stroke patients), poor oral health care can lead to pneumonia as bacteria from the mouth could find its way to the lungs and cause lung infections.

The Philippine Dental Health Month is observed every February as it is also the National Oral Health Month. This an-nual observance started in 1951 as National Dental Health Week but in February 24, 2004, it was expanded into a month-long celebration, pursuant to Presidential Proc-lamation No. 559 signed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Philippine Dental Association leads its observance; and it aims to strengthen public awareness on the importance of good oral health. It encourages dentists, students, relevant government agencies, and professional organizations to reach out to more people with no access to dental services, especially those who are in the countryside.

This year’s theme is, “Ngiping pinag-tibay, Ngiting walang humpay”. The importance of oral health cuts across all people – from children, mothers, adoles-cents and elderly. The main oral health problems are dental caries (tooth decay) and peridontal disease (gum disease). These two oral diseases are so widespread that 87% of Filipinos are estimated to be suffering from tooth decay and 48% have gum disease; this is according to the 2011 NMEDS Survey. The combined ill effects of these two major diseases (except oral cancer) weaken bodily defense and serve as portal of entry to other more serious, potentially dangerous and opportunistic infections overlapping other diseases pres-ent. Such will incapacitate a young victim as in crippling heart conditions arising from oral infection that may end in death. This

is because certain oral health conditions can predispose the young population to develop a certain (type of) heart disease.

An individual with poor oral health could be so affected with such handicap – including disturbed speech. He/she may become withdrawn and avoid socializing with people, thereby lessening his/her op-portunities for advancement and learning. A more critical effect of poor or defective teeth to overall nutrition is how to maintain good general health status. It is because good health begins with the first bite of food and chewing the food efficiently.

The Department of Health aims to reduce the prevalence rate of dental caries and periodontal diseases among the gen-eral population. It plans to target schools: pre-school children, adolescent and moth-ers and the elderly. It also encourages the participation not only of the DepEd but also of DSWD, LGU, PDA and other non-government organizations. It plans to pro-mote the utilization of fluoride containing toothpastes, promote proper tooth brushing and other dental health practices; as well as upgrading the dental series of all levels in the public health sector. The inclusion of an outpatient benefit package for oral health is under the National Health Insur-ance Program (PhilHealth) or the Universal Health Care. It also aims to improve existing information system / data collection (re-porting and recording of dental services and accomplishments) in order to set essential indicators of the public’s oral health status. It includes the conduct of epidemiological dental surveys every 5 years.

Here are some oral health tips:• Brush your teeth last thing at night

and at least one other time during the day with a fluoride containing toothpaste.

• Clean in between your teeth at least once a day using interdental brushes or floss.

• Check if you have bad breath.• When using a mouthwash, do not

use it directly after brushing as you rinse

TO BE REALISTIC about the concrete con-ditions of our life here on earth, we need to know how to be tolerant of certain un-avoidable evils without condoning them. The distinction may be difficult to make, but we simply have to learn it if we want to survive the drama of our earthly life. I believe this is a basic skill we all have to ac-quire, given the way we and the world are.

We cannot deny that in our life, we will always be hounded by evil in all its forms. We have our own weaknesses to contend with, in the first place. St. John already warned us about the “lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” (1 Jn 2,16)

Then we have to cope with the many temptations and structures of sin now pro-liferating in the world. This is too obvious and conspicuous to merit further elabora-tion. Just think of the network of corrup-tion, deception, and pornography around!

Worst of all, we have the devil, the trickiest and smartest of all evils, to grapple with. And he is very good in the art of con-spiracy, putting snares and traps at every move we make. It is really important that we know how to deal with this fact of life without unduly compromising what is truly essential in our life.

We have to learn to be tough and be ready to get dirty somehow without sur-rendering the essential. And we should not lose the hope of overcoming evil, fighting it out till the end of our life, if needed.

To be tolerating is to assume an attitude of allowing some evil or something that we do not like, to exist or to occur without interfer-ence from our part, at least in the meantime.

It is to suffer that evil or negative element if only to give more attention to something that is of higher value. This may involve a certain material, not formal, cooperation in evil.

It should be a function of a divinely inspired sense of practicality, reflecting the lesson we can learn from the parable of the unjust steward (cfr. Lk 16,1-13) and from the example of Christ himself who fraternized with the sinners more than with the self-righteous persons.

It, of course, does not mean that we do nothing about these negative elements, nor be indifferent to them, turning a blind eye toward them. Much less, does it mean that we approve these bad elements, regarding them as somehow good and acceptable, giving false excuses for them. That would already be condoning evil.

In this regard, we have to remember that if we cannot help it, we should be will-ing to lose whatever is necessary to lose if only to save the essential, as articulated by Christ when he said:

“If your right eye causes you to stum-ble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to

5FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE:FROM MATALOM WITH

LOVE 2 columnist is on leave until further notice.

Will NBP personnel be decimated due to

this GCTA?

Touch sensorLeaders are born,

not madeGOD CHANGED the name of Abraham from Abeam because he was to be the Father of nations, the Father of mankind. It was Abraham that God asked to go to the prom-ised land of Canaan, which is now Israel. Abraham was a good man and godly. He al-ways obeyed God. He wandered away from his homeland to go to the promised land that God gave him. He was a good leader.

We now go to King David. He was the youngest of eight brothers but God looks at the heart and not on the outward appear-ance. He was a shepherd boy but he was anointed with oil because God chose him. He went on to face the Philistine giant in a one-on-one battle. He was only armed with a slingshot but he struck Goliath squarely on the forehead, which cracked his skull. David promptly struck the head of Goliath with his own sword and the Philistine army broke away running for dear life. It was also King David that made two adjoining hills into one and this became Jerusalem. King David even-tually became the ancestor of Jesus Christ.

We now turn to the modern world. We have a tall man who studied law by self-study and walking several miles a day to school and burning the midnight candle because there was no electricity then. He passed the bar. He was to be the 16th President of the US and it was he, who emancipated the African slaves to be free men rather than spend their days as slaves, that were then considered to be mere commodities to be sold in the public squares and to be sold to the highest bidders.

Abraham Lincoln turned out to be the sav-iour of the negro slaves and gave them dignity. The civil war that followed resulted in a fight with brothers fighting against each other. It became a fight between the North of the Union army and the South of the Confederate states. This particular civil war established Lincoln as a visionary because he made the union a greater nation. His decision had a far reaching effect that went on up to the present. You see the Blacks hand-in-hand with the Whites. They just had a Black American for President for two terms.

We also come across a lame man for Presi-dent who was loved by the nation that he was elected to four terms. He was FD Roosevelt. He was born as a polio victim but this did not deter him to be Mayor of New York until he was elected President. It was during his time that America broke its neutrality policy to join the rest of the free world against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. It was then that the world was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The whole of Europe was already conquered by Germany. It was the decision to do away with neutrality by the US that clinched it for the free nations. It had to do

with the yes of Roosevelt that saved human-ity. He was President for four terms but did not finish the last because death caught up with him. The people lamented his passing away because they loved him. Since then, they amended the law by only allowing two terms in order for the president to retire and perhaps write his memoirs. It also showed that the president can overcome any incapacity.

There is also our own President, Ramon Magsaysay. He was a college drop-out. He only reached second year in Engineering. He was also a mechanic. He showed his brilliance when he was appointed Secretary of National Defense. He solved the problem of insurgency by beating the Hukbalahap movement by crushing them. They were on the road to tak-ing over Manila. It made him an instant hero.

When he ran for President, it was an avalanch that propelled him. He became very popular; he had the monicher of The Guy. As President, he became a thorny problem of his Presidential Security. Whenever they are on the road to a visit and they pass a crowd, he would ask the vehicle to stop and shake hands with the crowd. No one ever attempted to lay a hand on him. One day, his plane was over-due from a visit to Cebu. His plane crashed on take off. People cried unabashedly, this corner included. It was a nation in mourning. He had such a big heart. The good always die young.

By way of a footnote, he once paid a visit to my Lolo, Sen. Rafael C. Martinez, at his residence here in Ormoc City. The latter is not remembered for his bill opening the road from Ormoc to Merida. The Guy came to Ormoc and one of his proposal was to appoint my Lola, Al-berta, as Mayor of Ormoc, which she declined. This was in 1953. She is a degree holder from UP Manila. The records can bear this out.

Leaders are born, not made. Take the case of Adolf Hitler. He was just an ordinary man but he came into the picture when he was elected as head of a labor union, the Nation-alist Socialist party. The labor union is strong in the Western world. It also happened that the German President and the Reichstag, the equivalent to our Congress took the occasion to appoint him as leader. This was a mistake because Hitler was an idiot. He even had the rank of a Corporal in the army. But as a leader, the power must have been too intoxicating. It got into his head. This is where the mistake became more pronounced. It was aggravated with his discovery that he had Jewish blood and he had a hatred for the Jews. He promptly passed a law declaring that all Jews are crimi-nal and that they do not have a right to life. The more than six million Jews that perished on his orders can never be erased. May he rot in hell.

DOCTORS OFTEN touch and feel the bodies of patients, applying small amounts of pressure with their bare hands, when assessing their health. In fact, doctors may rely heavily on their tactile feeling of a patient’s body to figure out whether the person may have cancer. But many patients are offended by such intimacy.

Thanks to research, a transparent, bend-able pressure sensor could be incorporated into a pair of latex gloves that could help doc-tors check women for breast cancer, without requiring X-rays. Pressure sensors could help doctors analyze their patients’ health with greater precision than is possible with their natural sense of touch, the researchers said.

Because human bodies are generally soft, sensors that touch bodies must also be soft in order to work well. But so far, pressure sensors that are soft have been vulnerable to bending, and these devices could not distinguish their own bending from the variations in pressure in the object they were supposed to measure.

Scientists say they have developed an ultrasensitive transparent pressure sensor that can accurately detect pressure even when the sensor is distorted to an extraordinary degree.

The researchers made the sensor from composite fibers containing graphene, which are sheets of carbon just one atom thick, and carbon nanotubes, which are carbon pipes only nanometers (billionths of a meter) in diameter.

When this flat sensor is bent, the nano-

fibers can shift around in the spaces inside the mesh, so their sensor capabilities do not change much even when the sensors are bent to an extreme degree. And the sensor can still respond when compressed by pressure.

In experiments, the device successfully measured pressure even when it was placed on the soft, movable 3D surface of a balloon that researchers pressed their fingers into. In addition, when the scientists wrapped their sensor around an artificial blood vessel made of plastic and filled with water, they found that it could detect small pressure changes, as well as how fast the pressure was changing.

The researchers noted that it was too early to suggest that pressure-sensitive gloves could replace mammography, which uses X-rays to diagnose and locate breast tumors. But one day, the new sensors may offer easy and painless monitoring of tu-mors without exposure to radiation.

This new sensor could also make robots sensitive to pressure. Imagine that you are shaking hands with a robot that has soft skin. As of now, there is no pressure sen-sor that accurately works once it is bent. If the pressure sensor malfunctions, shaking hands with such a robot could be very dangerous, since the robot might end up accidentally crushing a person’s hand.

In the future, the researchers want to design a stretchable pressure sensor that can accurately detect pressure even when the device is stretched.

First Sunday of LentMarch 1, 2020

Matthew 4:1-11At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit

into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.

The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”

He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Then the devil took him to the holy

city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him, “Again it is writ-ten, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”

At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”

Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

THE CHIEF of the Legal Division of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) was shot and killed this Wednesday by two gunmen aboard separate motorcycles near the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.

Atty. Fredric Anthony Santos was in his Toyota Hilux pickup when he was shot. He was to fetch his daughter from school at that time.

