Amidst slow, unreliable recovery program, Yolanda victims demand 40K monetary relief from govt

Press Release
January 14, 2014

TACLOBAN CITY – “It’s been two months since typhoon Yolanda struck the country and the victims have hardly coped with their everyday lives. We are homeless, jobless, hungry and sick. Our children cannot go to school yet. We know there are funds for the victims but we don’t know where the government’s rehabilitation program is headed to,” said Patrick Escalona, one of the typhoon victims in Tacloban City.

Escalona is one of the community leaders of the Alyansa han mga Biktima han Bagyo Yolanda ha Tacloban or Alliance of Typhoon Yolanda Victims in Tacloban (ABBAT). The victims’ alliance initiated a petition to the Aquino government demanding a P40,000 ‘immediate financial assistance’ for every affected family to be released on or before February 14, 2014.

According to the petitioners, the said monetary aid can only suffice for two months of food and non-food items such as clothing, housing, transportation, health, education, and others for a family of six. However, given the lack of government control over prices, the prices of basic commodities increased by as much as 50 to 100% in typhoon-hit areas like Tacloban City. It means that the P40,000 immediate relief could hardly compensate for the basic food and non-food needs of a six-member family even for a month.

“We were told that the Aquino government’s rehabilitation program will benefit the typhoon victims, but we were consulted not even once. How will that really work for us? We doubt it would,” added Escalona. He also criticized the snail-paced and unsystematic delivery of food packs and shelter relief kits considering the fact that two months have passed since the super typhoon struck the region. Thousands of displaced families could not return home because their houses have been either partially or totally destroyed and they do not have materials nor money to buy these materials. Worse, residents living along coastal villages cannot go back because their communities have been declared off-limits by no less than the Aquino government. Two months have passed and thousands are still enduring the cold, swamp and cramped conditions in the evacuation centers.

Since January 10, this year, the victims’ alliance has already gathered more than ten thousand signatures from Tacloban City and various typhoon-ravaged towns in the Eastern Visayas region. The typhoon victims also call for the immediate repair and reconstruction of public infrastructures such as hospitals and schools as well as the prompt restoration of electricity.