NEWS BRIEFS

RED CROSS REHAB PLAN OUT BY JANUARY

HAVING helped affected families through relief goods, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will now conduct a study to map out a detailed rehabilitation plan for the areas affected by supertyphoon Yolanda.

“What I saw was promising. Compared to many places where big disasters took place, here it has started out well. This is good but there is also a lot to be done,” said IRFC secretary general Bekele Geleta in a press briefing yesterday.

Geleta and PRC chairman Richard Gordon visited Palo, Leyte and the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban to inspect relief response efforts of the PRC. They cited transportation as a major problem in these areas.

“We will be doing a detailed assessment on what to do on rehabilitation and recovery for the victims to come back to where they were,” Geleta said. The study is expected to be finished by early January next year. /Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita

RAMA BACKS JUDGE’S MOVE

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama supports the decision of Executive Judge Soliver Peras to bar City Hall engineers from inspecting the Palace of Justice.

The building was already inspected twice by the city’s structural engineer, Rama said, and a third inspection would not change earlier findings that showed severe damage on the building’s third and fourth floors.

“Why should we go back there?” asked Rama in Cebuano.

Ensuring the safety of the Palace of Justice and making sure that rehabilitation works are done are something that should be left for the Supreme Court to do. The city government has more important concerns to attend to like the construction of a new city hospital at the South Road Properties (SRP), Rama said./Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac