New heavy equipment to boost Negros Orienta's disaster preparedness

by: Rachelle M. Nessia

DUMAGUETE CITY, March 26 (PIA) --- The provincial government of Negros Oriental, Philippines is set to purchase brand new heavy equipment to firm up the pre-disaster preparedness of the province.

Said equipment include one unit each of the following: bulldozer, road roller, backhoe, grader, water tanker and a trailer, according to Capitol Information Officer Adrian Sedillo.

Sedillo said the funds for said purchase – amounting to P60 million - will be taken from the province's annual budgetary reserve fund.

At the same time, the heavy equipment will also be used to establish engineering mobile units in each political district here, a project that Gov. Roel Degamo has stated in his Presentation of Plans and Programs speech before the Provincial Board on February 24, this year.

“Although these equipment is bought mainly for pre-disaster preparedness activities, the governor also intends to use these units in engineering works in the districts,” said Sedillo.

He added that the governor has noted that procuring brand new equipment would be more economical. “It's too costly to maintain almost unserviceable equipment. Instead of spending money to repair the old equipment, the governor would rather buy brand new units,” said Sedillo. (RMN/PIA-7 Negros Oriental)

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Dumaguete City to launch anti-measles immunization drive

by: Jennifer Catan-Tilos

 

DUMAGUETE CITY, Mar 28 (PIA)    Dumaguete City Health Office sets to launch the anti-measles vaccination drive with a programme ceremony on April 1 at   8:30 a.m. at Quezon Park, this city.

According to City Expanded Program Immunization (EPI) Coordinator Rose Reyes this launching in the city kicks off the month-long Knock-out Tigdas vaccination program aimed at immunizing of at least 26,145 children against measles in the 30 barangays.

Reyes said EPI & Child Care Coordinator Dr. Naida Bautista of DOH-7 will lead the project launching with the city and provincial health officials and all barangay captains in Dumaguete City.

The target of the vaccination with measles-rubella would be children ages nine months to eight years old whether they already received it before or missed in the 1998 and 2004 campaigns, Reyes said.

A door-to-door immunization health strategy, Reyes said the barangay health workers will go house-to-house to ensure that the target of the "Ligtas Tigdas" would get vaccinated including those children in the streets and wandering Badjaos in particular.

Provincial EPI Coordinator Juanita Gualiza said the Provincial Health Office has started distributing some paraphernalia such as the vaccines, syringes and other supplies to all rural health units (RHUs) in the province.

In fact, Gualiza said two RHUs in Tanjay City have started conducting their immunization early this week.

Health official has urged the different stakeholders to actively participate in the campaign which is part of the country’s continuing efforts to reduce children under five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015 stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals. (PIA NegOr/JCT)

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Lawmaker: More conditions for fathers under gov't poverty reduction program

by: Rachelle M. Nessia

DUMAGUETE CITY, March 28 (PIA) --- If a local lawmaker will have his way, the fathers belonging to the family-beneficiaries under the government's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) should also follow a set of conditions before the family can avail of the monetary aid.

Third District Rep. Pryde Henry Teves is pushing for conditions for the fathers after he pointed out that the current conditions outlined by 4Ps for its family-beneficiaries are only directed at the mothers and the children.

“There should definitely be conditions for fathers to follow also as they are the head of the family,” stressed Teves in his speech during the 4Ps ceremonial cash-payout held today at the Zamboanguita Municipal Gymnasium.

The current conditions set by 4Ps for beneficiaries to follow so they can continue receiving their cash subsidies are: a) pregnant women must avail of pre and post natal care and be attended during childbirth by a trained health professional; (b) parents must attend responsible parenthood sessions; (c) children aged zero to five years old must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines; (d) children aged three to 14 years must attend day care, pre-school, elementary or high school classes at least 85% of the time; and (e) children aged six to 14 years must receive de-worming pills twice a year.

Teves' call for further conditions is prompted by the increase in sales of alcoholic beverages and so-called “sin products” in Bayawan City and Sta. Catalina town after the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) handed out the 4Ps financial assistance known as conditional cash transfers (CCT) to its recipients in said areas late last year.

Data gathered by Teves' office show that liqour sales in Bayawan City and Sta. Catalina shot up by 50% in December 2010 as 45,000 cases of alcoholic drinks were sold in a month when sales are expected to be low in the two areas due to non-harvest season and continuous rain.

“We were surprised because we were expecting the sales of liquor during this month to be low because normally around 30,000 cases are sold in these areas every December. But even cigarette sales went up also,” said Teves.

The congressman attributed the increase to 4Ps as the program's CCT were distributed to the recipients in Bayawan City in the same month.

Teves' observation was also backed by Zamboanguita Mayor Kit Marc Adanza who, in his speech in the same activity, said that it has been observed that the fathers of the family-beneficiaries, end up spending the money in billiard games or drinking sprees after receiving the monetary aid from 4Ps.

“I have heard some fathers of the family-beneficiaries say that they will no longer work in their farms because they are receiving money from 4Ps. You should understand that this money is not a dole-out. The money is given so your children can go to school,” Adanza told the crowd of 1,058 beneficiaries inside the packed gymnasium, mostly composed of women and mothers.

Teves stressed that conditions for the fathers should also be imposed under 4Ps “so that we can prevent this problem from happening again.”(RMN/PIA-7 Negros Oriental)

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Zamboanguita witnesses first cash pay-out of poverty reduction program

by: Rachelle M. Nessia

ZAMBOANGUITA, Negros Oriental --- A total of 1,058 residents here who were identified as beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) walked away with cash after the first ceremonial cash pay-out held today at the packed Municipal Gymnasium.

This is the first time that 4Ps beneficiaries in Negros Oriental were able to immediately receive in cold cash their conditional cash transfer (CCT) under 4Ps after the Department of Social Welfare and Development partnered with Globe Telecommunications to tap the latter's G-Cash Remit services for an easier and hassle-free pay-out.

The CCT used to be distributed thru Land Bank of the Philippines located in Dumaguete Cityand Bayawan City but this has proven to be burdensome to beneficiaries especially from remote areas.

“Land Bank is also attending to so many clients, so we thought we should bring the G-Cash here instead of the beneficiaries going to Dumaguete City or Bayawan City,” said DSWD's Provincial Link for Negros Oriental Bella Tse.

DSWD tapped the local service provider Pick 'N Carry for the G-Cash payout in Zamboanguita.

A total of P2.3 million - or two months' worth of CCT from January to February - were released thru G-Cash to the beneficiaries coming from 10 barangays here.

Tse said there were initially 1,309 beneficiaries targetted to receive the CCT in Zamboanguita but only 1,058 were registered.

“Some of them were not registered for varied reasons but we are now working on it so we can include them in the next pay-out,” she said.

Tse added that they are tapping the barangay officials, health workers and day care workers in reaching out to beneficiaries who are living in the remote areas to inform them of the pay-out schedules.

Each beneficiary is entitled to receive a maximum of P1,400. “This amount is for a family of three children who are in school, but the amount varies depending on the number of children in school,” explained Tse.

There are a total of 57,000 target beneficiaries of 4Ps in Negros Oriental covering a total of 17 local government units. (RMN/PIA-Negros Oriental)