In the face of
government neglect, Yolanda survivors clamor for continuing aid
A press statement by the
People Surge
March 3, 2014
In five days, this March 8,
the Yolanda survivors will be marking the fourth month of the
disaster. And genuine help from the government remains bleak. The
recent news show the real state of the survivors. In one the most
badly-hit areas, the municipality of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, all the
survivors could do is pin their hopes on the micro-lending facilities
promised by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
But why would the government
need to lend money to the survivors? Why make profit out of the dire
conditions of the survivors? Why won’t the government simply give
survivors financial capital to start their lives anew, such as in the
immediate cash assistance for the survivors that People Surge is
demanding?
In Eastern Samar where 59%
of the population is poor, there is too little possibility that the
survivors would be able to pay the interest rates and even the capital
of the credit that would be loaned to them. What is more alarming are
the consequences the survivors will have to pay in case they would not
be able to pay back their debts.
The President’s recent visit
to the calamity-stricken areas should have shown him the depth and
gravity the disaster had wrought upon the citizens, and how these
conditions continue to worsen with each day that the government is not
implementing genuine help for the survivors. Had he truly looked
closely at the survivors, he would have realized the justness of the
demands of People Surge for the distribution of the P40,000 immediate
cash relief for every affected family, and the need for continuing
relief operations.
It is of great help to the
survivors that there are members of the Lower House who feel the need
to support the campaign of the survivors for the said demands. The
survivors hope there will be more lawmakers who will support their
cause and pass the necessary bills and resolutions to directly hand
over to the survivors the funds that were raised in their names. It is
the survivors who know what they truly need and they have every right
to claim what is theirs. And what they have long needed is sufficient
government aid to get back to their feet.
The continuing help from
international agencies are most welcome to the survivors. But their
presence is not a valid reason for the government to be largely
absent. The survivors persist in their clamor for the accountability
of the Aquino government to identify and address the most immediate
needs of the survivors, and strongly condemn its continuous negligence
and lack of sincerity in alleviating the lives of the survivors. The
President should know that the survivors will persevere in their
clamor until true justice and genuine help from the government will
materialize.