LAOANG, Northern Samar, Philippines — Hundreds of small rice farmers from Northern Samar’s 2nd District’s six towns fear a rice shortage and possibly famine and starvation as their rice fields are damaged after having been submerged by floods as a result of continuous rains.

Rep. Emil L. Ong (2nd district, Northern Samar) said he had just distributed relief assistance to thousands of homeless farmers and affected residents of his district after they were heavily submerged by flood waters hitting the province since last December.

He said their rice fields damaged, farmers will surely to suffer from loss of income and rice supply as they expect to harvest by March already if their rice fields were not inundated by floods. (Nestor L. Abrematea)

PRIVATE SECTOR TO HELP INDIGENTS

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Wanting to help more patients suffering from cancer, the Eduardo J. Aboitiz Cancer Center (EJACC) is set to tap private institutions as well as private individuals and philanthropists to help in the treatment of indigent cancer patients here.

Ronald delos Reyes, program coordinator of EJACC, said the number of patients are continuously increasing and the center needs more resources to continue their assistance program especially to those indigent patients. (Phoebe Jen Indino)

'SPIDERMAN' COMES DOWN

MACTAN, Cebu, Philippines — After nearly 48 hours of staying on top of the tower of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge, the bridge that links Mactan Island to mainland Cebu, ''spiderman'' has finally decided to come down due to hunger and thirst.

The man, who identified himself as Jecy Mollena, 20, came down the tower after experiencing severe hunger and thirst. While on top, Mollena was seen drinking his own urine.

The police had tried to convince him to come down since Wednesday but Mollena, who was armed with two long bolos, did not heed the call.(Mars W. Mosqueda)

ECONOMIC ENTERPRISES TO BE REVIVED

ROXAS CITY, Capiz, Philippines (PIA) — The city government will put its economic enterprises into high gear this year to generate more funds that will be channeled for various social services projects.

“We will revitalize our economic enterprises such as the Teodoro Arcenas Trade Center (TATC), Libas Fish Port, Dinginan Slaughterhouse, Paseo de Roxas and Dingoy Roxas Civic Center (DRCC),” said Roxas City Mayor Angel Alan Celino during an interview with a local station.

He said an ordinance was passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod here a couple of years ago to make the infrastructure in the city become revenue-generating centers.

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION BACKED

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines (PIA) — Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. has thrown the full support of the provincial government to programs designed to protect and conserve Iloilo’s natural resources.

These programs include coastal resource management and anti-illegal fishing, watershed management, and reforestation.

The provincial government recently initiated a summit on anti-illegal fishing to address and take proper actions against the problem.