Santos, with 29 BuCor officers/person-nel, were suspended for six months by the Ombudsman Office in September 2019 for being involved in the questionable release of convicts in violation of the Good Con-duct Time Allowance (GCTA) law. Since 2011, Santos is the 15th BuCor personnel murdered just outside the New Bilibid Prison. Five of these BuCor men had been killed very recently by unidentified gun-men in Muntinlupa’s Barangay Poblacion.

Senator Richard Gordon commented that, “This is ignominy. It is a rubout and not just a vindictive crime alone. It is a warning to all that if you know something about a crime that happened, you will be killed.” Sen. Gordon urged President Duterte and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to order immediately law en-forcement authorities to arrest and pros-ecute those behind the shooting of Santos.

On September 4, 2019, President Duterte fired BuCor Chief Nicanor Faeldon for disobeying his order not to release hei-nous crime convicts. In the Senate hearing last September 9, 2019, Santos said he had informed Faeldon on the Justice Depart-ment Order No. 953, which mandates prior approval of the Secretary of Justice before a prisoner serving imprisonment for 40 years or more was to be released. But Faeldon ad-

mitted in a previous hearing by the Senate that he did not seek clearance from Justice Secretary Guevarra before signing the release orders of heinous crime convicts.

Recently, this February 5, 2020, a total of 17 senators recommended the filing of graft and corruption charges against the former BuCor Chief Nicanor Faeldon in connection with his implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) during his time as chief of National Bilibid Prison.

rrrThe first official map of the Philippines

that the US colonial government published, the 1899 Jose Algue map, showed that Scar-borough Shoal is Philippine territory. The

US had drawn a red line on Scarborough Shoal. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana explained that, “The Americans, that’s their red line. Red line meaning you can’t do that there, so China did not do it.”

So, the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement’s (VFA) first casualty is Scarborough Shoal. President Duterte has declared that he cannot prevent China from building on Scarborough Shoal. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is the protector of the country’s territory would also explain to the Filipino people that it cannot stop China from putting an air and naval base on Scarborough Shoal, which is Philippine territory?

6 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Merida to launch first ‘Magsanga Festival’ To the management

and staff of Eastern

Visayas (EV) Mail...

Congratulations on your milestone of 20 years in the

newspapering business.

Cheers to more years!

Greetings From:

MERIDA, LEYTE – In line with the 153rd Founding Anniversary celebration of this town on March 2, and to highlight the festivity, is the launching of the first ‘Magsanga Festival’.

A week-long of different events and cultural activities in support of the festival is ‘Mustra Merida’, which is being pre-pared through a Technical Working Group headed by Hon. Jesus Martinez with Mr. Ernesto Pening and Mr. Nestor Castaños as co-chairpersons.

Kicking off Mustra Merida is the Febru-ary 25 Fun Run. This shall be followed on the succeeding days with the Tabo-tabo, Anyag sa Bantawan, Karanza Merida, Launching of Merida Hymn, Pasigarbo sa Lungsod and many more.

In an interview with Engr. Rolando

Villasencio, Municipal Mayor, he shared that the Magsanga Festival is the product of their town’s Cultural Mapping and Work-shop that was conducted together with the LGU, Deped and barangay officials, showcasing the history and heritage of the 22 barangays of Merida.

Accordingly, this town is the first and only municipality that was able to success-fully conduct the said process on Cultural Mapping, which no less then Dr. Manuel Albaño, Leyte Schools Division Superin-tendent, acknowledging and suggesting that it should be made as a model to those who want organize festivals.

Magsanga eventually prevailed be-cause of its lofty and royal twin-peaked mountain that, accordingly, defines every Meridanon’s culture and beliefs; and with

these offerings, Mayor Villasencio said, it is expected to open doors for economic development, boost tourism and enhance individual creativity.

Magsanga Festival is also a result, ac-cordingly, of the meeting of minds of the different sectors in Merida – from educa-tion, business, religious, local historians and dance enthusiasts.

Merida, to its town folks, is the home of mystic wonders, eco-tourism and even a pilgrim destination, along with still undis-covered treasures that can be found within the 22 barangays. Meridanons are already exited for this very first celebration of their foundation day and pledge to cooperate and support such an undertaking of the LGU, which is hoped to be a start of a new era. By Josephine N. Serseña

Leyte town offers free shuttle to lower school dropout

Alangalang Mayor Lovely Yu poses with the first batch of beneficiaries of Libreng Sakay program aimed at lowering dropouts among students.

ALANGALANG – Faced with a large number of youth who are dropping out of school due to problems with accessibility and poverty, Alangalang is taking a creative approach to resolve it – provide a shuttle service or give free bicycles to the students.

But instead of buying a vehicle that will ferry the students every day, the local government unit hired the services of habal-habal drivers to pick the students from their respective houses to school and back as a way to help drivers have a steady monthly income.

The municipal government has also bought bicycles, through the support of a civic club, for students from sitios that are not accessible to mo-torcycles and those who live along the carline but walks for kilometers to go to school.

sEE FREE SHUTTLE p. 7

7FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

The people of Meridais inviting one and all to

MUSTRA MERIDA: A CULTURAL HERITAGE EXPO

February 25FUN RUN

February 26-March 2TABO-TABO

(Indigenous Booth-Making Contest & Display of locally-made products)

March 1 (7 PM) ANYAG SA BANTAWAN

(Festival Queen)KARANZA MERIDA

LAUNCHING OF MERIDA HYMN PASIGARBO SA LUNGSOD

March 2 (1 PM)Magsanga Festival Dance Competition

HON. JOSE CARLOS L. CARIBaybay City Mayor

REP. CARL NICOLAS CARI5th District of Leyte Congressman

Greetings From:

To the management and staff of Eastern Visayas

(EV) Mail...

Congratulations on your milestone of 20 years in the newspapering business. Cheers to more years!

and only 1-2% reported diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Of the more than 20,000 cases reported in China so far, about 14% have been classified as severe, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) posted Tuesday (Feb. 4).

It’s important to note that, because respira-tory viruses cause similar symptoms, it can be dif-ficult to distinguish different respiratory viruses based on symptoms alone, according to WHO.

Death rateSo far this flu season, about 0.05% of

people who caught the flu have died from the virus in the U.S., according to CDC data.

The death rate for 2019-nCoV is still unclear, but it appears to be higher than that of the flu. Throughout the outbreak, the death rate for 2019-nCoV has been about 2%. Still, officials note that in the beginning of an outbreak, the initial cases that are identified “skew to the severe”, which may make the mortality rate seem higher than it is, Alex Azar, U.S. secretary of the Health and Human Services, said during a news brief-ing on Jan. 28. The mortality rate may drop as more mild cases are identified, Azar said.

Virus transmissionThe measure scientists use to determine

how easily a virus spreads is known as the “ba-sic reproduction number”, or R0 (pronounced R-nought). This is an estimate of the average number of people who catch the virus from a single infected person. The flu has an R0 value of about 1.3, according to The New York Times.

Researchers are still working to deter-mine the R0 for 2019-nCoV. A study pub-lished Jan. 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) estimated an R0 value for the new coronavirus to be 2.2, meaning each infected person has been spreading the virus to an average of 2.2 people.

It’s important to note that R0 is not neces-sarily a constant number. Estimates can vary by location, depending on such factors as how often people come into contact with each other and the efforts taken to reduce viral spread.

Risk of infectionThe CDC estimates that, on average,

FLU ... from P. 4 about 8% of the U.S. population gets sick with the flu each season.

There are currently only 11 cases of 2019-nCoV in the U.S. Still, newly emerged viruses like 2019-nCoV are always of public health concern, according to the CDC. It’s unclear how the situation with this virus in the U.S. will unfold, the agency said. Some people, such as health care workers, are at increased risk for exposure to 2019-nCoV. But for the general American public, the immediate health risk from the virus is low at this time.

PandemicsIt’s important to note that seasonal flu,

which causes outbreaks every year, should not be confused with pandemic flu, or a global outbreak of a new flu virus that is very dif-ferent from the strains that typically circulate. This happened in 2009 with the swine flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed between 151,000 and 575,000 people world-wide, according to the CDC. There is no flu pandemic happening currently.

The 2019-nCoV outbreak has not yet been declared a pandemic, as the majority of cases have occurred in China. But on Jan. 30, the WHO declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”. The declaration was primarily due to concern that the virus could spread to countries with weaker health systems.

PreventionUnlike seasonal flu, for which there is a

vaccine to protect against infection, there is no vaccine for 2019-nCoV. But researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health are in the early stages of developing one. Officials plan to launch a phase 1 clinical trial of a potential vaccine for 2019-nCoV within the next three months.

In general, the CDC recommends the fol-lowing to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, which include both coronaviruses and flu viruses: Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds; avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands; avoid close contact with people who are sick; stay home when you are sick; and clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

brought to the DENR Regional Wildlife Rescue Center in Palo, Leyte for proper care and rehabilitation before it is released to the wild.

Regional Executive Director Tirso P. Parian, Jr. said the department is happy to see active partners in environmental protec-tion and wildlife preservation among the younger generation.

He stressed that while the younger ones are taking simple steps, the agency is making an ardent appeal to the general public to rescue and turn over wildlife spe-cies to the nearest DENR office to ensure their safety. RED Parian also warned the public against keeping endangered wildlife species as pets since this is a violation of Republic Act 9147, An Act Providing for the Conservation and Protection of Wildlife Resources and their Habitats. (PR)

OWL ... from P. 2plex at the Ormoc City Central School, headed by Schools Division Superinten-dent Lani Cervantes.

According to Engr. Oliveros, the cost for the boxing gym is estimated to be around Php 8.4-million, and was completed within 4-5 months.

Per MRG, the new sports facility is open to everyone. “I have always known, deep in my mind, deep in my heart, na makatabang ni sa atong mga problema sa kabataan. To give them a sport program, to let them stay away from drugs,” added MRG.

He further shared that the LGU’s endgoal is to continue to build sports in-frastructures to serve as beautiful training venues of the city’s future world-class ath-letes as well as “national caliber” athletes that Ormoc can be proud of.

Meanwhile, Schools Division Super-intendent Lani Cervantes expressed her gratitude to the LGU and added how fortunate Ormoc is to have a sports-loving and hardworking mayor, in Mayor Richard Gomez. By Mary Ann Reusora

BOXING GYM ... from P. 2

The program called ‘Libreng Sakay’ aims to stop students who are at risk of dropping out of school from finally stopping at the middle of school. It started only this school year when its new local chief execu-tive Mayor Lovely Yu was elected.

“We want to reduce dropout rate, if possible, down to zero,” says Lizer Peralta, program coordina-tor of ‘Libreng Sakay’.

Records from the Department of Education shows dropout rate in Alangalang town in the last school year were 13.5 percent among elementary pupils, 12.4 per-cent in junior high and 7.66 percent in senior high school.

Peralta said one of the main reasons for dropout is the distance from school, some come from baran-gays more than 10 kilometers from the town center where the public high school is located.

On its first year of implementation, 54 students, mostly enrolled in the night high school, were the beneficiaries of the free shuttle. Peralta said priority was given to night high school students due to the difficulty in getting transportation at nighttime where drivers have the tendency to charge higher fares.

On top of this, the LGU has also provided 50

FREE SHUTTLE ... from P. 6

students with bicycles especially those who hike for kilometers just to reach the school.

Budget in the initial implementation was taken from the LGU’s local council for the protection of children fund. Peralta said the number of beneficiaries under this program will be expanded in 2020 with additional fund-ing coming from the miscellaneous and other operation expense (MOOE) allocation for out of school youth.

Since the program started, it has earned praises including a commendation from the DepEd as a best practice that is worth replicating in other LGUs that are experiencing high dropouts of students.

The LGU is also making a strict implementa-tion of anti-child labor law especially during harvest season when many stop schooling to work in farms.

