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Thursday, March 28, 2024

1M still homeless

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TACLOBAN CITY—This coastal city marks the second anniversary of the destructive visit of Super Typhoon “Yolanda”  Sunday  with more than one million survivors still without safe homes—but also a symbol of hope from the Vatican.

Pope Francis earlier this week blessed a two-foot image of the Sto. Nino de Tacloban, patron saint of Tacloban City.

The image is being brought back to the city in time for the second anniversary rites by Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who hand-carried it so the Pope could bless it in an audience at the Holy See arranged by Philippine Ambassaodr Mercy Tuason.

Second anniversary. Climate activists light candles in Manila on Friday to mark the second anniversary of the devastation wreaked by Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda.’ The photo below shows Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez mingling with Filipinos in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to wait for Pope Francis’ blessing of the Santo Niño de Tacloban that will be unveiled in Tacloban on Nov. 8. AFP

“Despite the suffering and deaths caused by Yolanda, we can only remain hopeful and positive,” Romualdez said. “After all, He has proven that indeed there is always a rainbow after the storm. Because of the overwhelming outpouring of compassion from all over the country and the whole world, we were able to rise above the tragedy. 

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Even as we mourn the loss of our friends and loved ones, as we remember Yolanda, let our experience be a reminder to celebrate life and new beginnings.”

In Tacloban, which was nearly completely destroyed and where thousands died, restaurants and shops are bustling again–showcasing the best of a remarkable resurrection for many communities.

But on the city’s outskirts and elsewhere, many people endure deep poverty as they live in flimsy new homes that make them extremely vulnerable to future storms that will inevitably whip in off the Pacific Ocean.

More than 7,350 people were killed or left missing after Super Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, with the strongest winds ever recorded on land.

Tsunami-like storm surges higher than trees exacerbated the disaster, demolishing communities on central Philippine islands that were already among the nation’s poorest.

“I cry almost every night. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, how are we going to survive,” Esliba Bascal, 59, who lost her son and home in the disaster and now lives in a makeshift dwelling just outside Tacloban, said last week.

Like many others, Bascal’s hopes for a new government-provided house in a safe place have not come true.

She lives with her husband, widowed daughter-in-law and six grandchildren in a brick-and-tin structure built on the same site as their previous home that was wiped out by the storm surges.

“We were poor, but now we’re poorer. Life is hard but I have to be strong for my grandchildren,” said Bascal, who earns about P20 a day selling biscuits, chips, soap and other daily goods from her home.

President Benigno Aquino III’s government launched a P150-billion reconstruction program for the disaster zones, which the United Nations has praised for its efficiency in some key sectors.

About 60 percent of that money has been spent, much of it on roads, bridges and schools, according to Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, who is in charge of the recovery program.

Money has also been used for start-up capital for survivors to start small businesses, as well as farm and fishing supplies.

A resilient local private sector and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the international community has also been extremely important.

The Red Cross, for example, said it had given cash assistance to more than 90,000 families and rebuilt or repaired 65,000 homes.

Yet, the government has come under fire for not doing enough to help the more than one million survivors it identified as living in coastal areas who were vulnerable to future storms and needed to be resettled. AFP

Out of the 205,128 families living in the path of future storms, just 928 have been transferred to permanent shelters, according to the government.

The government calculates an average of five people per family.

Many of the others who have yet to receive new homes are simply living in repaired or rebuilt homes, like Bascal.

The government is aiming to relocate nearly 100,000 families by next year, with the project to be completed by 2017, Chito Cruz, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, told reporters this week.

Cruz said one of the reasons it was taking so long to relocate people was because buying safe new land from private title holders was extremely difficult.

Locals also complain that the proposed resettlement areas are in isolated locations well away from the coast.

The coastal areas are the main hubs of the regional economy, and people cannot afford to travel long distances.

“We have accomplished much over the last two years, but there is still a lot that must be done,” Balisacan said in a briefing on the recovery program this week.

But he also emphasized Yolanda had turned cities and towns into “wastelands”, and that even the US government struggled after Hurricane Katrina caused massive damage in 2005.

Yolanda has become a rallying point in the global campaign to contain global warming, with visits to the disaster zones this year by leaders such as Pope Francis and French President Francois Hollande.

Scientists have warned storms such as Yolanda, which generated record winds of 315 kilometers an hour at landfall, could become the new normal as global warming worsens.

While in the disaster zones, the Pope and Hollande issued similar warnings as they urged world leaders to take decisive action at a crucial summit in Paris starting on  Nov. 30.

The summit is aiming to seal a pact aimed at keeping global temperature rises to no more than two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

In Cebu, the Catholic Church through its social action arm, the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/Caritas Philippines, led the second year commemoration of Typhoon Yolanda in through a series of activities from  Nov. 6 to 7.

With the theme “Faith, Hope and Caritas”, this year’s commemoration discussed the lessons learned and progress of the Church’s on-going three year rehabilitation program called #REACHPhilippines.

It also served as a venue for the government and other non-government organizations to renew and sustain its commitment to typhoon survivors.

“We treasure our faith as the power source of Filipino resiliency. This is the reason why we chose Cebu to host this year’s commemoration. Aside from being one of the areas worst-hit by the typhoon, it is also the seat of Christianity in the country,” NASSA/Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary Fr. Edwin Gariguez said.

The activities include the Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Summit with the Archdiocese of Palo-Relief and Rehabilitation Unit sharing how its communities are now involved in various disaster mitigation measures.

There is also a photo gallery exhibit, showing the faces of Yolanda survivors in the nine provinces, and the various phases of the Yolanda reconstruction, which would run until  Nov. 8  at the Ayala Center Cebu.

On Friday, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto thanked President Aquino for signing the PAGASA Modernization Law.

Recto said the measure puts the weather bureau on a long-term track of modernization beginning with an initial authority to request and spend P3 billion for needed equipment upgrades and manpower training.

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