Give survivors bigger voice in rehab

The rebuilding of the Visayas provinces devastated by a major earthquake and Supertyphoon “Yolanda” should not be led by a so-called “reconstruction czar.” The government should not assume that the success of massive rehabilitation depends on one man.

Given the scale of the devastation in terms of human lives lost and missing persons, livelihoods and properties destroyed—as well as the government’s dismal performance in many reconstruction programs in the past—rebuilding efforts risk being a failure if left to politicians and disaster capitalists who are out to make a killing from the crisis.

In fact, the anointed “czar,” politicians and big business are the ones who need rehabilitation on how to transform a culture of greed into values that place public service first and foremost. But that, of course, is a tall order.

Government’s performance record in rehabilitating large communities, economies and ecosystems destroyed by mining, logging, oil spills and development aggression over the past decades has been a failure in the sense that no signs of human life and ecosystems being restored are visible. Billions of money for rehabilitation have been wasted—with only business firms and incorrigibly corrupt politicians profiting therefrom. In fact, poverty has turned from bad to worse in these areas.

Genuine reconstruction which could take several years can only materialize by allowing the people and disaster victims in these areas to take a bigger role in planning. Their lives already made impoverished by extractive industries and politics-driven “development programs” that make their regions among the poorest in the country, justice will be served if the millions of displaced families now are given the right to have a bigger voice in rebuilding their lives.

The first thing to do is for the people of Visayas, through their community organizations, real nongovernment organizations and other institutions, to convene immediately for a public summit where their representatives can design a people-centered reconstruction proposal. They should be given greater representation in any government-sponsored reconstruction scheme so as to ensure that all resources and funds go to rehabilitation projects. All funds, grants and other resources, as well as procurements and other transactions, should be transparent to the people for purposes of public monitoring and auditing.

Rebuilding experts should be tapped from nonpartisan institutions like the academe, policy think tanks and competent NGOs; not from the corporate, construction and urban planning investors.

Investors can help bankroll reconstruction only if motivated by conscience and social responsibility.

—BOBBY M. TUAZON,

director for policy studies,

Center for People Empowerment

in Governance,

[email protected]