FEATURE

Escape from water world:

Tubigon’s relocation plan

It is water world out here, where paved barangay roads are under at least knee-deep sea waters, the community basketball court waist deep and the living rooms of houses submerged in tidal waters or sea surges.

For those who could afford, they have elevated their houses to escape from the wet scourge.

For the ordinary islanders, some temporary ledges in their houses is enough to safekeep and keep some of their things high and dry.

The barangay roads here have been elevated in the last eight years now, but even then, the tide keeps coming especially between May to August.

Everything has been a palliative solution, unless we could come up with a relocation site for the people in these barangays, shared Tubigon Mayor William R. Jao, during the Network Briefing News which featured his town on a national broadcast.

It was after the 2013 earthquake in Bohol when the islands in the northwestern side of Bohol sunk nearly a meter, while it also uplifted about a meter high some portions of Bohol.

In Tubigon, the people in the islands off the mainland: Ubay, Bilangbilangan, Batasan and Panggapasan, have been constantly on guard every time the high tide comes and especially when foul weather aggravates it.

During the monsoon seasons and the occasional storms, the waves would come and wash on the houses that a breakwater to protect the community also happens to be among the temporary solutions, Jao, who is an has an extensive in experience as an engineer abroad said.

The situation is desperate, and due to overpopulation in the island, we have seen at least four families in one house, because the island has run out of dry space to build more houses.

“We have even elevated the schools, to make sure that the kids are dry, but even then, going to their classes then before the pandemic was horrific,” shares a parent whose eldest son is into kindergarten.

We could not afford to leave them in school as they might skip class and wade home, it can be dangerous, he continued.

There are three things we can do or the residents of the islands, the mayor told Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar, during the radio show.

Relocation, adaptation and reclamation, he enumerated.

As for adaptation, we have done it, we elevated the roads, raised the schools and put up break waters, and as for reclamation, it may be done, but the more logical solution is relocation, the mayor seeking a new mandate said.

The local government has a 2 hectare property, where some 400 low cost houses could be built, the mayor said.

But funding by converting the relocation site into a livable community is a gigantic challenge, according to the mayor.

On this, he asks the PCOO to help his torn in getting the National Housing Authority (NHA), National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), the Department of Social Welfare and Development, as well as the Department of Public Works and Highways to help fund the project.

The mayor said they wish to put up the lot as a counterpart and for government agencies to help them build the relocation site community.

And while the kids in the submerged islands await to wade back to their schools, some people aired their intention to move to the mainland, if only there is a land they could occupy and own.

And while kayaks sometimes ply their submerged roads, with face to face classes now becoming a reality soon, parents are asking if they can get a better and safer school, away from the constant threat of the water. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

SUBMERGED ISLANDS. Mayor William Jao plots out with his municipal planning officer the possible engineering interventions they can do to temporarilly help the people in the island barangays that have been submerged after an earthquake subsidence and compounded by the tidal surges as effects of climate change. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

WATERWORLD. At least four Tubigon islands of Ubay, Batasan, Bilangbilangan and Panggapasan have common problems of tidal waters getting into their homes. The mayor envisions relocation of these communities, but awaits national government help. (PIABohol)

WATERWAY. Climate change plus the subsidence which happened during the 2013 earthquake has put these island communities in a tight bind, keeping their things high and dry when the tide comes, while devising ways to keep their people safe from the effects of living on the water. (PIABohol)

ELECTRIFYING. Would it not be dangerous when you have houses getting flooded and water getting into power outlets, with people wading in the water? (PIABohol)

“Never entrust your user ID,

password,” SSS to members

CORTES, Bohol, Oct 2 (PIA) – For whatever reasons, do not ever divulge your user name and password, reminds the Social Security System (SSS) Bohol Branch head Engr. Alieta Busabos.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA, Thursday, the SSS official revealed that they have been receiving member complaints about online fraudulent claims in accounts, something the agency hints, could only happen when members share their user names and passwords to other people.

While the SSS demands that the members file their first loans in person, succeeding loan services and claims can be done online, Engr. Busabos explained.

The SSS promotes social justice through members savings for their social protection.

This is in response to the need to establish, develop, promote and perfect a social security system responsive to the members and their beneficiaries social protection against the risks of sickness, disability, maternity, old age, death and other contingencies resulting in loss of income of financial difficulty.

Waving the banner of social security protection to workers in the private sector, local or overseas, the SSS has a menu of benefits a member or its beneficiaries can avail in times of contingencies, help which a member and employers put up as work savings, which can also be used to invest and prosper.

Under the SSS, there are two coverage types: Compulsory or voluntary.

Under the Compulsory Coverage are Employers which can either be business or household employer, employee, self-employed, househelper or Kasambahay, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) whether land-based or sea-based workers.

On the other hand are voluntary coverage for non-working spouse or separated members, permanent Filipino migrants, Filipino immigrants, permanent residents, and naturalized citizens of host countries, as they choose to be covered.

In the event of death, disability, sickness, maternity and old age, covered employees are entitled to a package of benefits under the Social Security and Employees' Compensation (EC) Programs.

Self-employed and voluntary members also get the same benefits as covered employees, except those benefits under the EC program.​

Other than these benefits, the SSS also provides a cash loan to an employed member or a currently-paying self-employed or voluntary member, to help meet the member's short-term credit needs.

And the SSS provides for a replacement of income lost on account of sickn​ess, maternity, retirement, disability, death, funeral, and unemployment.

As the SSS shifts to widen its services using the online platform, members are afforded transactions that can be done at the tip of the fingers.

While the SSS still accepts physical processing of transactions, the online facility also runs a parallel service; the member would only need to log in the SSS website through its member log-in and access can be had.

As to the fraudulent claims, Engr. Basubas said all it needs is the user ID and password and a hacker can transact business withy the SSS, without the member’s knowledge.

For some reasons, members who loathe the idea of taking the queue or use the online facility, innocently entrust their critical personal information like user names and passwords to persons who offer their services as fixers.

This way, fixers gain the information and hijack the member identity to pull up records, send in claims and leave members paying for loans they never made or use its proceeds.

The SSS does not allow fixers and it has been a consistent position ever since, SSS warns.

On this, the SSS official said, for any information, checkout the SSS website for credible source of information, she ended. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

NEVER GIVE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Amidst rampant online scams, SSS Bohol head Engr Alieta Busabos reminds members not to give out their personal information as the agency has received plenty of member complaints regarding fraudulent claims. (PIABohol)

Corella: Bohol’s remaining

COVID-19 death-free town

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 2 (PIA) –Corella town, remains as the only town in Bohol lucky enough to have no recorded deaths caused by coronavirus disease (COVID).

Last month, Corella, with Batuan and Clarin survived a year and five months keeping their constituents off the deadly viral disease caused by COVID-19.

This month however, both Batuan and Clarin registered their first COVID related deaths to put Corella in the singular spot taking the record as the only Bohol town to date without a registered COVID death.

Clarin and Batuan shares with Dagohoy and Sikatuna, in keeping their COVID mortality low at one death case each.

On the other hand, Sagbayan, San Isidro and Getafe have teo registered COVID deaths each.

Over a year after the pandemic has forced Bohol to temporarily close its borders to bar the viral disease from entering, it still managed to slip through, triggering an explosion of local cases transmissions.

Since then, Alburquerque, Loboc,Dimiao, Bilar, Buenavista and Carlos P Garcia has logged in 3 cases each while Cortes, Sevilla, Duero and Danao have 4 cases each.

Those towns with five death cases each are Alicia, Bien Unido and Candijay, as Catibgbian, Anda and Bilar have six death cases each.

Meanwhile, Tagbilaran City tops with the most number of COVOD death cases at 99.

On the other side of Bohol and equally populous, Ubay placed second with a COVID mortality count reaching 25.

Guindulman, Calape, and Talibon each have 18 residents who died of COVID while Loon have 17 in the list.

Maribojoc also put up 17 deaths by Covid and Dauis registered 15 cases by September 30. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

DEATHS EVERYWHERE. Bohol map as presented by the Emergency Operations Center of the BIATF shows Corella as the only town in Bohol without COVID-deaths, as of October 2. (PIABohol)

Bohol needs 1.9 M COVID vax

doses to get to herd immunity

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 1 (PIA) – Targeting to vaccinate 70% of the local population entails more than getting 976,000 vaccines for Bohol, it means getting twice that.

With Bohol population pegged at 1,394329 in the last census, 70 % of the local population should be about 976,030.

But, with two shots needed to get a person the full protection against coronavirus disease, Bohol still needs a staggering 1.9 million doses to get to that.

In its last Friday’s report, Bohol Provincial Health Office, the base of operations of the Provincial Vaccine Operation Center of the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, shared that since March 6, 2021 when the first batch of vaccines arrived, Bohol has since received 467,892 doses of the COVID vaccines.