“We talked to farmers not to hire minors as farmworkers so they will stay in school,” Peralta said. By Elmer Recuerdo

8 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Extrajudicial Partition with Deed of Absolute Sale

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the property of the late RAMIL P. GABLINO re one-half (1/2) share of a motorcycle described as C.R. – 13522534-4; Denomination – TRICY-CLE; MAKE- HONDA; BODY TYPE- TC HIRE; ENGINE No. – KB509E279709; CHASSIS NO. -KB509279708; PLATE No. – HZ7062; MODEL- 2011 was partitioned among his heirs and sold in favor of JEMALINE G. LAPINID per Doc. No. 383; Page No. 77; Book No. LXXVI; Series of 2016 Notary Public Adelito M. Solibaga Jr. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16, & 17-23, 2020

Extrajudicial Settlement and Partition with Sale

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the properties of the late AMPARO TERO GONTIŇAS re residential Lot One-Eight (1/8) share of a parcel of land, designated as Lot 13, Block 3, Psd-08-009686-D, situated in the Brgy. San Isidro, Ormoc City, containing 148 sq. m. covered TCT No. 121-2015000231; and one (1) unit residential House erected on said as Lot 13, Block 3, covered by TD No. 00004-02300 were settled and partitioned among her heirs and sold in favor of CRISTINA TERO GONTIŇAS, MARY ANN TERO GONTIŇAS and JOSEPH TERO GONTIŇAS per Doc. No. 290; Page No. 58; Book No. CLXIX; Series of 2019 Notary Public Aleah Rafel G. Bataan- Tolibao. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16 & 17-23, 2020

Affidavit of Self-Adjudication NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the late ERNESTO KANGLEON JR. had left an account with Philippine Na-tional Bank (PNB), Baybay City Branch with Savings Account No. 312710008219 was adjudicated unto herself by DEVON F. KANGLEON per Doc. No. 143; Page No. 27; Book No. XLVII; Series of 2020 Notary Public Eden B. Chavez-Butawan. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16 & 17-23, 2020

Extrajudicial Partition and Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late CANDELARIA ALGO re a parcel of residential land cov-ered under TD ARP No. 17764 Property Identification NO. 036-03-045, situated at Cambalading, Brgy. San Antonio, Basey, Samar, containing an area of 14,400 sq. m. was partitioned among her heirs and sold in favor of MARICEL L. LAMBAN per Doc. No. 459; Page No. 92; Book No. IX; Series of 2020 Notary Public Rogelio P. Gula. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16, & 17-23, 2020 Extrajudicial Settlement and Artemio

Teves with Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late SPS. VIR-GINIA POLINIO and ARTEMIO TEVES re a parcel of land Lot 5571-A-6, Psd-08-019018-D, Lot 5571-A, (LRC) Psd-274527, situated in the Brgy. Sto. Niño, Ormoc City, containing an area of 364 sq. m., TCT No. 121-2016000977 was settled among his heirs and sold in favor of DAHLIA M. GARCES, MARIA MIRA-SOL M. DINGLASAN, SEGUNDINO A. MORAÑA, JR, MARIA MARCOSA A. MORAÑA, MARIA JESSA A. MORAÑA, and MARY ROSE A. MORAÑA per Doc. No. 416; Page No. 84; Book No. LIX; Series of 2019 Notary Public Ari G. Larrazabal. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16, & 17-23, 2020

Affidavit of Self Adjudication with Deed of Absolute Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late MARCOS REMETICADO re a parcel of land Lot 7973-K, Psd-001097, situated in Barrio Catayum, Ormoc City, Leyte, containing an area of 804 sq. m. was adjudicated unto herself by REBECCA LAUDE RE-METICADO and 142 sq. m. sold in favor REYNALDO EDNILAN LAURETO per Doc. No. 280; Page No. 80; book No. XVI; Series of 2020 Notary Public Jannie Ann J. Dayandayan, CPA. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16 & 17-23, 2020

Deed of extrajudicial Settlement NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late ANNIE JULIE O. TANNER re a parcel of land Lot 1581-C, Psd-08-004766, situated in Barrio Patag and Poblacion, Ormoc City, containing an area of 2,048 sq. m. TCT No. 28330 was settled among his heirs per Doc. No. 220; Page No. 44; Book No. XXXV; Series of 2019 Notary Public Maria Samuel P. Aviles. EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-16, & 17-23, 2020

Extrajudicial Settlement NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late SPS. CASIA-NO ADOBO and INOCENTA MANGCO ADOBO re a parcel of residential land situated in Brgy. P. I. Garcia, Naval, Biliran denominated as survey No. 767 under TD No. 01766 with an area of 101 sq. m. was settled among their heirs per Doc. No. 95; Page No. 19; Book No. 60; Series of 2020 Notary Public Redentor C. Villordon. EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020

Extrajudicial Partition NOTICE IS HEREBY given that

the property of the late SPS. CASIANO ADOBO and INOCENTA MANGCO-ADOBO re a parcel of agricultural land situated in Brgy. Calumpang, Naval, Biliran denominated as survey No. (1149-P)-029 under ARP No. 00036-R10 with an area of 0.7234 was partitioned among their heirs per Doc. No. 38; Page No. 8; Book No. 41; Series of 2009 Notary Public Redentor C. Villordon. EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020

Extrajudicial Settlement with Absolute Sale

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the property of the late CRISPULO R. CAPOCAO JR. re a parcel of land Lot 5748-62-P, covered by Katibayan Ng Orihinal na Titulo Blg. P-48151 situated at Brgy. Iligay, Villaba, Leyte, with an area of 22,568 sq. m. was settled among his heirs and sold in favor of NATIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY (NHA) by CSE BUILDERS/STUDIO26 CONSTRUC-TION, INC.- JOINT VENTURE Repre-sented by GEEFY P. EVANGELISTA per Doc. No. 519; Page No. 105; Book No. IV; Series of 2019 Notary Public Alvaro P. Loreno Jr. EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020 Extrajudicial Settlement with Deed of

Absolute Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late QUINTINA & MARGARITA JUMETILCO re a parcel of agricultural land situated in Atipolo, Naval, Biliran denominated as survey No. 1261-P under TD/ARP No. 00537 containing an area of 1.18847 hectares was settled among their heirs and sold in favor of SPS. GREGORIO G. NUEVO

Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region Branch 46

Balyuan Building Magsaysay Boulevard,

Tacloban City SPECIAL

PROCEEDINGS CASE NO. R-TAC-20-00026-

SP IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR THE CORRECTION OF ENTRIES IN THE

CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH OF ROQUE RAQUIÑO ALSO

KNOWN AS ROQUE RAQUIÑO BOYONAS

ROQUE RAQUIÑO BOYONAS,Petitioner, -versus-

HONORABLE OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR

GENERAL, HONORABLE CITY CIVIL REGISTRAR

OF TACLOBAN CITY, AND HONORABLE CIVIL REGISTRAR GENERAL OF THE

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS

AUTHORITY (PSA), Respondents.

x-----------------------xINITIAL ORDER

This pertains to the Verified Petition filed by ROQUE RAQUIÑO BOYONAS, through the counsel, praying that this Honorable Court to issue an Order directing The Local Civil Registrar of Tacloban City and the Civil Registrar General, Philippine Statistics Au-thority, to wit:

a. To correct the erroneous entries in the Certificate of Live Birth of the Petitioner indi-

cating his middle name as “BLANK” when it should have been “RA-QUIÑO”;

b. To correct the erroneous entries in the Certificate of Live Birth of the Petitioner indicating his family name as “RA-QUIÑO” when it should have been “BOYONAS” his true and correct fam-ily name, the same being the family name of his father SATURNINO M. BOYONAS;

c. To correct the erroneous entries in the Certificate of Live Birth of the Petitioner indi-cating the name of his father as “Not Appli-cable” when it should have been “SATURNI-NO M. BOYONAS”; the Citizenship of the Father appearing as “Not Ap-plicable” when it should have been “FILIPINO”; the Religion/ Religious Sect of the Father appear-ing as “Not Applicable” when it should have been “ROMAN CATHOLIC”; AND Occupation of the Father appearing as “Not Applicable” when it should have been “PEDI-CAB DRIVER”; and

d. To correct the erroneous entries in the Certificate of Live Birth of the Petitioner indicat-ing the date and place of marriage of petitioner’s parents appearing as “Not Applicable” when it should have been “Ta-cloban City, Leyte” and “March 18, 2004”, the correct date and place of marriage appear-ing in the Certificate of Marriage of Spouses SATURNINO M. BOYO-NAS and TERESITA E. RAQUIÑO.

Finding the Peti-tion to be sufficient in form and substance, the same is hereby given due course.

WHEREFORE, no-tice is hereby given that the above-entitled peti-tion is set for hearing on APRIL 7, 2020 at 08:30 o’clock in the morning before this Court sitting at the Balyuan Building, Tacloban City. Any inter-ested person may appear on said time and date, and then there file his/her opposition thereto and to show cause why the petition should not be granted.

Further, let a copy of this Order be pub-lished in a newspaper of general circulation in the Province of Leyte and the City of Tacloban for three (3) consecutive weeks at the expense of the petitioner.

Withal, let a copy of this Order and the Petition with its annexes be furnished to the Phil-ippine Statistics Author-ity, 2/F TAM Bldg., PSA Complex East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, Office of the Solicitor General, 134 Amorso-lo St., Legaspi Village, Makati City and Local Civil Registrar of Taclo-ban City. Likewise, fur-nish a copy of this Order to the Petitioner and his counsel.

SO ORDERED. GIVEN this 22nd

day of January, 2020 at the Balyuan Building, Tacloban City.

(Sgd.) LOLITA R. MERCADO

Presiding Judge EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-

16, & 17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines

8th Judicial Region Branch 18, Hilongos,

Leyte SP. PROC. NO. H642 PETITION FOR SOLE CUSTODY OF MINOR

MARIA HAYDE T. RONGCALES

KIMBERLY G. TAN Petitioner

Versus ARNULFO

RONGCALES Respondent.

x---------------------xORDER

P E T T I I O N E R , KIMBERLY G. TAN, by through counsel filed a petition for Sale Custody of minor Maria Hayden T. Rongcales.

In support of her petition the petitioner avers: THAT: petitioner is of legal age filipino citizen, married and resi-dent of Brgy. Iniguihan Bato, Leyte, that the re-spondent is also legal age filipino married and resi-dent of Blk 21 19 Bacolod St., South City Homes, Biñan Laguna; that the parties living together

as husband and wife for almost ten (10) years and begotten the subject mi-nor Maria Hayaden born on January 25, 2007 at Bi-ñan Laguna; that the life of the petitioner with the respondent was like hell for the abusive acts and lack of love and respect; that petitioner together with the said minor was forced to transfer their resident in her parent resident in Leyte due to respondent irresponsibil-ity and abusive conduct; that the petitioner got married to a Dutch Na-tional Rene Jacob Letter-man from Netheriands; that petitioner and the subject minor applied to travel to Netherlands the place of her husband but the Netherland Embassy requires a court order for sole custody of the minor; petitioner prayed that an order be issued granting the sole custody of the minor Maria Maria Hayden T. Rongcales in favor of the petitioner and other reliefs.

W H E R E F O R E , finding the verified peti-

tion to be sufficient in FORM and SUBSTANCE the same is set for initial hearing on March 2, 2020 at 8:30 in the morning at which date time and place anyone that may be prejudiced by the ap-proval of the instant peti-tion may come to court in this first opportunity.

Published this Or-der in a newspaper of general circulation in the Province of Leyte at least once (1) a week for three (3) consecutive week at the expense of the petitioner.

Furnished copy of this Order to the peti-tioner and his counsel at the given address for them to be present dur-ing the scheduled initial hearing.

ORDERED. IN CHAMBERS this

28th day of January 2020, Hilongos, Leyte, Philip-pines.

