LGUs required to submit more papers to get ‘Yolanda’ funds

BOATS painted blue are docked on the shores of Bantayan Island, awaiting distribution to fishermen who lost their only source of livelihood when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” destroyed their boats. LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS

ILOILO CITY—The approval of rehabilitation funds for areas ravaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Western Visayas has been delayed by additional reports required by the office of rehabilitation czar and former Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Disaster relief and management officials in the region said Western Visayas was among the first to submit rehabilitation plans in December last year, or a month after the monster storm struck on Nov. 8.

The damage assessment and rehabilitation plans of the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Negros Occidental were submitted to the National Economic Development Authority (Neda), according to Rosario Cabrera, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and chair of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The three-year rehabilitation plan for the region will cost at least P11.7 billion. This includes P4.3 billion for Iloilo, P2.9 billion for Antique,

P2.8 billion for Capiz, P492 million for Aklan and P370 million for Negros Occidental.

Lacson’s office earlier approved P65.2 billion in rehabilitation plans for Tacloban City and Samar, northern Cebu and Leyte provinces.

Lacson had said his office was still awaiting rehabilitation and recovery plans from Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Biliran, Negros Occidental and Palawan provinces.

Provincial disaster risk reduction and management offices in Iloilo, Capiz and Antique are still finishing up their plans for submission to Lacson’s office.

Jerry Bionat, executive officer of the disaster risk reduction and management office in Iloilo, said they had to gather technical and additional data and information up to the barangay level based on the report template issued by Lacson’s office.

The template is different from the reporting format for damage assessment and rehabilitation plans submitted to the Neda and the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA), according to the officials of the disaster risk reduction and management office in Iloilo.

PDNA is a requirement of Republic Act No. 10121, or the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, and the basis for a master rehabilitation plan that will be funded by the government and private donors or aid groups.

Lacson’s office sent the reporting template to the provincial disaster risk reduction and management office of the Panay region in April.

“We thought that we had already complied with the submission of our reports until we were required to submit by the OPARR (Office of the Presidential Assistance for Relief and Rehabilitation) with a different template,” Bionat told the Inquirer.

Aklan submitted its plan to the OPARR last week, according to Galo Ibardolaza, executive officer of the Aklan disaster risk reduction and management office.

Esperedion Pelaez, officer of the disaster risk reduction and management office in Capiz, said Capiz would also finalize its plan within the month with the help of the OPARR.

Victims of Yolanda have repeatedly decried the delay in the implementation of rehabilitation programs by the government despite the availability of billions of pesos in funds from government and private sources.

Western Visayas, particularly Aklan and Capiz, is among the regions worst hit by Yolanda.

Yolanda, which packed winds that reached 300 kilometers per hour, destroyed 241,740 houses and damaged 256,356 others in Western Visayas, according to a Dec. 12, 2013, report of the OCD.

It also destroyed wide areas of farmland and at least 9,744 fishing boats in the region.