OUR government officials should be ashamed of themselves for miserably failing to restore normalcy in communities devastated by super typhoon Yolanda that left more than one million people homeless six months ago.
In a joint congressional hearing, our lawmakers were told that only 50 houses have so far been constructed for the estimated one million families who have to bear the protracted hardships and untold sufferings in many evacuation centers and school houses to date.
According to National Housing Authority General Manager Chito Cruz, the government is faced with the lack, if not at all the absence, of public land where, for instance, his agency is tasked to construct some 220,000 housing units.
Out of the more than P100 billion that Congress appropriated for the rebuilding of Yolanda-stricken areas, only P3.7 billion has been spent, but still leaving many residents struggling to get back to their own feet. What is even ironic and lamentable is the fact that, in the aftermath of the typhoon Yolanda, there was an overwhelming outpouring of local and international support to help the devastated communities rise above the rubbles of the disaster.
What ails our government? Has it lost it sense of urgency and decency? Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson provided us the answer as he admitted that there were two Cabinet secretaries who are sleeping on their jobs and have been sitting on the approval of the comprehensive master plan for Yolanda reconstruction.
As a result, our people are fast losing their patience and trust in this administration because the sheer volume of works to be done remains huge, and often times mired with partisan politics and bureaucratic gridlock, if not at all corruption.
The Aquino administration has a lot to learn from the examples of other private individuals and companies which set aside their own personal differences and vested interests to be able to extend aid to those who were displaced by Yolanda.
We need leaders who could work fast and make decisive action on behalf of the Yolanda survivors, leaders like the Gawad Kalinga which is constructing around 300 houses as part of its goal to build 20,000 units for them.
We need leaders like SM Group which poured P100 million to Yolanda-stricken communities, including 200 houses in Bgy. Polambato, Bogo City as well as additional 1,000 more in Palo, Leyte, Samar and Panay Island.
We need leaders like those religious organizations and other private individuals and volunteers who unselfishly gave up the comforts of their homes and went to the disaster areas to extend a helping hand.
We need leaders like them, not politicians. We need doers like them, not talkers.
The post ‘HAVE YOU NO NAME, SIR?’ appeared first on Remate.
