Police in the Nations Capital, Port Moresby will continue with an eviction exercise that started this week at the Garden Hills removing illegal settlers. In a statement, police said they were acting on a legally obtained court order which must be respected unless there is a restraining order preventing the eviction. “Anyone who attempts to or stops an eviction exercise based on court orders is liable to be held for contempt of court.” The statement said. This is the stance the NCD police command is taking at the back of an attempt by Prime Minister James Marape to halt the eviction exercise and allow Lands Department and City Hall to intervene to ensure a plan is in place for the resettlement of the displaced families in the demolished settlements. The Prime Minister said his instructions are now with the Department of Lands to find vacant state land and put into motion the relocation of settlers as part of the programme to convert settlements into suburbs. He said this is the government policy and is in line with the National Capital District Commission efforts to convert settlements to suburbs for existing settlements. The Prime Minister said people who are misplaced would be relocated properly if they are employed or have lived in city for more than one generation. "I understand the frustrations proper title holders have with respect to settlements over their respective titles but ample warning and time must be given to people as well as working with city authorities to ensure minimal or no social and welfare issues will affect displaced families, especially at this time of Christmas,” Mr Marape said. “For Garden Hills, I have been informed of the court order and have instructed my office to intervene to halt the eviction until we are able to move the people properly to new sites if they are employed or have SMEs.” "For those second to third generation settlers, we will also give due consideration. "Recent city immigrants will be relocated back to their respective home districts so we can ease pressure on the socio-economic life in Port Moresby.” Meanwhile, PM Marape is setting up a task force to be headed by the Housing and Urbanisation Minister to look into converting settlement properties into titled properties for those who can fully justify their living in cities and towns. Picture: courtesy: Lawrence Lai Aipit

The Bulldogs have announced the release of winger Nick Cotric, just 12 months into a three-year deal with the club, with the 23-year-old confirming a return to the Canberra Raiders. "I'd like to thank Nick on behalf of the club, for the great effort and level of professionalism he has shown while here at the Bulldogs," said chief executive Aaron Warburton. "He has been a fantastic ambassador for the club, on and off the field, and we greatly appreciate the way that he has carried himself through this process." Cotric has signed a three-year deal with Canberra, the club where he made his NRL debut in 2017, playing 93 matches for the Raiders. "We're looking forward to having Nick re-join the club for the next three seasons," said Radiers CEO Don Furner. "Nick is a local boy who made his way through the local rugby league pathway program to the NRL, NSW and Australia while playing for us and we know the skills and capability he has as a player." "Nick has indicated to us that he's really excited about returning to Canberra and the Raiders, and we're confident he can play his best football for us." "The Raiders are a proud development club who invest heavily in our pathway program and to have a top-level player like Nick Cotric who has been through our system return to the club is a show of faith in this." Cotric will resume training with Canberra as early as next week. His move is the final piece in a complex jigsaw puzzle that saw the Eels pickup both Josh Hodgson and Bailey Simonsson from the Raiders. Simonsson will join Parramatta immediately, while Hodgson will switch clubs at the end of the 2022 season. Cotric's release gives the Bulldogs some breathing room under the salary cap, having signed a host of new players in recent weeks. SOURCE: NRL NEWS

Commissioner of Police David Manning has directed an investigation into the social media posting of National Planning Minister Rainbo Paita who was featured in a video firing a high powered semi-automatic rifle. As the matter involves a national member of parliament and state minister the Commissioner has directed Deputy Police Commissioner Operations Anton Billie to lead this investigation. He will be ably assisted by a senior detective from the NCD command and a senior officer from the Police Internal Affairs Directorate. The Commissioner’s decision to investigate was a matter of course to ascertain the facts surrounding the incident before recommending further action. Mr Billie and his team are expected to report their findings to the Commissioner with recommendations by Friday December 17. Meanwhile the Commissioner commended Mr Paita for stepping aside from his ministerial duties to allow for the investigation to proceed smoothly.

The PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum has partnered with the world’s largest volunteer service club association, Rotary, on a humanitarian project to ship a total of 3.3 million medical-grade respiratory face masks, to medical workers in Papua New Guinea. The Chamber, which represents major stakeholders in the mining and petroleum sector, received a donation of 3.3 million KN95/P2 respiratory masks from Rotary Australia, to distribute to medical workers in the country, through the National Department of Health, and the National COVID-19 Control Centre in Port Moresby. The Chamber received funding donations from its members, to ensure the shipment of six 40ft freight containers, containing the masks, valued at around K5.5m. [caption id="attachment_17666" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Rotary, NCC and Chamber representatives, standing in front of the first shipment of pallets of KN95 masks.[/caption] The Rotary Clubs involved in this massive logistical project, are the Rotary Club of Greater Springfield in Brisbane, and the Rotary Club of Boroko in Port Moresby, along with Rotary Australia World Community Services (RAWCS). Chamber Member, Ok Tedi Mining Limited were first to commit to the Mask Project, agreeing to facilitate the shipping costs of the masks to PNG. Upon the landing and delivery of the first of the six containers of masks in Port Moresby, OTML Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Musje Werror, said, “OTML is pleased to work with the PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum and its members to deliver essential personal protective equipment to PNG during these unprecedented times, and we will continue to provide support where appropriate to combat COVID-19.” At the official handover of the first shipment to the National Control Centre (NCC) for distribution this week, Executive Director of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, Albert Mellam, acknowledged the support of all the Chamber member companies who donated to the project. “We have worked with Rotary Australia and Rotary PNG on this important project, and we acknowledge the support from our members who have given generously to this project which we hope will go a long way in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our country. Without the support of our members, the Chamber would not have been able to be involved in this project,” Dr. Mellam said. Rotary PNG Representative, Suresh Shetty, who was present at the handover of masks to NCC, said the masks donation was one of several other initiatives the Rotary community in Australia and PNG, had committed to in the fight against COVID-19. “On behalf of Rotary Australia, and Rotary Club of Boroko, we would like to say thank you to the Chamber and its members for helping us move these masks to PNG. Thank you also to Chamber Councillor and Rotarian, Mark McMonagle who helped us a lot in coordinating this project.” Rotary Governor for PNG, Togaro Adiba, who was also at the handover event, was equally appreciative. “We thank the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum and their members for this partnership, and we look forward to working closely with the Chamber in any future projects that we have, which will help contribute to the health of our people,” Mr. Adiba said. NCC representative who received the masks, Megan Gaure, explained where the masks would be distributed to. “These masks will be distributed to provincial health authorities, through our provincial control centres, to send out to all health facilities for the health workers on the frontline, who are treating COVID-19 patients,” Ms. Gaure said. [caption id="attachment_17667" align="aligncenter" width="644"] The first of six 40ft containers of KN95 masks being unpacked for storage in the NCC storage facility in Port Moresby. This storage facility houses all donated COVID-19 medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for distribution to all medical health facilities around the country.[/caption] Sun Engineering Chief Executive Officer, Chamber Council Member, and passionate Rotarian, Mark McMonagle who was instrumental in coordinating this project, acknowledged the support from Chamber members. “We would like to give special thanks to Rotary for the masks and to Musje Werror and OTML for committing to the shipping of the masks from Australia to PNG. We would also like to thank the below listed companies for their generous donations which covered port costs, road transport and logistics,” Mr. McMonagle said. While the Chamber’s members play significant philanthropic roles in their own resource areas, they also give generously to assist in national aid and humanitarian programs, as members of the country’s mining and petroleum sector.

Sister in Charge for the Gordons Clinic Sr Delma Hombunaka has called upon the National Department of Health (NDOH) to reconsider their decision and allow the Nurse Stations to remain open. She made this call following a circular released by the NDOH giving the Nurse Stations 14 days to close down. Sr Delma said the drug shortage issue in hospitals and clinics is an ongoing issue with limited staff over the past few years and these burdens are somewhat eased when there are Nurse Stations to share the load. “We have run out of antibiotics drugs and other essential drugs in our NCD clinics and we don’t have enough manpower to cater for the population in the city so why are we closing the Nurse stations when they are helping so many patients we cannot help with our allocated resources.” Sr Delma said the timing also is not right for NDOH to make such drastic decisions when it is the peak period where accidents and illnesses are at the highest. She said most clinics are expected to scale down during the festive period as most of the staffs usually go on leave with a handful of them staying behind to attend to emergency cases only. “This is the festive period when we will have a lot of sick people filling up our clinics and if the Nurse Stations do close down, how are we supposed to serve the huge population in the city.” Sr Delma said the Health Department should sort out the drug shortage issue and start recruiting more health workers if they do decide to go ahead with their decision to close down the Nurse Stations.  

