How could Tacloban City be better described than being resilient, vibrant and livable? This is Mayor Alfred Romualdez administration’s vision of this once progressive and tourist-drawing city now gradually rising above the ruins created by the deadly supertyphoon Yolanda on November 8 last year. A masterplan presented to the public on March 21 gears towards this end but will entail a hefty PhP 2.5 to 3 billion to get it done over a considerable period of time.
If only Mayor Romualdez will be assured of a tenure beyond his three successive terms in office as the city’s chief executive, the Proposed Tacloban Recovery and Rehabilitation Plan, which was helped get done in a short one-and-a-half-month time by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), could materialize worriless.
Knowing though how the country’s political climate is as erratic as the weather system affected by the phenomenon called global warming, any plan for now may not seem to be it after the present dispensation’s power has ceased. In June 2016, Romualdez will have relinquish his power in favour of his successor.
This fast changing possibilities could not easily be dismissed. Take for instance the construction of the Department of Health edifice in Brgy. Cabalawan in Tacloban City that was ordered abandoned in the midst of its construction for allegedly nestling atop of a faultline. A project of the administration of then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, the building was touted as a white elephant. However, this time, under the administration of the Marcos nemesis Pres. Noynoy Aquino, the same compound where this abandoned edifice stands will be utilized for the new building of Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center.
Another is the revival of the Eastern Visayas Regional Growth Center, a catchment basin type of adjacent agricultural lands which was an original concept of the Marcos administration. Following the ouster of the former strongman, EVRGC likewise was put on shelf. Now, in the recovery and rehab plan of the only highly urbanized city of Eastern Visayas, reviving the EVRGC is shaping up to be part of the economic component of the four-tier framework of the city’s build back better program particular in the northern portion of the city.
Only two main factors that can hold back the success of this masterplan: sustainability and resources. The plan, which was designed to help mitigate a similar extent of devastation in the face of possible tsunami and another storm surge to occur in Tacloban, and to relocate the residents in the “no build zones” to safer residential grounds in the upland such as Barangays Sta. Elena, Sto. Nino and New Kawayan, is plausible if only all aspects in it are tenable.
Resilient, vibrant liveable Tacloban
Congratulations to Bar Hurdlers
We should be touched by the revelations of bar topnotch Nielson G. Pangan, a UP graduate who garnered a score of 85.80 percent. He said he did not expect to rank No. 1 among bar takers given last year’s. Pangan was just an average graduate among his classmates of 200 students. He was a shy type says one of his professors Atty. Harry S. Roque.
Well, well-shy? This is to a certain extent a disadvantage if one is shy and hard at showing off, so one gets unnoticed in classroom interactions and by the teachers. Nielson’s kind of character however reflects the reality of another revelation that captures the saying that says – silent waters run deep!
Of course Nielson Pangan did not get the highest grade in the bar exams by luck alone. He was so interested to pass the bar by spending ten hours a day during the week review schedules; further he goes to the UP library for this study. And he spends his free time praying at the Iglesia Ni Cristo temple. He is an active number of the church!
Again, congratulations to all successful bar passers!!!
-oOo-
A little patience, a little understanding; and respect for our authorities, should be observed by everyone. In the past days, we heard of several victims of the Yolanda catastrophe who were apparently dissatisfied with the way relief operations were conducted. Their targets of criticisms were government officials and government agencies. Let us admit there were unavoidable lapses.
These few victims air their grievances in local broadcast stations, and the effect on listeners is and to most of them they get easily convinced and believe that these complainants are true; they swallow hook line and sinker in such complaints.
-oOo-
The whole pictures disprove them. The relief operations by and large are effective. This can be seen. What they should do is to be patient and be understanding. Certainly these relief goods or even cash relief are going to be given to those who are qualified to receive them.
And finally let us show respect to our leaders, both in the national and local levels. We can be assured that these national and local leaders are human and I think they understand our situation and they sincerely and really want to help.
-oOo-
Let us not worry if corruption gets into the picture in this relief and rehabilitation efforts. They will be discovered.
With Rehabilitation Secretary Panfilo Lacson on top of this operation, we can be assured the corrupt will be discovered in time and Lacson will NEVER initiate, allow much less undertake a cover-up, that I am certain.
Our belief in Ping Lacson’s integrity is bolstered by the fact that as Senator of the republic in the past he is one of two in the Upper House who did not avail of the corrupt – laden pork barrel “enjoyed” by majority of Philippine lawmakers who have obviously enriched themselves thru these.
The other one is former Senator Joker Arroyo!
The Filipino Trademark
“Proud akong Pinoy ngunit kinahihiya ko ang gobyerno ko.”
I did not impulsively react when I first heard these lines from the song “Bayang Di Magiliw” by Hari ng Sagpro. In fact, I was amused and I even nodded the blunt message.
