TACLOBAN CITY- A nongovernment organization convened 500 survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda into homeowners associations to ensure that they will be empowered in building houses that are typhoon-resilient. Princess Asuncion-Esponilla, information officer of the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), which initiated the gathering, said 14 homeowners associations from Tacloban, considered the ground zero of Yolanda, attended the gathering held at the gymnasium of the Leyte Normal University. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was also part of said activity. Esponilla said that the gathering of the homeowners associations was part of their vision of building resilient and empowered communities in Tacloban which bore the brunt of Yolanda. Formation of association will strengthen and unite Yolanda survivors to ensure that all their concerns will be addressed — land, permanent and temporary houses, jobs, health, administrations of the work, and participation in major decision making, she added. She said that the Homeowners’ Associations in Yolanda-affected areas were formally recognized by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). (RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)

TACLOBAN CITY-Businessmen in Tacloban have yet to receive financial assistance promised to them by the national government, a year after supertyphoon “Yolanda” devastated this city. Joel Caminade, president of Rotary Club of Tacloban, said that until now government’s financial support to them remains to be seen. “We’ve been waiting for so long, yet no help is around. It’s both frustrating and infuriating,” Caminade said in an interview. The soft-spoken businessman who is into printing press industry did not hide his disappointment on government’s apparent lack of support to them. “I’ve lost about P 40 million from our machinery and office equipment. We’re back to scratch. But I know by and by we’ll sustain this in our own efforts,” Caminade said. He said that businessmen like them in Yolanda-hit areas should be given immediate attention to recover their business and eventually revive the local economy. “Even government banks are giving us a run-around with those who will apply for loans, demanding so many requirements when they already knew that our documents have been washed out by Yolanda. Worst, they are even asking more collateral when in fact our businessmen had collateral already in our past loans to them before Yolanda,” Caminade said. So as to recover their losses and continue their livelihood, Caminade said that Tacloban businessmen have no other option but to rely to each other or borrow money for new capital from their friends and associates outside the city. Despite their lack of support, Caminade maintained they were able to help storm victims by providing food and medical reliefs with the help of their partner organizations. Jack Uy, president of Tacloban Filipino Chamber of Commerce and Industry, openly expressed his frustration to the government for its apparent failure to “seriously” help them.
(RONALD O.REYES)

TACLOBAN CITY- “There was only little time for me to mourn when my only sibling died after the surge. Many are in need of blood services from the Philippine Red Cross – Leyte Chapter that needed much attention,” Nilda Quiero teary-eyed during the interview as one of the awardees of the Yolanda Heroism Awards handed by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The regional office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) honored people on November 5 who showed uncommon bravery and selfless commitment to others during and after Supertyphoon Yolanda last year.

The recognition, dubbed as The Yolanda Heroism Awards, sought to acknowledge people who risked their lives for others and to glorify exemplars of courage and selflessness, DILG Regional Pedro Noval, Jr. said.
Recognized acts of valor were security guard Dionesio Bagon, a resident of Palo, Leyte; Christopher Caspe from Magallanes, Tacloban City; Armando Corillo from V&G Subdivision, Tacloban City; Benjoe Mercenes of Taguiktic San Jose, Tacloban City; and Isagani Sabalza of Brgy, Magay, Tanauan, Leyte.

For acts of Good Samaritan the honorees were Nilda Quiero of Philippine Red Cross, Leyte Chapter; C/insp. Adel Bautista of the Bureau of Fire Protection, and Ranel Repasa from Tanauan, Leyte. The honorees were screened and validated by DILG and agency partners from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd) and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Eastern Visayas Chapter. Nilda Quiero, a medical technologist of the PRC, was honored under the acts of Good Samaritan Category. Quiero together with 16 other staff and volunteers of the agency spent the night at the chapter building on November 7, after feeding arroz caldo to the evacuees at the Eastern Visayas University numbering to 888 persons.

They never got to sleep as the next thing they did was preposition of relief food packs. When typhoon’s fury was imminent in the morning of November 8, and waters started to rise, Quiero immediately saved important documents already floating, money for purchases and equipment at her hand’s reach, secured them in the vault, before breaking glass windows and joining the rest of the group at the Red Cross building rooftop for four-shivering hours. She thought she could not survive.

She went home on the following day, only to find out his brother Felix has not returned home. She reported to the PRC Operations Center at Leyte Park Hotel in the morning and searched for his brother at the Fish Port down Magallanes street in Tacloban around 3 o’clock every afternoon, until they found him under the debris at the fishing port on the 15th. “With the help of the Red Cross, we put his body in the body bag, brought him to the old cemetery in Sagkahan, secured him in the space provided above my mother’s grave. Only to return, before Christmas day, to give him a decent burial,” Quiero said.

