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Yolanda survivors decry lack of livelihood opportunities, ineffective housing


At first glance, public housing built after Typhoon Yolanda seem more than adequate for survivors.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) managed to build 20,893 housing units out of the target 205,128 since November 2013 in areas far from locales prone to storm surges, the primary culprit in the death of 6,190 people and destruction of over 1.1 million homes.

Livelihood programs by the government and foreign respondents such as Oxfam and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also eased the burden on survivors, most of whom were farmers who lost land due to the storm that caused over P31 billion in agriculture production damage.

Yet a mass exodus is taking place two and a half years into the rehabilitation process.

No agrarian support

John Gallano of Katarungan - Negros Occidental said at a forum by Caritas Philippines and Canada on Friday that rehabilitation plans neglected the farming sector in the Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (YRRP).

"Hindi po siya kasama doon sa sinasabing YRRP along Yolanda Avenue, 'yung agrarian reform. Hindi ho 'yun binigyang tugon o pansin ng administrasyong Aquino sa nakalipas na mahigit dalawang taon," Gallano said.

This neglect was exacerbated by the bureaucratic red tape which Arze Glipo, executive director of Integrated Rural Development Foundation, blamed for preventing farmers from claiming Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs).

"They require tax declaration, BIR certification—of course the farmers cannot do it. This makes lives more difficult especially in Yolanda-devastated areas. There is no produce from the land then they don't have secure tenure," Glipo said.

CLOAs serve as proofs of ownership of agrarian reform beneficiaries for privately-owned agricultural land under Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

Katarungan Eastern Visayas President Don Daganasol claimed there were at least 10,205 undistributed CLOAs dating back to the presidency of the late President Ferdinand Marcos still with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

All they seek now from DAR Region VIII is an audit on these certificates and to investigate an anomaly they discovered within its legal department.

"Ang hinihiling lang po namin ay magkaroon ng audit, kasi may natuklasan din po kami na isang legal officer ng DAR, naging awardee siya samantalang ang CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) ay intended for the farmers, hindi doon sa mga professionals," Dagnasol said.

Fisherfolk must also sneak back to their communities, now under no-build zones, to eke out a living despite the Fisheries Code of 1998 mandating the Department of Agriculture (DA) to create settlement areas near fishing grounds exclusively for fisherfolk.

"One of the problems of the resettlement now is that the fisherfolks they keep coming back to where they were located pre-Yolanda because that is their source of livelihood," Glipo said.

"We should not relocate them to the uplands where they don't have livelihood there," she continued.

No-build zones in coastal areas also appear to be largely hypocritical as Owen Nigraso of Center for Environmental Concerns pointed out that commercial establishments are still constructed in those areas despite the label.

“Nagtayo ka ng no-dwelling zone doon. Ang tanong doon: Saan siya nakakasilbi eh at the same time nag-a-allow ka ng commercial establishments, mostly mga hotels, along the same coastlines where ‘di dapat magbu-build?” Nigraso said.

The effect of encroaching business on the livelihoods of local fisherfolk is well-documented and continues to affect communities such as the tribe that Tagbanua chief and Kasanib member Prudencio Calis leads in Sitio Diplonggan on Busuanga Island.

“May nagtayo ng resort sa malapit namin na dinadamot na nila 'yung paligid na aming hinahanap-buhayan. Kaya ipit na ipit kami sa kabuhayan,” Calis said.

Expired land leases, flimsy homes, and new vulnerabilities

Jess Agustin, Philippine Program Manager for Development and Peace/Caritas Canada (CCODP), said survivors who choose to stay in resettlement areas have to deal with flimsy houses and a severe lack of basic services.

“Some of the houses that were constructed, you knock on the wall, there were mga butas, and people are just depressed. There’s no job, there’s no community, there’s no water, nothing. But from the outside, wow, the NHA built this nice infrastructure with roads and everything, and then you go and talk to the people—it’s sad,” Agustin said.

 


Despite the money being thrown into funding these communities, land leases and occupancy rights force these residents out of their homes.

“A good number of that—and I would even venture to say 90 percent of that—were transitional houses, temporary houses. And now the occupancy, permission to occupy the (houses) has expired. Meaning two years in the Yolanda, we’re now counting the third year, people are being dislocated, displaced, again,”

Nigraso added that the seclusion of these communities and their location near hazardous sites such as dump sites changed their vulnerabilities instead of protecting them.

“Binago mo naman 'yung vulnerabilities nila: malapit sa dump site, sa mga landslide-prone areas, may mga fault lines diyan. Kaya maraming issue diyan na hindi talaga natugunan,”

No build zones and tide embankments

Nigraso also questioned the establishment of no-build zones for Yolanda-affected areas after multiple studies contesting its efficacy as surge protectors.

“Itong knee-jerk reaction na kung nandyan ka sa no-build zone areas ay immediately na-displace ka. At the same time, ‘di ka makakatanggap ng tulong kahit anuman even shelter kits or even ESA,” Nigraso said.

Freedom from Debt Coalition Eastern Visayas President Pascualito Ilagan added that the P7.9-billion Road Heightening and Tide Embankment project for Tacloban, Palo, and Tanauan, Leyte by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to protect coastal areas was opposed by the 27 barangays that will be affected by its construction.

“Sa ngayon pa lang, doon sa mga nasalanta ng Yolanda, nahihirapan pa nga silang maghanap ng lugar at magbigay ng mga pabahay na kung saan sang-ayon doon sa standard housing na itinatakda ng international standard,” Ilagan said.

Turn-around possible

The tricky situation survivors remain enmeshed in are, as Agustin speculated, because of the disconnect between the government’s temporary emergency response and its initiative to “build back better”.

Gallano said the new administration by President Rodrigo Duterte must pick up the task of reconnecting government response to the true spirit of building back better for the sake of survivors, especially farmers.

“Isang hamon po ito lalong-lalo na sa usapin ng repormang agraryo dahil napakalaki pa po ng dapat ayusin at bigyang pansin o tatrabahuin ng gobyerno para naman makatanggap ng suporta’t serbisyo ang mga hanay ng magsasaka,” Gallano said.

For his part, Agricultural Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano said he was willing to help return agricultural lands to farmers.

"'Yung mga lupa pong nananatiling tiwangwang kahit ang klasipikasyon ay hindi na agricultural, ay baka pong maaaring maibalik sa klasipikasyong agricultural at 'yung ating mga magsasaka na-displace sa kanilang mga lugar, ay maibalik doon, maipuwesto doon, maipabungkal at mailaan sa food production," Mariano said.

Reclassification needs will be forwarded to the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for greater coordination with local government units, who have jurisdiction over reclassification ordinances.

"'Yun pong lupa kung kinakailangang ibalik sa reclassification na agricultural, 'yun po ang atin pong imumungkahi sa DILG dahil ang DILG naman po ang may pangkahalatang support dun sa mga local government units," Mariano explained.

DAR was among the government agencies that received no releases for Yolanda rehabilitation in 2015.

Other agencies that were not allotted funds in 2015 were the Department of Health (DOH) and Labor and Employment (DOLE), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and the National Food Authority (NFA).
—KG, GMA News

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