Wardens at Bongan sand bar

keep poachers, COVID at bay

A dilapidated bamboo raft with a paint-coated plywood walls and a separate kitchen bobbles up in the waves spawned by the habagat, in the shallows of Bongan Sand bar in the middle of the Danajon bank, 8.5 kilometers off Talibon Bohol.

The flimsy bamboo raft is the base of two fish wardens assigned by the local government unit of Talibon to watch over the sanctuary, drive off illegal fishers and enforce the environmental access to the strip of white sand that is a magnet for beach-seeking tourists and the region’s rich and the famous in their gleaming yachts.

Armed with a small pumpboat, identification cards and an ordinance, the two fish wardens or locally known as Bantay Dagat have reportedly very little to do now that corona virus disease (COVID-1) has reached the Philippines.

Members of the Coastal Law Enforcement Council, a province-wide network of multi-sectoral fishery and marine protection council, tasks falling under their responsibilities include checking in on fish net sizes, crackdown on active fishing gear, blast fishing, poisoning, poaching and marine and environmental laws enforcement.

These past months, wardens jobs also include intercepting passenger pump boats that smuggle in local stranded individuals, who do not coordinate with the local governments of destination, risking coronavirus outbreaks in communities.

With the flimsy pumpboat tied to the raft skipping in the surf, the two men adjusted the mooring ropes to protect the boat from smashing into the raft, as they facilitated a docking space for the coming boatful of local tourists.

Off the distance are two white yachts, tender boats teetered in the aft as colorful bikini clad ladies walked in and about the gangways, and bare topped men adjusting the tenders.

Now, with COVID on the prowl, yachts with foreigners are a concern for wardens, knowing that these un-quarantined people could simply slip in and infect others, especially in their island hopping activities where locals are also on scene.

Edilberto Torreon (34) and Erickson Mamolo (26) are among Talibon’s municipal fish wardens; both are assigned to guard Bongan sandbar, a strip of white sand peeking out in the middle of the Calutiban reef in Bohol’s famed Danajon bank.

Danajon, is among the world’s rarest marine phenomena: a double barrier reef that is noted to be among the world’s most bio-diverse marine environment.

Then surrounded by a series of legislated marine protected areas (MPA) or fish sanctuaries, Bongan sandbar

It should have been not as choppy on that day despite the habagat blowing mad, after all, Talibon is on the lee side of Bohol.

“Whether the sea is as calm as oil or as choppy as this, we are here, in the hottest of days and in the coldest, darkest night,” shared Edilberto, whose family lives in nearby Guindacpan Island, separated from the Bongan guard house by a kilometer of shallow reefs.

Soaked from the drenching rains and the lashing wind that sprays waves into the base, the two prepared to wade into the tide submerged sand bar to get to the yacht occupants who have boarded their aluminum-hulled and landed on the western end of the sandbar.

“We have been ordered to stop the people from the yachts from leaving their boats, the risk of the pandemic still high with foreigners possibly carrying the virus,” adds Mamolo, who slipped into a rash guard.

“However, if the yacht guests are locals from Cebu, they may come to the sand bar in a bubble but has to stay away from other groups,” Torreon added.

Still the wardens need to come to the picnicking guests to collect the P100 per head environmental users fee as legislated by Talibon.

Bongan sandbar, at low tide, presents itself as a curved-strip of white sand measuring 150 meters more or less and punctuated by a three story abandoned concrete guardhouse, which on high tide, sits as a lonely sentinel standing-guard the middle of the sea.

Naturally attracting beach-seeking picnickers, Bongan sandbar has since been a favorite island hopping stop including the nearby Macalingao sand bar, attracting boatloads of beach goers, Torreon said.

In fact, former Talibon mayor, who is a strict marine protection advocate, ordered the erection of the guard house after unscrupulous beach goers brought in barges to siphon off the white sand to be sold to Cebu beach resorts.

It was when the LGU decided to make sure that environment users, who could seldom be disciplined, are asked to pay for the access fees that guests to Bongan sandbar thinned.

