Governor’s Plea: Don’t Talk Yolanda Rehab in ‘Political Clashes’

Tacloban City (PNA) -– The government-led post-Yolanda rehabilitation efforts could be a political issue in 2016, but talking about it “agitates” disaster survivors, an official said.

Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla appealed to politicians not to use post-disaster rehabilitation as an issue to bring down the popularity of rivals.

“I hope politicians will not agitate survivors because many of us are still recovering nearly two years after super typhoon Yolanda struck. We want to get over from the catastrophe. We want to move on,” Petilla said.

“But every time this is the topic of political clashes, it agitates people and hampers our recovery.”

The governor said that in some aspect, the national government is not doing well with reconstruction activities, but critics should understand why.

For housing, among the bottlenecks is the slow process of land acquisition by the local government units and the Matnog port congestion, which aggravated to the construction materials supply shortage.

As of May 2015, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reported that 66 percent or 122 infrastructure reconstruction and recovery projects of various kinds have been completed.

The government has approved last year the PHP170.9 billion Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRP) on Yolanda.

The CRRP takes into account, among others, cluster action plans from relevant government agencies and rehabilitation plans of LGUs from the Yolanda corridor; the Recovery Assistance for Yolanda (RAY) and the draft Implementation for Results prepared by NEDA. (PNA) FFC/SARWELL Q. MENIANO