Tanauan, Leyte looking forward to first harvest after Yolanda

The rice fields in Tanauan town in Leyte are now colored green and yellow. Soon, it will be harvest time.

Looking at them, it was hard to imagine that five months ago, the town was all mud and rubble, caused by super typhoon Yolanda in November.

Yolanda (Haiyan), the strongest typhoon to hit land, left 1,252 people dead in Tanauan, representing 2.5 percent of its population. It is the highest number of deaths in percentage to its population.

But as the rice fields symbolize, life is slowly coming to Tanauan.

In a recent interview, Mayor Pel Tecson said the local government has stopped providing relief goods to those affected by the super typhoon. Instead, local officials are giving away fertilizer, seeds, and other agricultural materials for the residents to use.

Tecson recalled that after Yolanda, the local government asked the assistance of the Department of Agriculture to provide them with palay seeds. A month later, while many affected areas were still reeling from the devastation, Tanauan folk were already planting seeds.

As for coconut farming, which is one of the major sources of livelihood in the town, planting has already started. The local government plans to cover a minimum of 200 hectares in its coconut replanting. The town has about 1,000 hectares of coconut farm lands.

The LGU has also ventured into inter-cropping coconut with corn.

Tacloban still struggling

However, the rosy picture of Tanauan is a far cry from what is happening in Tacloban City.

Although businesses in Tacloban are now open, livelihood, especially for minimum-wage earners, is sparse, and families in temporary shelters still rely on relief goods.

“Mahirap  po dito kasi wala pong trabaho ang asawa ko. Hindi naman [pwedeng] parati na lang sardinas [ang ulam namin]. 'Yung anak ko nga nagtatae 'yan kasi laging 'yun na lang ang pagkain," said Vernabeth Amarilla, who is living in a bunkhouse in Tacloban City.

“Sabi nila meron daw livelihood, pero wala pa ngayon,” she added.

Asked if her husband opted to avail of the government's cash-for-work program, she noted that he refused to participate because compensation would only be given after 15 days of working.

Currently, her husband is looking for odd jobs that provides daily wages.

Pinoy resilience

Kasper Engborg, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Tacloban, said “when you have a disaster at this level, it takes time to recover.”

"No country would be able to prepare for the devastation that Yolanda created. It takes time to recover," he said in a separate interview.

Still, he noted that resilience of Filipinos is remarkable compared to other countries that have also been victims of natural disasters.

“The resilience we see here is far greater in all countries,” he said. — KBK/JL, GMA News

The reporter's trip to Tacloban City was sponsored by the German Development Cooperation.