‘Yolanda’ aid woes persist

TOLOSA, Leyte—It has been two years since Supertyphoon “Yolanda” destroyed the house of Herminia Cahayag in Barangay San Roque here.

But until now, Cahayag, 32, has not received her P30,000 in emergency shelter assistance (ESA), which was supposed to be given by the national government to families displaced by Yolanda.

Many residents here have also complained that they, too, have not received their ESA, a form of financial assistance provided to families to help them either rebuild or repair their houses.

Each family whose house was destroyed stood to receive P30,000 and those who need to repair houses would have received P10,000 each.

Cahayag, a mother of a seven-year-old boy, said after Yolanda destroyed their house, she and her common-law husband, Martin Legaspi, 35, went to Manila on Dec. 2, 2013 to temporarily seek refuge in relatives’ houses because they had no place to live here.

They returned to their village in March 2014 and went to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office to inform the office that their house, which was made of light materials, was destroyed by Yolanda.

“But they just ignored me,” she said.

Her family now lives in the house of her parents, waiting for financial assistance so they could rebuild their shanty.

In the case of Alejandro Kahano, a resident of Barangay San Vicente, he was entitled to receive P30,000 but got only P10,000 in the form of a voucher and not in cash.

He was supposed to hand in the voucher to any hardware in the town where he could get P10,000 worth of construction materials.

“When we got voucher, the people of Mayor (Erwin) Ocaña followed us to our homes offering cash to buy the voucher at a 20-percent discount. Many accepted the offer because they need money,” Kahano said.

He, however, refused the offer because he needed the construction materials so he could start repairing his house.

But Kahano said that he knew many of the ESA beneficiaries who were compelled to “sell” their vouchers because “they were in dire need of money at that time.”

But Ocaña, who is running for reelection in May, denied Kahano’s claim.

Speaking through his executive assistant Norma Gorre, he said the allegations were all “politically motivated.”