PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III’s record in providing assistance to victims of super typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City remains a dismal failure two years after the killer storm struck, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said in a press conference Thursday.
“We in Tacloban have seen the snail-paced progress and we see how it was omitted in the report of the President,” said Romualdez, referring to Aquino’s final State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) Monday.
“Yolanda affected thousands of people. Thousands were killed and thousands remain in shelters that are temporary at best. It would be very hard on the minds of our people who were affected to accept they are easily forgotten because if you cannot even take care of something that had attracted unprecedented worldwide international media attention… then I don’t know what else is more important,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez said that while the President mentioned some areas that received government assistance in his SONA, Tacloban was not one of them.
“Yolanda seems to be away from the President’s memory,” Romualdez said, adding that Aquino should have outlined what still needed to be done in areas like Tacloban where the government’s help is lacking.
Romualdez pointed out that more than P170 billion had been set aside for the victims but almost two years after the tragedy, only P47 billion has been released and used as of June 2015, with no breakdown on how the money was spent.
“We also want details and physical proof that the rest of the rehabilitation funds are still there and have not been stolen or diverted. Except for the victims themselves, the public is in the dark on what really is going on with rehabilitation efforts for Yolanda’ survivors. Considering the dismal results so far, this should not go on forever,” Romualdez said.
The Leyte congressman said he was saddened that the President and his men have turned Yolanda into a political issue.
“We’ve seen the dismal failuare. Of course it is political. Because they made it so. The government’s reaction to Yolanda was definitely a dismal failure. Obviously, the President did not want to have anything to do with helping the victims. That’s his Waterloo,” he said.
“The President sent Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to Tacloban and we all knew he fell short and his statements reeked of politics,” said Romualdez.
During his visit to Tacloban shortly after the super typhoon battered the city, Roxas told Mayor Alfred Romualdez that he needed to surrender his authority so that the national government could step in, telling him: “You have to understand you are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino so so we just want to legalize [the turnover of authority, or if] you are in charge, we can’t help you. Bahala na kayo sa buhay niyo (Your life is your own lookout.).”
Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza, a member of the minority bloc, said the entire country saw the way the government mishandled the aftermath of Yolanda in Tacloban—which he said mirrored how it mismanaged the entire nation.
Also on Thursday, former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones took exception to a press release from the Department of Budget and Mangement (DBM) that criticized her group, Social Watch Philippines, for using “erroneous data” in tracking the use of Yolanda funds.
“Indeed, we want to believe DBM that all is well, but the affected communities and even the agencies implementing the reconstruction efforts are giving us a different picture,” Briones said.
“The data that we used in our study are official government data,” she added.
Briones said that in its release, the DBM admitted that the budget for Yolanda reconstruction is shared with relief and rehabilitation efforts for other calamities that occurred before Yolanda.
“In other words, the amount they gave is not for Yolanda victims alone. Sharing resources with victims of other disasters is understandable, even desirable, but the government should be transparent about this,” Briones added.
The press release of DBM indicated the amount released to the agencies.
Almost half or P41.9 billion of the P88.9 billion total releases as of June 30, 2015, supposedly for Yolanda reconstruction also went to relief and rehabilitation for other calamities, Briones said.
SWP earlier shared the findings from its tracking of funds for Yolanda reconstruction and found that the plan was poorly implemented, and that the release of funds was delayed. Sources of the funds, their allocation and status were also unclear.
This SWP study, Briones said, covered 14 municipalities and one city in Samar, Leyte, Northern Palawan, and Iloilo.
The top complaint among the affected communities was the delays in the release of emergency shelter assistance.
“There are still many beneficiaries who have yet to receive the much needed assistance from DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). Delayed releases were also reported in Northern Palawan, specifically Busuanga and Linapacan,” Briones said.
SWP found that while construction for permanent housing had already started in most Yolanda affected areas, Briones said, snags such as land acquisition, pricing, resistance by target beneficiaries, and documentation were encountered.
The program to build permanent housing has hardly been carried out in Tacloban, Leyte, Easter Samar Iloilo, Northern Palawan, she said.
“Immediate resolution of these snags in the implementation of the reconstruction plan can be addressed if only President Aquino will designate a separate entity that has technical and administrative competence to implement… reconstruction efforts, with the necessary budget and mandated to steer the recovery process,” Briones said.
The SWP urged Congress to examine the P44.49 billion allocation for Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program in the 2016 national budget and compel the DBM to specify the allocation for every program, activity and project.
“Judging from the Special Provisions of the 2016 budget for Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, the Executive continues to neglect our call to make the budget for Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan (CRRP) transparent with specific amounts for each of the programs in the list,” Briones said.