Calamity survivors in Metro Manila going home

Many of the beneficiaries of the government’s “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” program are residents of provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao who fled their hometowns after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) struck in 2013 or left their communities to avoid being caught in clashes between government troops and rebels, a National Housing Authority (NHA) official said.

The Balik Probinsya program helps Metro Manila residents resettle in the provinces and provides them with transportation, housing and livelihood assistance to help them start new lives.

ONE-WAY TICKET A boarding pass for a Leyte-bound bus serves as a ticket to a new life in the province for this beneficiary of the government’s “Balik Probinsya” program. —RICHARD A. REYES

Top destinations

According to Marcelino Escalada Jr., NHA general manager, the top destinations for returnees are the provinces of Leyte, Samar, Negros Occidental, Northern Samar, Camarines Sur, Eastern Samar, Zamboanga del Norte and Lanao del Norte.

Escalada said many were returning to the Visayas because those who had availed of the Balik Probinsya program were originally from areas devastated by Yolanda.

He said these people had been living and working in Metro Manila in the last five to seven years.

“My impression, my data tells me that indeed this was the time when Yolanda hit Tacloban and the Yolanda corridor—from Eastern Samar all the way to Palawan. So this was the population that migrated, that left the Yolanda corridor,” he said at the televised Laging Handa briefing on Thursday.

Those returning to Mindanao, on the other hand, were displaced by the armed conflict three to five years ago.

“So you would see the movement of people upon a certain calamity, whether it’s natural or man-made … that indeed, the opportunities in the province at that time were no longer available. That’s why they left their provinces and proceeded to Metro Manila,” he said.

But now that Metro Manila has become the center of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in the country, a reverse migration is happening, he said.

Escalada also addressed concerns that returnees under the Balik Probinsya program were spreading the disease, after two persons tested positive for COVID-19 when they arrived in Leyte.

Coordination

He said the national government was coordinating with local governments accepting the returnees. What is important is that the province has the capacity to treat and the facilities to take care of people who will test positive for COVID-19, he added.

According to Escalada, mayors appreciate the Balik Probinsya effort and it is the “least of their worries.” It helps that the program is organized and there is a single disembarkation site that allows local governments to test returnees immediately, he said.

What local officials are more concerned about are those who return without coordination, as transportation becomes available and borders open with the easing of community lockdowns.

The government, Escalada said, had received 79,000 online applications for the program as of Thursday.

The program had sent 100 people to Leyte last month, with another 100 leaving also for Leyte on June 11.

On June 12, another group will leave Metro Manila for Camarines Sur.