Yolanda survivors at risk as typhoon season nears

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of families living in tents and other temporary shelters in provinces hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda last year are in danger with the typhoon season approaching, a lawmaker warned yesterday.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said at the rate the Aquino administration is undertaking its rehabilitation work, Yolanda survivors would have to make do with tents and flimsy galvanized iron sheets to protect themselves from typhoons.

According to the United Nations, over 5,000 of the most vulnerable families live in evacuation centers and tent cities in Tacloban City and Guiuan town in Eastern Samar.

Tacloban City officials said some 30,000 persons are still in danger zones and in tents or temporary shelters.

“The temporary bunkhouses and the tent cities will not survive. These highly combustible shelters such as tents are very flimsy and easily damaged by strong winds and rains. This condition is deplorable,” Romualdez said.

He said President Aquino promised that sturdy bunkhouses would be quickly built for the survivors.

Meanwhile, delegates of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) will visit Leyte today to better understand the experience of Yolanda survivors and know how residents of one of the worst hit towns are coping with the effects of the disaster.

The visit is part of the reparation for the ASEM conference in Manila tomorrow.

Dubbed “The ASEM Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: Post Haiyan – A Way Forward,” the conference is a Philippine initiative adopted by 49 heads of state, presidents of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations secretary general.

Around 75 delegates from 21 states are expected to arrive at the Daniel Z. Romualdez (DZR) Airport in San Jose, Tacloban City at 9 a.m. today.

They will tour areas devastated by Yolanda, including the recovery and rehabilitation sites in the city.

The delegates – led by Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Ma. Zeneida Angara Collinson, Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Romeo Fajardo, Switzerland Ambassador Ivo Sieber, European Union principal administrator Yves Dussart, and Japan senior deputy director Kenichiro Tachi – will participate in the capsule-laying and unveiling of the ASEM computer classroom project’s marker at Bislig Elementary School (BES).

BES principal Mario Roa said the school was chosen as a pilot project site of the ASEM, as it is the province’s top performing school before Yolanda came.

“(Almost) all of our school buildings, gymnasium including its perimeter fence were destroyed by the typhoon,” Roa said. – With Ricky Bautista