The answer to the question of quickly rehabilitating the northern Cebu towns lashed by supertyphoon Yolanda rests not on the local, provincial or national government alone.
Quick rehabilitation is a matter of coordination between the three levels of government and of leaders with the office of the Presidential Assistant on Rehabilitation and Recovery (Parr) headed by Panfilo Lacson.
One cannot help but empathize with local leaders like Medellin Mayor Ricardo Ramirez who decried the slow intervention of the national government for the affected areas.
Lacson would do well to considering moving to an earlier date instead of March his plan to visit Cebu’s north and assess the situation there.
That should assuage leaders like Ramirez who voiced the survivors’ need to see with their own eyes the national government’s solicitude for them.
This would also boost the morale of nongovernment organizations and other groups.
It would be heartening for them to see that they are not being left to do the long work of rebuilding out of a misplaced belief in their or Cebu’s capability to bounce back on its own.
Take a line from the book of Pope Francis, who from the faraway Vatican made the Catholic Church’s care felt in Tacloban City simply by sending Robert Cardinal Sarah and Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto to be with the people there.
In the meantime, having heard in yesterday’s meeting at the Capitol Social Hall from the rehabilitation czar through lawyer Karen Jimeno and Center for National Budget chairman Joseph Rañola, mayors like Ramirez must now take steps beyond venting.
Surely, three months is more than enough time for barking at supposedly inefficient higher ups and barking is quite counterproductive considering that the only way to source money and other forms of assistance is through sober coordination with them.
Rañola told the mayors there is nothing Herculean in sourcing aid from the national government.
“Each of you should coordinate with the Parr for your requests and rehabilitation plans. We will then forward the request to the President,” he said.
How much do Cebu’s northern locales need?
Have their mayors forwarded detailed requests for aid to the President through the Parr?
Are the requests sufficient in form and content in the eyes of the Department of Budget and Management?
If not, the mayors must do their homework. It is long overdue.
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