Tag: leyte

Rehabilitation of #Haiyan devastation report card: Philippine Gov’t FAIL

November 11, 2014 benign0 10 Comments

Even way back on the 24th October this year, Ibon Foundation had already highlighted in a report the unimpressive performance of the Philippine government in the rehabilitation of the disaster zones left by Haiyan. The report quotes numbers from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) which show that the region…

Civics, Development, Economy, Government

What caused the 6-month delay in the release of funding for repair of schools destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan?

June 2, 2014 benign0 13 Comments

It’s always the same, year in and year out. The opening of the new school year in the Philippines never fails to make headline news. The figure now is twenty million. That’s the number of Filipino school kids who trooped to their classes today — a number just short of the population of Australia. Their…

Development, Education, Government

Typhoon Haiyan in hindsight: Romualdez could have been set up for blame had PNoy been a bit shrewder

February 18, 2014November 8, 2021 benign0 20 Comments

So it’s been 100 days since the disaster wrought by super-typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda). A one-hundred day anniversary is an arbitrary point following a seminal event where the average talking head observes the tradition of dipping into that fountain of useless wisdom called hindsight to tell a story. Here we go, then. First, the facts….

Civics, Government, Media, Politics

Vhong Navarro and Tent Cities as Top Stories? I guess not.

February 6, 2014January 29, 2015 Ms. Mike Portes 12 Comments

Surely, the Philippines hasn’t rebounded from the ravage of the Zamboanga stand off and the calamities that came, one after the other, but why is it, that the Vhong Navarro argumentum ad misericordiam hogging all forms of media while minimal attention is given to those in the South of the Philippines who are still living in…

Culture, Media, Society, The South

What Vhong and Deniece teach us about religion and the news

February 3, 2014 benign0 22 Comments

A lot of people remain baffled by the attention that the Vhong Navarro and Deniece Cornejo show attracts. They cite that there are more important things going on — the Disbursement Acceleration Program imbroglio that President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III is entangled in, the plight of Leytenians still reeling from the carnage wrought by…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Media, Religion, Society

Emergency powers for President Noynoy Aquino: Like giving a blowtorch to a child

January 12, 2014 benign0 55 Comments

Members of Congress are reportedly proposing the granting of emergency powers to Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III to “give him more control over power generation in the country.” To that, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone also added the country’s commuter woes as further justification saying that development of solutions to these problems “can…

Development, Economy, Government, Lifestyle, Politics

Substandard bunkhouses reportedly built for Haiyan victims: Where did the rest of the money go?

January 7, 2014December 22, 2021 benign0 148 Comments

Philippine government thievery seems to remain alive and kicking, this time stealing victims of super-typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda) blind! Reports are emerging of widespread delivery and building of substandard facilities to house the victims all over the devastated region. Safety and sanitation concerns have reportedly been raised by field officers of the Camp Coordination and…

Civics, Crime, Government, Politics

Prospects for full rehab of Leyte province dim despite Justin Bieber visit to Tacloban

December 11, 2013 benign0 41 Comments

There has been no shortage of good intentions and resources to match these as far as efforts to get people residing in the disaster areas left by super-typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda) back up on their feet. The question that has become more pressing in recent days has been whether a recovery can be sustained and…

Civics, Culture, Development, Government, Politics