CEBU, Philippines - A year after super typhoon Yolanda destroyed lives and properties, the municipal government of San Remigio commemorated it with various acti-vities like the turn over of school buildings donated by non-government organizations.
On Wednesday, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. will turn over the newly rehabilitated and freshly constructed classrooms to San Remigio town.
Mayor Mariano Martinez said the town’s 27 schools, all of which were damaged by Yolanda, are almost fully restored courtesy of the NGOs like RAFI.
“We have many NGOs nga nagtabang sa atong eskwelahan, wap-a gyud ang DepEd (Department of Education). But I heard, nagsugod na og bidding,” said Martinez.
But the schools of San Remigio are getting the most attention, Martinez admitted that a huge portion of the families are still homeless and their public infrastructures are yet to be repaired.
He said they have “barely” rehabilitated the town, but slowly they will rise up.
Last Saturday, a triathlon participated by athletes all over the country, to which Ramirez said would prove that “we are back in business” through hotel bookings.
In the public infrastructure side, he said the Department of Interior and Local Government was supposed to download the funds for the repairs of damaged barangay halls, for one, but the Commission on Audit has reportedly disallowed direct downloading of the mo-ney to the barangays. He said they hoped to resolve it in the coming days.
As to the housing of the affected families, they are starting to relocate a few, but several of them are still waiting, he said. Martinez said most of these families are still living with their relatives and neighbors.
Asked if he was frustrated by the delay of the rehabilitation funds pro-mised by the national go-vernment, Martinez said he could wait years for it.
“I look at what happened to New Orleans, a First-World country, they are going on eight years since Hurricane Katrina, and they are still rebuilding. Kita, Third World Country or Second-World country, it took us this long…it will take as a little longer (to rebuild),” he said.
“Ang kaayo lang nato, we are very resilient. Bisa’g galisud ang mga victims, di sad sila kaayo frustrated. People are not frustrated, ako, dili lang sad ko ma-frustrate,” Martinez added. (FREEMAN)