TACLOBAN CITY – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in the region is pushing for the establishment of a ‘Yolanda’ memorial center to preserve the memories of suffering and recovery from the monster typhoon that pummeled Eastern Visayas in 2013.
Officials from four national government agencies and the Tacloban city government will form a technical working group to come up with a proposal for the center.
Initially, the museum needs P50 million, but agencies will come up with more accurate estimates after the proposal’s completion within two months.
It will be constructed in Tacloban City, considered the ground zero of the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
“It will be a site where people can go to learn about our experiences and how we recovered from the disaster,” Bonifacio Uy, NEDA regional director, said.
The proposed project will be patterned after a museum in Sendai, Japan, which features photographs and other items showing the damages sustained by the said city after it was hit by a massive tsunami in 2011 and its rebuilding effort.
NEDA, the agency tasked to monitor post-Yolanda recovery efforts, will lead in the drafting of the proposal.
Other members of the technical working group are the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Tourism, Office of the Civil Defense, and Tacloban city government.
Uy is lobbying for funding for the proposed museum under the remaining funds for the 2016 Yolanda Rehabilitation and Recovery Program (YRRP). The proposal will be submitted to the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council.
“As an alternative source of funds, we can also include the proposal in the 2018 budget of the Department of Tourism,” Uy added.
YRRP is the government’s blueprint to help Yolanda-hit communities recover from the country’s deadliest typhoon on record, which killed at least 6,300 people on Nov. 8, 2013. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO, PNA)