Managed by the Municipal Tourism Office, the Bongan Sandbar guards also make sure none of the visitors leave garbage, or do anything that could destroy the sand bar.

While still many people visit the island that could be totally flooded and disappears during high tides, the pandemic and the protocols of community quarantine and gatherings without social distancing, have thinned the guests to the sand bar, Mamolo admitted.

In Bohol however, when COVID cases are especially alarmingly high in the populated areas, public beaches are closed even to travelers in tourist bubbles.

In the northeastern part however, being an uninhabited sandbar isolated from the islands here, Bongan is deal for tourist bubble family bonding in these times of the pandemic. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

BOATMAN Melchor Cresencio, who is accredited by the Talibon Municipal Tourism Office ferries island hopping tourists traveling in tourism bubble to Bongan sand bar and nearby islets. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

BONGAN SAND BAR presents itself as a gigantic beached whale in this photo from the Talibon Municipal Tourism Office. The white sand bar has also lured tourists in yachts from Cebu and nearby islands, prompting the wardens here to also check on these tourists who could bring in the viral disease. (PIABohol)

WARDENS like Erickson Mamolo and Edilberto Torreon have been keeping Bongan sand bar as pristine, freed from poachers fishing in its surrounding marine sanctuaries, checking on illegally ferried LSI and COVID carriers as well as enforcing marine and environmental laws from their base in a rickety raft station anchored at Bongan. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

Yap pleads for healing, unity

sacrifice at Bohol Day SOPA

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 22 (PIA) – With cracking voice that is unlike most in his public addresses, Bohol Governor Arthur Yap urges Boholanos to respond to the call for healing, unity and sacrifice for others as a call for greatness in these very extra ordinary times.

Speaking before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in session to render his last State of the Province Address (SOPA) for his first term, the governor’s unusually sad deportment was overshadowed by the 36 minutes of video presentation that made up the majority of the chief executive’s report this year.

Buffeted by critics for the most part of his term and still faced with problems of epic proportions, Gov. Yap set the tone of his address with what could be the continuing defining issue of the year: coronavirus disease.

While citing the heroic work of the Boholanos working in the frontlines of medical health and peace and security braving the risk of getting the virus, the governor said Bohol’s rebid to restart tourism may happen very soon with Bohol awaiting accreditation for the Department of Tourism’s international tourism green lanes.

Getting increasingly dependent on its tourism as economic engine in the pre-COVID months, Bohol economy has since crumbled and crawled with international and domestic tourism practically stopped in the country’s bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Yap in his video report talked about the modernization of hospitals and clinics, making sure that dialysis machines are available outside of Tagbilaran.

He said over half of the dialysis machines have been delivered to local hospitals so that ordinary Boholanos need not go to the city to be served, this as the leadership strives to approximate the services of the country’s leading hospitals in its ten province-owned health facilities.

While in the lull of economic activities brought about by the pandemic, Bohol looked at its inefficient agriculture and introduced science, mechanization, application of the economies of scale to maximize farm outputs.

Using science, mechanization, proper inputs and subsidies as well as technologies, the governor reported stellar farmers performance in rain-fed and irrigated rice fields, aggressive artificial insemination resulting to better dairy animals which is now supplying the targeted nutritional feeding program, and a boosted native chicken production that could heap up Bohol’s chances of feeding its people and tourists as soon as the industry reopens.

Looking at the scarcity of feed stocks brought about by the African Swine Fever travel ban, the governor said Bohol steered into corn, root crops, coconut and rice for a local feed mill industry the insulate the domestic hog industry from the effects of ASF.

Himself the former secretary of Agriculture, Gov, Yap basked with pride when Agriculture secretary William Dar hailed Bohol for choosing priorities that jibe with One DA Transformation goal.

As to potable water development, aside from the P1 million fund for LGU water supply development and rehabilitation, Bohol funded the water desalination plants of Pandanon Island Getafe, Pamilacan Island Baclayon and soon to be implemented Cuaming Island plant in Inabanga.

