CALD Returns to Haiyan-Devastated Areas

The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) returned to Haiyan-devastated areas in Eastern Visayas, Philippines on 2-4 May 2014.  With participants from Cambodia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines and Taiwan, the observation trip was organized as part of CALD’s continuing effort to provide assistance to typhoon victims and to promote greater awareness of climate change impacts.

The official programme started in the morning of 2 May, when the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Environmental Protection (OPAEP) led a briefing on post-Haiyan disaster management and reconstruction plan.  In the said briefing, Secretary Neric Acosta drew attention to the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects initiated after Haiyan, their impacts, and other possible interventions that the typhoon victims need.  A short tour of the National Museum of the Filipino People and an OPAEP-hosted lunch followed afterwards.

In the afternoon, the participants flew to Tacloban City – considered as ground zero of typhoon Haiyan.  After dinner, Mr. Victor Julius Ferrer of Operation Compassion provided a briefing on Transitional Shelters Project, which is the major beneficiary of donations collected by CALD.  Through this initiative, CALD was able to support the construction of 2 clusters of transitional houses, with a cluster having 10 houses each.  The briefing was followed by the assembly of 1,000 educational kits for the schoolchildren of the municipalities of Tabon-Tabon and Mayorga, south of Tacloban City.

On May 3, the day began early with the Freedom Run organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Philippine Office, where around 1,000 runners, most of them affected by Haiyan, participated.  This was followed by the briefings of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).  In both briefings, representatives of these UN agencies praised the resilience of the typhoon victims, who showed extraordinary determination and courage amidst the devastation.  This stance, according to UNDP and UNOCHA officials, was never before seen in comparable disasters in Aceh, Indonesia or in Haiti.

The day ended with the distribution of educational kits in the two chosen municipalities, and with a symbolic home-building activity in the Municipality of Mayorga.  Vice Governor Shefferd Tan of Southern Leyte, a member of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, hosted the dinner that night.

The highlight of the trip was the lunch on 4 May, where CALD participants had the chance to visit the beneficiaries of CALD-sponsored transitional shelters.  The lunch, which was done in “boodle fight style”, was a first for many of the participants, who opined that they appreciated the spirit of camaraderie and unity that goes with the feast.

“This mission yet again to Leyte showed us what truly is indomitable in the Filipino spirit. So many of those we met lost property, livelihood, homes and loved ones. But we were witness to such inspiring grit and resiliency in the face of unspeakable tragedy. With sustained help from the government, private entities and organisations like CALD, the people of Eastern Visayas will no doubt rise, recover and prevail — a living testament to the belief and simple exhortation: ‘Kung Kayang isipin, kayang gawin'”, said Secretary Acosta, who also heads the CALD Climate Change Committee.