3rd Yolanda Anniversary: Duterte orders agencies to finish housing projects

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte arrived Tacloban yesterday afternoon and proceeded by helicopter to the Holy Cross Gardens at Barangay Basper, this city, the mass grave of at least 2,973 people who died when super typhoon Yolanda struck Leyte and Samar on November 8, 2013.

Duterte led the ceremonies for the 3rd Yolanda anniversary commemoration with wreath-laying and candle-lighting rites in memory of the Yolanda dead.

Vice President Leni Robredo was also there, along with Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Gonzales Romualdez, Leyte 1st district Representative Yedda Romualdez, Leyte Governor Dominic Petilla, and Secretaries Juvy Taguiwalo of the DSWD and Gina Lopez of the DENR, and Leoncio Evasco, secretary to the Cabinet.

Duterte said he was dismayed and disappointed about the delay in government projects, and the apparent slow implementation of the recovery and rehabilitation projects, particularly on the housing for the more than 12,000  families who lost their homes during the storm surge of Yolanda, three years ago.

“The government has fallen short of the expectations of the people. That Yolanda rehabilitation should have been over after one year,” he told the crowd. “Am a little bit disappointed, but I am glad to see you.”

The president told the crowd that he was “not satistified with the results of the rehabilitation efforts initiated by the national offices. Three years have passed and marami pang displaced families at hindi na-transfer to permanent shelters. Dapat one year after Yolanda tapos na ang rehabilitation projects.”

Duterte then openly ordered the DSWD and the DPWH, particularly the National Housing Authority, to finish the housing units for the Yolanda survivors.

After his commemorative message, the president announced the immediate release of P8,000 additional financial assistance for each of the 40,000 survivors who failed to received the Emergency Assistance Fund earlier given by the national government to Yolanda victims. The P5,000 is for the financial aide and the P3,000 is for the livelihood assistance, Duterte said.

Taguiwalo  told reporters that this is a welcome pronouncement of the national government for the Yolanda victims, and they need at least P1 billion to cover the entire beneficiaries. She said the agency will immediately step up the process for the immediate release of the money during the first three months of 2017.

Mayor Romualdez, was also challenged by the president to help in the fast recovery of the families and the construction of the basic facilities at the resettlement areas in the northern part of the city, such as water system. Duterte then ordered the Local Water Utilities Administration to also complete its project as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, a total of 163 community organizations of Yolanda survivors and nine non-government organizations, which merged into a group they called Community of Yolanda Survivors and Partners (CYSP), said they are seeking an audience with President Rodrigo Duterte for redress of their plaints.

In a press conference yesterday, Catholic Bishops Conference-National Secretariat for Social Action (Caritas Philippines) executive director Father Edu Gariguez disclosed the four points the CYSP will lobby before Duterte.

The plaints are basically centered on the national government’s slow and somehow ineffective rehabilitation effort and failure to consult the survivors on related undertakings.

CYSP urges the national government to act on these four points: Thorough and immediate audit of Yolanda funds (including the more than P100 billion worth of foreign loans); creation of a national coordinating body of the government to integrate the various initiatives on rehabilitation; declare a moratorium on the P7.9-billion Tide Embankment Project and start a transparent process of consultation on the affected communities; and to listen and resolve survivors recommendation for climate-resilient evacuation centers and permanent shelters.

Gariguez expressed hope that with Duterte’s battlecry for change, the new administration will consider the plaints and requests of CYSP. In the past administration, CYSP suggested some reforms in the recovery and rehabilitation efforts but were not favorably acted upon, he said.

The common complaints were the serious delays and selectivity in the distribution of the Emergency Shelter assistance (ESA), the shortage of permanent housing in resettlement areas and the planned construction of the Tide Embankment project in this city, according to Sammy Gamboa of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice and secretary-general of the Freedom of Debt Coalition. -