(Sgd.) EPHREM SUAREZ ABANDO

Executive Judge EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-

16, & 17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

8th Judicial Region Branch 18, Hilongos,

Leyte SP. PROC. NO. H-643 IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR APPOINTMENT AS

GUARDIANSHIP OF MINOR ELLEZAR P.

BARDOS SPS. EDNA AND

LEONITO MAPALO Petitioner,

x----------------------xORDER

PETITIONER, SPS. EDNA AND LEONITO MAPALO, through coun-sel filed a petition for IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR APPOINTMENT AS GUARDIAN OF MINOR ELLEZAR P. BARDOS.

In support of their petition the petitioners avers: THAT: petitioner are spouses both of legal age filipino, and resident of Brgy. Bontoc, Hin-dang, Leyte, as guard-

ians of a minor Ellezar P. Bardos: that the petition-ers spouses has taking case the minor providing support and sending in school for the welfare of the said minor; that the said minor has been living with the spouses petitioners for several years being a relative of the petitioner wife sending the said minor to School and now as Grade 8 student at Bon-toc National High School Hindang, Leyte; that this petition redound to the best interest and welfare of the said minor; that the petitioner possesses all the qualification and none of the disqualifica-tion to whom the Let-ter of Guardianship be issued; the petitioners prayed that an order be issued appointing the spouses petitioners as Guardian of the minor Ellezar P. Bardos.

WHEREFORE find-ing the verified petition to be sufficient in FORM and SUBSTANCE the

same is set for initial hearing on March 2, 2020 at 8:30 in the morning at which date time and place anyone that may be prejudiced by the ap-proval of the instant peti-tion may come to court in this first opportunity.

Published this Or-der in a newspaper of general circulation in the Province of Leyte at least once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks at the expense of the petitioner.

Furnished copy of this Order to the peti-tioner and her counsel at the given address for them to be present dur-ing the scheduled initial hearing.

ORDERED. IN CHAMBERS this

29th day of January 2020, Hilongos, Leyte, Philip-pines.

(Sgd.) EPHREM SUAREZ ABANDO

Executive Judge EV Mail Feb. 3-9, 10-

16, & 17-23, 2020

and LORNA VERONICA B. NUEVO per Doc. No. 117; Page No. 24; Book No. 58; Series of 2019 Notary Public Redentor C. Villordon. EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1, 2020 Deed of Extrajudicial Settlement with

Absolute SaleNOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late CAYO ORTIZ and AMOR SY ORTIZ re a parcel of land Lot No. 2877 located at Brgy. Payahan, Calbayog City, covered by TD No. 99-01086-00511, containing an area of 4,249 sq. m. was settled among their heirs and 1,679 sq. m. sold in favor of SOCORRO C. RIVERA, DENNIS R. MENDOZA, and JONATHAN R. MENDOZA per Doc. No. 03; Page No. 01; Book No. 14; Notary Public Ma. Elena T. Maralla G. Cahucom . EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020 Deed of Extrajudicial Settlement with

Absolute Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late CAYO ORTIZ and AMOR SY ORTIZ re a parcel of land designated as Lot No. 2877 Cad 422 located at Brgy. Payaban, Calbayog City, covered by TD No. 99-01086-00511, containing an area of 4,249 sq. m. was settled among their heirs and 1,000 sq. m. sold in favor of MYRNA PRESTO ROSALES per Doc. No. 499; Page No. 100; Book No. 13; Series of 2020 Notary Public Ma. Elena T. Maralla G. Cahucom . EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020

Extrajudicial Settlement NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the late ARNULFO L. ALTERADO had left an account with Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), Ormoc City, Leyte with Savings Account No. 0956-3684-80 was settled among his heirs per Doc. No. 153; Page No. 31; Book No. XLVII; Series of 2020 Notary Public Eden B. Chavez-Butawan. EV Mail Feb. 17-23, 24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020

Extra-Judicial Adjudication with Deed of Absolute Sale NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late SPS. JUAN SUAREZ ANDRADE and PETRA BA-CAYAO-ANDRADE re a parcel of agri-cultural land covered under TD ARP No. 6411, situated in Seco, Brgy. Can-Abay, Basey, Samar, containing an area of 2,993 sq. m. was adjudicated unto herself by BEATRIZ ANDRADE-ABLAY and sold in favor of MELANIA MUÑEZ GULA per Doc. No. 457; Page No. 92; Book No. IX; Series of 2020 Notary Public Rogelio P. Gula. EV Mail Feb. 17-23, 24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020

Extrajudicial SettlementNOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late FRANCISCO BOCO re a parcel of land designated as Lot No. 267 ARP No. 11-13003-00074 situated in Brgy. 03 Poblacion Llorente, Eastern Samar, covered by ARP No. 11-13003-00074 was settled among his heirs, accordingly, Nicolas Boco hereto have agreed to sell the portion of the subject land adjudicated to him, in favor of SPS. OSCAR MORATAL and MILAGROS BOCO- MORATAL per Doc. No. 439; Page No. 89; Book No. XXI; Series of 2020 Notary Public Charles B. Culo CPA. EV Mail Feb. 17-23, 24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020 Extra-Judicial Settlement with waiver

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the late TIMOTEO A. MANIGO and ALICIA V. MANIGO had left an account with Philippine National Bank (PNB) Baybay Branch with Savings Account No. 3127-1000-9298 was settled among his heirs and waived in favor of TIM CYRIL M. RATILLA per Doc. No.434; Page No. 87; Book No. I; Series of 2020 Notary Public JOSE ROMMEL A. PENARA-NDA. EV Mail Feb. 17-23, 24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020

Affidavit of Self-Adjudication NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN

that the property of the late RAMIL L. SENOY re a motor vehicles MAKE/TYPE – HONDA-MC; ENGINE NO. – KY A00E0043396; CHASSIS NO. – KY S00043327; PLATE NO. – SA11315; CERT. O REG. NO. – 7058993-4 was adjudicated unto herself by ANGELITA C. SABORNIDO per Doc. No. 2; Page No. 1; Book No. XXIV; Series of 2020 Notary Public Jose Renante R. Terre. EV Mail Feb. 17-23, 24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020

Republic of the PhilippinesProvince of Leyte

Municipality of VillabaOffice of the Municipal Civil

RegistrarNOTICE FOR PUBLICA-

TIONCFN-01-2020

In compliance with Section 5 of R.A. No. 9048, a notice is hereby served to the

Public that CARO-LINE C. MENDOZA has filed with this Office a petition for change of first name from “LONISA” to “TERESITA” in the Certificate of Live Birth of LONISA APILAR

APOLINAR who was born on December 20, 1971 at Villaba, Leyte and whose parents are

PATERNO B. APO-LINAR and EDWINA S. API-LAR.

Anyone person ad-versely affected by said peti-tion may file his written op-position with

This office not later than February 06, 2020.(Sgd.) ENGR. MEDALLO V.

PUNONG Municipal Civil Registrar

EV Mail Feb. 10-16, & 17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines Local Civil Registry Office

Province of Leyte MUNICIPALITY OF

KANANGA NOTICE OF PUBLICATION

07 FEB 2020 In compliance with

Section 5 of R.A. Act No. 9048, a notice is hereby served to the public that MARIA JENELYN T. RO-DILLA, petitioner, has filed with this Office a petition for CHANGE OF FIRST NAME from “GLADYS” to “JOVE-LYN” in the Certificate of Live Birth of GLADYS TUGONON REDULA who was born on March 25, 1973 at KANANGA, LEYTE whose parents are ALBERTO REDULA and DE-METRIA TUGONON bearing registry number 11 (d-73)

Any person adversely affected by said petition may file his/her written opposition with this Office not later than Feb. 25, 2020. (Sgd.) ENGR. NEWTON A.

ISAAC Municipal Civil Registrar

EV Mail Feb. 10-16, & 17-23,2020

Republic of the PhilippinesProvince of Leyte

Municipality of VillabaOffice of the Municipal Civil

RegistrarNOTICE FOR PUBLICATIONCFN-02-2020

In compliance with Section 5 of R.A. No. 9048, a notice is hereby served to the public that JOVY S. GERMAN has filed with this Office a peti-tion for change of first name from “JULIET” to “JOVY” in the Certificate of Live Birth of JULIET APA SEGOVIA who was born on AUGUST 8, 1963 at Villaba, Leyte and whose parents are FRANCISCO C. SEGOVIA and DEOGRACIA H. APA.

Any person adversely affected by said petition may file his written opposition with this Office not later than Feb-ruary 08, 2020.

ENGR. MEDALLO V. PUNONG

Municipal Civil RegistrarEV Mail Feb. 10-16 &

17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines OFFICE OF THE CIVIL

REGISTRAR Inopacan, Leyte

NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION In compliance with Sec-

tion 5 of R.A. 9048, a notice is hereby served to the public that MA. STELLA LABADAN PRECILDA has filed with this Office a petition for change of first name from STELLA MARIE to MA. STELLA in the birth certificate of MA. STELLA LA-BADAN PRECILDA, was born

on June 5, 1965 – at ALICIA, BOHOL whose parents are BIENVENIDO LABADAN and JUANITA MURING.

Any person adversely affected by said petition may file his written opposition with this Office not later than 06 MARCH 2020.

(Sgd.) Municipal Civil Registrar

Municipal Civil Registrar Feb. 17-23, & 24- March

1, 2020

Republic of the Philippines CIVIL REGISTRY OFFICE

Province of Leyte City of Ormoc

Republic of the Philippines) Province of Leyte) S.S.

City of Ormoc) Petition No. CFN- 2020

PETITION FOR CHANGE OF FIRST NAME

I, ETHEL NAVERA PI-MENTEL, of legal age. Fili-pino and a resident of Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines, after having been duly sworn to in accordance with law, hereby declare that:

1.) I am the petitioner seeking the change of first name in my Certificate of Live Birth.

2.) That I was born on September 14, 1966 at Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines.

3.) The birth was record-ed under registry number 1444.

4.) The first name to be changed is from “ETHEL ANTONIETA” to “ETHEL”,

5.) The grounds for filing this petition are the following:

a.) I habitually and con-tinuously used “ETHEL” and I am publicly known in the com-munity with that first name.

6.) I submit the follow-ing documents to support this petition.

a. Certificate of Live Birth OCR and LCRO copy

b. Certificate of Baptism c. Certificate of Marriage d. Court Order, Student

Permanent Record e. Passport, Affidavit of

Discrepancy f. Certificate of Employ-

ment g. Police and NBI clear-

ance h. Newspaper clippings 7.) I have not filed any

similar petition and that, to the best of my knowledge, no other similar petition is pending with any LCRO, Court or Philippines Consulate.

8.) I have no pending criminal, civil or administrative case in any court or any quasi-judicial body.

(Sgd.) ETHEL NAVERA PIMENTEL Petitioner

VERIFICATION I, ETHEL NAVERA PI-

MENTEL, petitioner, hereby certify that the allegations herein are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

(Sgd.) ETHEL NAVERA PIMENTEL

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this Sept 09,2019 day of September 2019 in the City/ Municipality of Ormoc City, petitioner exhibiting his/her community tax certifi-cate no. 18756381 on 9.9.19 at Ormoc City.

Doc. No. 284; page No. 51; Book No.: CCXII; Series of 2019

(Sgd.) ATTY. CONRAD P. CONOPIO.

