Rehabilitation team to meet with foreign donors

MANILA, Philippines - The government’s Public-Private Reconstruction Commission will start meeting with the donor community on Monday to seek pledges for the reconstruction of areas severely affected by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

The meeting would set the stage for the actual Philippine Development Forum (PDF) to be held in the last week of November up to the first week of December.

“There will be a preliminary meeting with (the) donors on Monday,” declared Rosalia de Leon, officer-in-charge of the Department of Finance’s International Finance Group.

De Leon said the meeting would be led by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, along with businessman Manuel Pangilinan as chairman of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation.

“We will discuss ways for reconstruction. And come the end of November, we will be having an expanded dialogue with donors for the reconstruction activities,” De Leon said.

De Leon added this year’s PDF agenda would be different from the usual assessment of the achievement of Millennium Development goals. Instead, it would be a “pledging session” with donors such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other lenders, she said.

The government would have to assess how much would be needed for reconstruction and to finance the four major projects lined up by the Reconstruction Commission.

The public-private sector rehabilitation panel formed by Malacañang to undertake the reconstruction of typhoon-damaged areas has lined up four priority projects.

This would include de-clogging operations, medical treatment of flood victims, repairs of school buildings and setting up rain gauges for early warning for heavy rainfall.

The Reconstruction Commission said projects would require public and private sector coordination and funding.

The government estimates the damage caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng has reached roughly P30 billion to P36 billion.

On the other hand, the reconstruction commission has yet to announce when repair works would start on major infrastructures destroyed by the typhoons.

President Arroyo created the Public Commission headed by the Secretary of Finance supervising the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

Besides rehabilitation and rebuilding, the key tasks of the commission include tapping the resources of the private sector.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated some 200 tons of relief goods for typhoon victims in the country, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported yesterday.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said Saudi Arabia donated some 8,415 pieces of blankets, 4,984 mats, 1,190 tents, 110 boxes of assorted clothes, and some 2,780 boxes of various food items.

“We are fortunate that in the midst of disasters and calamities we face year after year, we can always count on the support of friendly countries such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help us in our difficulties,” Cabral said.

The DSWD said the relief goods came in addition to the medical equipment donated by Arab business tycoon Prince Al-Waheed Bin Talal Al Saud that arrived last Oct. 23.

The donation would be distributed to the families affected by storm Ondoy, most of them are still in various relocation sites in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Ondoy dumped the heaviest rains in more than 40 years in Metro Manila and neighboring areas last Sept. 26, killing nearly 300 people and affecting some 2.5 million people.

On the other hand, typhoon Pepeng triggered massive flooding and landslides in Central and Northern Luzon.

State weather bureau spokesman Nathaniel Cruz said the names Ondoy and Pepeng would not be used anymore and be deleted from the rotating list of tropical cyclones striking the country.

Cruz explained the names Ondoy and Pepeng so as not to remind the people of the death and devastation left by the two storms.

Local typhoon names are “decommissioned” if they leave more than P1 billion worth of damage or casualties that reach more than 300.

Pagasa had previously deleted “Frank” from the storm list.

Typhoon Frank killed almost 1,000 people, including the passengers of the ill-fated M/V Princess of the Stars that sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon on June 21, 2008.

Other destructive typhoons that were removed from the list were “Milenyo” and “Reming,” which hit the Philippines in 2006.