Aquino returns to calamity areas in Visayas, Mindanao

President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Three days before Christmas, President Aquino returned to three key areas damaged both by natural and man-made calamities to check on the government’s rehabilitation efforts there.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said on Sunday, the President wanted to “personally visit and check on residents who experienced strong typhoons and violence” in a span of less than a year.

“Above all, he would send them his heartfelt wish that they may have a Merry Christmas and that they may bless with prosperity in the coming year,” Coloma said in Filipino in an interview over Radyo ng Bayan.

The pre-Christmas visit brought the President and select members of his Cabinet, first to Laak town in Compostela Valley, then to Zamboanga City and Tacloban City.

Joining the President in the three-province tour were Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, and General Manager Chito Cruz of the National Housing Authority.

Also with him was former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the new presidential assistant tapped to oversee the entire rehabilitation program for “Yolanda” victims.

Aquino arrived in Laak in the morning to inspect the “permanent housing” project for victims of typhoon “Pablo” in December in 2012.

Coloma said the settlement was part of 1,266 houses built under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Modified Shelter Assistance Program.

He said the project benefited typhoon victims in Baganga, Boston and Cateel towns in Davao Oriental and those in Compostela, New Bataan, Monkayo, Montevista and Laak in Compostela Valley.

In Zamboanga, the President was briefed on the “roadmap to recovery and reconstruction,” which was put in place after Moro National Liberation Front fighters attacked the city last September.

At the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex, Aquino inspected bunkhouses built for residents classified as “internally displaced persons.”

From there, the President flew to Tacloban City, the center of the government’s relief efforts for victims of supertyphoon “Yolanda,” which pounded Eastern Visayas early last month.

He likewise checked on bunkhouses prepared by the Department of Public Works and Highways there. He then led the turnover of similar structures for typhoon victims in nearby Palo.

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