Southern Leyte News

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Amazing! Antonio M. Reyes

By Antonio M. Reyes

Congressman Roger G. Mercado never ceases to amaze me. For just when I thought he would spend his last term in congress fiddling his thumb and gazing at the denuded hills of Antipolo overlooking the Batasan complex - he gets elected Chairman of the coveted Congressional Committee on Transportation.

When I asked him how he achieved this remarkable feat he simply said it was due to his seniority in congress, for he was now on his third term, and his faith in God.

Be that as it may our humble solon now has oversight jurisdiction over all land, sea and air transportation in the country and over ten of its most vital and corrupt agencies.

These include the Philippine Coast Guard, Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Civil Aeronautics Board, Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board and all government and private airports and seaports in the country.

The bottom line is that he has a Herculean task ahead of him. For he must address the awesome problems of our pathetic shipping, aviation and land transportation entities.

The capsized Princess of the Seas which still lies off the coast of Romblon is a sad testament to our shipping industry. While the recent blacklisting of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport speaks volumes about our aviation facilities. Even the Philippines Airlines our nation’s flag carrier is limited to only a few foreign airports because our pilots lack training in the latest aeronautic technology.

He said that among his priorities would be to study the feasibility of re-activating the country’s moribund railway system which has inexplicably been ignored by past administrations.

Mercado noted that in developed countries people depended on trains which travel more than 300 miles and hour as their preferred means of transportation. This was so, he added, because unlike planes, which wasted precious time taking off and landing; trains could start and stop in a matter of seconds. They were also a cheaper and more reliable means of reaching ones destination.

As chairman of the Transportation Committee he said among his top priority for the province would be to upgrade the Panan-awan Airport and to construct a seaport at Barangay Cani-wan which is a natural harbor and closer to Bohol, Cebu and Manila.

The Southern Leyte Times congratulates Congressman Roger Mercado and wish him luck in his new assignment.

He will certainly need it.

Dengue Haven

Unless a member of your family has suffered from dengue (in our case our only grandson here) you cannot fathom the helplessness one feels knowing that the child’s only hope was a hospital 200 kilometers away.

When I asked Dr. Joselito Trumata, our overworked and under funded, Provincial Health Officer what they did to treat the dengue cases at the IPHO he said all they could provide was “symptomic therapy.” Meaning if the patients had fever they would give them antipyritecs and plenty of liquids, and if they had muscle pains, they would give them pain relievers.

With the severe cases however (when the red blood corpuscles of the patient drops to critical level) they need blood transfusion and have to be taken to hospitals in Tacloban city.

Among the victims of the recent dengue outbreak was Sogod Mayor Shefferd Tan’s son who had to be rushed to Tacloban for medical treatment. Suspecting that the mosquitos had come from the badly constructed drainage canals there he ordered them inspected and found that most were clogged, foul smelling, stagnant and perfect havens for dengue mosquitoes.

The mayor had the canals de-clogged and ordered the city engineer to reconstruct them to allow free-flow to the sea.

Our drainage canals in Maasin are alarmingly similar to Sogod’s and should therefore be de-clogged, fumigated and where necessary renovated as was done in Sogod town.

To prevent the yearly outbreak of dengue in the city we are requesting the City Council to pass a resolution asking Mayor Samaco to order the city engineer to inspect all drainage canals here to ascertain they have been built properly.

The health of our children is in their hands.