More than 250,000 people that have accessed the City Pharmacy (CPL) Nurse stations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic will be greatly affected with the recent directive from the National Department of Health (NDOH) to close up all Nurse Stations throughout the country. Founder of CPL Group Sir Mahesh Patel revealed this when questioning the Health Department’s motive in closing the Nurse Stations. Sir Mahesh said there was no proper dialogue between the NDOH and the CPL Group before coming to this decision which leaves the question as to what the reasons are behind closing down a service that has helped a lot of sick people at a time when they cannot access efficient and effective health care. “When you talk to our customers and patients, you will find that they are very grateful that we provide this service because firstly it’s unaffordable for grassroots to seek treatment at private clinics because of how expensive it is and secondly, if you have minor illnesses and such, you’ll get to wait 3 hours or so to be served at public clinics or hospitals.”  Sir Mahesh said they have written to the NDOH since late last year requesting for their license to be renewed, however they never got a response until 7 months later in July stating their refusal to renew their (CPL) operating licence for the nursing stations. He said they were shocked to receive a letter on the 9th of December advising them to close down the Nurse Stations followed by the recent circular published in the media. Sir Mahesh and the CPL Board have written another letter to the Health Secretary Dr Osborne Liko last Friday and have copied the Health Minister and the Prime Minister on the matter. The letter was sent to request for a meeting between the parties concerned and find a way forward for the Nurse Stations to remain open and for NDOH to clarify if the nurse stations have breached certain protocols. “This has come to a point where we really need to sit down and say, what’s the real intention here? What’s the motive?  Who is going to win by closing the nurse stations down? And that’s the simple humanitarian question that needs to be answered,” Sir Mahesh said. The CPL Group has also handed the matter over to their lawyers to take legal proceedings should there be a need to. City Pharmacy Limited has operated in the country for over 35 years and they have over 20 Nurse Stations throughout the country that have been able to serve 250,000 people from all over the country. The pharmacies have been given 14-days’ notice to close down the nurse stations.

Twelve homes in Mambuan village along the Bogia coastline were destroyed last Tuesday due to the tidal flooding caused by king tide. Community leader, Edward Kasailo, says most of their properties were also swept into the sea. The villagers are urging the local disaster office to assist them to build sea walls to protect them against similar events in the future. It was daytime when the high tide hit Mambuan village in ward 11 of Yawar LLG of Bogia District, Madang. The shoreline was occupied with debris, fallen coconut trees, and plants, even stones and sand. They were thrown onto the coastline after the tide. This is what remains of the 12 houses destroyed by the flooding. Even kitchen utensils were swept back into the sea living most of the families without basic cooking utensils. Most families are now taking refuge with the community leader. In the neighboring village, Samusamu, the villagers had also lost their properties while a number of their houses were destroyed.  Community Leader, Edward Kasailo, says the disaster office and the local DDA should look into the concern of building a sea wall. He adds for now families who lost their properties and have no house are taking shelter at his house. He says their village is right in the middle of a road construction project that would take 10 kilometers of their inland leaving them with limited land. Hence it is important that the disaster office including the DDA help to start building seawalls.

Women and communities in the most remote and biologically diverse regions of the country will receive financial literacy training after a Cooperation Agreement between the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) and the US Government through the United States Agency for International Assistance (USAID). These trainings are part of the Lukautim Graun Program, a USAID funded environmental conservation program operating in the most diverse and vulnerable parts of Papua New Guinea. In signing the formal agreement to launch the trainings, Chief of Party for USAID PNG Lukautim Graun Program, Mr. Maurice Knight said the financial literacy trainings will improve economic conditions for women and communities while at the same time promoting conservation of the country’s exceptional biodiversity. “Empowering emerging female entrepreneurs with both business and environmental skills will increase income for rural families and reduce hunting and illegal wildlife trade,” Mr Knight said. “Unless women and girls are empowered to fully participate in the economy, PNG will not be able to meet its development targets.” Executive Director for CEFI Mr. Saliya Ranasinghe said that financial inclusion is identified as an important priority in the implementation of CEFI’s third financial inclusion strategy which women and youth are important under the digital financial services and financial literacy and financial education. USAID Development Specialist Julie Hulama said this cooperation agreement between USAID Lukautim Graun Program and CEFI aligns with USAID’s 2020 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy that affirms USAID's vision of a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries. Lukautim Graun Program implements its project at the national level and along the Bismarck Forest Corridor that covers Eastern Highlands Province, Jiwaka Province, Madang Province, Simbu Province, YUS Conservation Area in Morobe Province, and Milne Bay Province for the marine program.

Coastal communities around the country have been put on alert for “higher than normal” tides over the next few months. The National Weather Service warned that the high tides may trigger coastal flooding this season, due to a combination of factors. It stated that one of these factors is the current La Nina state, declared earlier this season. The other contributing factor is a seasonal phenomenon often referred to as 'westerly wind burst' which is contributing to the current coastal flooding situation on the northern coast of PNG. The NWS also stated that many parts of PNG are expecting the highest tides of the year this month with the 2021 Tide Calendar for Lombrum in Manus province showing four of the highest tides of the year expected in the month of December. As La Nina is anticipated to influence higher sea levels until April 2022, the chances of coastal flooding during extreme high tides will persist over the next few months.

