Solon: Typhoon survivors need jobs

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA—With food and water reaching many survivors of Supertyphoon ‘‘Yolanda’’, it is time to implement programs that would help them help themselves.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone urged officials on Tuesday to provide sustainable jobs to the survivors so that they could get back to normalcy sooner.

Evardone said he would meet with Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to ask them to provide livelihood opportunities to the residents of his province who are struggling to get back on their feet after Yolanda.

The main sources of livelihood in Eastern Samar are fishing and coconut farming, he said.

“The biggest challenge is sustainability. That’s where livelihood should come in. They can’t rely on relief goods forever,” he said in a press briefing.

The province needs more fishing boats, he said, adding that he himself might propose the replanting of the coconut trees to replace the ones felled by Yolanda’s strong winds, or the replanting of fast-growing crops.

Some agencies and foundations have also been implementing cash-for-work programs in which survivors are enlisted to help clear debris left by the storm in exchange for money.

Evardone said he would like a certain area to be designated communal forests. These communal forests could be sources of lumber that the residents could use to reconstruct their towns.

Eastern Samar is one of the areas that bore the full brunt of Yolanda’s fury, which reduced many houses to splinters and turned buildings into rubble.

Hundreds of residents have been left homeless and jobless.