TACLOBAN CITY- Both Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto and Tacloban City Vice Mayor Jerry “Sambo” Yaokasin expressed their support on the plan of the national government to extend financial assistance to the survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda.Loreto said that based on information he received, the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will provide cash assistance to families living outside the danger zones in the amount of P30, 000 up to P70, 000.
The vice governor said that if this cash assistance will materialize, this will be a big help to the identified beneficiaries, especially those who are poor and who lost their source of incomes after the onslaught of Yolanda. Earlier, DSWD Regional Director Nestor Ramos said that their department is set to provide assistance to survivors of Yolanda in the amount of P30,000 under its emergency shelter kit assistance.
Nine months after Yolanda pummeled Leyte, particularly Tacloban, survivors of the world’s strongest typhoon to make landfall have been waiting for financial assistance from the national government, Loreto and Yaokasin said in separate interview with Leyte Samar Daily Express. Survivors of Yolanda had received financial assistance from different humanitarian groups, the latest of which was the Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) which is giving P4, 400 for six months to poor families in different towns in the region. As this developed, Vice Mayor Yaokasin urged the DSWD to come up with a list of survivors from Tacloban and delist those who claimed to be residents and survivors of Yolanda.
“The DSWD must ensure that families who will avail of their financial assistance are really the true survivors of the supertyphoon,” Yaokasin said. “We hope that the guidelines and the procedures of the plan of the DSWD in giving financial assistance will be clear cut in such a way that the true survivors will be the one to avail the assistance and not those who are not really survivors of the supertyphoon,” the vice mayor added. Loreto said that he understand why the government will only provide assistance to families living outside the danger or risk areas as he hope that eventually, even those living on dangerous zones would also be extended assistance like permanent dwellings.
“We are willing to discuss to the people especially to those who lives in the identified no build zone areas to make them understand why the national government will just give financial assistance to those families who are outside of no build zone areas,” Loreto said in an interview with Leyte Samar Daily Express. (RYAN GABRIEL LLOSA ARCENAS)
