What’s next for Lacson after ‘Yolanda’ recovery plan?

MANILA, Philippines–After completing his main task of leading the management and rehabilitation efforts in areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda and coming up with an 8,000-page recovery plan, what’s next for Rehabilitation Secretary Panfilo “Ping” Lacson?

“If there’s nothing more for me to do, I will say goodbye,” Lacson said on radio station dzBB, when asked if he would seek additional powers from the President to help ensure that his rehabilitation plans would be implemented well.

The former senator said his office’s main task had been to draft the comprehensive, master rehabilitation plan to help the areas ravaged by Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), the strongest storm on record, which struck the Visayas in November last year.

“We have no role in the implementation, but in our mandate, we have an oversight function. We’re just [here] to observe, to report and to monitor,” he said.

Under Memorandum Order 62, Lacson is tasked to exercise oversight over the relevant government agencies with respect to the implementation of the plans and programs and to submit to the President status reports on their implementation.

It also designates him as the overall manager and coordinator of rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction efforts of government agencies and departments, to the extent allowed by law.

Lacson said the Philippines had been compared to other countries that had suffered from national disasters which, however, had a different set of powers for their rehabilitation officials.

He said Indonesia’s rehabilitation czar Kuntoro Mangkusubroto spent five months negotiating with the President over his powers. In the end, he got all that he asked for, including power over the budget, the planning and the implementation of the rehabilitation plan for areas struck by the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Lacson said he would have asked for more powers had he been given an assignment concerning a war mission. But heading the Yolanda rehabilitation efforts was a humanitarian cause, he said.

“Will you ask what your turf was when there was an urgent need that needs to be addressed, when so many were suffering?” he said.

Lacson also spoke of the need to keep a close watch on the P170.9 billion worth of programs and projects that have been set aside to rebuild and rehabilitate the ravaged provinces.

He said that if just one percent of that amount is lost to leakage and corruption, that would still have been a very big loss—P1.7 billion worth of funds wasted.

Lacson said the Electronic Monitoring Platform, Accountability and Transparency Hub for Yolanda website would soon be up and running to allow officials, donors and other organizations to keep a close, real-time watch on the projects for Yolanda’s survivors.

This would be crucial for keeping tabs on the projects. For example, he said an organization that donated houses could see for itself, using the website, the actual construction of the houses.

Civil society organizations would also play a crucial role in ensuring the projects are properly implemented.

The eight-volume, 8,000-page master plan addresses livelihood, resettlement, social services, infrastructure, gender sensitivity needs, disaster preparedness, climate change adaptation and “other environmental concerns.”

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