Aquino to bring aid, receive wish lists of E. Samar folk

MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino travels to Eastern Samar Monday to launch a cash-for-work program for survivors of Typhoon “Ruby” (international name: Hagupit), which killed more than 20 people in the Visayas earlier this month.

First stop for the President at 10 a.m. is Dolores town, where Ruby made landfall late on Dec. 6.

Aquino will turn over a check for P45.9 million to Dolores Mayor Emiliana Villacarillo to kick the government’s cash-for-work program there.

The assistance will benefit 11,772 people, who will work for P250 a day for 15 days, according to a Malacañang briefer.

The government used the same strategy in communities ravaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) last year to provide immediate but temporary employment for residents, as part of a bigger rehabilitation effort.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the President will visit Eastern Samar to “see the situation of our people affected by Typhoon Ruby and to deliver help from the government for their recovery and rehabilitation.”

In Borongan, the President will turn over to officials a check for more than P68 million for the city’s own cash-for-work program. The aid will benefit 17,457 people, who will also work for P250 a day for 15 days.

Residents of both Dolores and Borongan will also receive “shelter fixing kits,” each containing a tarpaulin, tie wire, 30-meter rope and nails.

Hygiene kits

They will also get hygiene kits, each containing sanitary napkins, two of “malongs” (tube skirts), bath and laundry soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, a nail cutter, a dipper and a pail.

President Aquino will receive the wish lists of town mayors that will contain requests for assistance to help their municipalities recover from the devastation.

Villacarillo of Dolores, where Ruby left two people dead and disrupted the lives of 58,860 others, said she had “a wish list containing our master recovery plan detailing our needs [for the rehabilitation of] our infrastructure, agriculture and resettlement [among other things].”

She said the town needed at least P500 million, four times more than the town’s annual income of P100 million, to recover from Ruby.

Villacarillo said she would hand to the President a “begging bowl” to ensure that the national government would pour funds into the town’s recovery plan.

Fund almost gone

She said the municipal government’s calamity fund was almost gone, with a few hundred pesos left.

Villacarillo said previous typhoons, including Yolanda, depleted the town’s P18-million calamity fund.

She said that only the assistance extended by international humanitarian groups kept the town going.

But the groups have left and now the town has “real problems,” Villacarillo said.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman is traveling with the President to Dolores and Borongan, Alice Nicart, regional manager of the Philippine Information Agency said.

Seventeen days after Ruby struck, Eastern Samar still has no electricity.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines assured that power would be restored by Christmas.–With a report from Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas

Originally posted: 6:31 PM | Sunday, December 21st, 2014