Notary Public EV Mail Feb. 17-23, &

24- March 1, 2020

Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region Branches

6,7,8,9,34,43,44, 45, & 46 BULWAGAN NG KATARUNGAN Magsaysay Blvd.,

Tacloban City OFFICE OF THE

EXECUTIVE JUDGE NC No. 2020-02-65 to 73

PETITION FOR RENEWAL/NEW OF APPOINTMENT AS

NOTARY PUBLIC FOR AND WITHIN THE

TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION OF THE REGIONAL

TRIAL COURTS OF TACLOBAN CITY,

LEYTE X----------------------X

NOTICE OF HEARING NOTICE is hereby

given that a Summary Hearing on the Petition for Renewal/New of Ap-pointment of Commis-

sion as Notaries Public for and within the Ter-ritorial Jurisdiction of the Regional Trial Courts of Tacloban City, (Leyte) for the years 2020 -2021, of:

RENEWAL: 1. ATTY. JEFFREY

A. DIDULO 2. ATTY. JUSTINE

JOY T. LANTAJO 3. ATTY. ARRA

CHARMAINE L. DEL CASTILLO

4. ATTY. VISPERO LL. MAYOR

5. ATTY. DON A. DEHAYCO

6. ATTY. NOR-BERTO B. ROBEL, JR.

7. ATTY. JOMILA A. ALVERO – ROBEL

NEW:1. ATTY. MARY

IVY M. PACALA 2. ATTY. DUKE

LESTER B. CHUA Shall be heard on

February 27, 2020, at the RTC, Branch 44, Session Hall, at 10:00 o’clock in the morning. Any person

who has any cause or rea-son to object to the grant of the petition may file a verified written opposi-tion thereto, received by the undersigned before the date of the Summary Hearing.

Let this Notice of Hearing for Renewal/New of Appointment of Notarial Commission of said Petitioners, be pub-lished in the newspaper of general circulation in the City or Province where the same shall be heard by the Executive Judge on the aforemen-tioned date, time and place.

This 17th February 2020, at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan, Magsaysay Blvd., Tacloban City. (Sgd.) HON. ELIGIO P.

PETILLA Executive Judge EV Mail Feb. 17-23,

2020

stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt 5,29-30)

To be sure, for us to be able to distinguish between when to be properly tolerant of certain evils and when we would already be falling into condoning them, we would need God’s grace and our vital union with Christ, no less. The spiritual and supernatural means should always be given priority over the human means.

On our part, we should study well the moral doctrine of our Christian faith, especially on the principles regarding material cooperation in evil, and to make proper consultations with the right people. It would be helpful if we can have regular spiritual direction where we can air out our experiences in this matter.

PASSERBY ... from P. 4

9FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region Branch 14

Baybay City, LeyteSP. PROC. NO. 19-

10-46IN THE MATTER OF

CANCELLATION OF ENTRY IN THE

CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH OF NICHA C.

SAMANTE, VIOLETA CASIANO

SAMANTE, Petitioner, -versus-

HONORABLE MUNICIPAL CIVIL

REGISTRAR OF MAHAPLAG, LEYTE

and HONORABLE CIVIL REGISTRAR GENERAL OF THE

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS

AUTHORITY (PSA), REYNALDO R.

ABENOJA & NICHA C. SAMANTE,

Respondents. x-----------------------x

ORDER Filed before this

Court, a verified petition

seeking for the cancel-lation of entry in the Certificate of Live Birth of Nicha C. Samante filed by the petitioner through the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO). Petitioner averred inter alia that is she of legal age, married, Filipino and a resident of Brgy. Malinao, Mahap-lag, Leyte as presented by her mother VIOLETA CASIANO SAMANTE, of legal age, married, Filipino and a resident of the same address where they may be officially served with summons and process from this Honorable Court. Copy of the Special Power of Attorney is thereto at-tached as “Annex 1”; that public respondents Office of the Local Civil Registrar of Mahap-lag, Leyte and the Civil Registrar General of the Philippine Statistics Au-thority are impleaded in their official capacity and are holding office at Po-blacion, Mahaplag, Leyte and PSA Complex, East Ave., Diliman, Quezon City, respectively, where

they may be served with summons and other processes of the Honor-able Court: that private respondent Reynaldo R. Abenoja is the father of the petitioner’s child and can be served with summons and court pro-cesses at Brgy. Malinao, Mahaplag, Leyte; that Petitioner VIOLETA CA-SIANO SAMANTE is the biological mother of NICHA C. SAMANTE with private respondent REYNALDO R. ABENO-JA, the said child having been born on September 13, 1999 at Baybay City, Leyte, during the subsis-tence of the petitioner’s first marriage but al-ready separated-in-fact with a certain “PABLO MULLES GAVIOLA”. Copy of their Marriage Certificate is attached as Annex “2”; that at the time of the birth of the child and the subsequent registration of her birth at the Office of the Local Civil Registrar, Mahap-lag, Leyte on October 4, 1999, petitioner and pri-vate respondent did not

enter into a legal union because of the existence of the first marriage of the petitioner, this not-withstanding, private respondent executed an Affidavit of Acknowl-edgement/ Admission of Paternity over the said child; that desirous of their intent to make their children legitimate so that the latter could carry the father’s surname and enjoy the same status and rights as a legitimate child, petitioner and pri-vate respondent married each other on December 15, 2012 at St. Michael Archangel Parish, Ma-haplag, Leyte or seven (7) years after the death of Pablo Mulles Gavi-ola. Their Certificate of Marriage is thereto at-tached as Annex “3” and the Death Certificate of Pablo Mulles Gaviola as Annex “4”; that subse-quent to the marriage, the parents of the child both executed a Joint Af-fidavit of Legitimation and caused its annota-tion in the Certificate of Live Birth of the child.

A faithful reproduction of the said Affidavit of Legitimation is there-to attached as Annex “5” while the said birth certificate is appended hereto as Annex “6”; that consequently, they were able to annotate the affidavit and caused the legitimation of the child on February 23, 2015. From then on, the child used the surname of the father. Attached therewith are the child’s Certificate of Baptism, Official Transcript of Re-cords and Tax Identifica-tion Number Card as An-nexes “7”, “8” and “9”, respectively; that, how-ever, just recently when petitioner was securing a copy issuance of the birth certificate at public re-spondent PSA as a school requirement, she was advised that her request could not be approved after respondent PSA found out that she had a subsisting marriage with “PABLO MULLES GAVIOLA”; that Peti-tioner was instructed by public respondent PSA

to file the instant petition to cancel the annotation reflected on the child’s birth certificate and to likewise cancel the Af-fidavit of Legitimation which became the basis of the aforesaid annota-tion. Copy of the PSA’s Feedback Form is thereto attached as Annex “10”; that the child could not have been legitimated by the supposed mar-riage between his par-ents, being bigamous on account of the valid and subsisting marriage between petitioner and PABLO MULLES GAVI-OLA. Under Article 177 of the Family Code, only children conceived and born outside of wedlock of parents who, at the time of the conception of the former, were not disqualified by any im-pediment to marry each other may be legitimated; that the cancellation of the annotation in the subject birth certificate and the Affidavit of Le-gitimation executed by petitioner and the private respondent is only for the

purpose of straightening the birth records of the child so as to make it consistent with existing laws and regulations. Herein petitioner hereby respectfully asking or seeking for the cancel-lation of entry in the Certificate of Live Birth of Nicha C. Samante.

The petition being sufficient in form and substance, notice is here-by given that this petition is set for initial hearing on March 30, 2020 at 8:30 o’clock in the morning at the session hall of this Court. Any person who may have an interest in this petition may file an interest in this petition may file an opposition and show cause why this petition should not be granted.

Let a copy of this order be published at the expense of the peti-tioner in a newspaper of general circulation in the Province of Leyte once a week for three (3) consec-utive weeks. Likewise, let a copy of this order be posted in the bulletin

boards of the Municipal Hall and Post Office of Mahaplag, Leyte, as well as in the bulletin board of this Court, and of the Provincial Capital, Taclo-ban City.

Furnish copies of this order: The Office of the Solicitor General; the Municipal Civil Regis-trar of Mahaplag, Leyte, the Administrator and Civil Registrar General of the Philippines Sta-tistics Authority (PSA), the Assistant Provincial Prosecutor of Baybay City, Leyte, the private respondent, the petition-ers, and the counsel of the petitioner.

SO ORDERED. In Chambers, this

10th day of February, 2020 at Bulwagan ng Katarungn, Baybay City, Leyte.

(Sgd.) CARLOS O. ARGUELLES

Presiding Judge Coa:abrc

EV Mail Feb. 10-16, 17-23, & 24- March 1,2020

Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region Branch 14

Baybay City, Leyte Spec. Proc. No. B-19-

09-38 In Re: PETITION FOR

CANCELLATION OF ENTRY OF THE

MARRIAGE BETWEEN MARIVEL MILLAN

MELNJAK AND ALEKSANDAR

MELNJAK WITH PRAYER FOR

RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN JUDGMENT OF DISSOLUTION OF

MARRIAGE, MARIVEL MILLAN

MELNJAK, Petitioner, -versus-

THE CIVIL REGISTRAR GENERAL,

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS

AUTHORITY (PSA) THE LOCAL CIVIL

REGISTRAR OF MAHAPLAG, LEYTE, AND ALEKSANDAR

MELNJAK Respondents, x----------------x

ORDER This is a verified

petition for cancellation

of entry of the marriage between Marivel Millan Melnjak and Aleksandar Melnjak with prayer for recognition of foreign judgment of dissolution of marriage. Petitioner averred inter alia that she is of legal age, Fili-pino and a resident of Poblacion Mahaplag, Leyte. Copies of Peti-tioner’s passport, UMID ID are thereto attached as Annexes “A” and “B” and made an integral part of this petition; that Respondent Local Civil Registrar of Mahaplag, Leyte holds office at the Municipal Hall of Ma-haplag, Leyte; that Re-spondent Carmelita N. Ericta, the Administra-tor and Civil Registrar General of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA for brevity) is impleaded herein in her official ca-pacity; she can be served with summons and other processes of this Honor-able Court in her office at the ground floor of Solicarel Building I, Ra-mon Magsaysay Boule-vard, Sta. Mesa, Manila 1008, Philippines; that Respondent Aleksandar Melnjak is of legal age, Croatian national with

last known address at _____; that the parties can be served with summons and other processes of this Honorable Court at the addresses above-indicated; that Petitioner and Respondent Alek-sandar Melnjak were married on April 5, 2014 in St. Michael Parish, Ma-haplag, Leyte; that their marriage was registered before the Local Civil Registrar of Mahaplag, Leyte and recorded in the National Statistics Office (NSO) of the Republic of the Philippines. A copy of the certificate of mar-riage is thereto attached and marked as Annex “C” and made an inte-gral part of this Petition; that Respondent Alek-sandar Melnjak filed for divorce in the Municipal Court of Pula, Croatia. A copy of the pertinent Croatian Law govern-ing divorce is thereto attached and marked as Annex “B” and made an integral part there-of; that on November 14, 2016, the Municipal Court of Pula, Croatia issued a Judgment to Dissolve the marriage between Petitioner and Respondent Aleksan-

dar Melnjak. A certified copy of the judgment in Croatian language, a certified translation as correctly translated in the English Language and the authentication is-sued by Leilani Feliciano, Authentication officer, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Za-greb, Croatia, are thereto attached and marked as Annexes “D”, “E” and “F” and made an integral part of this Petition; that due to the valid final judgment of divorce be-tween the marriage of Pe-titioner and Respondent Aleksandar Melnjak, a Croatian Citizen, decreed by the Municipal Court of Pula, Croatia, Petition-er is allowed to remarry or contract another mar-riage in accordance with paragraph 2, Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines, viz:

“Art. 26. All marriag-es solemnized outside the Philippines, in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38.

Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly ob-tained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Fili-pino spouse shall likewise have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.”

