Lacson: Tacloban City to be relocated away from shoreline

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Tacloban City will never be the same again after the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Yolanda.” It won’t even be in the exact same spot, after plans to move the city away from the shoreline areas pushes through.

Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson on Monday said the local government is considering moving the city elsewhere, far from the shore and the possibility from storm surges.

“Tacloban has decided to move northward. Meron silang site doon na kung saan ilalayo na nila but they will not, for lack of a better word, kill the old city. It will stay there pero pa-move na sila doon sa mas safe na lugar,” Lacson said at a Malacañang press briefing.

(Tacloban has decided to move northward. They have a site there…but they will not, for lack of a better word, kill the old city. It will stay there but they are moving towards a safer place.)

He said they are even considering other sites where they can build a “new city.”

Lacson said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) earlier suggested building the government complex center in Palo, Leyte instead.

The rehabilitation czar said they are studying if Tacloban City is still “viable,” especially since many people died there because of the storm surges.

“Baka naman pwedeng hindi na tenable iyong Tacloban to be rebuilt in a manner na kung saan siya before Yolanda. So we should look for another urban center na kung saan pwedeng mag-radiate iyong economic or business activities sa nearby towns, municipalities,” he said.

(It is possible that Tacloban cannot be rebuilt as it was before. So we should look for another urban center where economic or business activities can radiate to nearby towns and municipalities.)

“But it doesn’t mean that Tacloban will be — just be erased from the map of the Philippines,” Lacson added.

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