This is 1,484,168 vaccine doses short of the jabs needed to afford Bohol its much needed herd immunity that will render COVID into an insignificant threat.

To date, Bohol has fully vaccinated 182,612 Boholanos since March 6. This is some 13.09% in its vaccination goal.

Another 180,757 have been given the first doses, according to the BIATF.

Over all of the 467,892 vaccine jabs received, about 363,187 have been administered, said the PHO in its September 30, 2021 report.

This leaves Bohol with a balance in stock of 104,705.

If the balance could be dispensed in the next weeks, this should give to Boholanos some 33.55% of the total population.

But then, that can still be in over a month from now.

Vaccinating 30% of the general population in an area especially like Bohol where the sea forms a natural barrier deterring people from crossing across boundaries, flattening the curve early can have better results, according to health professionals and epidemiologists studying COVID pandemic.

In the pandemic like COVID-19, the onset is often represented by a curve representing the increase in cases over a population as well as the visually representing the health care system capacity and putting in interventions that tame the infection so that communities avert the possibility of swamping the system.

With a 30% vaccination accomplishment, communities can start to see the steadying of the new cases, consequent hospitalizations and possible deaths.

And that too should not stop Bohol from seeking more vaccines to get full protection to its residents.

The government, owing to the scarcity of the vaccines, decided to ask LGUs to prepare priority lists to make sure the vaccines go first to those who direly need it.

The priority list is based on those who are normally exposed to the disease as medical and health front liners, senior citizens, those with comorbidities and then those who are in essential services to allow the economy to operate again.

After the 30% goal, the next option is to get to the 50% of the general population or 697,154 Boholanos.

That also means Bohol should get its hands into 1,394,308 jabs. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

GETTING THERE. Bohol may be too far yet to get to the dream herd immunity, but with the vaccines now regularly arriving and the vaccination teams getting to serve far flung areas, the target to make Bohol immune from COVID will be attained. (PIAbohol)

Sept leaves 181 COVID-19

deaths in its deadly wake

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 1 (PIA) – September left leaving a wake of unusually high number of dead bodies strung from the first day until 9:00 PM of the last day of the month: 181 to be exact.

The sheer number of deaths caused by the ravaging coronavirus disease (COVID) was by far the highest in COVID history of Bohol.

It was in May 2020, when the first COVID death in Bohol happened.

Since May to December of 2020, Bohol tallied 17 deaths.

By January to March 2021, some ten deaths have been added, making the mortality sum at 27.

Some 13 deaths were added after April, bringing the COVID death count to 40.

In May, another 14 Boholanos died of COVID, a figure which doubled by June 2021 with 33 deaths added to the count.

In July, the BIATF “fixed the dashboard,” resulting in the accounting of unreported COVID deaths which brought out some 199 more deaths including those also who died weeks before.

As August started with 199 deaths in the tally, another 78 deaths were noted towards the end of the month bearing Bohol some 277 deaths in the cumulative count.

Last September, from 277 at the beginning of the month, the figure catapulted to unprecendented heights at 461, with 184 more deaths.

From the Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Disease, COVID has claimed 277 Boholano lives when September stepped in.

Thirty days later, the death count has skyrocketed to 461, as to the records displayed in the Emergency Operations Center of the BIATF, based in the Provincial Health Office.

At 181 deaths in just 30 days, Bohols COVID cases give a daily death count of 6 for the month.

Compared to August’s daily death count average at 2.3, September is simply a 250% increase, data from the BIATF’s Province of Bohol COVID-19 update shows.

In fact, compared to the national morbidity average, Bohol’s record is higher.

For September 30, for example, there were 2,933,565 cumulative total cases in the country, according to the World Health Organization’s COVID dashboard.

That same day, the cumulative death in the country has reached 37,686, while leads to a COVID mortality rate of 1.2 per 100 COVID positive cases.

Mortality rate here is defined as the number of persons who have the disease who died, over the cumulative cases in a specific location in a specific time period.

In Bohol, September 30’s COVID tracker had a cumulative total of 18,206 confirmed COVID cases.

That same day, the cumulative death record for the province of 1,294,329 population and 18,206 confirmed cases is 461.

COVID mortality rate then in Bohol as of September 30 is 2.5, or a 200 percent more than the national rate. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

PROTECTION AGAINST SERIOUS BOUT OF COVID. While experts said vaccination can not keep one from getting infected with COVID, getting the vaccine boosts the body’s defenses to make the infection be like any normal bout, some even survive without the symptoms. (PIAbohol)

Has vaccination worked?

