CULMINATION PROGRAM ON RICE AND VEGETABLE TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS CONDUCTED…

Last August 20, 2014, Wednesday, a joint culmination program on season long training in rice production using the palay check system as well as the season long training in vegetable commercialization was held at the Brgy Laray Quadrangle. Barangay Laray which is situated in the northernmost part of the Municipality of Calubian was presently the center for the two simultaneous season long training for the two important commodities in the town, the vegetable and rice. In collaboration with CLAD Inc, LGU personnel through the office of the Municipal Agriculturist has focused its farmers development activities in the north the center of the Phase 2 project sponsored by two international NGO, the DISOP of Belgium and Heifer International USA. With the project entitled “Improving productivity and organizational capacity of rural communities for self-employment and sustainable enterprises”, the project has focused on 400 new participating families which come mostly from the northern associations such as the Casiongan Farmers Association, the DLPJ or Dalumpines-Laray-Pal-og-Jubay Farmers and Fishermen Association and the Juson Farmers and Fishermen Association. Since the project is covering five cluster organizations, the other two organizations are the Seahorse Fishermen Association of Brgy Cristina and Kawayanan Integrated Livelihood Association of Brgy Kawayanan.

The culmination program of Brgy Laray commenced with an opening prayer followed by the welcome remarks given by the Brgy Captain Hon Agapito Pedida followed by some impressions coming from the participants and some testimonies and success stories coming from previous graduates from earlier techno-demos. For rice, Mr. Guillermo Legazpi of Villalon shared his gains as graduate of rice techno-demo held at Brgy. Villalon while Mr. Norberto Dillo of Brgy Tagharigue imparted the success he earned as graduate of both rice and vegetable. According to him, trials while doing farming should be overcame by continuously raising the crops. He shared his experienced after Yolanda when all his Ampalaya was damaged by the strong wind. He immediately planted 1,600 hills and was able to earn more than P300,000.00 pesos being the supplier to Tacloban after the typhoon. After deducting the expenses, more or less P200,000.00 was his net income plus the benefit he has shared to neighbors as his hired laborers in the farm. There were some messages coming from the Municipal Agriculturist (actually its me) which stretch that Brgy. Laray is so lucky to had irrigation project constructed in the barangay. It was during the first term of Hon. Doroteo N. Palconit that this project as realized. Hon. Aida Q. Labtic, chairperson committee on agriculture also shared her gratitude being a witness of the advancement of agriculture in that far flung barangay. The honorable Vice Mayor also delivered his message to the graduating farmers. After all the messages, Mr. Rolando Lunzaga and Mr. Antonio Nierras presented the graduating class for Vegetable and rice, respectively. Mr. Dignos in his capacity as the Municipal Agriculturist of the municipality confirmed the 29 women and 21 men who passed the minimum requirements required for the training as the new graduates for the recently concluded techno-demo. Hon. Palconit, municipal mayor distributed the certificates attended the SB members present such as Hon. Lucita Palconit, Hon. Aida Labtic, Hon. Rosevida Ruiz, Hon. Vivencia Casas, Hon. Nilda Omega and the Vice Mayor Hon. Gilbert Ponce.

After the distribution, the mayor delivered his speech and reiterated his commitment to fully support the agriculture sector of the municipality. As a graduation gift to the graduates, the mayor has given each of them one sack (25kg) of rice and an additional one sack (10kg) of fertilizer courtesy of PCA. They were so satisfied and so thankful for the early gift they had received. Their neighbors who were hesitant to join the training had felt sorry of what they had witnessed. After the message of the mayor, everybody in the site had partake the lunch prepared by the Municipal Agriculture’s Office.

OPENING SALVO FOR 2014 CALUBIAN TOWN FIESTA HELD…

August 8, 2014, Friday, although PAG-ASA forcasted that there will be a good weather in the entire Visayas and Mindanao regions, clouds had covered the sky as the Town of Calubian has started its weeklong Fiesta Celebration with an opening salvo.

My committee has been very busy this day since our activity, the “2nd Calubian Regatta 2014” will be the highlight in the morning activities; although the activity went along with the Food Festival sponsored by TESDA. I see to it that everything is set before the parade arrives in Calubian wharf. All sub-committees had been checked if everything’s okay.

