Lacson: I just discovered there is a tiny islet that has not been reached yet

‘ISLAND LEFT OUT’

An island inhabited by around 4,000 persons,  located in between the northern tip of the island of Cebu and Bantayan Island has been overlooked by the national government when they prepared the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan.

This was the admission of Yolanda (Haiyan) rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson last Saturday, exactly a year after the world’s strongest typhoon that hit land in recorded history smothered wide swaths of land across the Visayas.

Kinatarcan Island, also known as Guintarcan Island is located 25 kilometers west of northern Cebu and 12 kilometers from Bantayan Island. It is part of Sta. Fe town located in Bantayan Island. It took a direct hit from supertyphoon Yolanda which made its third landfall at 10:40 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2013 in Daanbantayan town.

Upon learning that the island was not included in the comprehensive recovery plan signed recently by President Aquino, Lacson said he immediately sent a staff to check the island.

“I sent a coordinator to go there and conduct a census since it’s easy to cover 4,000 residents. We have to know their needs,” he told reporters during an event in Bogo City yesterday.

Lacson said he can try to squeeze in the census results into the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRP), an 8,000-page document outlining the government’s commitment to implement over 25,000 rehabilitation and recovery projects worth P167.9 billion.

But if he fails to make the insertion, Lacson said he would ask private donors to pitch in to meet the islanders’ needs.

¨I am sure meron pa ring naiiwanan kasi hindi naman pwedeng makita lahat eh. So, tulungan na lang. (There are some who are really left out. So let us just help each other) While we are here, I am sure meron tayong mga kababayan doon, sinasabi, ´nasaan na ang gobyerno? (there are people there saying ‘where is government?) Walang presence,´¨ he said.

“That’s how difficult the task is. We are not almighty na makikita namin lahat (that we can see all). Hanggang ngayon, a year after, I just discovered na may tiny islet na di pa nararating (that has not been reached yet),” he said.

He said he has already brought the matter to Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III for coordination.

Lacson currently heads the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR).

Secretary Lacson was among the guests during the turnover ceremony of 200 houses from SM Cares, the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Prime, to 100 families in barangay Polambato, Bogo City, whose houses were destroyed by Yolanda.

´Not left out´

FIELD OF HOPE. Keren Lavi (right) and Naomi Golad of Mifalot, an Israeli humanitarian organization, teach football to 300 schoolchildren. The football training program is one of several methods used to help children recover from the trauma caused by Yolanda in northern Cebu. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

But Task Force Paglig-on chief Baltazar Tribunalo said he believes the islet is not really ¨left out.¨

Kinatarcan, Tribunalo said, is just like any other barangay in other local government units, struggling in its recovery efforts due to delays in the release of funds.

¨It is not hard for government aid to penetrate local government units if the funds are available,” Tribunalo told Cebu Daily News.

But he said Lacson might not have heard of Kinatarcan until last Saturday because he didn´t expect the secretary to memorize all the islands and islets of Cebu.

He said all these islands and islets of Cebu were required to submit a CRRP to the province, which was forwarded to the OPARR.

Tribunalo said  the strength of government intervention lies in the strength of leadership in the local and barangay levels.

¨The province and the OPARR are not implementers. We are only facilitators,¨ he clarified.

He did admit, though, that aid to islets in the province will take time reaching the areas due to logistical problems.

¨But I don´t believe the island was not included in the plan. I don´t believe the island was left out. We’re just waiting for the funds to be downloaded,¨ said Tribunalo.

Even while government intervention seemed absent in the past year, Tribunalo said that non-government organizations (NGO) have been aggressive in their efforts to help Sta. Fe, and the rest of the Yolanda-affected areas in northern Cebu, to rise again.

Houses on the islet were almost totally wiped out in Yolanda´s wake on November 8, cutting off access and communication to the mainland for some time.

It was only after more than a week that the island residents received their first set of relief goods, not from the government, but from a ship of the HMS Daring, a ship of the British  Navy which was on a Yolanda humanitarian mission.

According to accounts by the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, “With no means of communication, the residents of Kintarcan island used the debris of the disaster and formed the word “HELP” in an open ground hoping that a passing aircraft will notice it.

“Luckily, a chopper of the British Navy ship that flew by the island sighted the call for help of the residents.

“After verification, the British Navy ship sought permission from the Philippine Navy for the conduct of relief operations in the said island.”

This happened on Nov. 18, 2013.

More than 200 persons benefited from relief goods consisting of high-energy biscuits, canned goods and shelter kits, as well as medical services and medicine.

Residents of the island have also received aid from international non-government organizations like Save the Children and the HeartsAfire religious group based in Sarasota Florida.

According to a report of the Sarasota-based Herald Tribune dated Dec. 16, 2013, HeartsAFire mobilized $200,000 in aid – including food, water, clothing, building materials and medical supplies – to storm-ravaged islands of Kinatarkan and northern Cebu.