Nothing good has diffused from the government ever since I can remember. Belligerent governmental families, deadly public elections, immortal graft and corruption cases; it had always been this way. Yes, there had been a couple of pleasant activities and schemes, but they pale out in comparison to things that had aggravated sick Juan. Unquestionably, the root cause of Filipino suffering is the Filipino government.
It is probably primitive to say that our government is bad, and is not effective as should be, but one can only lament and protest time after time. A stronger people power revolution may have to be scheduled on a day-to-day basis in order to force a full governmental shift. This is close to impossible, thus, a legislative change of heart is close to impossible as well.
The government is not bad per se; politics is intoxicating it. Filipino politics is so despicable, that it had been openly poisoning the society. The word connotes negativism and iniquity and it is our Pandora’s Box.
During our pre-civilization age, the Spaniards reshaped politics by sword. Ever since, it had brought bridges and limited the potential of our race and natural resources. And since it had been carved in history and passed on to generations time and again, it may have luridly become part of the Filipino culture. The clamor for a better political system may never cease because bad politics had already been knotted to our societal DNA. The more demoralizing derivative of this is that the world may slowly be labeling the Filipinos as racially corrupt. In the future, this will become the shameful lessons in textbooks. This will become the foundation and manifestation of our children’s values. This will become the Filipino trademark.
Evidently, we have not failed to stage, in the global arena, the reasons why we can be the most corrupt people. After typhoon Yolanda battered the country, the survivors have proven the aphorism: the end of one agony is the start of a new one. Media men say that billions of pesos had been doled out by the world, yet, being a survivor, I had only personally felt a slight drizzle of the monsoon-like help they had been telling. This primes up the saying that anything delayed is denied. Justice delayed is justice denied. Aide delayed is aide denied. The Marcos-Aquino political battle seemed to have been revived only with a new character played by Mar Roxas. We saw it. We saw how they demonstrated malignant capabilities. We saw how help was corruptly served.
A whole different beast is causing a myriad of ‘whens’ and ‘hows’ and has escalated a lot of blood pressures: The pork barrel scam. Now, the senate is tiptoeing towards the much-needed answers to where our hard-earned taxes had been channeled to. I am on pins and needles on this one and I know that making the purported culprits admit is like extracting blood from turnips, but in the end, after the period of this chapter, the outcome shall always be painful. Black will never take another hue. The corrupt will always be corrupt and will never die away because corruption is hereditary and willed.
I am not ending this article on an affirmative note. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but we might have extracted the last glimmer to not spell the Filipino trademark as corruption.
‘Hari ng Sagpro’ in the future might decide to flip his lyrics into: “Dahil sa gobyerno ko, ikinahihiya ko ang pagka-Pilipino ko.”
Cruising the digital world
WE have to learn how to cruise the digital world. It’s practically part of everyone’s life now, offering a lot of good but also a lot of dangers. We should know how to make use of it without compromising our dignity as persons and children of God.
This highly technological world introduces us to a virtual environment that is like a super-superhighway with much heavier and more complicated traffic than what we experience in our busiest thoroughfares. Its range and scope is not local but global, and it touches on practically all aspects of our life.
If in our transport systems, we need regulations like registration of vehicles, licensing of drivers with their respective periodic renewals, and other things like traffic road signs and traffic aides, etc., we have to realize that we need more or less the same set of regulations in our digital world.
Obviously, the regulations here would be more extensive and comprehensive than what we have in our transport systems. They should cover not only considerations of practicality and convenience in our needs of knowledge and communication, but also and more importantly, considerations of appropriateness, morality and spirituality.
Everyone knows that the digital world can have two effects. It is good to those who are good, and in fact, it will improve them. But it is bad also to those who are bad or weak, and it tends to worsen them.
Digital citizens and users should therefore be clear about their identity and dignity as persons and children of God who are supposed to be ruled by truth and love, and all their consequences of justice, mercy, compassion, and of concern for one another and for strengthening our relation with God, etc.
The ideal would be that every time they are in the digital environment, they should learn to see God there and to be motivated only by love for God and for others. They should ask themselves after using the Internet, “Am I now a better person and child of God with what I have seen and done in the Internet?”
Unless this basic requirement is met, one would enter into a highway that is a slippery slope toward all forms of self-seeking with their usual company of greed, envy, vanity, lust, gluttony, sloth, etc. Conflict and contention would not be remote in this arena. Unrestrained competition and rivalry would surge.
That is why, this identity of the digital citizens as persons and children of God who are necessarily connected with everybody else and governed by truth and love should always be protected, maintained and strengthened.
Toward this end, it stands to reason that digital citizens and users should be men and women of prayer, of virtues, of clear criteria based on sound human and Christian moral principles. They should know the true nature and meaning of freedom, avoiding using freedom as “a cloak for malice,” as St. Peter said in his first letter. (2,16)
Otherwise, they would be confused and lost, and an easy prey to the many subtle conditionings all of us are exposed to—physical, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, historical, economic, political, etc.
