Marcos to Yolanda victims: Gov’t to fulfill past admin’s unkept pledges

AFTERMATH All kinds of debris pile up at the compound of the Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum in Tacloban City after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) swept through the Visayas in 2013. —(FILE) PHOTO BY NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed that his administration will assume the unfulfilled pledges to victims of Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), 11 years after its massive destruction to Eastern Samar, Leyte, and surrounding provinces.

“All unfulfilled commitments made in the past for Yolanda rehabilitation are responsibilities we fully assume,” Marcos said in a statement.

READ: A decade later, ‘moving on’ still hard for Yolanda survivors

“Though no singular fault of anyone, many of these pledges remain unredeemed, and we shall see to it that what the state owed to impacted people and places will be satisfactorily settled,” he added.

The president also called calamities “teaching moments” and “every one that came after Yolanda delivered a payload of lessons that instructed us how to improve our response.”

“Since then, we have strengthened institutional bulwarks against calamities, which our countrymen have matched with increasing care and compassion for those affected,” he added.

Additionally, Marcos commended the bayanihan of Filipinos, which led to the easing of pain for the victims and the rebuilding of their homes and livelihoods.

READ: Work not yet done in helping Yolanda victims – Marcos

He then recognized the assistance of the international community, “whose outpouring of support helped us heal fast.”

“Their response reaffirmed a tenet civilization must uphold when one nation faces an emergency or an existential threat—that no man is an island, indeed,” he said.