DOT hires Tacloban’s tourism students

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Angel Mae Basibas, a 19-year-old tourism student of ABE College here, has found a way to continue her schooling after storm surges brought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” washed away her parents’ jeepney and store—the family’s sources of livelihood—along with their house and other belongings.

She and 100 other college students signed up with the cash-for-work program of the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office, mainly to clean up the parks after last year’s typhoon.

“The money that I will get from my volunteering under the program will really help me. My father has no income nowadays for him to provide our daily needs,” said Basibas, a college freshman and the second in a brood of seven children.

Her family stays in a shack they put up using scrap materials. They have been relying on relief items provided by the government and private groups for their daily needs.

They lost their house in Barangay 84 in San Jose District to the storm surges, the jeepney used by her father Aldo, and the small store of her mother Liza.

The DOT program, dubbed tourism students welfare program, aims not only to help clean the parks but provide financial help to the students, said Karina Rosa Tiopes, regional director of the agency.

On Sunday, Tiopes signed a memorandum of understanding with Eastern Visayas State University, Leyte Normal College, ABE College and Asian Development Foundation College. Each school is given 25 slots to be filled up by city residents whose houses were destroyed by Yolanda.

The student beneficiaries will receive P260, the daily wage in the region, plus P80 in food allowance.

Equipped with wheelbarrows and grass cutters, they will work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekend to clean the over 100-hectare Madonna of Japan Park, the Family Park, and a stretch of once barbecue stalls on Magsaysay Boulevard, the Remedios Trinidad Romualdez (RTR) Plaza, the Plaza Rizal and the Plaza Libertad.

Container vans filled with relief items being distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development are found at RTR Plaza while other storm evacuees are occupying tents at Plaza Rizal.

Dump trucks for the disposal of the park trash will be provided by the provincial government led by Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla. The provincial government looks after the cleanliness of Plaza Libertad.

“The program will somehow help our students alleviate their financial constraints due to Yolanda. The amount may be small, but this could help them buy at least their (school) needs or shoulder their daily transportation fares,” Tiopes said.