Kabataang Jaro

[kabataangjaro-blog]

An Open Letter to the Outgoing President

The Citizens' Disaster Response Center Foundation, Inc. (CDRC) sends an open letter to Pres. Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to request the release of pinewood for the Shelter Project which will benefit families affected by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013. From December 2015 to May 2016, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH) of Germany sent three shipments of pinewood needed…

This is the letter that CDRC addressed to former President Benigno Aquino. 

[kabataangjaro-blog]

We remember when Yolanda came to Jaro, Leyte.

We have always had typhoons. We have gotten used to them. After the storm comes and does the usual damage, we pick up the pieces and move on with our lives. We thought Haiyan would be no different. Then it swept in and dealt unbelievable destruction in Tacloban.

Our place, barely an hour from Tacloban, was spared the storm surge but no less devastated. The storm still scored a direct hit, flattening our houses, uprooting coconut trees and our precious crops. As farmers in a typhoon belt, we were used to risks posed by adverse weather. But the storm of the century not only took so many lives, it also took our livelihood. With nothing left and no money to rebuild, many left to find better luck in other places.

When the CDRC’s Shelter Project came and selected our families as beneficiaries, we were grateful. We were given new hope in having our homes back. Phase 1 of the project turned over 297 houses to beneficiaries from 6 barangays in November 27, 2015. Phase 2, consisting of 303 houses in 3 barangays, remain unfinished. For one reason. The shipment of wood from our benefactors are stuck at the port of Cebu.

According to the officers from CDRC, our wood must be approved for release by the government. They said that documents have been submitted to several agencies to approve. But since the first shipment arrived in December until the second and third ones in February and May this year, until today (July 28), the wood donated by our benefactors in Germany are locked up in their crates.

Meanwhile our homes in Jaro are skeletal structures. We are afraid that they will never be finished. So now we have gathered to ask for help, as one voice. Help us get our new homes and hopes for a better life!