The body of the member for Kerema Open, the late Richard Mendani, lies- in- state today in the Grand Hall of the National Parliament to mark the start of the state funeral program after almost a month following his passing as a result of Covid-19 in a Port Moresby hospital. According to the Gulf Provincial Administrator, Mr. Emmanuel Xavier, the state funeral in the province will take place tomorrow at the provincial capital Kerema town, and it will be done outdoors so to avoid any spread of the coronavirus. The body of the late member will be flown out of Port Moresby city early tomorrow morning. The funeral service in Kerema town will start at 8am and ending at around midday. It will be presided over by the Bishop of the Kerema Diocese, Bishop Pedro Centeno Baquero. After the funeral service, the body will be flown inland towards the mountains to Kanabea village where he comes from. The state funeral program will end at the time when he is flown out back to his people and family. Government delegates, including some members of parliament, are expected to attend the funeral service as well in Kerema town tomorrow. Meanwhile, the issue with funding was behind the long delay to organize the state funeral of the late member soon after his passing. “The delay was due to funding issues, the government had to secure the for this service and arrangement for his body to Kerema.” According to the administrator, the current economic and the convid-19 situation, forced the national government to take time to secure funding for the service and the repatriation of the body of the late member back to his people. The late member passed away at the Pacific International Hospital (PIH) in Port Moresby on the 19th of March.

Australian Football League (AFL) fans in Port Moresby need not have to worry about disruptions to the 2021 season because the city’s AFL management is taking steps to ensure that there will still be a competition in case the covid-19 situation in the country force sporting activities to continue the suspension for an extended period. According to the Port Moresby AFL President, Mr. Douglas Lai, a plan has been put together already that would enable a short season to take place just like last year, if sporting activities are forced again to start late in the year. “We want to have a state of origin type of a format for the matches instead of the usual club footy. But I have to meet with the club executives first to get their views and the approval of the plan,” said Mr. Lai. The president added that although the Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation (PNGSF) did not give any official announcement of a further extension to the closure of sporting venues nationwide, there might be an extension considering the increasing number of covid-19 cases and deaths, so it is best to prepare if things get pushed close towards the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Sport Foundation did indicate that there could be an extension of the initially two weeks suspension to up to four or eight weeks, depending on the current covid-19 situation in the country.

The suspension of sporting activities in the country, issued by the Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation (PNGSF), is most likely to continue for more than the initial two weeks given. According to the Sport Foundation’s Committee Chairman, Dr. Kapua Kapua, the suspension will likely go on for four to eight weeks following the current trend in Covid- 19 transmission. “We are in a very precarious situation now in PNG and nothing is certain for the next few weeks. What is clear is that cases are increasing and deaths are rising.” “So we will hold off till we see a change in the trend and the health authorities and Controller give us the go ahead.” The PNGSF shut down all its sporting venues nationwide on the 22nd of March, initially for two weeks, in compliance with the National Isolation Strategy to tackle the latest Covid-19 surge around the country. Although this extension may not be acceptable news for the various sporting federations that have had their competitions halted, this extension is to help in reducing the community transmission of Covid-19.

The United Labour Party (ULP) has endorsed Joe Tonde as its candidate to contest the Moresby Northwest seat by election.  Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Basil, said Mr. Tonde exhibits good quality of leadership in community work, especially in the church and health services.   “He has been a very active community member of Moresby Northwest by providing services in health and of course small community projects in all the ward areas in Moresby Northwest. He is a very strong candidate that has support and we seen what his done, he is a hands-on man whose done some work, so we have a big trust in him that if get elected he deliver services to the people of Moresby Northwest,” said Basil.  52-year-old Tonde, who is originally from Wabag in Enga province, is not new to the elections having contested the Moresby Northwest seat during the 2017 National Election, where he came third.  “I know ULP is one party I will work well with because I have the same ideas, policies and the same visions. I am happy to work without leader here because he has vision,” said Tondep.  Basil added that Tonde’s priorities are the health and settlement issues, water and sanitation access, settlement land issues especially title issues, and public servants housing scheme and of course empowering landowners the Motu Koitabuans   “So, once we put those policies on our posters, the party will make sure he delivers those, we will be behind him to make sure he delivers.”  Meanwhile, after being endorsed by UPL, Tonde went to the NCD Electoral Office to be nominated to contest the seat.  Meanwhile, the nominations for all intending candidates for the Moresby Northwest seat will close this afternoon at 4pm.  