And since many young people are very much involved in the digital world, the elders and others of authority and influence should do everything to inculcate in them very deeply this proper identity and dignity of being persons and children of God, brothers and sisters with one another, ruled by truth and love.
These youngsters are typically highly driven by their curiosities, but with curiosities that spring and are maintained usually by unpurified impulses and peer pressure. They really need to be taken care of, but in an appropriate way, since they also do not like to be treated like babies.
If before a youngster is allowed to drive a car in our public road system, he has to have the proper age requirement, the appropriate physical and health condition, and has to be trained and tested, then it stands to reason that this youngster all the more would need a similar kind of requirements before he is allowed to cruise in the more dangerous digital thoroughfares.
This attitude toward the digital world should be developed first of all in the family, then in churches and schools, and then in other public places like offices, hospitals, etc.
We should understand that the digital world is not a free-for-all world. It would be a deadly understanding of freedom if that is how we understand the freedom we enjoy in our digital world.
It has to be properly regulated so we can cruise it safely and fruitfully.
Alfred bares “new city” plan for Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY- Mayor Alfred Romualdez of this city presented to the public his plan converting Tacloban into a “resilient, vibrant and livable city” after being pummeled by supertyphoon Yolanda last year.
Speaking to about 2,000 plus stakeholders comprising business sector, academe, people’s organizations and other national and international relief groups on March 21 at the Tacloban Convention Center, Romualdez maintained the city is focus now on “bringing people to safer area, with planned urban expansion.”
“We’re working on a plan for a new Tacloban in the northern part. The working figure is being worked out now because we have to determine also the pledges that will be realized. We will see how we will come up also,” he said.
Romualdez projected that it would need P3 billion or more to realize the program contain under the master rehabilitation plan with the bulk of the needed funds would come from the private sectors as donors.
He added the new housing project in the northern part of Tacloban would result into a “township.”
Asked if the plan will be realized until 2016 (the term limit of Romualdez), he answered, “I hope so.”
After the presentation of the city’s mechanism for a new city, the plan will be presented again to the various government agencies and private groups and individuals for possible financing.
“Even in the beginning, this is what the donors are asking. This is just a mechanism, but what we have now are areas being approved and determined already to be a hazard area and safe,” Romualdez stressed on the importance of the plan.
Ma. Adelaida Cea of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, who helped presenting the over strategic framework of the plan, maintained that the city can “bounce back” given its many opportunities and potentials.
The short-term plan includes construction, trading and agri-diversification; while in medium term, covers industrial development, tourism, business outsourcing, economic infrastructure and development.
The proponent has divided its development districts to north covering satellite urban center; mid-coast is for urban expansion and trading area; south coast is for redevelopment with urban expansion in risk inland areas; and upland for conservation and protected area.
The city government owns 86 hectares lot ready for shelter needs in the northern part.
For its shelter projects, the city is targeting about 10,000 permanent housing (now with total donor housing commitments of 6,661); target of about 3,000 for Community Mortgage Program in Diit, Bagacay and Cabalawan; and acquisition of additional land (30 to 50 hectares) for new housing.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) would also be relocated in the northern part as well as the University of the Philippines-Tacloban. (RONALD O. REYES)
DILG supports tourism recovery in Leyte
PALOMPON, Leyte- The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) launches its economic recovery plans, efforts supporting Leyte ’s tourism industry which was among the key sectors that was affected by supertyphoon Yolanda.
The DILG regional office turned over 10 stand-up paddle boats and glamping tents funded by the Canadian government through the Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED).
The LGSP-LED is a DILG program funded by the Government of Canada. It seeks to reduce poverty by creating business-friendly LGUs and competitive tourism industries.
The LGSP-LED is working with the provincial government of Leyte to revitalize key attraction sites along the North West (NW) Leyte Tourism Circuit in order to invite tourists to go back to the destination and also encourage more tourist arrivals.
The equipment are scheduled to be turned over in Ormoc City on March 25, 2014. The Barangay Organization to Guide, Serve and Accommodate You (BOGSAY), a people’s organization protecting and co-managing the Lake Danao Natural Park , will receive the said equipment.
The Palompon Municipal Ecotourism Council (PMETC), Inc. received the equipment through a turnover ceremony held at the town’s Tourism Building. The PMETC is a private sector partner of the municipal government in managing the tourism activities in Kalanggaman Island.
The provision of equipment (including training and business enterprise management) provides for more visitor activities and add to the destination’s attractiveness to tourists.
The enhanced site will be able to cater to more tourists, particularly for the upcoming third visit of the cruise ship MS Europa 2 on March 17, 2014 to Kalanggaman Island.
The MS Europa 2’s last visit brought over 300 foreign tourists who participate in ‘voluntourism’ activities, boosting the tourism economic recovery in the area. DOT Secretary Jimenez previously expressed plans to put Kalanggaman Island on the cruise ship tourism map of the world in his last visit in Palompon.(PR)