The government is back at work, and markets are laden with fruits, pork, fish and bread. Shredded trees are sprouting new leaves. Above all, the sounds of a city getting back on its feet fill the air: the roar of trucks hauling debris, the scrape of shovel along pavement, the ping of hammer on nails.
One month since Typhoon Haiyan, signs of progress in shattered Tacloban are mixed with reminders of the scale of the disaster and the challenges ahead: Bodies are still being uncovered from beneath the debris, while tens of thousands are living amid the ruins of their former lives, underneath shelters made from scavenged materials and handouts.
Tacloban administrator Tecson Lim says a sense of “normality” has returned and has begun talking of a silver lining: “The opportunity to transform our city into a global city, a city that is climate change resilient and that can perhaps be a model.”
Rebuilding will take at least three years, and success will depend on good governance and access to funds. The Philippines is currently posting impressive economic growth, but corruption is endemic and the country remains desperately poor, with millions living in slums.
National and regional authorities had ample warnings and time to prepare before the storm hit early on the morning of Nov. 8, but evacuation orders were either ignored or not enforced in a region regularly hit by powerful typhoons.
Haiyan plowed through Tacloban and other coastal areas, leaving more than 5,700 dead and more than 1,700 missing throughout the region. About 4 million people were displaced.
However, one couple in the town had other things on their minds on Saturday.
Earvin Nierva and Rise el Mundo exchanged vows at a church and then posed for photographs in a hard hit area of the city.
“This gives hope to people that we can rise up,” Elmundo said.
Pumping his fist, her new husband said: “Rise Tacloban!”
The Philippine government has paid for food-for-work and cash-for-work emergency employment for thousands who lost their livelihoods. The workers clean up the twisted houses, trees and others debris that still cover large parts of the city and receive about 500 pesos (US$11) a day.
Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julia Bishop separately flew to Tacloban yesterday to check on typhoon assistance provided by their governments.
Onodera stooped and exchanged high-fives with children who lined up to greet him at a Tacloban school that was turned into a shelter for 365 displaced families.
Bishop chatted with patients at a field hospital set up with Australian help outside Tacloban’s ruined airport and pledged to increase her country’s financial aid.
On Friday, the World Bank approved US$500 million in budget support that the Philippine government can use for short-term recovery and reconstruction. It is also providing technical assistance in designing housing, hospitals, schools and public facilities that can withstand super typhoons, strong earthquakes and severe floods.
Lim said a development master plan soon to be completed calls for people living in areas prone to storm surges to be relocated farther inland. He said that while some residents might resist moving from their former neighborhoods, many others now were receptive to relocation after surviving the typhoon.
The storm led to a breakdown in government services and there were scenes of chaos as hungry survivors broke into shops, homes and gasoline stations.
Lim said 19 of the 26 government agencies in the city were now operating and about 15 percent of the city has electricity.
“Psychologically, there is a sense of normalcy,” he said.
Thousands are already beginning to rebuild in areas that might well be designated not safe for human habitation.
Priscila Villarmenta was cradling a granddaughter while male relatives were fixing metal sheets and plywood to her destroyed home, which was torn apart by one of four cargo ships that were swept into her neighborhood by a tsunami-like storm surge triggered by the storm.
“We are again starting our livelihood and building our house,” she said.
Rebuilding after the typhoon is colossal work for an impoverished country that is still recovering from a recent earthquake that hit a nearby island and a Muslim rebel attack that razed houses in clashes in September in the south. Haiyan destroyed or damaged more than 1 million homes.
At Tacloban’s San Jose Central School, Roberto Fabi has been stuck with his family and 25 other displaced residents in an overcrowded room since they fled there as the typhoon roared and swept away their coastal home and everything in it.
“Nothing was left, not even a tiny thing,” Fabi said.
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
POINTING FINGERS: The two countries have accused each other of firing first, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday warned that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war,” as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis yesterday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported that one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also