Appoint another ‘Yolanda’ rehab czar

A news item in the Inquirer on Monday said that the damage wrought by Super Typhoon Yolanda on mangrove beach forests in Eastern Visayas was two to three times bigger than the initial estimate.

That’s not at all surprising since the death toll from the strongest typhoon ever recorded is far from the actual figure.

According to my sources in government, Malacañang wants the casualty figure pegged at “6,000 plus.”

But the death toll was much higher than that. The conservative estimate is between 10,000 and 15,000 plus, according to my sources in Leyte.

The 6,000 figure would cover only Tacloban City, the super typhoon’s ground zero.

If Malacañang could lie about a minor matter like the Yolanda death toll, it could lie about bigger issues, such as which administration officials are involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

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Malacañang relieved the police regional director of Eastern Visayas, comprising the provinces of Leyte and Samar, because he said the death toll could reach 10,000.

The poor guy was just making an estimate before reporters as only a few days had gone by after the storm and the dead were still being counted.

The Palace, however, wanted him to lie and understate the casualty figure.

Is lying to the public part of P-Noy’s “daang matuwid” (straight and narrow path) slogan?

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In what used to be an overpopulated barangay in Tacloban City where my staff at Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo and some doctors of St. Luke’s Medical Center and Chinese General Hospital held a medical mission—one of several sorties they made to Leyte—after Yolanda, I was all choked up.

I noticed there were only a dozen children at the site of the medical mission which was unusual for a poor, overcrowded community.

I had brought along boxes of assorted candies so I asked the children where the other kids were.

One of them replied, “Sumama sila kay Yolanda (They went with Yolanda).”

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My last visit to Leyte was on May 20 and 21 when my Isumbong staff distributed school supplies and slippers to 650 pupils of San Roque Elementary School in Tanauan town.

As in previous sorties to Leyte, doctors from St. Luke’s led by Dr. Sammy Tanzo accompanied us, offered free consultations, including circumcision services, and distributed medicine to students.

In that latest visit, I didn’t see much improvement in Leyte seven months after Yolanda.

The government’s snail-paced approach to work is once again apparent in the rehabilitation efforts.

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I have unsolicited advice for the President which will surely benefit Yolanda victims: Replace former Sen. Ping Lacson as rehabilitation czar  and name him chair of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, a post left vacant with the resignation of Margie Juico.

Lacson would do well there as he is honest handling government funds and was a nemesis of jueteng, the illegal numbers game, when he was chief of the Philippine National Police.

Lacson is a square peg in a round hole as rehabilitation czar as he is not from Leyte or Samar and so he doesn’t know the sensibilities of the locals.

Only a local, like former An Waray party-list Rep. Bem Noel, could become a successful rehab czar since he knows the people’s culture like the palm of his hand.