12,000-strong storm survivors march for justice, rights versus Aquino’s criminal neglect

By People Surge
January 26, 2014

TACLOBAN CITY – More than 12,000 ‘Yolanda’ (Haiyan) survivors flooded the streets of Tacloban City on Friday in an enormous display of discontent over the Aquino administration’s criminal negligence and utter incompetence in delivering adequate relief and rehabilitation to the ‘Yolanda’ victims. The mobilization is the first biggest gathering of demonstrators in more than a decade.

“This is a people surge – a swelling of the people demanding justice for Yolanda victims and asserting their right to food, housing, livelihood and social services. The massive number of people is proof of their intense discontent over Aquino’s criminal negligence and utter incompetence in looking after the welfare of its people. This is just the first of a series of protests that will fill the streets of major cities across the country in indignation of the Aquino administration,” said Sr. Edita Eslopor, OSB, chairperson of People Surge (Alliance for the victims of typhoon Yolanda).

The 12-000 strong rallyists came from various municipalities of Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Western Samar and Leyte. They demand justice for the victims of typhoon Yolanda and hold the Aquino administration responsible for the massive deaths in the region because it failed to guarantee the safety and welfare of the victims when supertyphoon Yolanda struck the country on November 8, 2013.

“Countless lives have been lost in Yolanda’s wake and damages to agriculture, public and private properties cost billions of pesos. The devastation wrought by super typhoon Yolanda may have been horrific, but more horrendous is the Noynoy Aquino government’s ineptness in addressing the wellbeing of its people,” said the alliance in its unity statement.

The alliance also assailed the Aquino government for its slow delivery of immediate relief to the victims even after two months, the corruption-riddled bunkhouses, and the anti-people no-build policy imposed on residents within the 40-meter stretch from the shore. It also criticized NEDA’s Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) or popularly known as “Build Back Better” saying that “the hapless victims, not big businesses, should be at the core of the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts of the government.”

“The assembly of more than 12,000-strong protesters from various parts of the region, majority from far flung villages, belies the recent SWS survey that rated the Aquino government “very good” in delivering the relief and rehabilitation for the typhoon victims,” said Dr. Efleda Bautista, one of the convenors of the said alliance.

Among the alliance’s immediate demands are the P40,000 monetary aid per family of typhoon victims, the scrapping of the no-build zone policy that effectively evicts families in coastal communities from their homes and livelihood, the immediate reconstruction of vital public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals and the immediate restoration of utilities such as power and water sources.

The rally was the culmination of a two-day activity which began with a vigil-memorial for the typhoon victims the previous night at the Eastern Visayas State University in Tacloban City.