Eastern Visayas Rehabilitation Program On-Track — Lacson

Rehabilitation Czar Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday stressed that the Aquino administration is on track on its recovery program in areas affected by Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in November 2013.

”We are on track but the success stories are not being highlighted and instead what comes out on the news are the negative issues,” he told reporters in a briefing at Malacañang.

Last December, the government placed the cost of rehabilitation in Eastern Visayas to be about P306.8 billion but Lacson said raw data from the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) showed that rehabilitation requirements would now be more than twice lower at about P104.64 billion.

He attributed this to the earlier intervention by the government and the aids from local and international donors.

Under the law, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) must submit to the President a PDNA a month after a disaster strikes.

Lacson said National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin already has the report but is yet to present this to President Benigno Aquino III and the cabinet for approval.

“We are still anticipating that there will be full implementation (of the rehabilitation program) by June. When you say implementation it means massive wherein all line agencies of the government participate,” he stressed.

Relatively, Lacson also attributed the drop of the projected rehabilitation cost to the exclusion of damaged properties owned by the private sector.

”What we’ll finance are government infrastructure, aid for the marginalized sector through provision of housing units, and livelihood assistance,” he said.

He said that for one, the needs of fisherfolks for boats have been addressed after the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) distributed a total of 12,000 units, which were augmented by the 877 units from the private sector.

Thus, he said they have advised donors to stop giving boats because there are already surplus for these.

Eastern Visayas is among the major regions that provide coconut supply not only in the country but overseas.

However, some 13 million coconut trees were destroyed when the region was hit by “Yolanda,” which is being considered as one of the strongest cyclone in the world to date.

Lacson said that of the 13 million felled coconut trees, six million have been harvested, thus, there are about 26 million board feet of coco lumber available for sale, proceeds of which will be used to help the typhoon victims.

During the same briefing, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said the government has distributed a total of 4.3 million family food packs that contain three to six kilos of rice and 713,074 family food packs that contain 25-kl of rice.

Some 3,455 families have been temporarily transferred to 265 bunkhouses constructed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Regions 6 and 7, she said.

Soliman said they continue to assist typhoon victims but the focus now is to provide them not just temporary shelters but permanent houses expected to be completed by December this year.

The government has listed some 216,000 beneficiaries of housing units in the typhoon-devastated areas.

Similarly, Trade and Industry Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya, during the same briefing, said the department’s Diskwento (Discounted) Caravan were in Eastern Visayas until end-April after Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) officials noted that retailers and distributors of people’s basic needs have resumed their businesses.

She, however, stressed that the department continues to help in the full recovery of businesses in the region not just by providing basic supplies but by giving technical assistance to further improve the region’s economy. (PNA) LGI/JS/UTB