TACLOBAN CITY- Members of the city councils expressed their gratitude to the help extended by the Turkish group Kimse Yok Mu which is among the first group of international groups that provided assistance to the people after the city was hit by the supertyphoon Yolanda.
The group is still in the city continuing their assistance even after it is now more than four months now since Tacloban was pummeled by Yolanda, said Councilors Cristina Gonzales Romualdez and Evangeline Esperas.
According to the two lady councilors, among the help extended by the Turkish group was the repair of the barangay health center in Barangay 61 located at Sagkahan District.
The group also stuffed with medicines and other medical supplies the said barangay health station.
The said health facility was severely damaged during the killer typhoon but with the repair done by the Kimse Yok Mu,”it is more beautiful compare to its previous condition,” the two councilors said.
The group also conducted their own medical and relief missions in different barangays across the city and debris collections.
“They voluntarily came to the city to help us on our rehabilitation efforts and in giving aids to the victims of the typhoons,” Romualdez said.
“The people in the city are very blessed with the support of the Kimse Yok Mu who did not stop on helping the Taclobanons until now,” she added.
She said that they were among the very first international groups to arrive in Tacloban after it was devastated by Yolanda that resulted to the deaths of more than 2,000 people, destruction of houses of more than 55,000 families and destroyed properties worth over P13 billion.
Councilors Esperas said that with the repair of the health center in Brgy.61, its residents would no longer go to other health facilities and to the Tacloban City Hospital.
Esperas also revealed that the repair of the Brgy.61 health center cost P1.5 million. (RYAN GABRIEL LLOSA ARCENAS)
Turkish group help rehabilitate barangay center in Sagkahan
Thousands of Iglesia Ni Cristo
Leyte farmers avails training program of the SM Foundation
TACLOBAN CITY- Farmers from the supertyphoon Yolanda ravaged towns of Tanauan and Barugo, both in Leyte, received training on farming of high value crops, fruits and vegetable farming initiated by the SM Foundation in partnership with Harbest Agribusiness Corporation (HAC).
The 12-weeks training, dubbed as Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program, was participated by close to 200 farmers coming from different barangays of the two towns, said Cristie Angeles, SM associate vice president for livelihood said.
Also present during the training was Toto Barcelona, president of the HAC, provincial agriculturist Rogelio Portula, town agriculturist Niceforo Liberato and Virginia Idano, assistant regional director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Angeles said that the HAC is a program partner since the training program was conceptualized that provides the manpower and specialist who impart modern techniques’ in farming.
Angeles also said that their training program, started in 2007, is a dual technology training in high-value crops in vegetable and fruit farming intended to provide updated agricultural technology to farmers thereby empowering them, not only to earn more income but also to be self-sufficient in food.
The program includes provision for market linkages in cooperation with SM Food Group and Supermalls (SM-FGS), DSWD, Department of Agriculture, local government units and non-government organizations.
The funding for the training under the program was provided by SM Foundation in which they have also provide the seedlings used in the actual training at the demo- farm provided by the local government. Capacity building and entrepreneurial skills are also incorporated in the training.
Many of the farmers who finished the12-weeks-hands-on training program are to replicate what they have learned in their own farm lots. (RYAN GABRIELL ARCENAS)
At a cost of P6.7 million Repair of Palo municipal building finished, says Petilla
PALO, LEYTE – After more than four months after this town’s main government building sustained severe damages due to supertyphoon Yolanda, it is now fully rehabilitated.
This was announced by Mayor Remedios “Matin” Petilla who disclosed that the repair of the two-story municipal hall cost P6.7 million.
The funding for the repair of the building was from President Aquino, the mayor added.
The building, one of the landmarks of the town, had just undergone renovation but sustained damages after Yolanda hit the town on November 8, 2013.
The municipal hall’s roof sustained damages while its glass windows were shattered during the typhoon.
“But look at it now, it’s back to its old look before the typhoon. We really worked hard for the municipal building to recover from the devastation,” Mayor Petilla said in an interview.
The mayor, together with other officials of the town, was in the building during the onslaught of Yolanda with hundreds of evacuees staying at the second floor of the building.
Days after the typhoon, the building served as an evacuation center with its grounds built a makeshift hospital treating people who sustained wounds during the typhoon.
Freshly painted walls and ceilings and new glass windows have been noted inside and outside of the building.
Petilla added that they decided to install glass windows but fortified them to minimize damage during similar incidents.
