Yolanda survivors still feel ‘luckier’ than Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada

Bunkhouses constructed in Barangay (village) Sagkahan, Tacloban City, for the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Survivors of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” who now live in government-built bunkhouses in this city do not envy Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. their “better accommodations” at Camp Crame.

While the two senators who are facing plunder charges are detained in better conditions, the survivors say they are enjoying their freedom.

“What’s the use of having a comfortable bed or a fan if you are restricted – that you had lost your freedom? Here, we are still free and still enjoy what life can offer – that we survived Yolanda,” said Cecilia Cabanas, 36.

Cabanas and her husband, Conrado, 37, and their three children live in a bunkhouse made of coco lumber and plywood measuring 8.64 square meters in Apitong in this city.

They lost their house in Barangay 88-A in San Jose district to Yolanda. The couple and their children have been living in their flimsy temporary home since March.

For Perlina Ragunot, 55 and a widow, said living in the bunkhouses might not be “ideal,” but at least they could sleep soundly.

“Yes, they are said to be in better accommodations and are not reduced to poverty like us, but at least we can still manage to sleep soundly at night unlike them,” said Ragunot, who lives with her four children and two grandchildren.

Another son, Marcos, 30, is detained at the Tacloban city jail on drug possession charges.

But Ragunot said she still felt pity for Estrada and Revilla whom she voted into office. “I will feel sad if the allegations against them are true,” she said.

Earlier, the Tindog People’s Network, a group composed of relatives, supporters and survivors of Yolanda, chided the government for giving better treatment and accommodations to the two senators compared to survivors of the super typhoon who have been living in substandard bunkhouses in Tacloban.

The group said the detention cells of the senators were made of concrete, with the floor made of tiles, and were larger at 32 square meters than their 8-square-meter bunkhouses. The senators also had beds and mattresses, electric fans and their own bathrooms.

More than 3,900 families are still living in the plywood bunkhouses in Tacloban and their transfer to permanent housing remained uncertain, according to the group.

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