COVID deaths start to wane

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Sept 29 (PIA) –Still into vaccinating some 15% of its local population, Bohol sees a slight change in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) statistics, at least these last days of September.

While this may not yet be conclusive evidence as to the effects of vaccination and the community getting better aware of the risks of unnecessary travel, data shows that deaths, although still considerably plenty, has waned a bit by the end of September.

From the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (BIATF-EID), information bares that while were 89 deaths from the period August 26 to September 11, a promising figure emerged between September 12-28.

In the last two weeks, Bohol noted only some 84 deaths.

In a disclaimer incorporated in the report however, the BIATF explained that the deaths may not really be reflective of the dates specified as some of the death report may arrive with few day’s difference.

But, in the previous weeks like from July 27 to August 11, Bohol recorded 34 deaths due to COVID.

The following 15 days, or from August 12 to August 26, deaths almost evened up with only 33 listed in the death records.

The month of August closed with 73 deaths in Bohol as the number of deaths continued to skyrocket in September.

A day before the end of the month, Bohol tallied its 175th death for the month before noon.

BIATF spokesperson Dr Cesar Tomas Lopez has said that even with the 30% accomplishment in the local vaccination program, there should be some noticeable changes.

At 30% vaccination, health experts expect a leveling of the COVID curve: no more huge number of new and active cases, lesser daily deaths and lesser hospital admissions.

As to the active cases, for the fourth consecutive days, the figures have gone below the 2,000 mark, a rarity after the active cases soared to over two thousand mark since September 13.

Since then, it only went below the 2,000 mark in September 21 when there were only 1967 recorded active cases, as to the BIATF. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

VACCINATION HAS TO BE IT. With just barely 15% of population vaccinated, Bohol could be now seeing slight, nearly imperceptible changes in the COVID statistics, but it is there. (PIABohol)

New TMC building ready

When f2f classes reopen

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 27 (PIA) – Trinidad Municipal College (TMC) when government allows face to face (F2F) classes after the pandemic, will have better classrooms, facilities and laboratories to serve its over six thousand student population.

Trindad Mayor Judith del Rosario Cajes bared this during the recent Network Briefing News which was hosted by Presidential Communications and Operations Office Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar and broadcast by the government’s carrier channels and station airwaves, September 27.

Grateful for the national government and President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s free education afforded tertiary education subsidy for students, and made education free for all the poor and financially challenged in the region’s feeder areas, Mayor Cajes, said the increase in student population brought about by the opened opportunities for education has boosted the town’s venture into education.

From barely 150 students in 2007, the town now has 6,495 enrollees.

Located in an old and abandoned municipal hall, Trinidad Municipal College started from humble beginnings.

Envisioned as a local answer to the growing demand for standard public education opening up opportunities for students from the towns and its vicinities, TMC, as the town’s economic enterprise, has to be subsidized for it to continue its mission of education.

Things changed however as soon as then Congressman Roberto Cajes sat as the school administrator and devised a system of patting into shape the business viability of the school.

Still constrained with meager local funds to erect the much needed upgrade in the school facilities, Mayor Cajes, who sits as the chairman of the Board said giving access to quality education of their people is in itself already a profound mission.

As the school, which offers affordable tuition fees, started picking up more students, the school adopted an admission retention policy which imposed a ceiling grade for the subsidized scholars.

Then the school has to implement an infrastructure development program in support to education.

That was when the Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in 2017 came in.

RA 10931 promotes universal access to quality tertiary education by giving free tuition and other school fees in State Universities and Colleges, Local Universities and Colleges, and State-Run Technical-Vocational Institutions, while establishing the Tertiary Education Subsidy and Student Loan Program, strengthening the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education.

This afforded the school the chance to open its gates wider to students in the town and nearby areas, and plan for the needed classrooms, facilities and amenities which was also magnified.

The tertiary education subsidy for scholars is one of the biggest reason why we have to rethink, and we thought of investing, she shared online.

In the expansion plan was P340 million expansion which includes 43 classrooms, 32 laboratories and administrative offices, an oval race track, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts as well as community chapel, she said.

Set to be completed by the end of 2022, she said the town hopes they could be ready when the government decides to reopen face to face classes. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

NEW FACILITIES TO WELCOME POST COVID CLASSES. Trinidad mayor Judith Cajes told Sec Andanar the local development in town, which includes the new face of the town’s Trinidad Municipal College, which would be ready when the face to face classes start. (PIAbohol)