“Reusable” structures and materials from the old building were re-installed to preserve the old look of the building. (AHLETTE C. REYES)
Chong slams critics as he denies receiving P570 million during last years of Arroyo regime
NAVAL, Biliran- Former Biliran Rep.Glenn Chong strongly denied reports that he was one of the solons that received largesse from the Arroyo administration while it was winding its term.
Chong, who is a lawyer by profession, said that the allegations against him smacked with intention to destroy his credibility.
Chong, who served as the congressman of the lone district of Biliran for a single term, was mentioned to have received P570 million during the last six months of the administration of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Aside from him, a report said, nine other former and incumbent solons received financial help from Arroyo purportedly to finance their pet projects amounting in all to P10.6 billion.
In the region, those who reportedly received funds aside from Chong were Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (P735 million) and former Rep. Trinidad “Ebbie” Apostol (P152.57 million)
In a text message, Chong says that he is “ready, willing and prepared to face any congressional investigation should there be one.”
Chong suspected that this imputation to his person could be intended to destroy his credibility, a result of his having been invited speaker in various venues and for “well-received” and believed lectures on PCOS (precinct count optical scan machines) fraud, being a victim himself.
He has for the past years gone to several areas in Luzon and Mindanao explaining before his well-attended audience the non-reliability of this machine.
He recalled that during his incumbency as a congressman, he requested a budget for various concreting projects in Biliran for roughly P570 million in December 2009 but the amount was never released.
Atty. Chong noticed that among the 10 solons mentioned, he was the only neophyte legislator. All the rest were veteran politicians and members of political dynasties. (ALVIN GZ.ARPON)
Our choice
I still feel like it all happened yesterday, that historic day when Typhoon Yolanda pummeled Tacloban to literally nothing.
This is my first time to talk about the experience. This is also the time when I feel I have to fully move on. None of my relatives perished and I believe that is reason enough to outgrow the trauma, but the universal fear that my hometown may not be able to bear the rigors of recovery haunts me everyday. The real typhoon, and the more powerful one, came in after Yolanda left.
I will never forget the days that followed after the typhoon. The set-up was like in a studio of a Hollywood film. It’s as if I had become a bit player in the “Walking dead” and “Warm bodies”. I felt the ambience of a zombie apocalypse along the streets. Dead bodies, tumbled cars, hungry people, uprooted trees and dark evenings impended the city for weeks. I never expected to participate in looting but I did. I was there in the mob of ransacking people and I never was conscious of anything. Until now, I still believe that it was not stealing but foraging. I would rant at anyone who would say that Taclobanons staged potent thievery. It is human instinct to cling to survival by all means especially after such a horrific event. The repercussions after Yolanda were worse and more life threatening. Year 2013 shall never be forgotten not only in Tacloban but also in the world.
Today, after 100 days of Yolanda, how far have we gone to rehabilitate Tacloban? We were all witnesses of the world’s tsunami-like help, yet we have not gone as close to at least nicely housing the survivors in the broken city. I laud NGOs who have done their part in monetary and moral uplift. But nothing will be moved if the government itself, the supposed mother aide, is not passionate to help recover Tacloban. I feel invalidated because I see no aggressive effort from the national government.
I can only look at my lamenting grandmother. I cannot even comfort her because I am afraid I might worsen her dismay. Neither Justin Beiber nor David Beckham was able to make her at ease. Perhaps, if everything falls back into place, she might get a grip of herself. I also feel her anger for the government. She has not mentioned anything but I know from my heart she is, as much as I am, depressed of what little steps we have taken to recuperate. I am glad she is no active member of any social media site. Because if she were, she would even be more disheartened.
People in facebook and twitter say that it will take years, probably 5-10 years before we see utter normalcy again. Why does it have to take this long? There is no standard time of recovery. If Sec. Petilla was able to at least light a few streets before Christmas, then anything else is possible. I believe that we will recover this long not because we ran out of options but because we declared it by choice.
It is our choice to recover within 5-10 years. It is the choice of the government to tiptoe toward full healing. I whine because I want to see my hometown get back up as fast as possible. But this may not be the case if only a few people believe we can do it quick. If we stop discouraging our neighbors, or ourselves then we are helping each other. We are helping a faster upturn for victims. And let us not promote ‘Tindog Tacloban’ anymore because I know we all have stood up already. The more appropriate tag line now should be ‘Gios Tacloban’ or ‘Gios Pilipinas’.
I do not want to feel like Yolanda came just yesterday. I want to feel like it happened months ago and that we are done with her.