TACLOBAN CITY- The administration of President Aquino, after all, care this city whose mayor, Alfred Romualdez, belong to a rival political family.
Out of the P800 million of the government’s Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY), Tacloban was given an allocation of P230.68 million.
The financial assistance was received by City Mayor Alfred Romualdez from Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on April 10.
Romualdez and Roxas had figured a much-publicized word war earlier as the former accused the latter calling for him to resign amid the chaos brought by supertyphoon Yolanda.
The two later made peace during Romualdez appearance at the Senate.
The financial assistance received by Romualdez from the national government will be used to repair the City Hall (P146.09 m); public market (P68.43 m) and the astrodome (P16.15 m).
“This is a big help to Tacloban, especially that the city is the regional center, and we are very thankful here,” Romualdez said, referring to the financial assistance he received from the national government.
“I am happy it is given to local government units, to handle the funds; that is where we are going to see good governance. I am happy the Secretary is doing that,” Romualdez added.
Aside from Tacloban, 18 mayors in Leyte whose areas were ravaged by Yolanda also received their financial assistance from the national government.
During the hand-over of checks, Roxas maintained “nobody will be left behind” in the government’s rehabilitation program, adding that he is passing now the responsibility to the local government units to manage the funds.
“We have our memorandum of agreement on this. The money will be put in a trust fund, not to be mixed with LGU fund, and be drawn with corresponding accomplishment, authorization from the local council. We are expecting that you are going to do it right,” Roxas said.
Only 35 of the 40 typhoon-affected local government units in Leyte will get the aid from the national government as five of them will be directly funded by international funding agencies.
According to DILG regional director Pedro Noval Jr., local government units in Eastern Visayas submitted project proposals worth P938 million in all for the repair of the provincial capitol, municipal or city halls, public markets and civic centers, which were all “keenly evaluated then approved by DILG.”
Meantime, Romualdez said that aside from the repair of some public structures owned by the city government, putting back the lives of the people into normalcy remains his priority.
“My priority is the lives of the people. It would be difficult that after five months, there will still be people living in tents, it would be difficult like what happened in Zamboanga (after the Moro rebels siege last year),” Romualdez said in an interview.
He said that for the 14,000 families who lost their homes and identified to be relocated, the city government need to purchase about 70 hectares of land aside from the construction of their permanent houses.
“Hindi naman natin yan makukuha overnight , for a year or two or even up to three years , basta maumpisahan lang. (We understand we are not going to get it overnight, for a year or even up to three years, yet what is important is as long as we are going to start it).”
Romualdez said that they need funds for additional land purchase and its site development. (Ronald O. Reyes)
