Tacloban will surely rise again

What I saw last Jan. 28 gives me the certainty that Tacloban City, along with the rest of Eastern Visayas, will rise again. I was pleasantly surprised to see the ordinary people, both children and adults, living normal lives despite the destruction of their houses, school buildings and other basic physical facilities. There were hundreds of smiling children and adults lining the streets to receive Vatican Legate Robert Cardinal Sarah. On the road from the airport, we saw many makeshift stores selling all types of foodstuffs, from vegetables and fruits to roasted pork.

The spirit of individual economic initiative was very much alive.

True, as reported by Keith Bradsher in the New York Times (Feb. 3, 2014), there was continuing confusion in the city. Most of the vital services, especially electricity and water, have been only partially restored. A number of young students were still going to school in makeshift classrooms. The presence of the national government was hardly felt.

We had heard time and again from business and civic leaders that they had yet to see any visible impact of the billion-peso pledges they read about in the papers. In fact, some of these leaders joined a demonstration a few days before we arrived to protest what they perceived as government inaction.

However, what I witnessed along with the business people from Manila who traveled with me was more encouraging. Despite the continuing difficulties, members of the various chambers of commerce in Tacloban and the surrounding towns, as well as their NGO counterparts and cooperatives, were not in the least bit discouraged. They are actively looking for solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems, refusing to give up hope. The proverbial resilience of the Filipino was very evident in their attitude. They did not harp on their sufferings and privations. They presented possible solutions in which they could use the help of their counterparts in the private sector in Manila and other Philippine cities.

We from Manila received a lesson on the need to always consult the people on the ground before deciding on what to do to help them. For example, they expressed the deepest gratitude to business people from different sectors allotting anywhere from P20,000 to P40,000 to buy a boat for each displaced fisher. However, members of cooperatives, admirably organized and active in Eastern Visayas, told us that the seas in Eastern Visayas are overfished and depleted. There is a need to rebuild the mangroves, as the people in western Pangasinan have done.

Meanwhile, having a boat may not solve the livelihood problem of many fishers. It was suggested that some of the Tacloban folk, including the coconut farmers, be trained by Dualtech in Manila, the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise in Cebu, and other Tesda-certified technical schools in carpentry, electro-mechanical work, and construction work in general. Such a move will help meet the vast demand for workers that will be generated by the government’s multibillion-peso projects in reconstructing destroyed infrastructure and in actually building new farm-to-market roads, postharvest facilities, and other public works needed in the rural areas. The tens of thousands of housing units to be built will also need skilled workers.

When our agribusiness experts advised the local residents to consider crops other than coconut, which will always be vulnerable to future storm surges, they gently reminded us that diversification into other crops is easier said than done. High-value crops such as vegetables, fruits and livestock are not feasible alternatives until we can endow Eastern Visayas with abundant water and irrigation systems.

They were more than willing to consider alternative crops such as palm oil, coffee, cacao, rubber and other high-value plantation plants as long as they can be helped by such agencies as the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank in financing the inputs necessary for crop diversification. Fortunately, officials from these banks are responding positively to their requests.

The most urgent appeal they made was for us to bring to Tacloban the leading construction and real estate companies that have the expertise and experience in building socialized and low-cost housing units. They also asked us to request the Philippine Contractors Association to send its officials to Tacloban to discuss a possible big-brother program in which the large construction companies in Manila will subcontract work to the smaller companies in Eastern Visayas in the building of infrastructures, houses and school buildings.

The very active participation of the Tacloban-based business people and NGOs gave us, the visiting “experts,” much hope that the city and the whole of Eastern Visayas will surely rise again.  They have the right kind of leaders who can make things happen.

Bernardo M. Villegas ([email protected]) is senior vice president of the University of Asia and the Pacific.