The first activity which was held before the parade arrived was the Fishing Festival which was started at 7:OO am and soon to end once the parade has arrived at the wharf area. A total of 23 participants had joined the contest with only very few participants caught some small fishes. At exactly 8:30 in the morning the first contingent arrived in the port area headed by the colors followed by the candidates of the Miss Lubi-lubi beauty pageant followed by the LGU contingent composed of the Executive Committee headed by Hon. Doroteo N. Palconit, members of the Sangguniang Bayan and LGU employees. The parade attendance was overwhelming since even the elderly under their Senior citizen’s group has given time in attending the parade. Members of the national government agencies such as the Bureau of Fire Protection, the NWLDH, the judiciary and other agencies had not missed to witness the event.

The members of the business and financing institutions had also actively joined the parade with a colorful uniforms. The Calubian Business Circle which is composed of the majority if not all the entities doing business in the municipality regardless of its volume of business had shown up for the first time in public. Members also of CLAD, Inc, an NGO operating in Calubian has also been visible as well as members of big coops such as the Fatima Multi-purpose Cooperative and OCCI had also joined the parade.

Learning institutions and the academe had also found their places in the parade such as the North and South districts of the DEPED, the different secondary schools whether private and public had shared their presence in the merrymaking.

When everybody had settle down, although only few had been seated due to a very limited chairs in the area compared to a huge crown gathered in the port, the opening had started. The opening prayer was led by Mr. Fanny Pedida, an employee of the Municipal Agriculture Office followed by the singing of Philippine National Anthem. Hon. Aida Q. Labtic, SB-Chairperson, Committee on Agriculture had delivered her welcome remarks. Mr. Agustin L. Dignos, actually its me who delivered the significance of the event wherein I emphasized that Regatta is an important event which could draw tourist to the municipality. That another event had been conceptualized which would probably be contested next year which could also be a crowd-drawer, the “Dragon Boat Race” which could be participated in by the different barangay clusters. Hon. Doroteo N. Palconit, the municipal mayor had also delivered his inspiring message and he was so thankful for the support that had been shown by all the sector in the community as evident by a huge crowd who witnessed the opening salvo. After all the speeches had been delivered, the race had started.

The following were the different events contested during 2nd Calubian Reagatta 2014; 1)- Paddle Boat or “Bugsay Subiran Race” – played in single and double categories with the following prizes for the two categories , 1st Prize- Php3,000.00; 2nd Prize- Php2,000.00 and Php1,000.00 for the 3rd Prize. The other events were 2) Motorized banca race with maximum of 5.5hp engine and 3)the Subiran Sailing Competition. Prizes of the last two events were as follows; 1st Prize = Php5,000.00, 2nd Prize = Php3,000.00 and 3rd Prize =Php2,000.00. For the sailing competition, non-winners received a consolation prizes of Php500.00.

After the competition, awarding of prizes were conducted right away at the port area with no other than the Hon. Mayor Doroteo N. Palconit assisted by Hon. Aida Q. Labtic administered the awarding of certificate to all the winners.

The Regatta Committee would like to express its heartfelt gratitude to all who in one way or another had helped the event a very colorful and successful one. Thank you everybody.

LAST MESSAGE FROM A RETIREE

(The following message was delivered by Engr. Sinforoso Lubiano during his despedida get-together last July 31, 2014). My 28 years sweet memories with the Local Government Unit of Calubian, Leyte. Let me start from the beginning;

(Engr. Lubiano delivered his farewell message to his LGU family during the despedida get-together party last July 31, 2014)

I was employed here last July 26, 1986. First of all I would like to thank God for giving me good health and to all His interventions and guidance in all this 28 years that I reach this day because with our good health it is impossible to continue working and many many more reasons to thank Him. Also I would like to thank all those who have worked with the LGU from permanent positions to JOs with all these years. I say this because I am not working alone in this institution but as a member of one family. I could say that I am fortunate enough that the last day of my service with the Municipality of Calubian falls in this time, during the leadership of Mayor Palconit because I fell very much honored to have been given a recognition of all the efforts and accomplishments that I have contributed to this unit from the beginning of my employment.

