Palace challenged to speed up ‘Yolanda’ funding like DAP

The leader of the House independent bloc yesterday challenged Malacañang to accelerate the release of funds allocated under the 167.9-billion Yolanda Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan – just “as fast” as it implemented its controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Leyte Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez is counting on the Aquino administration to prioritize the release of rehabilitation funds to hardest-hit areas.

“The President has finally signed the master plan so that the funds can be downloaded, of course the procedures will take (a) few months to do so, we will ask them to fast-track it and do it as fast as they implemented

the DAP,” Romualdez said.

Last month, President Aquino approved the 8,000-page Yolanda master plan for the recovery of 171 Yolandahit cities and municipalities, nearly a year after the worst tropical cyclone struck the country. It seeks to “build back better” the lives of the Yolanda survivors.

Romualdez expressed hope that the national government could release funds to provide permanent shelters to tens of thousands homeless families in Tacloban City.

“They can accelerate the downloading of funds and there should be no excuse for the slow and non-release of funds,” he said, lamenting that the assistance being provided by the government is “not enough” to support the needs of the typhoon survivors.

Earlier, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez also lamented that only 200 units of the much-needed 14,500 perma- nent housing units have been built, so far and that half of them were constructed by private sectors.

He said that instead of prioritizing the rehabilitation of government buildings, the national government should provide permanent homes to Yolanda survivors.

“We have been bragging about a strong economy, but the people don’t get a piece of that,” he pointed out.

Secretary Panfilo Lacson, presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery, said the national government released a total of 51.9 billion for the implementation of the 18,400 projects included in the master plan.

Under the rehabilitation plan, 75.6 billion will be allocated for the resettlement of Yolanda survivors;

35.1 billion for the infrastructure projects; 30.6 billion for livelihood projects; and 26.4 billion on social services.