Lacson eyes 90% completion of Yolanda rehab before Noy’s term ends

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential assistant on rehabilitation and recovery Panfilo Lacson aims to complete about 85 to 90 percent of the rehabilitation of areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda before the term of President Aquino ends in 2016.

Lacson said construction activities in Eastern Visayas cities and towns damaged by Yolanda on Nov. 8, 2013 are expected to scale up next month based on the master plan to be submitted to the President.

He said that based on the report of the Department of Trade and Industry, business activities have resumed in the storm-damaged areas.

Lacson said the rehabilitation activities have been clustered into infrastructure, livelihood, resettlement and support.

He said the heads of the clusters are now vetting the master plan for the rehabilitation in 171 local government units affected by the typhoon.

He said after the President approves the master plan the line agencies like the Department of Education, Department of Public Works and Highways, and the Department of Health would implement the projects.

Lacson said the major reconstruction would start by June as indicated in the master plan prepared on the post disaster needs assessment conducted by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

He said the National Housing Authority (NHA) would construct 214,000 housing units before Aquino’s term ends in 2016.

For this year, Lacson said the NHA intends to construct 34,000 housing units in Yolanda-ravaged areas.

He added that sufficient funds have been downloaded from the national government to line agencies for the reconstruction projects.

“In fact, DBM (Department of Budget Management) has downloaded some of the budgets. About P4 billion has been released to the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government), of which P1.2 billion was allocated for the local government units for the rehabilitation of partially damaged municipal halls, public markets and public centers,” Lacson said.

He added that the DBM also released P260 million for the reconstruction of police headquarters, jail facilities and fire stations.

The Department of Energy has also received some P4.8 billion for rehabilitation of power lines.

He said there are about P100-billion funds for the rehabilitation of Yolanda-hit areas.

Quoting Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, he said there are still some P60 billion in the form of grants and loans coming in plus the P20- billion fund Congress appropriated for typhoon-damaged areas.

“We decided to implement an out-of-the-box solution in Yolanda-damaged areas, which is the bottom up approach,” said Lacson, referring to the scheme where local government units recommended to the national government projects for their respective localities.

At the same time, Lacson also revealed that rallyists that were staging protest actions to denounce the alleged government inaction were not actually victims or survivors of Yolanda.

“The rallyists were from areas which were not hit by Yolanda,” he added.

He said that the President has anticipated the ban on implementation of projects during election period in 2016 by directing all the concerned agencies to speed up the rehabilitation.

He said an exemption from the election ban could be sought from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

He admitted there was no accurate accounting of foreign aid but he is counting on the best practices of foreign countries and donors on their grants to the Yolanda victims. –Cecille Suerte Felipe (The Philippine Star)