By:  SARWELL Q.MENIANO

TACLOBAN CITY – The task force on cadaver collection asked the United States to send sniffing K-9 detection dogs to this city, as authorities struggle to retrieve dead bodies in rubbles more than two months after the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda.
With the endorsement of the Regional Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council, the task force, headed by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), sent last week their formal request to the United States embassy in Manila.
BFP Regional Director Sr. Supt. Pablito Cordeta, task force head, said 2,540 bodies have so far been retrieved in Tacloban City since November 15, following the recovery of 11 more decomposing bodies from January 8 to 11.
“Presently, we just depend on visuals in our retrieval operation. We badly need the expertise of sniffing dogs especially that they are the same teams that responded in the World Trade Center bombing in the United States,” Cordeta told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Two weeks after the storm, foreign volunteers from Holland, South Korea and New York brought with them their trained dogs to help in the retrieval operations.  These volunteers left Tacloban on November 30.
“With the help of sniffing dogs, we’re able to recover about a thousand bodies in a week. The cadaver collection has slowed down when they left. We are hoping the US government will favourably respond to our request,” Cordeta added.
“These dogs are really trained to locate any parts of a dead body that are under debris.”
The team has been focusing their retrieval operation in coastal villages of the city were debris clearing is still ongoing.
After retrieval of each body, the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) documents the cadaver. Bodies would then be transported to the mass grave site in Suhi village for examination of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The task force is composed of 20 members from the BFP and PNP.
Cordeta declined to give estimates as to how many bodies the task force has to retrieve from debris in Tacloban City.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has recorded 5,803 casualties as of mid-January with 1,729 missing since Yolanda struck the region on Nov.8, 2013.

PALO, Leyte-At least 166 classrooms are expected to be completed in typhoon Yolanda-hit areas by January 31 this month, just in time for the Chinese New Year, said Mu Nai Sheng, deputy manager of the Chinese Red Cross for its classroom building project.
Sheng, who has been in Leyte since December 6 last year for the Chinese Red Cross various humanitarian assistance, said they want the school building construction to be finished the soonest possible time “so the children will feel a bit comfortable in attending classes.”
Along with Sheng are 34 Chinese Red Cross volunteers helping in the school building project.
“We are here to help. We feel your suffering, and we’re sorry for what happened in your country,” Sheng told Leyte Samar Daily Express in an interview.
Sheng, however believed that Filipinos will rise from their situation, adding that “Filipinos are very strong people.”
“This is the first time I visited Philippines, and I admire your resiliency. The people here still manage to smile despite what happened,” added Sheng, whose previous humanitarian projects include that of rebuilding Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, among other countries.
According to Sheng, the prefabricated classrooms, whose all materials came straight from China, can last up to five years, depending however on its usage.
“Each classroom has an area of 60 square meters which can accommodate a good number of students,” Sheng said.
Michael Regis, school principal of Palo National High School, has expressed gratitude to the Red Cross as his school is a recipient of 26 new classrooms from the humanitarian agency.
According to Regis, typhoon Yolanda destroyed more than 30 classrooms in his school, which brought a big problem to the students when they reopened classes on December 2 last year.
“We are really thankful for the help from the Red Cross volunteers both from China and the Philippines, also to the Department of Public Works and Highways for assisting in the construction of our classrooms,” Regis added.
Meanwhile Sheng said that aside from transitional classrooms they built in Palo, they are also building the same in Tacloban, and soon in Dulag, Tanauan, and Tolosa, for both elementary and high school.
The Department of Education has earlier said that more than 4, 500 classrooms were destroyed when typhoon Yolanda hit central Philippines last November 8, 2013.

By: SARWELL Q.MENIANO

TACLOBAN CITY – South Korean government will be spending $30 million (32 billion South Korean won) in its one-year reconstruction of government buildings in three typhoon-ravaged towns in Leyte.
Lt. Baek Myunghyun, public relations officer of the Korean joint support group deployed in Leyte, said they will prioritize the removal of storm debris and reconstruction of hospitals, public schools and municipal halls in the typhoon-stricken towns of Palo, Tanauan and Tolosa.
“This place needs immediate recovery.  As much as we like to help everyone, it’s difficult to address all the needs. Our focus is the repair of public facilities so that everyone could benefit,” Baek told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
The official said they immediately heeded the Philippine government’s request for aid, recognizing the country’s participation in the 1950s Korean War.
“The driving factor why we came here is the 7,500 Filipino youths who came to South Korea during the war where about 112 of them died. We want to return back to Filipino’s generosity,” Baek said.
The team, which called themselves “Araw” had brought with them 100 equipment, consisting of back hoes, pay loaders, military trucks, ambulance, buses and fumigation trucks. Heavy equipments arrived in Leyte on December 28, 2013 onboard the Korean Navy ship Sunginbong Birobong.
“To Korea, the Philippines is a friend nation and the first country to participate in the Korean War and helped us defend our freedom and peace,” he added.
The troops, composed of members of South Korean army, navy, air force and marines is now currently repairing the Leyte Provincial Hospital in Palo town and two schools in Tanauan and Tolosa. Construction officially started January 6 and will be completed by the end of the year.
“We’re working on an environment that is unfamiliar for us. We’re using construction materials and methods that are local. That one year mission is not definite. An extension may occur depending on the agreement between two governments. We’re still leaving that option open,” Baek said.
The troops opted to use local construction materials and methods to ensure the project will be continued by locals if in case they will not be able to finish the project after the mission.
The Korean team, which belongs to the first contingent, will stay in Leyte until June 2014. Another team will replace them in the middle of the year until December. The team is now building their base camp in Government Center in Palo, Leyte.
Aside from reconstruction activities, the troop will also conduct medical missions and hold cultural presentation to make the Filipinos familiar of Korean culture. “Our work here will reinforce the friendship of Filipinos and South Koreans,” Baek added.

