Almost a year after super-typhoon Yolanda left a wide swath of death
and destruction in the country, President Aquino has finally approved
the P167.9-billion rehabilitation master plan for storm-hit communities.
The Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRP) aims to
“build back better” the resettlement, infrastructure, livelihood, and
social services in 171 cities and municipalities ravaged by the powerful
typhoon, according to Presidential Communications Operations Secretary
Herminio Coloma Jr.
“Upon the recommendation of the Presidential Assistant for
Rehabilitation and Recovery (PARR) and the favorable endorsement of the
National Economic and Development Authority, the President approved
yesterday, October 29. 2014, the 8,000-page Yolanda Comprehensive
Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan, which outlines the National
Government’s commitment to implement over 25,000 rehabilitation and
recovery specific plans and programs and activities (PPAs),” Coloma
said.
“According to PARR Secretary Panfilo Lacson, these PPAs are
envisioned to bring forth the recovery of the 171 affected cities and
municipalities in 14 provinces and six regions (collectively known as
the ‘Yolanda corridor’) based on the principle of ‘build-back-better’ by
focusing on long-term, sustainable efforts to reduce vulnerabilities
and strengthen capacities of communities to cope with future hazard
events,” he added.
Under the post-Yolanda rehabilitation plan, the resettlement projects
for the Yolanda victims will take the biggest slice of the proposed
budget at P75.67 billion. Coloma said the government aims to restore
settlements and basic community facilities and services that are more
resilient to hazard events.
Infrastructure development will require P35.14 billion in order to
sustain economic and social activities in the affected areas, according
Coloma. At least P30.6 billion will be set aside for livelihood and
continuity of economic activities and business while P26.40 billion for
social services in the disaster-hit communities.
Since November, 2013, Coloma said, the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) has already released a P51.98 billion from the national
budget for the rehabilitation plan in the Yolanda corridor.
The post-Yolanda rehabilitation blueprint was submitted by Lacson to
the President last August. The plan was not immediately approved since
Aquino wanted clear timetables for rehabilitation projects.
Last week, the President admitted he was not content with the pace of
the rehabilitation efforts in Yolanda-damaged places, describing some
delays as absurd.
“I am never satisfied,” the President said at a media forum in
Ortigas last week, when asked if he was pleased with the rebuilding
efforts in Yolanda-affected places. “I want to deliver everything that
has to be delivered weekly as quick as possible,” Aquino added.
“Sometimes it gets to me, medyo absurd. For instance, one year later,
why is the runway in Tacloban not yet ready? And the quick answer is:
there is a lack of asphalt, you have to bring it in. And then also,
initially, parang yong aggregates… it turns out Leyte has the
aggregates,” the President said.
Aquino said the housing project of the families displaced by the
typhoon has been hindered by the lack of safe relocation sites. “On
houses, we might have the funds, we might have the materials already;
then we don’t have the land. Then when you were given land, it’s land
nobody wants,” he said. The land must be certified safe for settlement
for communities, he added..
He said the rehabilitation efforts must also coexist with the need to
keep the typhoon victims fed, free from disease, and sheltered.
“So am I satisfied? No. I wish everything that has to be done were
done after one year, but that is might be an impossibility,” he said.
Aquino said he hopes the “build back better” rehabilitation plan, a
multi-year effort, will be “substantially accomplished by the time I
step down.”