Furthermore, that the Supreme Court, in the case of Minoru Fujiki vs. Maria Paz G. Marinay, et al, G.R. No. 196049 June 26, 2013, citing Gerbert R. Corpuz vs. Daisylyn T. Sto. Tomas GR. No. 186571, August 11, 2010 declared that since the recognition of a foreign judgement only requires proof of fact of the judge-ment, it may be made in a special proceeding for cancellation or cor-rection of entries in the civil registry under Rule 108 of the Rules of Court. Rule 1, Section 3 of the Rules of Court provides that “special proceeding is a remedy by which a party seeks to estab-lish a status, a right, or a particular fact.” Rule 108 creates a remedy to rectify facts of a person’s life which are recorded by the State pursuant to the

Civil Register Law or Act No. 3753. These are facts of public consequence such as birth, death or marriage, which the State has an interest in record-ing; that since the fact of marriage between Peti-tioner and Respondent Aleksandar Melnjak is still registered with the Respondent Local Civil Registrar of Mahaplag, Leyte and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) the same should be can-celled in accordance with Article 407 of Civil Code of the Philippines, Act No. 3753, NSO Circular No. 4, Series of 1982 and Department of Justice Opinion No. 181, Series of 1982 in order to ca-pacitate the Petitioner to remarry in accordance with paragraph 2, Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines. Herein petitioner hereby respect-fully asking or seeking for the recognition of the Final Judgment of Divorce between her and Respondent Aleksandar Melnjak dated Novem-ber 24, 2016 issued by the Municipal Court of Pula, Croatia; direct the Respondent Local Civil Registrar of Mahaplag,

Leyte to REGISTER and/or ANNOTATE the Final Judgement of Divorce between her and Respon-dent Aleksandar Melnjak in accordance with Article 407 of Civil Code of the Philippines, Act 3753, NSO Circular No. 4, Se-ries of 1982 and Depart-ment of Justice Opinion No. 181, Series of 1982; and order the Respon-dent Local Civil Registrar of Mahaplag, Leyte to CANCEL the ENTRY of the Marriage between her and Respondent Aleksan-dar Melnjak in the Civil Registry Capacitating her to remarry in accordance with paragraph 2, Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines. Other reliefs just and equitable under the premises are likewise prayed for.

The petition being sufficient in form and substance, notice is here-by given that this petition is set for initial hearing on March 30, 2020 at 8:30 o’clock in the morning at the session hall of this Court. Any person who may have an interest in this petition may file an opposition and show cause why this petition should not be granted.

Let a copy of this order be published at the expense of the petitioner in a newspaper of gen-eral circulation in the Prov-ince of Leyte once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks. Likewise, let a copy of this order be posted in the bulletin boards of the Municipal Hall and Post Office of Mahaplag, Leyte as well as in the bulletin boards of this Court, and of the Provincial Capital, Tacloban City.

Furnish copies of this order: The Office of the Solicitor General; the Municipal Civil Registrar of Mahaplag, Leyte, the Administrator and Civil Registrar General of the Philippine Statistics Au-thority (PSA), the Assis-tant Provincial Prosecu-tor of Baybay City, Leyte, the private respondent, the petitioner, and the counsel of the petitioner.

SO ORDERED. In Chambers, this

10th day of February,2020 at Bulwagan ng Katarun-gan, Baybay City, Leyte.

(Sgd.) CARLOS O. ARGUELLES

Presiding Judge coa: abrcEV Mail Feb. 10-16,

17-23, & 24- March 1,2020

Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region Branch 8

Bulwagan Ng Katarungan

Magsaysay Blvd., Tacloban City

SPEC. PROC. NO. R-TAC-19-01436-SP

IN THE MATTER OF PETITION FOR

NATURALIZATION OF ANIL R. KUMAR,

Petitioner. x----------------------x

ORDER This is a verified

petition for naturaliza-tion filed by ANIL R. KUMAR.

Petitioner is of legal age, an Indian National as evidenced by his In-dian Passport with No. L5222267 (Annex “B and series”) issued by the Em-bassy of the Republic of India in the Philippines on October 15, 2013 valid until October 14, 2023 and further alleges that:

1. He intends in good faith to become a citizen of the Philippines and to per-manently reside therein;

2. His fullname is ANIL RANI KUMAR with the following per-sonal description:

Racial Color: Brown Complexion: Medium

Height: 6.1” Weight: 93 kilograms Color of hair: Black Color of eyes: Black

Other distinctive Marks: Birth Mark on

Left Leg 3. He was born in

Nakodar Jalandhar, India on July 28, 1966. His last foreign residence was in Ludhiana Punjab, In-dia. He emigrated to on December 10, 1985 as shown in his Passport and Certificate from the Bureau of Immigration (Annex “C” of the peti-tion) showing his proof of first lawful entry into this country via Cathay Pacific Airways;

4. He has perma-nently resided in the Philippines and was is-sued by the Bureau of Im-migration an Alien Cer-tificate of Registration Identity Card No. SSRN: 14101AK120041504 valid until March 27, 2023;

5. He has been a

resident of Brgy. Guinda-punan for a period of not less than ten (10) years (Annex “E and series” – Brgy. Certificate of Residency), of good moral character and have conducted himself in a proper and irreproach-able manner during his entire stay in the Philip-pines in his relation with the constituted govern-ment as well as with the community in which he is living (Annex “Q and series” – NBI Clearance, Police Clearance, Court Clearance; Annex “S and series” – Certificates and Photographs of Chari-table Activities, awards and recognitions);

6. He believes in the principles underlying the Philippine Constitution;

7. As a result of his stay in the Philippines, he is now fluent in English, Filipino and the Waray-waray dialect;

8. He is currently a businessman being the:

. Director/ Incor-porator of Palo Lending Corporation, a corpora-tion duly organized and existing under and by

virtue of the law of the Republic of the Philip-pines, engaged in the business of direct lend-ing-investor with prin-cipal place of business at Brgy. Guindapunan, Palo, Leyte;

. Manager of Kumar Real Estate Lessor, a sole proprietorship owned by his wife Brenda M. Kumar, engaged in real estate activities with ad-dress at Brgy. 76, Fatima Village, Tacloban City;

. Stockholder of San Juanico Park, Golf and Country Club with his Certificate of Stock at-tached in the petition as Annex “M”;

9. As Director of Palo Lending Corpora-tion and Manager of Ku-mar Real Estate Lessor, he earns his income as evidenced by the Cer-tificate of Compensation Payment or Income Tax Withheld BIR Form 2316 from 2015 to 2018 at-tached in the petition as Annex “N and series” and Bank Certificate of petitioner and his wife, Annex “O”;

10. During the sub-

sistence of petitioner’s marriage with Brenda, he and his wife acquired real properties in Ta-cloban City, Palo, Leyte and Tolosa, Leyte as evi-denced by Transfer Cer-tificates of Title and/or Tax Declarations (Annex “J and series”);

11. He is married to BRANDA P. MONTA, Filipino Citizen, born in Palo, Leyte on July 19, 1965 as evidenced by a copy of Certificate of Marriage (Annex “G”) and they are blessed with three (3) children, all Filipino citizens, namely-

Ma. Sushiela Kumar Trocino

December 18, 1990Tacloban City

Shaneena Monta Kumar

January 10, 1995Tacloban City

Sunjay Monta KumarMay 30, 1996Tacloban City 12. He enrolled all

his children in a private school recognized by the Department of Education where Philippine History, government and civics are taught or prescribed

as part of the curriculum during the entire required period of residence in the Philippines;

13. He and his fam-ily are presently residing at Monica Subdivision, Guindapunan, Palo, Leyte;

14. He has complied with the requirements of Sec. 5 of Commonwealth Act No. 473 by filing his bona fide intention to become a citizen of the Philippines one (1) year prior to the filing of the instant petition or on Oc-tober 29, 2018. Attached to the petition is petitioner’s Letter of Intent and Other Documents stamped re-ceived by the Office of the Solicitor General, marked as Annex “T”;

15. Upon being admitted to Philippine citizenship, petitioner will renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sover-eignty and particularly to the Republic of India. Likewise, petitioner will reside continuously in the Philippines from the date of the filing of this petition up to the time of

his admission to Philip-pine Citizenship.

The petition was signed by the applicant in his own handwrit-ing, supported by the affidavit of three (3) wit-nesses namely Analiza F. Yu, Filipino, of legal age, married, resident of Brgy. Guindapunan, Palo, Leyte; Ricky C. Chua, Filipino, of legal age, married, resident of Brgy. 110, Zone 4, Ma-harlika Highway, Utap, Tacloban City; and Ari-anne Pearl V. Daan, of legal age, Filipino, single, resident of Brgy. Quilao, Tolosa, Leyte.

Finding the peti-tion to be sufficient in form and substance, the same is hereby given due course and the ini-tial hearing set on July 16, 2020 at 8:30 o’clock in the morning at this Court at the Bulwagan Ng Katarungan, Magsay-say Blvd., Tacloban City on which time, date and place any person hav-ing opposition thereto maybe heard or forever be barred.

T h e p e t i t i o n e r

is ordered to publish a copy of his Petition and this Order in the Official Gazette and in one of the newspapers of general circulation in the Province of Leyte once a week for three consecutive weeks at his own expense.

The Sheriff of this Court is likewise ordered to post copies of the Peti-tion and this Order in the Bulletin Boards of the Bulwagan Ng Katarun-gan, Leyte; Municipal Hall of Palo, Leyte; Ta-cloban City Hall and in Provincial Capitol Build-ing, Tacloban City.

Furnish a copy of this Order to the peti-tioner and his counsel, the Office of the Solicitor General and the Sheriff of this Court.

SO ORDERED. IN CHAMBERS this

5th day of February 2019 at the Bulwagan Ng Kata-rungan, Tacloban City.

(Sgd.) ALTONE M. MIRALLES

Judge AMM/mgdc EV Mail Feb. 17-23,

24- March 1, & 2-8, 2020

10 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Republic of the Philippines

MUNICIPAL TRIAL COURT OF

PALOMPON 8th Judicial Region Palompon, Leyte

-o0o- CIVIL CASE NO. 497

FOR: RECOVERY OF

OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION,

CANCELLATION OF TAX DECLARATION

WITH DAMAGES HEIRS OF ROSARIO MARQUEZ-PELAYO

NAMELY: ADELAIDA M. PELAYO-

SANCHEZ, VIRGILIO M. PELAYO, PANFILO

M. PELAYO, JOSEFINA M. PELAYO,

and LECERTO PELAYO, JR.,

Plaintiffs, -versus-

HEIRS OF CRISPINA MARQUEZ, NAMELY:

TERESITA P. SY MESTER, VIRGINIA P. GORUMBA, GEREMIE

P. ABORDO, AISA P. CABRAL,

DOMINADOR JORDA, ARLENE JORDA, GILBERT PINTOY,

JACKILYN PINTOY, ROBERTO PINTOY, JR.,

JESSICA PINTOY, ESTER PINTOY,

PAMELA PINTOY, EDWARD PINTOY, CHERRY PINTOY,

ISAGANI A. JAENA, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS MUNICIPAL

ASSESSOR OF PALOMPON, LEYTE

Defendants. x-----------------x

SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION Pursuant to the Or-

der of this Court dated January 9, 2020 and in ac-cordance with Section 15, Rule 14 of the of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, quoted hereunder is the verified Complaint for Recovery of Ownership and Possession, Cancel-lation of Tax Declaration with Damages dated Au-gust 27, 2019 by plain-tiff ’s, through counsel Atty. Philip A. Albeos.