74 pioneer grade 10 students of Dr. John Davis High School in Dusin, Middle Ramu district, graduated in a small but significant ceremony attended by community members, school staff and a few invited guests. Dr. John Davis Highschool is located in Minyak village in the Kovon LLG of rural Middle Ramu district; A small hamlet located just behind the mountains of Jimi District of Jiwaka Province where much of basic government services such as road is hardly seen. This little school is the pride of their community, a much-needed service which was established as a community school in the 1980’s by a missionary from Southern Highlands, James Yakip and was recently accredited a high school status by Madang Education Division. School staff and villagers celebrated the day with much enthusiasm because after 34 years, their children would not have to travel to other neighbouring provinces to receive higher education. This small ceremony was made even special when the country’s opposition leader and member for Vanimo Green, Beldan Namah, attended the graduation upon invitation from former Madang Governor, Jim Kas. Mr Namah on the occasion paid his respects to the late Middle Ramu MP, Johhny Annanias Alonk who passed away recently. He conveyed his sincere condolences to his people and described the late MP as very humble leader. Mr Namah committed a total of K200,000 to the Dusin Community school and Dr. John Davis Highschool. Namah encouraged the graduates to look at other ways of furthering their education instead of focusing on the formal education system process. Principle Legal Officer at Department of Justice and Attorney General, John Laule, and a former student of Dusin Community School stressed to the students to not consume Marijuana and homebrew and gave them an insight of the consequences under the recent law passed. During the ceremony, a moment of silence was given to the late member Upon leaving the ceremony, Mr Namah gave a K10,000 cash to the Minyak community to celebrate their Christmas and new year. Although the school faces a lot of challenges, with no proper teaching materials, no funding and little facility built mostly from bush materials, there are three faithful teachers who teach seven subjects interchangeably. The community’s hope is to be connected by road someday so that changes can be brought in to the area.

Commander Border, Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Philips said the recent visit by Prime Minister James Marape to West Sepik was very successful. Mr Philips, whose command includes East and West Sepik and Western Province, said the Prime Minister was in the provincial capital of Vanimo to open the new West Sepik Provincial Administration Building and launch several impact projects for the province. Mr Philips said his recent visit to the province with the Prime Minister and his delegations was to ensure the security of the Prime Minister given concerns of spill-over effects of the on-going conflict across the border in Indonesia’s West Papua province. Mr Philips said his Provincial Police Commander and the members of the constabulary made sure that there was no disruption and that people were not allowed to take advantage of his visit to raise issues about what was happening in West Papua. Mr Philips said whilst the issue in West Papua was important, the Prime Minister was on a tight schedule and in the province specifically to open the new provincial government building and launch major impact projects for the province. Mr Philips commended his PPC and the members of the constabulary for delivering a trouble-free event. He said the public turned up in numbers and they behaved well.

I, Honourable Rainbo Paita, MP, Minister for National Planning and Monitoring wish to announce to the general public that I am stepping aside from my ministerial portfolio forthwith. This comes after a video was circulated on social media as well as the mainstream media of me discharging a rifle. After learning from Post Courier’s front-page report on the 13th of December 2021 of the incident, I wrote to the Prime Minister advising him of my intention to step aside and allow a thorough investigation without fear or favour by the concerned authorities in the spirit of good leadership. I also wish to inform the public that my official vehicle was shot upon by criminal elements at Waigani in September 2021, which was reported to the Police hierarchy. This incident has prompted me to take necessary precautionary measures to protect myself.  As such, I was advised by my Close Protection Officer (CPO), who is also a certified trainer, of the need for me to acquire basic rifle handling skills. This is so that in the event that we were attacked and my CPO is critically wounded, I would be able to use my CPO’s rifle in self-defence. I want to put on record that I have a firearm licence. I also want to put on record that the video footage was of a private training session between me and my close protection officer (CPO) on a private property outside of Port Moresby. I did not discharge the firearm into a crowed place to cause public disorder nor jeopardise public safety. However, due to the many concerns raised since the video has surfaced in the public domain, as a Senior State Minister in the PANGU led Government, I welcome the police investigation into any unlawful conduct. I take responsibility of my actions and do not wish to bring disrepute to the Government and the Ministry of National Planning and Monitoring. Therefore, to preserve the integrity of the office that I occupy, I am stepping aside from my Ministerial Portfolio as the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring forthwith, until the investigation is completed. I sincerely apologise to the people of Papua New Guinea, our Development Partners, Investors and my beloved people of Finschhafen for any embarrassment that I may have unintentionally caused. I thank Prime Minister for he's wisdom in respecting my decision. Against most advices, I wish to step aside in the public interest of allowing police to investigate any intention or motivate of criminality. I apologize to my people of Finschaffen, Morobe and the people of Papua New Guinea. God bless our efforts to serve our People. Hon. Rainbo PAITA, MP Member for Finschhafen