MANILA: The Philippine government plans to spend nearly $4bn to rehabilitate areas devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan last year, a senior adviser to President Benigno Aquino said yesterday.
Haiyan struck the central islands on November 8, leaving nearly 8,000 people dead or missing from its monster winds of up to 275 kilometres an hour that generated giant waves which obliterated coastal communities.
The storm tore across an area the size of Portugal, destroying or damaging 1.14 million homes and about P20bn worth of agricultural crops, according to government data. “There will be a massive infusion of resources.... We will have accomplished a lot between now and January,” Aquino special adviser on Haiyan rehabilitation Panfilo Lacson said as he unveiled the $3.9bn master plan.
Congress has already allotted P137bn to be spent on resettling displaced communities, rebuilding infrastructure, providing social services and creating job opportunities for the disaster zones, he said. The balance is to be funded by the 2015 and 2016 national budgets, and about 80 percent of the projects should be completed by the time the Philippines elects a new leader in mid-2016, Lacson said. He said part of the amount would be spent resettling about 200,000 families displaced by storm surges or living in areas deemed vulnerable to future disasters.
AFP