By: EILEEN B. NAZARENO

TACLOBAN CITY-The entire clergy within the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Palo will keep their current positions for now but will still be receiving their monthly standard living allowance(SLA) effective end January this year.
This development came amidst the local church’s great effort in having around 95% of all parishes that were left roofless and ravaged by supertyphoon Yolanda on November 8 repaired and renovated.
According to Fr. Amadeo Alvero, spokesman of the archdiocese, the many destructions and devastations caused by the supertyphoon to almost all the parishes of the within the archdiocese of Palo prompted Archbishop John Du to order the indefinite postponement of the reshuffle of priests.
The general re-assignment, which should have taken place this month, was directed deferred last year for reason that “the current priests are the ones who know well about the present situation of their respective parishes that were greatly affected by the disaster,” Alvero commented.
“They will be the ones who are in good position to do the disaster management in their parishes now,” surmising though that “perhaps next year when everything will be in normalcy, the reshuffling will be pursued,” he said.
While this archdiocesan program was momentarily deferred, the newest economic program initiated by Archbishop Du, which will benefit around 140 priests, will continue.
Alvero is optimistic that the SLA will certainly be given to the priests by end of this month. It amounts from P10,000 to 15,000 per month, as earlier reported.
In an earlier interview, he expressed his belief that by the decent allowance that priests will receive, they will be able to live a simple lifestyle, which is in keeping with Pope Francis’ call for priests to live a simple and austere lifestyle.”
“In this way, we will be united with our Pope in living a simple life worthy of being a minister of Christ, who lived a simple life while he was on earth,” Alvero remarked, adding that this will make priests focus more on their ministry than their personal economic concerns.”
For him, the release of the SLA this month will surely help all priests within the archdiocese who were largely affected by Yolanda.
While the archdiocese is ready to roll this economic package for the priests, it is likewise in the thick of finding resources that will help parishes, as well as other facilities of the local church, undergo the needed repair of damage created by the megastorm.
Immediately after the occurrence of supertyphoon Yolanda, the archdiocese created the disaster response committee that will now be a permanent council in the archdiocese. The committee is chaired by the archbishop with Msgr. Ben Catilogo as point person.
Alvero disclosed that the top priority of the archdiocese is its second phase of the disaster management, which is the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the structures not just of the church edifices and parish rectories, but also homes of the typhoon victims.
Major repairs are now being undertaken on the Metropolitan Cathedral of Palo, the Archbishop’s Residence and the two seminaries namely the St. John the Evangelist School of Theology and the Sacred Heart Seminary.

By: EILEEN NAZARENO-BALLESTEROS

TACLOBAN CITY- In spite of its being victim as well of the world’s strongest typhoon ever recorded in history that which hit Eastern Visayas on November 8 last year, the archdiocese of Palo, under the stewardship of Archbishop John Du still took on its Christian duty of helping people in this time of extreme necessity.
Ninety-five percent of church edifices and rectories within the archdiocese were initially calculated to have suffered the brunt of the supertyphoon Yolanda’s catastrophic strength.
This is besides the destruction went through by the very residence of the archbishop nestled atop a hill in Barangay Arado in Palo, Leyte and the two seminaries also located in same municipality, as well as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Palo where the Papal Nuncio Guiseppe Pinto and Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle celebrated mass on December 24 and November 28 respectively.
Notwithstanding this hardship, the archdiocese never failed to extend assistance to the people who sought refuge in the local church regardless of their religious belief.
The two seminaries, namely St. John the Evangelist School of Theology and Sacred Heart Seminary, and the Chancery of the Archdiocese, though partly damaged by the typhoon, served as evacuation centers for hundreds of families whose homes were destroyed by the typhoon. As of now, no evacuee was left in these religious institutions as work resumed and classes are to restart this week.
As of this time, the Archdiocesan Disaster Response Committee is advancing to the next phase of its outreach to the victims of the supertyphoon Yolanda. The archbishop will help pre-identified victims have their new homes in due time.
Largely, the help reached victims from hard hit areas, that is, Tacloban City, Palo, Tolosa, Tanauan, Mayorga, Sta. Fe and Alangalang towns. Almost of these areas have confirmed deaths due to Yolanda.
Fr. Oscar Florencio, erstwhile head of the Archdiocesan Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Command Center before he decided to focus on his official concerns as rector of SJEST in Palo, said that the archdiocese will be constructing permanent houses for these victims.
He added that the church planned to donate a lot somewhere in Palo town for the resettlement of these carefully screened beneficiaries. The Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines and the Archdiocese of Manila will fund the undertaking.
Identifying the beneficiaries does not come easy for the archdiocese as many factors are being considered besides those specified by donors. The livelihood of the victims and the extent of damage suffered by their homes are also major concerns, according to Florencio.