A lawmaker has urged President Duterte to order the investigation on how the multibillion-peso funds allotted for Supertyphoon Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction were spent during the term of former President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III.
During the third year commemoration of Yolanda’s devastation on November 8, 2013, Party-list Rep. Ariel B. Casilao of Anakpawis said the aftermath of the Category 5 typhoon prompted the then-Aquino administration to release funds supposedly to aid survivors.
“The government response on Yolanda is criminal negligence right in front of our faces and contempt on the thousands of victims. The Duterte presidency should take this seriously and hold those primarily responsible answerable to the people. The President should ensure the culpability of Aquino and his cohorts who cold-bloodedly pillaged the public funds indented for the Yolanda victims,” Casilao said.
At least 6,300 died, as reported by the government, mostly from Leyte and Samar provinces, while damage to infrastructure and other sectors amounted to more than P89 billion.
To address this, Casilao said the Aquino administration has proposed the Yolanda Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRP), the national government’s commitment to implement over 25,000 disaster rehabilitation- and recovery-specific projects, programs and activities.
“But during the implementation, irregularities were reported, such as the rotting relief packs in warehouses of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, absence or delayed distribution of Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) and over-priced bunkhouses,” he added.
“Last week Social Welfare Secretary [Judy M.] Taguiwalo bared that there are only P30 million left on the billions of pesos in the combined government and private donations. Last year the then-Aquino [administration] released P90 billion for Yolanda aid, but despite the massive fund flow, the welfare agency is seeking additional fund ostensibly to be given to 200,000 ESA-beneficiaries,” Casilao said.
The lawmaker, citing the policy guidelines of the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) Reconstruction Assistance for Yolanda, said the CRRP has a total funding requirement of more than P167 billion.
Of this, Casilao said the budget department reported that almost P52 billion were released to fund the typhoon relief, rehabilitation and recovery efforts.
He also expressed disappointment on the slow construction of permanent shelter for typhoon victims.
“With the comprehensive plan targeting 205,000 housing units for the typhoon victims, a tiny 1 percent, or 25,000 units were completed,” the lawmaker said, citing figures from the office of Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chief Maria Leonor G. Robredo.
The lawmaker said in Tacloban out of 14,162 permanent houses, which the National Housing Authority (NHA) has promised to build, a dismal 572 were completed.
On the other hand, he said non- governmental organizations constructed 556 out of its planned 2,169 permanent housing.
Casilao added the NHA also admitted that only 5,767 had been completed as of mid-February, a far cry from its 13,928 housing units target in end-2016.
“The NHA is constructing 8,161 houses in 19 sites located at the northern villages of Leyte. But despite the completion of thousands of units, around 200 houses are occupied by families from high-risk zones due to the absence of a permanent water supply and electricity,” he said.
Demand
Meanwhile, a group of Yolanda survivors and representatives of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (PNE), delivered demands for climate justice to President Duterte during a dialogue held on Tuesday in commemoration of the Yolanda anniversary.
“We join the disaster survivors in challenging President Duterte to demand unconditional aid and reparations from top climate polluter countries such as the United States and China to compensate for the loss and damages survivors continue to experience. In the spirit of asserting an independent foreign policy and our country’s right to develop, Duterte should vigorously push for a global mechanism on loss and damage that will hold these polluter countries liable,” Leon Dulce, campaign coordinator of Kalikasan PNE said.
“The just compensation and unconditional aid should be directed towards the disaster survivors’ common demands to the Duterte administration to address the pervading hunger, poverty, and militarization in survivors’ communities. Survivors also want the accountability of former president Noynoy Aquino and his ‘Gang of Five’ officials who perpetuated injustices and criminal neglect for the past three years,” Dulce added.
