Tacloban sets up reconstruction fund

TACLOBAN local government officials have started a trust fund for the city’s rehabilitation from the devastation brought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
RAFFY LERMA

TACLOBAN CITY—The city government here has set up a reconstruction special trust fund for donations it will receive or actively solicit that will be used to finance the massive rebuilding needed by this city devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on Nov. 8.

Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin, the city council’s presiding officer, said the city’s legislative body adopted the measure to create the trust fund on Nov. 20, their first regular session since the city was flattened to the ground by the megastorm.

Yaokasin said the donations extended by the province of Bukidnon (P1.5 million) and the city of Malaybalay in Bukidnon (P200,000) were the first donations that would go directly to the Tacloban reconstruction account.

The donations were received by city Mayor Alfred Romualdez on Friday in his office at the City Hall building, which was also heavily damaged by Yolanda.

The donations were brought by former Sen. Miguel Zubiri, who represented his governor-father, Jose Ma. Zubiri Jr., and the city government of Malaybalay.

Yaokasin said the city government had no exact data yet on the damage Yolanda inflicted on public and private properties in Tacloban, but “we are talking here of billions of pesos worth of damage.”

At the least, the damage could likely reach up to P2 billion, he said.

Yaokasin said the amount would be too much for the city government to shoulder by itself, the reason why a special trust fund had to be created in anticipation of financial assistance from other local government units or private organizations.

At present, Tacloban is operating on an annual budget of about P800 million. It had a P40-million calamity fund at the start of the year but it was now almost depleted, as it was used during the first three quarters of the year due to flooding incidents, said Yaokasin.

Malou Tabao, a member of the city government’s Task Force Yolanda, said that while Tacloban received several donations from other countries and international and local private humanitarian groups, it did not receive actual financial assistance.

Aside from destroyed properties and structures, Yolanda has also resulted in the death of more than 1,700 people in Tacloban City alone while hundreds remained missing.

The city social welfare and development office has served 120,494 affected families in all of the city’s 138 villages since they started extending food relief a day after Yolanda hit Tacloban, Tabao said.

She said the city’s task force also attended to 8,487 families at the 21 evacuation centers all over the city.

Yaokasin said it would take years before Tacloban could really get back on its feet.

Tacloban, home to more than 220,000 people, is the economic center of Eastern Visayas, where major government offices, banks, learning institutions and shopping malls are located.

After more than two weeks since Tacloban was hit by what is widely considered the world’s strongest typhoon, several business establishments have opened for operation. Of the city’s 27 banks, six began operations on Nov. 21. The money remittance and courier company LBC also began operating on the same date.

Several public transport services have also started plying their routes within the city proper and its outskirts, while several grocery and hardware stores resumed operations this week.

Romualdez assured the businessmen of their security amid massive looting that marked the few days after the typhoon struck.

He said the city now had a combined law enforcement force of more than 3,000 policemen and soldiers ready to take action against persons or groups engaged in illegal acts, like looting or robbery.

Romualdez, however, said the businessmen should also hire their own security guards, since the policemen and soldiers have duties other than securing business establishments.

He also urged business operators to even issue provisional receipts to their customers to show that the products and items in their possession were legitimately sourced.

Supt. Norberto Tuazon, the city’s acting police chief, also assured local businessmen and residents that Tacloban was now safe.

He said there were no longer reported incidents of looting and stressed that reports about groups of armed criminals roaming in the city were pure hearsay.

“We have verified this information and it turned out to be negative,” Tuazon said.

But he said they had arrested four men suspected to be looters.

He said the suspects, all residents of Basey town in Samar province, which was also devastated by Yolanda, were arrested together with 11 units of motorcycles believed to be looted items.