LEYTE Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez is batting for the declaration of Nov. 8 of every year as “Typhoon Yolanda Resiliency Day” in Eastern Visayas.
The House committee on the revision of laws, led by Pangasinan Rep. Marilyn Agabas, has already transmitted its report endorsing the plenary approval of Romualdez’s proposal.
The panel recently recommended the approval on second reading of House Bill 6591 substituting HB 4383, or Romualdez’s “Yolanda Commemoration Day,” under Committee Report 450.
The nation will commemorate the fourth anniversary of Yolanda on Nov. 8.
Super Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’ flattened Eastern Visayas and took the lives of over 6,000 people on Nov. 8, 2013.
Meanwhile, People Surge Philippines joined the National Anti-Poverty Commission and the Leyte Center for Development and Empowerment in holding a region-wide Disaster Survivors Conference that gathered farmers and the urban poor in the Oriental Hotel on Sunday.
The Conference sought to gather updated information on the situation of disaster survivors four years after Yolanda’s onslaught in an effort to produce a region-wide situation report on poverty, food security and human rights in the region as an output, said Marissa Cabaljao, secretary general of People Surge Philippines.
She made her statement even as The Movement Against Tyranny launched for the first time a forum inviting Yolanda’s victims to discuss their experience of militarization and human rights violations within the four years that have gone by after the world’s strongest storm made landfall.
The forum was held at the Tacloban City Training Center on Saturday and was participated in by peasant organization leaders and village officials who experienced the hardships brought by Yolanda.
Romualdez, a registered nurse and vice chairwoman of the House committee on government enterprises and privatization, said her proposed measure would honor those who died and recognize the help of the volunteers who extended assistance to the typhoon victims and helped rebuild Eastern Visayas.
“The bill seeks to honor the memory of all who perished, and salute the resiliency and the selflessness of the volunteers and organizations that took part and contributed to the recovery and rehabilitation of all affected communities,” she said.
The bill seeks to declare Nov. 8 of every year as a special non-working holiday in Tacloban City and the provinces of Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Western Samar and Ormoc City, Eastern Samar, or in Region 8.
Romualdez said the provincial government in Eastern Visayas had issued an executive order observing an annual commemoration of the Yolanda tragedy every Nov. 8.
During a previous committee hearing, Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano moved for the bill’s approval, which was seconded by ABS Rep. Eugene de Vera.
Romualdez had asked Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza to co-author her measure.
Other lawmakers who agreed to co-author Romualdez’s bill were Yacap Rep. Benhur Lopez Jr., An Waray Rep. Victoria Isabel Noel, Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Wilter Wee Palma II and Pasig City Rep. Richard Eusebio.
“I thank my colleagues for their overwhelming support for my proposal,” Romualdez said.