Creation of Visayan Commission for typhoon rehab sought

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone has called for the creation of a Visayan Commission to handle the long-term rehabilitation of the provinces ravaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

He said the proposed body should be an expanded version of the Mt. Pinatubo Commission that administered the rehabilitation of areas destroyed by the most explosive eruption of the 20th century.

“We are looking at a minimum of five frenzied years of rehabilitation work for the areas in the Visayas rendered into wastelands by Yolanda,” Evardone said in his privilege speech.

“I will seek the help of experts in drafting the structures of the Visayas Commission – from the mandate to its staffing (and) to its policy-making process,” he added.

He also said that while the commission is being finalized, Congress must support the call of Senate President Franklin Drilon to reconstitute the 2014 national budget to form a money pool that shall be a fund dedicated to rebuilding and reconstruction efforts.

“Congress should revisit the proposed 2014 General Appropriations Act (GAA) with an eye on realigning substantial funds for the relief and rehabilitation efforts in the affected Visayan provinces,” Evardone said.

“I’m sure we can find not-so-urgent items in the budget of various departments that can be re-channeled to a dedicated fund for the areas hit by recent calamities. For instance, there is an item of P100,000 in one department for the purchase of an electronic white board,” he added.

He noted that the dedicated fund should immediately rebuild shattered roads and bridges, public schools and hospitals, seaports and airports, seawalls and breakwaters.

With coconut farms almost wiped out, there should also be a program to fund farmers planting cash crops, from yellow corn to root crops.

He also said that there should be an enhancement of the rice program for the Visayan region.

Moreover, big business groups can transform themselves into co-partners of the government in the long-term rebuilding thrusts by adopting affected provinces or cities in the same way that they have been providing financial support to schools and sports, while smaller firms can adopt smaller towns or barangays.

The top 1,000 corporations can reengineer their standard corporate social responsibility programs to have a greater role in rebuilding disaster-stricken Visayas by helping bankroll the infrastructure buildup, development of businesses and creation of jobs in their “adopted” LGUs, Evardone added.  â€“ With Ding Cervantes