TACLOBAN CITY- Families now temporarily living at the destroyed fish port building of the city would be given priority for transfer at the bunkhouses.
This was vowed by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala during his February 28 visit to Tacloban, adding that he would talk with Public Works and Highways Sec. Rogelio Singson on this matter.
Alcala said that the 80 families now living at the said facility should be moved out to the bunk houses so that they could easily plan its immediate repair of the damages it sustained during the supertyphoon Yolanda more than three months ago.
The Tacloban fish port complex, located at Barangay 37, was constructed at P44.3 million and was considered as a finished project four days before Yolanda pummeled the city on November 8, 2013.
It was learned from Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources National Director Asis Perez that the said facility was to be turned over to the city government by the Philippine Fishery Development Authority (PFDA) with dredging and scouring works remain unfinished at that time.
But the dredging machine, owned by the Department of Public Works and Highways, was washed away to the San Jose district during the typhoon.
“Hopefully we can resettle the families affected by Yolanda so that in the next three to four months, we can do the necessary repairs and use the fish port eventually” said Perez.
At present, the old fish port at the Old Road-Magallanes area is being utilized, he added. (LIZBETH ANN ABELLA)

TACLOBAN CITY-Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (PARR) Secretary Panfilo Lacson revealed that he has implemented a bottom-up approach to hasten the recovery of areas devastated by the supertyphoon Yolanda.
This after the post-disaster needs assessment(PDNA)being undertaken by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has yet to be finished, the former senator who was in the city last February 26 said.
“We cannot do any rehabilitation while the Office of Civil Defense and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council cannot formulate the final PDNA for this will be the basis for the over-all rehabilitation plan” said Lacson.
But considering that the PDNA is still being conducted by the various teams created by the OCD, he had decided to do the bottom-up approach by talking with the local officials themselves to submit their own rehabilitation plans.
The PDNA is expected to be finished by the end of this month. The result would then be submitted to Lacson for his consideration.
Lacson revealed that there were already mayors, for example, in Leyte who submitted their rehabilitation plans.
Lacson particularly mentioned the mayor of Tanauan, Pelagio Tecson, to be among the first local chief executive to submit the document.
He also called on the chief executives to formulate their own land use plans to be flexible and not to be confined on no build zone saying that the 40 meters from the shore limit is not applicable to all areas. (LIZBETH ANN ABELLA)

TACLOBAN CITY- At least 15 housing units are to be constructed in village of Cabalawan by the party-list group Akbayan.
The construction of houses intended for the victims of supertyphoon Yolanda would be undertaken under the party-list’s Akbayanihan relief and rehabilitation drive, said Machris Cabreros,co-convenor of said group.
According to Cabreros, the construction of the 15 housing units is being conducted by their group with the help of different schools and other non-government organizations as she revealed that the activity was first done among victims of typhoon Ondoy.
The Cabalawan project would serve as a demo-housing with the initials 15 units could increase, depending on the needs and funding.
The Akbayanihan consulted the local government units and the barangays concerned in choosing the beneficiaries of the 15 units of housing.
The housing units are made of indigenous materials and said to be disaster resilient, Cabreros said. (LIZBETH ANN ABELLA)