For power, Bohol banked on the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Interconnection Project while waiting for the finalization of the mainland based power supply development currently bidding on Bohol Energy Development Advisory Group’s One Bohol Power goal

Capping his address, the governor reiterated his call for healing, unity and sacrifice, for Boholanos to survive COVID and help reengineer Bohol’s recovery. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

SOPA SELFIE. Vice Governor Rene Relampagos took a selfie with Gov Arthur Yap after he delivered a 42 minutes State of the Province Address in front of a convened Provincial junta and in time for the 167th Bohol Day celebration, July 22. (rahc/PIABohol/fotoby Ric Obedencio) 

8 Bohol towns remain

COVID-19-deaths-free

CORTES, Bohol, July 23 (PIA) – No matter how hard coronavirus disease (COVID-19) might be dealing its fatal blow, eight of Bohol’s 47 towns and one city managed to be COVID-death free, a year and four months after the island’s inbound travel ban in May 2020.

From the data gleaned from the Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF), July 23, 2021, the following towns have remained COVID-death free: Anda, Antequera, Batuan, Clarin, Corella, Dagohoy, President Carlos P. Garcia, and Sikatuna have kept its morbidity slates clean until now.

The towns listed above may have death cases of suspected COVID-19 affectation, but local health authorities and emergency response teams who validate the deaths have finally seen that these are non-COVID deaths, their swab test results show negative of the viral disease.

A Department of Health Memorandum No. 2020-0158 on the proper handling of the remains of the suspect, probable and confirmed COVID cases states that burial and cremation of these remains should be done within 12 hours after death, in accordance with the person’s religion and culturally-acceptable norms, to the most possible extent.

On this, suspect and probable COVID-19 cases who died pending test results are handled similar to a confirmed COVID-19 case, meaning, a burial within 12 hours from death is observed.

On the other hand, Tagbilaran City, possibly being the most populated and with neighborhood so close to each other, tops Bohol’s localities with most number of deaths registering double figures at 27, July 23.

Guindulman, on the other hand is next with 9 death cases, followed by Ubay and Tubigon with 8 mortality cases each.

Candijay sits next with 7 registered deaths.

Inabanga and Maribojoc each have 6 COVID fatalities.

On the other hand, Alicia, Dauis, Garcia Hernandez, Jagna, Loon and Talibon registered 5 cases each.

Calape, Duero, Lila, Loay, have four cases of COVID deaths, and Baclayon, Carmen, Panglao, Sierra Bullones, Trinidad had three deaths each.

The towns of Alburquerque, Balilihan, Buenavista, Cortes, Getafe, Pilar, Sagbayan, San Miguel and Sevilla records two cases of COVID-deaths in the last 16 months. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Updated Bohol COVID

deaths now at 160

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 23 (PIA) – In its latest update of coronavirus disease (COVID-related deaths in Bohol, the Interagency Task Force (BIATF) on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases reported that 160 Boholanos have since died from May 23, of last year when Bohol recorded its first viral disease mortality of the disease that allegedly started an outbreak in Wuhan China.

The newest and most updated figure shows 38 death cases more than the one reported as of 12 noon July 22, 2021 death cases report which was then at 122.

The updated report also placed not 13 but 8 Bohol towns with a clean slate in COVID-related mortalities, registering a huge data gap from its July 22 12 noon record of COVID deaths at 122 to 160 July 23 at 3PM.

On a positive note, in its June 23 2021 report, BIATF Emergency Operations Center (EOC) showed a significant
news: there are less active COVID cases in Bohol with the figure finally going below the thousand mark, after a month and four days.

It may be recalled that since June 11, 2021 when Bohol’s active COVID confirmed cases breached the 1,000 mark, it has since stayed way past the thousand mark until this morning’s reports with cases recorded at 970.

The records of COVID deaths however leapfrogged from 122 at 8 PM last July 21, to 157, as the EOC’s updated its report last July 23 at 8 AM.

“The 38 cases which pushed the increase of local COVID deaths however did not happen due to an overnight spike in deaths, but is more of the more accurate data collection and validation efforts done by health care offices and health care personnel,” according to the EOC in its latest report.

And then, by 3 PM of July 23, another updated report shows and even more stunning data.

