A papal visit-sized subsidy

Pope Francis has gone back to Rome, and Tacloban City is like an empty theatre when the play is over. He has done all that one man, even a pope, can do to strengthen the hearts of the people. Everyone here in Tacloban and the nearby town of Palo has stories of him. A group of poor women living in temporary housing in Barangay 89-90 told me: “We were so happy to see the Pope. We are still happy, but we don’t know why.” Maybe God simply showered them with His ineffable love.

Archbishop John Du of Palo was with the Pope all the time he was in Leyte, and has very touching stories of his compassion, including that of him holding a person who had lost 10 family members in “Yolanda” and simply repeating, “Terrible, terrible, terrible.” It was as if he “groaned in spirit,” as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus (John 12:21).

The Pope has done his part, but living conditions in Tacloban have hardly improved. Temporary housing has been found for a number of families, but permanent government houses still number less than 1,000 and there are few new regular jobs, which are the backbone of recovery. People want the government to match the Pope’s work with a socioeconomic subsidy that can be described as papal-visit-sized. The European Central Bank has just begun its own subsidy program, which puts money into the various national banks that they in turn can loan to business firms. People here propose that the government, as a start to a very substantial subsidy program, release P200 million under its cash-for-work program to poor people in areas badly hit by Yolanda. The money is a subsidy, as in Europe, but it enters society through the poor, and not through banks or big businesses. It will all be spent locally for food, clothes, medicines, school uniforms, travel to school and work. None of it will be invested abroad.

This commentary makes two concrete suggestions where subsidies should go, but whether these projects are chosen or not, there seems little doubt that economic regeneration in the Yolanda-stricken areas needs a huge cash subsidy. To expect the present situation to transform itself by its own strength is to search for a man strong enough to lift himself up by the scruff of his neck, as one would lift a kitten. Only the famous Irishman Finn McCool was able to do that, and he did not hand down his skill. If the powerful American and European economies need repeated subsidies, how much more do Tacloban and similar places need them?

The people of San Jose district in Tacloban are asking the government to begin its cash-for-work program with two groups of 1,000 workers each. There are many other worthy programs, no doubt, but these two I know well. These two have good track records and can be started within a couple of weeks.

Program 1: Urban Agriculture. There is empty land in Tacloban that is privately and publicly owned. Poor people can ask the owners to allow them to farm the land, and the government can urge the owners to do so. The people are already doing this in Barangay 89-90, for example. They need help from the Department of Agriculture. They ask to be paid the minimum wage (P260 x 25 days or P6,500 per month). The people will get good advice, seeds, etc., and help in marketing from government and other experts. They will grow the vegetables that their families need as well as others for sale. Tacloban gets vegetables from as far away as Davao. Why not grow its own?

Program 2: Urban Work Teams. Another group of 1,000 workers—mostly men, it seems—will work on the urban infrastructure in and around the places where the poor people live, including the beach roads, the roads leading to new settlements, children’s playgrounds, community meeting halls, artificial reefs, fishermen’s wharves, basketball courts, chapels for all denominations, water and light networks, clinics, etc. They will also clean the beaches of concrete debris. A minimum wage of P6,500 per month is also proposed. The workers will be guided by engineers and architects.

This program will last one year. If families have a decent salary, such as the P6,500 proposed here, for a period of a year, most of them will be able to get back on their feet after Yolanda’s physical, psychological and spiritual trauma. It is not a permanent subsidy, but may be necessary for a few years.

Subsidies such as these benefit the whole economy.

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“I pray for you and your people,” Pope Francis told Archbishop Du. “You are courageous, your people are courageous.”

“No, Holiness, you are courageous coming in this weather,” the archbishop said.

“No, you are courageous, and your people,” the Pope said before marking the archbishop’s forehead with the sign of the cross. “I pray for you,” he said as he drew the downward stroke of the cross with his thumb, “and for your people,” he added as he drew the horizontal stroke.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates (urbanpoorassociates@ymail.com).