COMPLAINT P L A I N T I F F S ,

through the undersigned counsel respectfully states, that:

1. Plaintiffs JOSE-FINA M. PELAYO is of legal age, Filipino, widow and a resident of Binangonan Rizal; PAZ M. PELAYO AND AD-

ELAIDA M. PELAYO are of legal age, Filipino, widows and residents of Tabangong Diot, Taban-go, Leyte; VIRGILIO M. PELAYO is of legal age, Filipino, married and a resident of Cebu City; LECERTO PELAYO JR. is of legal age, Filipino, married and a resident of Davao City; and PAN-FILO M. PELAYO is of legal age, Filipino, mar-ried and a resident of Ta-bangong Diot, Tabango, Leyte. All of the other plaintiffs in this case are represented by PANFILO M. PELAYO by virtue of a Special Power of At-torney hereto attached as ANNEXES “A”, “B”, “C” AND “D”;

2. Defendants are likewise all of legal age, Filipinos, married and residents of Sitio Bakilid, Brgy. San Isidro, Palom-pon, Leyte where they may be served with sum-mons and other court processes;

3. That both parties have the capacity to sue and be sued;

4. Plaintiffs are the Heirs of the late Rosario M. Pelayo who died on September 13, 1982 as evidenced by her Cer-tificate of Death hereto attached as Annex “E”;

5. Defendants are likewise the Heirs of Cri-spina Marquez who is the sister of Rosario M. Pelayo. Both Crispina Marquez and Rosario M. Pelayo are children of the late Spouses Panfilo Mar-quez and Hilaria Suralta;

6. Aside from Cri-spina Marquez and Ro-sario M. Pelayo, Spouses Panfilo Marquez and Hilaria Suralta still have other seven (7) children namely: Paciencia Mar-quez, Remedios Mar-quez, Anatalio Marquez, Elena Marquez, Mamerto Marquez, Bernardino Marquez and Cornelio Marquez;

7. During the life-time of Spouses Pan-filo Marquez and Hilaria Suralta, they owned a parcel of land situated in Brgy. San Isidro, (former-ly San Juan) Palompon, Leyte declared in the name of the former and which lot is particularly described as follows:

TAX DECLARATON NO.

NO. -4965- A parcel of land

situated in Brgy. San Isidro (formerly Brgy.

San Juan), Palompon, Leyte containing an area of TEN THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SEV-E N T E E N S Q U A R E METERS (10,217 sq. m.) MORE OR LESS;

Copy of Tax Dec-laration No. 4965 hereto attached as ANNEX “F”;

8. That the above-described lot has an assessed value of Six Hundred Fifty Pesos (Php650.00) as shown by its tax declaration;

10. Sometime in 2017, while plaintiffs are settling the estate of their late mother Rosario Pelayo, they learned of the existence of the above-described lot owned by their late grandparents to which their mother has a share;

11. Out of curiosity, plaintiffs verified in the Office of the Munici-pal Assessor, Palompon, Leyte and confirmed that indeed the said lot is existing;

1 2 . L i k e w i s e , through the documents provided by the Office of the Municipal Assessor, Palompon, Leyte, plain-tiffs learned that upon the death of Spouses Pan-filo Marquez and Hilaria Suralta, their children executed an Extrajudicial Partition and Settlement Among Heirs regarding their estate including the above-described par-cel of land. Copy of the Extrajudicial Partition and Settlement Among Heirs dated December 6, 1974 obtained from the records of the Municipal Assessor of Palompon Leyte, hereto attached as ANNEX “G”;

13. In the said doc-ument, the above-de-scribed lot was divided equally between seven (7) children namely: Cri-spina Marquez, Rosario M. Pelayo, Anatalio Mar-quez, Elena Marquez, Mamerto Marquez, Ber-nardini Marquez and Cornelio Marquez, con-sidering that the share of the other two (2) siblings were in another lot;

14. However, in the same document plaintiffs noticed there is an irregu-larity thereof particularly an insertion which reads as follows: (NOTE:) share of Rosario Marquez sold to Crispina Marquez”;

15. The said phrase was inserted and written in the supposed space between two (2) para-

graphs which makes it questionable as to its authenticity. All of the paragraphs in the said document have proper spacing except the one where the phrase was inserted;

16. Based on the said document, the share of Rosario Marquez was transferred to Crispina Marquez without any Deed of Absolute Sale to support the conveyance of the former ’s share. Copy of the Certification dated December 27, 2018 issued by the Office of the Provincial Assessor of Leyte to the effect that there are no records or any document to support the transfer of the share of Rosario Marquez to Crispina Marquez hereto attached as ANNEX “H”;

17. Likewise, on February 12, 2019 the Office of the Provincial Assessor of Leyte made an indorsement to the Municipal Assessor of Palomon, Leyte to act on the request of the plain-tiffs for the issuance of a separate Tax Declaration covering the share of their mother but still the request remains unacted. Copy of the indorsement hereto attached as AN-NEX “I”;

18 . Supposedly each sibling is entitled to a share of One Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-Nine Square Meters (1,459 sq. m.). However, the share of Crispina Marquez is twice the size of the other siblings at an area of Two Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty Square Meters (2,920 sq. m.) considering that it includes the share of Rosario Marquez-Pelayo as evidenced by a Tax Declaration No. 11725 in the name of the former hereto attached as ANNEX “J”;

19. The only basis of the transfer of Rosario’s share to Crispina is the questionable and irregu-lar Extrajudicial Partition and Settlement Among Heirs and nothing more. Moreover, plaintiffs were able to obtain a tracer/history records of the subject lot showing that Crispina’s share is twice the size of the area of the other siblings which is a manifestation that it includes Rosario’s share. Copy of the tracer/his-tory records hereto at-tached as ANNEX “K”;

20. Plaintiffs have

already made several demands to the defen-dants for the return of their mother’s share of the subject lot but the latter fail to do so and are adamant on their stand not to give the share of Rosario Marquez back;

21. Considering that the parties are relatives, earnest effort to settle the matter amicably had been exerted but unfortu-nately failed. There was even mediation proceed-ings conducted before the Office of the Punong Barangay of Brgy. San Isidro, Palompon, Leyte but still no amicable settlement was reached;

22. Premises con-sidered, plaintiffs have no other option but to invoke the aid of the court in order to recover ownership and posses-sion of the share of their late mother Rosario Mar-quez;

23. Plaintiffs and defendants are not resi-dents of the same City or Municipality and therefore previous refer-ral to the Office of the Barangay Chairman or Lupong Tagapamayapa is not a pre-requisite in filing the case;

24. Defendants ’ continued and unjustifi-able refusal to give the rightful share of Rosario Marquez is tantamount to bad faith on their part;

25. By reason of de-fendant’s unjustifiable refusal to give the right-ful share of Rosario Mar-quez on the subject lot caused the plaintiffs seri-ous anxiety and sleepless nights and therefore the former should be made to indemnify the latter for moral damages in the amount of P50,000.00;

26. Likewise, to de-ter other who have the inclination to do same act as defendants are doing, defendants should like-wise be ordered to pay P20,000.00 as exemplary damages;

27. Defendants’ un-reasonable act has com-pelled the plaintiffs to litigate this matter which constrained them to hire the services of a counsel incurring expenses of P40,000.00 as acceptance fee plus P4,000.00 in ev-ery court appearance.

P R A Y E RW H E R E F O R E ,

plaintiffs respectfully pray that judgment be rendered:

(a) Declaring plain-tiffs to be rightful owner and possessor of an area of One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty Square Meters (1,460 sq. m.) of the subject lot;

(b) Ordering the defendants to return and deliver the share of Rosario Marquez of the subject lot with an area of One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty Square Meters (1,460 sq. m.) to the plaintiffs;

(c) Ordering the Of-fices of the Municipal Assessor of Palompon, Leyte to partially can-cel Tax No. 11725 in the name of Crispina Mar-quez to issue another tax declaration in the name of Rosario Marquez with respect to an area of One Thousand Four Hun-dred Sixty Square Meters (1,460 sq. m.);

(d) Ordering de-fendants to pay the at-torney’s fee in the sum of P40,000.00 plus cost of litigation;

(e) Ordering de-fendants to indemnify the plaintiffs the sum P50,000.00 as moral dam-ages and P20,000.00 as exemplary damages.

Other reliefs just and equitable under the circumstances are like-wise prayed for.

O r m o c c i t y f o r Palompon, Leyte Philip-pines. August 27, 2019.

ALBEOS LAW OF-FICE

Counsel for the Plaintiffs

Rm 7,2nd Floor, Co-ching Buiding,

Bonifacio Street, Or-moc City

Tel. Nos. 561-5227 (Sgd.) PHILIP A.

ALBEOS III Roll of Attorney’s

No. 53098 PTR No. 5842103,

1/04/19 I B P O . R . N o .

069941,1/18/19 TIN No. 947-754-

295 MCLE Compliance

No. VI-0002373 Issued on May 23,

2017

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINE)

CITY OF ORMOC) S.S. VERIFICATION/ CERTIFICATION

I , PANFILO M. PELAYO, of legal age, Filipino, married and a resident of Tabangong Diot, Tabango, Leyte, upon being sworn, here-

by depose and say: 1. That I am the

Plaintiff and my co-plain-tiffs’ representative in the above-captioned case;

2 . T h a t I h a v e caused the preparation of the above complaint and have read and un-derstood the contents thereof and that the alle-gations contained therein are true, according to my own personal knowledge and based on authentic records;

I further Certify; THAT:

I have not com-menced any action or proceedings involving the same issue in the Su-preme Court, the Court of Appeals, or any other tribunal or agency: b) That to the best of my knowledge, no such ac-tion or proceeding is pending in the Supreme Court, the Court of Ap-peals, or any other tribu-nal or agency; c) and if there is any such action or proceedings which is either pending or may have been terminated, I will state the status thereof, and d) if I should thereafter learn that a similar action or proceed-ing has been filed or is pending before the Su-preme Court, the Court of Appeals, or any other tribunal, or agency, I will undertake to report that fact within five (5) days there from, to this Honor-able Court.

I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have here-unto affixed my signa-ture this September 05, 2019, at Ormoc City, Phil-ippines.

(Sgd.) PANFILO M. PELAYO Affiant

D. LIC # G01-01-306136

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO before me this September 05, 2019 at Ormoc City, Philippines. (Sgd.) GERENTSTEIN

T. BANZON Notary Public Or-

moc City Until December 31,

2019 Notarial Commis-

sion NO. ORM-17-12-017 Roll of Attorney’s

No. 53280 PTR No. 5840113,

dtd 1.05.19 Ormoc IBP O.R. No. 068241

dtd, 1.10.19 Leyte TIN: 23339372600 Off. Add Unit 4, 2nd

Floor JE Tan Bldg. Cor. Aviles and

Rizal Sts. Ormoc City MCLE Compliance

No. VI-0011100 dtd. 04.14.2022

Doc. No. 260 Page No. 52 Book No. LXXXI Series of 2019 N O W T H E R E -

F O R E , d e f e n d a n t s , TERESITA SYMESTER who is said to be some-where in Germany with no specific address, VIRGINIA GORUMBA, GEREMIE ABORDO, AISA GABRAL, DOMI-NADOR JORDA, ESTER PINTOY somewhere in Manila with no specific address, and ARLENE JORDA, JOSE JUDY JORDA, JESSICA PIN-TOY, EDWARD PINTOY and CHERRY PINTOY somewhere in Cebu City with no specific address, are hereby summoned by means of publication once a week for TWO (2)CONSECUTIVE WEEKS in a newspaper of gen-eral circulation in the Philippines and required to file with the Municipal Trial Court, Palompon, Leyte, their answer to the Complaint filed against them in the instant case within SIXTY (60) DAYS from the date of the last publication of this Sum-mons and serving copy thereof to the plaintiffs through their counsel, Atty. Philip A. Albeos III.

Likewise, plaintiffs, shall at their expense send a copy of this Sum-mons together with a copy of the Complaint by registered mail at the last known address of the defendants, TERESITA SYMESTER VIRGINIA GORUMBA, GEREMIE ABORDO, AISA CA-BRAL, DOMINADOR JORDA, JOSE JUDY JOR-DA, ARLENE JORDA, JESSICA PINTOY, ES-TER PINTOY, EDWARD PINTOY and CHERRY PINTOY.