A two weeks mourning period has been announced by the Prime Minister James Marape starting Friday 26th February to Friday 12th March, to pay respect to the founding father of Papua New Guinea, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.  The PM also says Cabinet has designated Monday the 1st of March to be a Public holiday for the nation to start remembering the late Grand Chief. The 12th of March 2021 has been designated by the Cabinet as another day of public holiday.   “Hopefully if the national organizing community led by myself and the Prime Minister’s Department and the National Events Council and if we liaise with the East Sepik provincial government and the East Sepik Provincial Assembly as well as the family, hopefully we designate 12th of Mach 2021 another public holiday and we hope that on that date we will out the grand chief to a rest he truly deserved."  “Cabinet has made approval for the dates in which Sir Michael passed on (26th February) to be a national day of remembrance for our country and that day has been designated and we will get all protocols get ticked off to ensure this day becomes significant day in our calendar.”   ‘We’ve also set up a body of leaders to be associated in these series of events that will take place. Sir Michael’s life death is no ordinary death, his greater than life personality, greater than myself and others who will come after me and so he deserves full effort by the leadership and all instrumentality of government to ensure his final moments on the surface with us is given due respect be he is finally rested.”   The PM also extended his thank you to the whole nation for respecting the passing of the late Grand Chief.  “I thank the nation so far, early this morning when he passed on, since then the nation has been in total respect." "There has been no disruption and from all indication I have received from all over the country, we come in mourning in peace and serenity in accepting the passing of the father of our nation.”   

Prime Minister James Marape announced that this coming Monday the 1st of March will be a Public Holiday for the nation to start remembering the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, and Friday the 12th March is also to be another public holiday as well. In a press conference today, PM Marape said a two weeks mourning period has been announced by the Prime Minister starting today 26th February to 12th March, to pay respect to the founding father of Papua New Guinea, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. Listen in to the news on NAU FM, Yumi FM & Legend FM News for more on this story at 5pm…and follow our news website pnghausbung.com for more on this story.

Despite the Police Commissioner, Mr. David Manning tested positive for COVID-19, the Police Headquarters (PHQ) where his office is located, has not gone into a 14-day lockdown period as required.   This was confirmed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Mr. Donald Yamasombi this morning. In fact, Mr. Yamasombi has ordered the headquarters to close for a few days only to allow the health team to disinfect the whole building, beef up the COVID-19 screening facilities at the main entrance, and then open on Thursday to resume normal operations.  “I am urging everyone (police officers and civilian staff) to go for volunteer COVID-19 testing as well so you can know your status before Thursday.”   The Deputy Commissioner added that this situation will not hamper the normal police operations in the city. Police units in the city will be on duty and attending to complaints and incidents.   Meanwhile in a related matter, the Gordons Police Station in Port Moresby has been closed as well today with officers taken to the various COVID-19 testing facilities in the city after one of their members tested positive recently.  Yamasombi said the station will be closed only for a few days to allow the health team to disinfect the whole station, including the cell. The station is expected to be reopened on Thursday, but this will now depend on the test results.  Apart from the 30 plus officers taken for testing, the 15 detainees at the police station cell were taken in for COVID-19 testing as well.       

The Acting Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, made it clear this week that there is enough time available to hold by elections this year, like a by election for the Moresby Northwest seat left vacant following the death of the late Sir Mekere Morauta.  However, Mr. Sinai clarified that it is only after July this year that no more by elections will be held before the next National Election in 2022.   “The law forbids me not to go beyond 24th July 2021, which is exactly one year before the next issue of Writs. So, we have until July 24th to run any by election that comes on now, after that we will not do anything.”   Meanwhile, the residents of the Moresby Northwest electorate should expect things to start rolling for the by election sometime next week.  According to Mr. Sinai, he should issue the Writ for the by election next week.  The PNG Electoral Commission is looking at about K3million to K4million to run the by election and is currently working to secure the funding. 

The return of the Writ for the Bougainville Regional Seat to the Governor General on Tuesday marked the end of the by election; however, the same cannot be said about the payment of the services provided to achieve a successful by election. According to the Acting Papua New Guinea Electoral (PNGEC) Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai, this was due to the insufficient budget allocated for the by election. He said the PNGEC requested for K15million to cover for the three electorates. The K15million divided into the three electorates will see about K5million spent for each electorate conducting the by election.   “Unfortunately, we were only given eight million, so we worked with that and we are expecting some funds to come complete the logistics part of it and some outstanding allowances."  Mr. Sinai added that Bougainville is no easy region to run elections as people may think. A lot of logistical arrangement were made to conduct the by election in the three electorates. For instance, in North Bougainville where the atolls make up the 14 Constituencies, a big ship was engaged to better reach the many atolls than the small boats.   “We hired a bigger ship from out of Lae, so it serviced the Northern part of Bougainville."  "The same was also experienced for South and Central Bougainville where a lot of logistical support was engaged to get the teams in and out of the polling areas."  However, despite the challenges the Acting PNG Electoral Commissioner said the by election was done successfully. In fact, the by election was concluded ahead of its scheduled time.  "We issued the Writ on the 3rd of December (2020) and to return the Writ on the 19th (February 2021)which is supposed to be at the end of this week.  But it is satisfaction to the electoral commission that we have conducted the elections as early as possible and within time to return the Writ on the 16th (February 2021)."   Meanwhile, the Writ was returned to the Governor General at the Government House in Port Moresby, where it was witnessed by the officers of the PNGEC and the new Bougainville Provincial Member elect, Peter Tsiamalili Junior. 

