When Lacson met Abad, Alcala, no fireworks

Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

There were no fireworks in the first Cabinet meeting between Supertyphoon “Yolanda” rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, on one hand, and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, on the other, since the former senator released the so-called “Napolist,” or the list of officials involved in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles.

Abad and Alcala were included on the list, but both officials said they had a friendly chat with Lacson during the meeting and that they did not touch on the list of politicians tagged by Napoles. The Friday meeting lasted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Malacañang, with another meeting set before the end of this month.

Pleasant exchange

In a text message, Abad said: “The meeting was convened by the support cluster on Yolanda rehabilitation, which I cochair with the National Economic and Development Authority. Yes, [Lacson and I] talked, but it was only about Yolanda-related matters. Nothing on the Napolist.”

In a phone interview, Alcala said he had a pleasant exchange with Lacson during the Cabinet meeting and that their conversation centered on the agriculture department’s deployment of aid and livelihood programs for Yolanda victims.

“We did not talk about the list. The President has already said his piece about it and told us to focus on our work and let the concerned agencies sort out [the list] first. There is a proper time to tackle this issue,” said Alcala.

Lacson did not reply to the Inquirer’s inquiry.

In a briefing, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said that during the Cabinet meeting, the President had “directed the Cabinet to act with an increased sense of urgency in finalizing the post-Yolanda rehabilitation plan, especially in view of the expected onset of the rainy season in June.”

Goals met

Lacson reported that the government team had so far met its goals on resettlement, infrastructure, social services and livelihood in Tacloban City and Leyte, Western Samar and Cebu provinces.

Abad said P32.2 billion of the P65 billion  available in the 2014 and 2013 budgets had been released to the areas, with another P80 billion in the pipeline from concessional loans and grants from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Based on the Post Disaster Needs Assessment, the Eastern Visayas region required P104.6 billion to get back on its feet.

Coloma said housing agencies had so far started construction on the first batch of 2,844 new permanent houses as of March this year, with the second batch of  5,760 units expected to be contracted by June. The government is targeting 214,367 new houses by 2016.

“The resettlement cluster will meet again within a week to thresh out a new policy using science-based, multihazard maps to determine safe, controlled and unsafe zones.  This will address the problems posed by the strict implementation of the no-build zone policy, especially in coastal and tourist-oriented areas,” Coloma said.

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