Lawmakers launch project to aid typhoon evacuees

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers in Metro Manila launched yesterday “Project Yakap (embrace)” to provide temporary shelter and subsistence to victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda who have fled to the capital from their devastated communities.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development, said hundreds of victims from Tacloban City and other parts of the Visayas arrive daily at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

Metro Manila local officials and representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have been at the airbase to attend to those fleeing the calamity-hit areas.

Castelo said the 30-member Metro Manila bloc, in coordination with mayors, would set up temporary shelters with provisions for food and water.

“They could be sheltered in some tent cities in Metro Manila, or they could be deployed in spacious barangay halls, or whichever is feasible,” Castelo said.

Project Yakap, he said, would ensure that relief goods reach the typhoon victims and their families and prevent any pilferage when in transit to Visayas.

Castelo urged businesses in Metro Manila to help in running the shelters and help in providing food and water to augment those to be given by lawmakers.

He said only the victims endorsed by the DSWD would be included in the project. They would be sent back to their communities of origin once their devastated communities have been rehabilitated, he said.