Repairs done on 30 Yolanda-hit churches

CEBU, Philippines -  Repairs on 30 churches and chapels in Samar and Leyte provinces that were damaged by Yolanda last year have been completed, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said Thursday.

Father Emerson Luego, Caritas Manila in-charge for Visayas and Mindanao, said parishioners were happy that these churches were rebuilt and can finally resume services.

Luego said in an article posted on the CBCP news site the target now is to finish repairs on churches of the Palo archdiocese in Leyte and the dioceses of Borongan and Calbayog in Samar by November.

The CBCP said efforts to restore at least 38 damaged churches and chapels in Samar and Leyte started this year, the funding of which came from Caritas Manila.

Borongan Bishop Crispin Varquez earlier lauded the assistance and programs that he said would help strengthen the faith of Yolanda survivors.

In a related development, the CBCP announced that the Catholic Church has rolled out at least 9.7 million euros, or more than P513 million, for a comprehensive program for Yolanda survivors.

Father Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the CBCP-National Secreta-riat for Social Action, confirmed over Radyo Veritas recently that nine dioceses in Palawan, Cebu, and Panay will benefit from the project. “Each of these nine dioceses has its own target number of houses which they have already begun building,” he said.

The program, funded by donations from Caritas International and other church-based organizations, is set for rebuilding of houses destroyed by the calamity, livelihood assistance for the survivors, disaster risk reduction efforts and community organization over a three-year period.

Gariguez shared his office is currently scouting for an ideal resettlement site in the Archdiocese of Palo in Leyte where the Church propo-ses to build a “model community” with additional 500 new housing units.

Tacloban City is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Palo headed by Archbishop John Forrosuelo Du. — From the wires