It’s a little over a hundred days of Yolanda’s fury, a super typhoon that wrecked havoc to our communities in Leyte and Samar, that has caused some 6,000 lives lost; hundreds badly hurt and a good number gone, unseen, unfound; thousands of dwellings destroyed with a good number simply washed away. Grief ruled our hearts, a lot of our people aimlessly walking around; with blank faces feeling uncertain what they will do, where they will go, and how to live normal lives again.
Like a magic wand that was waved on air by a Powerful Being, generous people from all over of different nationalities and the United Nation worldwide immediately responded to help. Food, clothes, blankets, tarpaulins, ready-made tents as temporary shelters, and cash dole-outs especially from Tzu Chi, a Taiwan-based Buddhist foundation were distributed. It is easy to say that over a billion dollars have been poured into our shores. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) has already distributed about $609 million. Other unnamed sources have silently come over to help.
The Philippine national leadership thru President Noynoy Aquino has poured millions for Leyte-Samar and other provinces for Yolanda victims and for rehabilitation of facilities.
Local government units also came to help specially in the clearing and cleaning activities to rid the streets of Tacloban with heaps of smelly garbage. So much garbage has spread all over Tacloban and other towns caused by Yolanda that the clearing is still on-going as of press time. They came, complete with equipment, from Makati, Metro Manila Development Authority, Calbayog, Baybay City and others.
There were other groups, all over, unnamed, unnoticed, unannounced who did their share.
One of these is the JAHs Army, initiated by a young professional who did their share in distributing relief goods to Tacloban’s poor sector. Certainly, there are many others who worked in silence.
Lately we read from the Philippine Daily Inquirer of an agreement inked by Alfonso G. Sy, President of the Federation of the Filiino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFCCI) and Leyte Governor Leopoldo “Mic” Petilla, for the construction of 500 houses and five school buildings in typhoon ravaged area of Leyte.
From the bottom of their hearts, super typhoon Yolanda victims thank them with their prayers for more blessings from God, and a sincere wish: “May their tribe increase”
