Next week: NEDA’s action plan for Yolanda survivors

MANILA, Philippines- The National Economic and Development Authority will submit to President Benigno Aquino III next week its short-term plan to rehabilitate and reconstruct the areas damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

In a press briefing on Friday, November 22,  Socioeconomic and Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the plan will outline how the government would address the basic social needs of typhoon survivors until the end of 2014: food, shelter, medicines, water, electricity, access to goods and services and transportation. ( READ: NEDA begins drafting post Haiyan rehab plan)

The plan will also identify the communities that need to be prioritized.

“It’s an action plan that will describe priority sectors and areas that we need to put in place, “ Balisacan noted.

The plan will also tackle how livelihood and businesses can be restored in the typhoon-stricken areas.

The government  is mulling the option of  providing farmers with short-term livelihood programs that would tide them over until the next harvest season, as well as seeds and planting equipment, the NEDA chief said.

The plan will also  include government’s intervention to help businessmen rebuild their busineses such as finding additional sources of capital for them.

“What we are doing is trying to come up with a short-term plan that outlines what we need to do immediately now as we are moving into the phasing out of relief operations and moving into recovery stage, “ Balisacan stressed.

He added there’s more work to do in terms of crafting long-term plans for these areas. “We will further flesh out that program to consider or include more short-term medium term and long-term actions and those will have to be (based on) more informed data,”  Balisican added.

On Friday, the government formed a task group that will focus on the comprehensive rehabilitation of areas affected by Yolanda. It is headed by Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, a former governor of Leyte, which was badly hit by the killer typhoon.

Yolanda, the world’s strongest typhoon on record, battered the Visayas region on November 8, wiping out entire towns, killing at least 5,000 people and displacing more than 4 million others. It damaged at least P12.65 billion in crops and infrastructure. 

Various estimates show government might need P100 billion to rehabilitate these areas. – Rappler.com