WITNESS the Hon-orable DELIA P. NOEL -BERTULFO, Presiding Judge of this Court, this 17th day of January, 2020 at Palompon, Leyte, Phil-ippines. (Sgd.) MARIA IRENE ROMERO-LEGASPI

Clerk of Court II Copy furnished: 1. Atty. Philip A.

Albeos III 2. Atty. Anastacio

Omega, Jr. EV Mail Feb. 17- 23,

& 24- March 1, 2020

I. Gomez who bravely presented the city’s SWM plans in the next 10 years. Supporting him at the presentation venue were Environ-ment and Natural Resources Officers Rafael Dumalan and Ingrid Macabare, SP Member Lalaine Marcos who serves as Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Natural Re-sources and Energy Conservation, and City Administrator Vincent Emnas.

In an assessment of the mayor’s presenta-tion, Crispian Lao of the Recycling Industry Sector, shared that Ormoc has an impres-sive and very comprehensive plan, adding, “As we can see, we allow our officials to go around; the river is relatively clean, its a relatively clean city. We will definitely and continually monitor all the activities; again the plan is just a first step, the real challenge is keeping that plan in place and ensuring the plan is implemented properly.”

He further lauded Ormoc’s disposal facility, saying, “What’s nice with Ormoc is that it has a disposal facility. That is their advantage over doon sa ibang mga areas na walang pagtatapunan ng basura.”

“We can see also good strides in the form of the amount of waste that is being disposed, kasi ang ibang lugar porque may tatapunan, okay lang na tapon nang tapon,” Lao added.

SWM ... from P. 1

The commissioners, he said, will definite-ly continue monitoring the city’s activities.

Asistant Secretary Salazar, meanwhile, commented, saying, “Financial capacity my dear friends can be solved. Remember [that] you are the decision makers. It is you who decide… there will be funds. It’s really a mat-ter of prioritizing this. Even if it is painted in your plans… if there are no funds allocated, it is not considered as priority.”

Salazar added that, “now is the time to make this a priority for our nation because eventually the nation will suffer not only in terms of health but it will also suffer economi-cally. Even tourism will be affected. So we have high hopes that this day is a chance for all of us to check the direction of your local government units and we will be partnering with you, too.”

The 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan is one of the mandates of Republic Act 9003 series of 2001 that provides for an eco-logical solid waste management program to be adopted by local government units. By Mary Ann Reusora and Devon Nerza

away the fluoride from your toothpaste.• Quit smoking to help reduce the

chances of tooth staining, gum disease, tooth loss, and in more severe cases, mouth cancer.

• Make sure your toothpaste con-tains fluoride; it helps strengthen tooth enamel making it more resistant to decay.

• Change your toothbrush every two to three months or sooner if it becomes worn as it will not clean the teeth properly.

For Children, weaning your baby off the bottle early can help them avoid de-veloping dental problems. Here are more tips, too:

• All children up to three years old should use a smear of toothpaste with a fluoride level of no less than 1,000ppm (parts per million). After three years old, they should use toothpaste that contains 1,350ppm-1,500ppm.

• Parents should try and supervise their children’s tooth brushing until they are about 7 years old.

• Take your child to the dentist early, as soon as their teeth start to appear; this will help them get used to the sights,

sounds and smells of a dental practice.• Use a timer or brush along to a

song to ensure your children are brushing for the correct amount of time.

• You may use a reward chart to track your children’s brushing habits and get them actively involved in brushing their teeth.

Good oral health contributes positively to one’s physical, mental and social well-being and to the enjoyment of life’s pos-sibilities. It allows you to speak, eat and socialize unhindered by pain, discomfort or embarrassment. Brushing and flossing, following a healthy diet, and visiting the dentist regularly are all part of ongoing oral care for healthy teeth and gums.

The information discussed here is in-tended for informational use only and does not replace the professional care of your dentist. Only your dentist has the skills, training and expertise to identify and ad-dress all our oral health care needs. If you have questions or concerns about your oral health, please talk to your dentist.

Dr. Doydora is a visiting internist-pulmonologist of OSPA, Gatchalian and Ormoc Doctors’ Hospitals.

HEALTH ... from P. 4

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12 FEBRUARY 17-23, 2020

Franciscan Sisters of Baybay hold annual surgical mission

Construction industry booms in the region

FOR THE past decades, doctors from Cebu, Tacloban, Ormoc and Baybay have been conducting free surgical mission organized by the Order of Saint Francis Assistance Community Center, by the sisters of the Order of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration /OSF.

This year, the annual Handug Puso Medical-Surgical Mission coincided with Valentine’s Day. Despite this, volunteer-doctors still chose to spend their Valentine’s Day serving the indigent benefi-ciaries of the said mission as it was held last February 14-15, 2020 at the Bonzel Health and Nutrition Center, at the Franciscan College of the Immaculate Conception (FCIC), Baybay City, Leyte.

Several volunteer-doctors came including Doctors Steve G. Rama (surgeon, head of the mis-sion), Mary Allene R. Rama (An-esthesiology), Christopher T. Go, Zeneicov Sara (Thoracic Surgery), Malu Sara (Pediatrics), Richie Go, Bryan Bandolon, Irene Sanchez, Jovy Tan, James Tankiatsky, Gerry Penserga, Evelyn Guinocor and Nino Jessielito Doydora.

There were also volunteer nurses, midwives, physical thera-pists and nursing aides who joined the mission; while some local commercial establishments and private individuals (alumni of the school) sponsored food for the participants and accommodation for the doctors from Cebu.

They also took the volunteer-doctors to Lintaon Peak to enjoy the view and then, they dined at a seafood restaurant in Baybay City that serves tuna.

An indigent patient in Baybay City undergoes “the knife” during the an-nual free surgical mission organized by the sisters of the Order of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration / OSF.

A total of 170 individuals were seen during the 2-day ac-tivity; 122 underwent surgical intervention while 48 were either medically managed and / or referred to a higher (specialized) center / hospital.

On the first day of the mis-sion, there was a lecture and demonstration for the lay people on cardiopulmonary resuscita-tion (CPR) by Dr. Nino Doydora, Pulmonologist, to emphasize the importance of CPR in providing a better chance for survival of people who have sudden heart attacks, which recently happened to Fr. Fernando Suarez (healing priest) who died this February 2020 after sustaining a massive heart attack while playing tennis,

and no one among those present attempted CPR to revive the well-known priest.

Meanwhile, OSF-ACC head-ed by Sister M. Maribel Piangco, OSF (FCIC President), with Sister M. Victoria Cabantac, OSF (OSF-ACC Social Worker), and ably assisted by the rest of the Sisters, hope to continue its advocacy with the help of its volunteer-doctors and other allied medical professionals to provide definitive treatment to selected indigent patients with surgical problems. It is also a way of giving back to the community. It is a way of thanking the Lord, our creator and the source of all our strength, wisdom and blessings received. (Contributed by Dr. NJ Doydora)

Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico “Mic” L. Petilla leading and en-joying the act of harvesting fresh eggs during the ceremonial turnover of livestock (egg-laying chicken) on February 13, 2020 to the Christian Family Farmers Association (CFFA) of Barangay New Taligue, Abuyog, Leyte. Joining him is Vice Governor Carlo Loreto, Board Member Flo-rante Cayunda Jr. and Board Member Emmanuel Gacis of the 5th Dis-trict of Leyte, Abuyog Mayor Limuel Gin Traya, Mr. Rio Abenoja, CFFA President, and Barangay Captain Nimesio Papong. (By Gina P. Gerez)

THE CONSTRUCTION industry is making a boom in the region with an increase in the number of new buildings, both residential and non-residential, taking the lead, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Au-thority (PSA) released last week.

PSA data shows the total number of constructions in the region in the third quarter of 2019 reached 1,236, or an increase of 30.9 percent from the 944 con-structions recorded in the same quarter of 2018. Its total value was estimated at Php 3.7 billion, which is 72.5 percent higher com-pared with the Php 2.2 billion total value of constructions in the same quarter of 2018.

The statistics agency said these comprised of residential buildings (66.7 percent), non-res-idential buildings (23.5 percent), and additions / alterations and repairs (9.8 percent).

By type of construction, resi-dential buildings significantly in-creased by 62.5 percent, posting 824 constructions in the 3rd quarter of 2019 from 507 constructions in the 3rd quarter of 2018. An increase of 27.6 percent was also noted in the number of non-residential build-ings, from 228 constructions in the 3rd quarter of 2018 to 291 construc-tions during the said quarter.

The combined number of ad-ditions / alterations and repairs

of existing structures, on the other hand, went down by 42.1 percent, from 209 constructions in the 3rd quarter of 2018 to 121 construc-tions in the same period of 2019.

The total value of non-resi-dential buildings almost doubled (91.9 percent), from Php 1.3 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2018 to Php 2.5 billion during the quarter in review. Aggregate value of resi-dential buildings also increased by 58.3 percent to Php 1.1 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2019 from Php 698.7 million in the same period of 2018.

On the other hand, total value of additions / alterations and repairs declined by 13.8 percent, from Php 174.6 million in the 3rd quarter of 2018 to Php 150.5 mil-lion in the 3rd quarter of 2019.

Non-residential buildings com-prised the largest share or 66.2 percent of the total value of con-structions in the region. Residential buildings, on the other hand, con-tributed 29.7 percent, and additions / alterations and repairs accounted for 4.0 percent of the region’s total value of constructions.

Average cost per square meter was estimated at Php 7,950 for res-idential buildings and Php 12,598 for non-residential buildings.

Data were based on the pre-liminary results of construction statistics from approved building permits. By Elmer Recuerdo

LGU-ORMOC TO PARTNER WITH PAYMAYA. Representatives from PayMaya Manila and PLDT visited Ormoc City Mayor Richard I. Gomez on February 18, 2020 in the hopes of partnering with LGU-Ormoc and provide for the city an online payment facility or platform. Together with MRG at the PayMaya meeting was City Administrator Vincent Emnas and City IT Department Head Melchizedec Yap. It was also mentioned during the meeting that the partnership is soon to be sealed with the signing of a Memoran-dum of Agreement (MOA) sometime March 2020. (By Mary Ann Reusora)

In Matag-ob, drug ‘surrenderee’ collared in buy-bust operation MATAG-OB, LEYTE – Joint ele-ments of the Leyte Provincial Police Office-Drug Enforcement Unit led by PLT Edgar G. Florendo and Matag-ob Police Station led by PLT Elizabeth Lubiano collard one Wilfredo Empasis y Dapiton, alias “Dodo”, 45 years old, married, jobless and a resident of Brgy. Sto. Rosario this town.

The suspect was caught in a

buy-bust operation at the High-way in Brgy. Bonoy here at 4:50 in the afternoon of February 16, 2020.

Dodo is included in the town’s drug watch list and is said to be among the top 20 personality in the whole of Leyte Province. Accordingly, he was among the surrenderees when the anti-illegal drug campaign was strengthened; in fact, he just recently received cash assistance from the Local Government of Matag-ob under the Livelihood Program.

However, based on the moni-toring done by the authorities and acting on the reports received, the suspect has continued to engage in the illegal drug trade in Matag-ob and in nearby mu-nicipalities. Thus, an entrapment was launched and was confirmed by the operatives through a police

who acted as poseur buyer. The police poseur buyer was

able to purchase from the suspect one piece of heat-sealed transpar-ent plastic sachet containing white crystalline substance suspected to be “shabu”; also seized and con-fiscated from his possession were: cash amounting to Php 1,000 plus a few coins and two more pieces of heat-sealed plastic sachet contain-ing suspected “shabu”.

Inventory of the items was wit-nessed by barangay officials, which is subject for further validation at the Regional Crime Laboratory, while “Dodo” Empasis is now in the Matag-ob Police Station lock-up facility; and a case for violation of Sec. 5 and 11 of Article II of Republic Act 9165 is being prepared for ap-propriate filing in court against him. By Josephine N. Serseña