Quiero’s nominator was PRC Leyte Chapter chairman lawyer Miguel Tezon, who said that heroism is a way of life at the Philippine Red Cross but others do an extra mile to make life better for others, that made them shine like Quiero. Tezon said Quiero worked 25-straight days after the typhoon with over 800 patients served. Winners received both plaques of citations and a cash reward. “The storm which was the strongest ever to hit land tested the resolve and character of the people. The award is a fitting tribute to the individuals who performed extreme acts of selflessness and sacrifice during and after Yolanda,” said Dir. Noval. (VICKY C. ARNAIZ)

TACLOBAN CITY-United States Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg led in the distribution of 36 sari-sari stores that were “reconstructed and restocked with inventory” in Baras, Palo, Leyte. The 36 sari-sari stores that were repaired and provided with items are part of the 1,000 stores located in areas hit by supertyphoon Yolanda that are to be rehabilitated by the US through its United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble

Goldberg also announced the establishment of the MIDAS Fund or Micro Enterprise Disaster Assistance Fund for Resiliency during the simple rites held last October 20. The P176 million ($4 million) credit facility is implemented in partnership with the Philippine Business for Social Progress. According to USAID, the credit facility will enable eligible entrepreneurs from Yolanda-hit areas to borrow money to establish or expand their micro enterprise. Joining the turn -over were USAID Mission Director Gloria D. Steele, Procter and Gamble Country Brand PR head Anna Legarda and Coca Cola Philippines vice president for public affairs and communications Adel Tamano.

Also present were Palo Mayor Remedios “Matin” Petilla and Vice Governor Carlo Loreto. The American government through the USAID Rebuild Project maintained they will continue working to restore access to education and health services, livelihood activities and provide technical assistance to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery for the Yolanda-stricken regions. (RONALD O. REYES)

PALO, Leyte – A memorial garden is being constructed inside the compound of the San Joaquin Church, this town, in memory of the 337 people who died during the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda. The Bernard Schulte Ship Management donated the amount of P1 million for the construction of the memorial garden, said village chair Papos Lantajo. The main attraction of the memorial garden is a huge cross made of metal with a height of 7.1 meter with a width of 8.0 meter. The construction of the memorial garden was started last August.

San Joaquin is considered to be among the hard-hit village in Palo during the onslaught of Yolanda with 337 people dead and hundreds still missing. The grounds of the church of San Joaquin were used as a grave site. Among those buried at the grave site were the daughters of Myrna de Vera, 44, Mary Rose, 13 and Jovelyn, 5. de Veyra said that what made the deaths of her two young daughters more painful to her was she was in Manila on the day Yolanda battered her village of more than 3,000 people. She said that she was able to contact both her daughters through mobile phone and even heard them crying and shouting for help.
“Jovelyn was crying and she wanted me to go home; she was very afraid. During that time I already heard the sound of the strong winds,” the grieving mother said. “As a mother, it’s too painful to lose your daughters, “she added.

She arrived home last November 20 and went straight to the grave site. And a year after Yolanda battered their village, de Veyra is still grieving over the loss of her daughters. De Veyra said that she has to make strong for the sake of her three other children. (MYLA ANN M. JOMADIAO (LNU Intern)

TACLOBAN CITY-The women’s right group Gabriela launched an international solidarity mission in areas ravaged by super typhoon Yolanda to look into reports of human trafficking and prostitution involving victims of the typhoon. This was revealed by Joms Salvador, secretary general of Gabriela who added that the mission’s participants is composed of almost 3,000 women coming from different countries like the Philippines, Canada, Belgium, Vietnam and the United States of America. Stage actress Monique Wilson of “Miss Saigon” is among the members of the mission. Based on their data, almost 80 percent of reported victims of Yolanda were women and children, considered both vulnerable to abuses and violations of their rights. Salvador disclosed that many women Yolanda survivors ended up as victims of trafficking and prostitution.

Lack of assistance during this time of calamity was one of the reasons cited by Salvador why women and even children who survived Yolanda ended as victims of trafficking or prostitution. If the government will not provide the necessary and appropriate help to the survivors, the number of trafficked women or those ended up in prostitution will continue to increase, Salvador added. She claimed that they have monitored cases of trafficking and prostitution involving Yolanda survivors outside Eastern Visayas. After gathering data obtained from their mission, Salvador said that they will create a global action plan as part of the international women solidarity mission. The plan will be presented to various organizations and concerned local government units for them to take the appropriate actions and help stop occurrence of trafficking and prostitution among Yolanda survivors. In order to address the problem on trafficking and prostitution, the government has to provide opportunities for employment to women, Salvador said. (RYAN GABRIEL LLOSA ARCENAS)