Maasin City, Southern Leyte- Two workers of a construction firm were seriously injured when the right side front tire of a dump truck carrying 10 workers running in high speed burst and turned turtle as it reached Brgy. Nahaong, Libagon recently (in the afternoon of Nov.18, 2008), about 86 kilometers away from here.
The 2 injured workers were identified as Venson De Los Pobres Malbas, 27 years old, married, and a resident of Brgy. Basak, Rizal, Maasin; Arturo Valencia Magallanes, welder, 36 years old, married, and resident of Brgy, San Jose, …

Bad news to the residents and officials of Baybay City, Leyte. The city status of Baybay city will be reverted back to municipality after the Supreme Court ruled that the conversion of the 16 municipalities including Baybay, Leyte is unconstitutional. According to the ruling, the affected cities are not exempted from the requirements of the Local Government Code such as the number of population and the income (100 Million not 20 Million) for them to become cities.
The 16 municipalities are:

Baybay, Leyte
Bogo, Cebu
Carcar, Cebu
Naga in Cebu
Catbalogan, Samar
Borongan, Eastern Samar
Tandag, Surigao …

I want to inform you that tomorrow, November 20, 2008, our own professional boxer, Dennis Aguelo, will be fighting against Tiny Tyson of Cagayan de Oro in ten rounds for the Super Bantamweight Division of the PBF here in Maasin City Gym.
There are also two other professional boxer who will fight in the undercard and our 10 amateur boxers will fight against the other 10 amateur boxers coming from Matalon, and Bato (Leyte).
So, let’s meet at the city Gym tomorrow.
- Sustines Laplana

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Two hundred thousand (200,000) Robusta coffee seedlings are distributed to abaca farmers in Maasin whose abaca plantations were wiped out by the bunchy top virus in recent years. The distribution has started in time for the planting season last July up to the end of September of the current year.
This was disclosed by a staff of Congressman Roger Mercado?s District Office who does not want to be named. He said the aforementioned coffee seedlings were planted at Mercado?s nursery in Brgy. Bugo where newly-planted trees of different …

The residents of the town of Malitbog, Southern Leyte are now wondering if the PNP personnel of their town are still doing their jobs or are actually sleeping inside their headquarters. They started to doubt the effectiveness of their own Police force since the thieves who stole properties of several residents of the town and robbed fish vendors, peddlers, buy and sale businessmen, collectors, and other Malitbog- robbery victims are still roaming around the town and performing their stealing business.
Just recently, these thieves broke in to the Malitbog Municipal Hall …

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) officially released the September 28, 2008 Licensure Examination for Teachers last Saturday, November 15, 2008.
Among the 58,471 Elementary Teachers who took the LET, only 17,816 Elementary Teachers passed the exam which is 30.47%. There are 110 examinees who came from the schools here in Maasin City, but only 40 of them passed the examination. The College of Maasin has 10 examinees but only 1 passed which is 10%. The Saint Joseph College – Maasin City has 100 examinees and 39 of them passed which is …

Maasin City, Southern Leyte -The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has approved three projects on October 27, 2008 from three municipalities of this province thru its respective Mayors who sent each resolution of request for financial assistance amounting to a total of P5.250M.
Hon. Jason Calva, Chairman Committee on Finance, told the august body during their recent session at the Provincial Capitol that Hinundayan Mayor Evelyn Lee,? Sogod Mayor Shefferd Tan, and San Ricardo Mayor Virginia Mejia have sent their requests to Vice-Governor Miguel Maamo, III who has already given his imprimatur.
Calva, who represented …

It was reported earlier that Southern Leyte is one of the areas where the storm signal is raised to number 1 for the Typhoon “Tonyo”.
According to PAGASA, the Typhoon “Tonyo” was at 370 km East Northeast of Davao City (7.7?N 129.0?E) with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near the center. It is forecast to move West at 15 kph. Tail-end of a cold front affecting Visayas and the Bicol Region, as early as 2:00am this day (November 14, 2008)
The Maasin City area is currently experiencing light winds and rains …

Maasin City, Southen Leyte – A concert for a cause was held here recently at the city gymnasium to help a sick young singer who is popular in the local singing community, Josephine Batistil Ramos. Her disease was diagnosed by pediatric neurologist Dr. Martha C.T. Lu-Bola?oso of Manila Metropolitan Hospital as Sub Acute Schlerosing Penencephalitis (SSPE).
Fifteen local bands who expressed their willingness to perform live for charity were not able to do so. Only 6 of them have actually performed live at the stage-giving out pleasure and entertainment to the …

On the night of Wednesday, November 5, 2008, it was reported that there was a low pressure that was being formed in Surigao. However, at 6:15 in the morning the next day (Thursday) Southern Leyte started to feel the strong winds with the heavy rains.
I checked the internet and even waited for the flash report from the local TV Station but there was no report about a typhoon.
At 8:30 AM, I roamed around the city of Maasin and found out that classes from Elementary to College were not suspended. Then …