Tacloban rising

Eight weeks after super typhoon Yolanda struck with unanticipated vengeance, a group of visitors from Manila female legislators, executives, housewives and newspaper columnists  made a visit to Tacloban city, and beheld, first-hand, communities woefully leveled to the ground, clusters of white plastic tents housing people rendered homeless, a newly constructed multi-million peso gymnasium battered, its steel beams twisted and its roof yanked out, huts quickly assembled by residents from rusty roofing materials picked up from the rubble. Had our group gone there weeks earlier, the sight of a once-thriving city blown to smithereens would have horrified us. How and when could the  â€œjewel” of the region, now in ruins, be rehabilitated?

But there were signs of new life, of Tacloban rising from its devastation.  Signs of hope springing eternal in the human breast.  Barefoot children wearing ukay-ukay clothes were running and laughing along roads that have been mercifully cleared of debris. Sari-sari stores selling noodles in cups, daing and soft drinks. Most heartening were the giant billboards that declared,  “BANGON, TACLOBAN,” “ONE TACLOBAN,” “TACLOBAN HERE TO STAY!”

Meanwhile, relief packs continue to flow in.  The women, organized by Rep. Gina de Venecia (first district, Pangasinan), had brought canned goods and blankets they handed out to Yolanda survivors inside a tent at the Palo Central Elementary School.  Accompanying the group was Palo Mayor (and former Leyte governor and congresswoman) Remedios Petilla.

The recipients looked somber, and without hesitancy, spoke of their lost loved ones. Farmer Lucio Reyes was out of the house when his wife and three children were washed away by waves “as high as I could never imagine.” A mother recalled clutching a son as she clung to a floating coconut trunk, only to realize that it was another boy she had saved, but lost her own son. An overseas Filipino worker who had come home to his city a week earlier, lamented not only losing his whole family, and the house he and his wife had built over 25 years. “The water just enveloped us, and before I knew it, I had lost everything.”

The mothers who lost their children listened to words of comfort of Rep. de Venecia, and members Yna Yulo, Ditas Tan and Titing Brilliantes of INA, or Inang Naulila ng Anak (Mothers Orphaned of children) — on dealing with their sorrow on children snatched away by Yolanda. INA had been organized by “Manay” Gina, who herself had lost her daughter KC nine years ago. INA will organize branches to help orphaned mothers in the typhoon-damaged areas.

“Manay” Gina is also president of the Association of Women Legislators Foundation, Inc. (AWLFI), whose members had helped repack relief goods in Congress for Tacloban victims. Aside from herself, other legislators on the Tacloban exposure trip were Reps. Linabelle Ruth Villarica of Bulacan, Rosenda Ann Ocampo of Manila, and Marie Ann Pernes of Siquijor. Magnolia Rosa Antonino-Nedres of Nueva Ecija, and Victoria Noel of the party-list group An-Waray.

There were signs of the help foreign governments and private organizations who had overwhelmingly sent in kind and cash and warm bodies from all over the world — food, soldiers, medical teams, heavy transport, psychologists, food packers.  Secretary of State John Kerry represented the United States.  Celebrities included heartthrob Justin Bieber who danced and sang with thrilled junior Taclobanons.

The latest visitor was United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “The UN has been an important partner of the Philippines, mounting an immediate and comprehensive humanitarian response to people affected by the strongest storm ever to make a landfall in history,” said former House Speaker and founding president of the Centrist Asia-Pacific Democrats International (CAPDI) Centrist Jose de Venecia. The response of the UN to the Tacloban disaster and the secretary general’s visit marked “the United Nations’ finest hour in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia since the birth of the United Nations.  Ban Ki-moon is mobilizing the entire UN-affiliated humanitarian organizations to extend help to the typhoon-affected areas.”

Meeting the group at the domestic airport was Rep. Martin Romualdez. ”The water was up to the level of the roof,” said Romualdez.  At the mini bus taking the visitors as the “tourist guide,” he pointed to the most devastated areas. He said he had been informed of the coming of the super typhoon, but no one knew the extent of the damage it wrought, that it would be “such a nightmare.”

 Fortunately, his one-story house was spared from Yolanda’s wrath on account of its design, which has”high-pitched” roofing. The Romualdez compound continues to serve as a temporary staging and hospitality center to visitors from Manila and other countries.

Other Romualdez structures blown away were the resort of Tacloban City mayor Alfred Romualdez, as well as the “mansion” of former first lady Imelda Marcos in Olot. The mayor was represented by his city administrator Tecson John Lim, at the meeting with the Manila visitors, and came after attending the construction of Robinson’s department store — a sure indication of commercial life in the city rising again.

Our group also visited the Department   of Social Welfare and Administration ‘s “hub,” a warehouse where people were repacking rice and other goods to be distributed to the survivors.  Secretary Dinky Soliman has been on her feet all the time. In her report, she said the department has already distributed a total of 3,013,716 relief packages in 171 municipalities in Central Visayas.

Our group had “boodle” lunch which consisted of  steamed rice, pancit, bistek and fried chicken toppings spread out on strips of banana leaves atop  two long tables. Everyone took lunch with their hands, including the uniformed soldiers, whom Dinky described as rendering “invaluable help” in rescue and cleanup operations.

Rep. Romualdez said that the lessons learned from Yolanda are on preparedness. He said there should be satellite communication systems for instant connection with the people and rescue operations; power barges that would supply electricity when all energy resources have been cut off; a steady supply of goods in warehouses to be distributed in emergencies, and availability of mass transportation to take refugees to higher grounds.

He said the damage to Tacloban City alone has gone up to P52 billion. It will take about two years to rehabilitate the city alone — if, he added, there is enough political will, and the residents are actively involved in the reconstruction efforts.

To  be  sure, the legislators have learned lessons  from  the Yolanda  that could occur  in  their provinces. Rep. Linabelle Ruth Villarica  of  Bulacan, mused, “Maybe there’s a  purpose  for  this  calamity.  Why did  it  happen?”  She  praised  the Yolanda survivors’ resiliency, and the teachers at the Palo Central Elementary School, who carried on with the task of looking after the school children even without textbooks, in dilapidated buildings.  

Villarica’s district is in danger if a Yolanda strikes -- the towns of Obando, Meycauayan and Marilao being along the coastline. She proposed satellite communications and riverboats for the fisherfolk.

Ann Pernes is collecting data on preparedness, especially because her province of Siquijor islands a potential target area for another Yolanda.

Magnolia Rose Antonino-Nedres of Nueva Ecija, said rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts should not just be limited to the rebuilding of physical structures.  Leaders, she continued, said, should serve as “beacons of hope” to lift people’s spirits when such a calamity occurs.

De Venecia said that the trip she organized for her co-legislators and INA was the first of a series of relief missions to help the victims of Yolanda.

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Email: dominitorrevillas@gmail.com