In our first years with the LGU, I found out that Calubian needs much attention, assistance from the national government because we have no fund to be used for the improvement of our Municipality like funds for maintenance specially the roads. Because before the local government code the local government has no funds for the infrastructures. So because of this situation we initiated doing road and bridge maintenance to the northern barangays riding bicycle. We start here 7:30am and come back at 7pm. Inspite of our efforts in maintenance works, big maintenance problem still remained like for example road surfacing because we do not have the equipment. The mayor requests equipment from DPWH or province to be used in the road maintenance but we can not fully maximized the utilization of the equipment because the equipment can not go to the barangays, can not pass over the dilapidated bridges. You know from Calubian to Jubay there are 20 bridges all in all. All these bridges are very old and dilapidated. This is the main reason why the road is very difficult specially during rainy days because of financial problem, no funds available for maintenance. Even our salaries are not on schedule because of this financial problem.

Parallel to this situation, I being the Municipal Engineer sometimes I experienced humiliation with regards to my position because I can always hear some bad queries why Calubian has a municipal engineer even it is a small town while big towns like Carigara, Hilongos, Palo and others have none? In this situation I am not at peace because Mayor Carlos Cotiangco wrote a letter to the Office of the Commission on appointments to abolish my position due to lack of funds. So what I did was to prepare for it. Every time I visit my wife and my eldest child in Manila was to find and apply for possible job in Manila as preparation for the coming termination of my position.

However the local code was formulated and it provides all the LGUs answer and solutions to their plight from the limited funds to the availability of funds, and that’s the time the LGU started to improve, implement projects for development. Fortunately the Municipal Engineer position became mandatory in all municipalities. In this situation, I could see the intervention of our God thru this Local Code which until now we are enjoying. Without the local code is another thing. So with the effect of Local Code, in our case we started the construction of box culverts and spillways going to the northern barangays to replace the dilapidated bridges and started to buy equipment as well.

As of now only two bridges left un-concreted, the Villanueva and Railes bridge. As you can remember this two bridges will always be closed to four-wheel vehicles when rainy days come because the timber pile supports are usually carried, washed out by flood and causes the bridge to collapse. From the situation we continued to make some improvement to solve that perennial problem that when rainy days come these two bridges are always close to four-wheels. So many services will be affected and hampered during rainy days most of the times. Of course the economy of our town is also affected because our town fiesta falls on this time. Visitors from the northern barangays take pumpboat as their transportation during fiesta celebration. As one of the obligation to provide passable roads and bridges to the public, we installed concrete pile to support of the bridges and to withstand the strong water currents during flooding. This cut off the long periods of suffering and sacrifices for the traveling public due to high labor charges, fares and other difficulties. Since these two bridges were supported with concrete piles, you have forgotten the difficulties when it collapse; it is very difficult to pass specially senior citizens.

(Hon. Doroteo N. Palconit assisted by Mrs Bernadette Mendoza awarded the Plague of Recognition to Engr. Sinforoso "Boy" Lubiano)

When Mayor Doroteo Palconit assumed office, I immediately suggested to him the conversion of the Calubian-Jubay road from local to national. It has been part of my plan that before my retirement with hope, this Calubian-Jubay road will be converted to a national road. The benefit of this is, the Municipal Government can give more services to the people derived from the savings from the conversion. I am telling this because these are my contributions to the development of our town. I am thankful enough that the mayor give importance to my suggestion and now this road is already a national road. Thru the joint effort of our Mayor Hon. Doroteo Palconit and Congressman Hon. Andres Salvacion the long waited road conversion has come to reality. Now that I am already 61 years old, I am already qualified for retirement. Some whom I met asks same questions why I am retiring. Still able according to them. Being inspired by the Gospel according to Mateo, “there was one brother that complaint to Jesus Christ that his brother is not sharing equally, cheated their heirs from their father. Jesus answered, beware of any kind of avarice. Life is not ensured by the abundance of Goods, but in every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is why I thank God for inspiring me to retire today. The improvement of our town today which we are all enjoying is because we have a development oriented leader, Hon. Doroteo Palconit. In his campaign for a change I can say that I am one of this contributor to this because I am one who put him into power. I would like to ask forgiveness to all I have offended, and I hope you will forgive me. Thank you.

(Engr Lubiano and his better half Marivic)