Since March 23 of last year, 159 more Boholanos have died of the viral disease that attacks the body’s respiratory system.

While the latest update showed an increase in the number of fatalities, the number of active COVID cases further decreased from the 1,219 at 3 PM in July 22 to 955 at 8 PM of July 23 and even down to 857 active COVID-confirmed cases, seven hours later.

At 8,890 cumulative number of confirmed COVID cases as of 12 noon on July 22, the figure also jumped to 9,111 by 3 PM of Friday July 23.

From 7,519 recoveries noted last July 22 at the BIATF EOC 12 noon report, the figure also rose to 8,102 by the same 3 PM July 23 report. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

'Bohol Day' kicks off J&J COVID-19 vax rollout

CORTES, Bohol, July 23 (PIA) – Bohol marked its 167th founding day with the rollout of 50,000 doses of Johnson and Johnsons (J&J) single-dose COVID-19 jabs on "Bohol Day" which was also called "Bohol Bakuna Day" on July 22.

The observation kicked off with a ceremonial turnover of the vaccines to the towns represented by Dauis Mayor Marietta Sumaylo, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.

Board Member Jescelo Adiong, sectoral representative of the town councilors’ league in Bohol, rolled his sleeves for his jab administered by the vaccination team from the Provincial Health Office at the sidelines of the Bohol Day Culmination Program at the new Bohol Capitol.

Earlier during the program, Vice Gov. Rene Relampagos announced that the governor has sourced the vaccines in his latest trip to Manila.

In his Memorandum to the Provincial Health Officer and specifically to the Provincial Vaccination Coordinator Macchiavelia Loida Caliao, Gov. Arthur Yap directed vaccination teams on July 22 to prioritize the vaccines for unvaccinated senior citizens under the A2 priority group and unvaccinated persons with comorbidities or under the A3 group.

Also included in the same directive to the vaccination coordinator is to bring the vaccines to high risk local government units based on their surge of cases, geographically isolated and depressed areas (GIDAs), and to Overseas Filipino Workers and seafarers classified under A1 group who are scheduled to go back to their deployment abroad.

The simultaneous Bohol Day vaccination activity came as a welcome reprieve as Bohol vaccination teams have prepared well but the delivery of sufficient vaccines stalled the preparations.

As of July 18, based on reports from the Bohol Inter-Agency task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the province has accomplished only 13.67% total vaccination of masterlisted priority groups.

That means that of the 253,146 health and medical frontline workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities and workers in the essential sectors, only 34,620 have been inoculated with two doses to be afforded the protection against death of severe cases of COVID-19.

Of the 34,620 who have been given the two doses, about 25,947 of them or roughly 74% are priority healthcare workers in the frontline services, to secure and insulate them from the risk of infection.

The 25,947 completely vaccinated healthcare workers comprise only 60% of the total 42,949 masterlisted frontliners, as around 40% or 17,000 health care workers are still vulnerable to infection while in the performance of their duties.

Among those who have completed their double doses of protection, about 19% of them are senior citizens and 5.7% are individuals with comorbidities.

Of the 147,631 masterlisted senior citizens, only 6,686 or 4.5% have been given the two jabs, while 1,987 or 6.22% of the 31,927 masterlisted persons with comorbidities have been fully vaccinated.

Of the 30,639 essential workers in the industry and trade sectors, only 6,160 or 20% have received the first dose. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)

THUMBS UP. Bohol Board Member Jescelo Adiong talks to the Provincial Vaccination Coordinator after he was given the J&J single jab. A simultaneous vaccination also happened that day in Bohol as the people celebrated 165th Bohol Day. (RVO)

CEREMONIAL BUT REAL. Board Member of the Bohol Sangguniang Panlalawigan Jescelo Adiong gives the face of the thousands of Boholanos who were vaccinated simultaneously as 167^th Bohol Day was also the Bohol Day is Bakuna Day for OFWs for immediate deployment, and un-served senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, towns with COVID surges and residents in geographically isolated and depressed areas. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol foto by Ric Obedencio)