The state of Papua New Guinea this week signed documents that will see Total, the developer of the Papua LNG project, move forward with its planning and design phase of the country’s second LNG project in Gulf and Central. Petroleum Minister, Kerenga Kua, said this is significant as it guarantees the protection of the fiscal arrangement. “The documents we have signed guarantees the protection of the fiscal arrangement. The cost of construction, the tax regime and all those things are stabilized, so it gives certainty to project planning and project execution. So that was a very important milestone process that we have completed.” Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua signing documents at Government House The minister said this has given the confidence to the project partners to commence the next stage, which is the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) stage, where they will design the whole project. “That will then help them identify the costs that go with the project and from that point onwards they will go looking for the money from financiers to finance the project and then we can go into construction mode.” The Minister also called upon the landowners of the project impact provinces; Gulf and Central provinces, to work with the developers, the provincial government, and the national government to fully complete the landowner identification process. “I want to assure everybody, especially our landowners in those two provinces that this process is at an advanced stage. The landowner identification I think has been substantially completed. However, the project developer could not bring it to my level for the final vetting of that study and from there for me to sign on the determinations.” This is because there is National Court Injunction stopping Total from presenting the landowner identification studies to the Minister. “Our energy and attention were focused on getting to this stage and getting past this stage. Now that we have achieved this, we will put focus back on the National Court proceedings. Hopefully, we can work towards having the injunctions removed, so that we can invite the landowners to work with us so that we settle our issues in an amicable way without going to the courts,” said Minister Kua.   “I want to give my assurance to our landowners in both Gulf and Central that we will do everything possible to hear them out and where we can, we will accommodate them.” The documents were signed at the Government House in Port Moresby by the Governor General, His Excellency Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae, Minister Kua and the Total management and representatives.   

The AFL Junior Development Program is taking a new approach to deliver its schools and community AFL programs this year, one that is focused on quality over quantity.   The Junior Development Program Manager, Mr. David Topeni, explained that the new term approach will see plans developed and executed for each school term. This will enable the Junior Development teams to effectively deliver the programs, including the Niukick program.  “Term plan is not like every year, yearly targets. It will be a short-term plan easy to achieve within each term,” said Mr. Topeni.  He further explained that the previous approach focused on covering as many schools and communities as possible in a year. The new ones look at delivering as much as possible to the youths under the programs.   Mr. Topeni also said the new approach will go hand in hand with the current COVID-19 protocols in place.  It will enable the AFL Junior Development team work within the protocols and achieve its target in delivering  the programs.  The AFL Development Program runs and delivers sports and development programs to get the young involved in the sporting code through the schools’ competition. But it is not only that, under its development programs, it promotes healthy living through sports in schools and communities.    

Local company Lifu Holdings Limited (LHL), trading as Mobil Pit Stop Service Station, has given away the prizes to the final winners in Port Moresby for its Free Fuel Winners promotion for the month of December 2020.  This week saw more than five lucky winners receiving prizes ranging from 12 months of free fuel supply to mobile phones, shopping vouchers and 65-inch flat screen TVs.  LHL Managing Director, Margaret Lifu, said the promotion was to give back to their customers for their support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period which has disrupted a lot of things, including business.    "2020 was a particularly tough year for everyone.  This is our way of giving back to customers to say thank you in appreciation for choosing Mobil as your preferred service station. Not everyone can be a winner in promotions but one good thing covid did was spur us to think more about how we can reciprocate in appreciation or at least to add value to the service. So, it’s more than just a business transaction and 2021 will be an exciting year for us all.”  The promotion started back in May 2020 and every month winners were drawn right up until December, of which the winners were drawn today at the Mobil PitStop service station at Hohola.   One of the winners Susan Lae (right) standing with Mr. Matheson Justin Ela Beach service station retail supervisor (centre) and Janda Tapma (left), the retail supervisor for the Hohola service station.