Tacloban, Palo get more USAID projects

CEBU, Philippines - The United States government, through its US Assistance for International Development, yesterday turned over rehabilitation and livelihood projects in Tacloban City and Palo town in Leyte.

US Ambassador Philip Goldberg and USAID mission director Gloria Steele were scheduled to visit here for the inauguration and turnover of the projects, but they cancelled their travel when the plane they were supposed to take encountered engine trouble before the slated flight in Manila.

USAID representative in Region 8, Engineer Royce Tan, was saddened of the US officials failure to attend the event, but said the ceremony must continue as scheduled.

Goldberg and Steele were represented by Mark Barrera, USAID Rebuild chief of party, who led in the ceremonies, which started with the turnover of a 6-classroom building at San Joaquin Central School in Palo.

Nikki Meru of the USAID Rebuild Communications Unit, said the school building was designed to withstand a 350-kph wind and an 8.5-magnitude quake, and was built at an elevated level three meters from the ground as “stave-off” measure against storm surge.

The calamity-resilient building, constructed through US Rebuild at a cost of P19.9 million, has six classrooms, each of which is furnished with teacher’s kit, table and chair, cabinet, blackboard and 55 arm chairs for pupils.

San Joaquin school principal Liberato Cobacha, in an emotional speech, said “we are so thankful and blessed with the USAID efforts in rebuilding our school, ... inspiring our children.”

USAID officials later turned over 40 rehabilitated and restocked sari-sari stores, inside the transitional shelter community, built by the Catholic Relief Service in Barangay Utap of Tacloban City. Mayor Alfred Romualdez and Department of Trade and Industry-8 regional director Cynthia Nierras attended the turnover rites.

USAID also announced its alternative livelihood program — raising crabs and milkfish — for fishermen in the northern barangay of Tacloban and in Barangay Cataisan, near the airport.

Lauro Ilagan, sub-component manager of livelihood in aquaculture of USAID Rebuild, said they have been serving many fisherfolk in the area whose livelihood was lost to Yolanda. These people are now harvesting their produce of crabs and milkfish that they sold in markets, he told The FREEMAN.

The scheduled turnover of the USAID health facility, housing a tuberculosis center and the Tacloban City Health Office, was cancelled. American officials did not expound to the media the reason for the cancellation. — Eileen Nazareno-Ballesteros and Miriam Garcia Desacada (FREEMAN)