The Government and Yolanda:  

A lot of money,
impact too little too slow
AS DONATIONS continue to pour in from both local and foreign individuals and institutions for post-Yolanda
recovery and rehabilitation efforts, the Philippine government has also loosened its purse strings and released funds
to aid the typhoon-struck communities. 

Indeed, when the nation marked the deadly super typhoon’s first anniversary on Nov. 8, 2014, the Department of
Budget and Management (DBM) trumpeted its efforts, saying it had already released a total of PhP52.06 billion to
bankroll relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction projects and programs for Yolanda’s survivors.
 
Such massive funds outflow, Budget Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad said in a statement, showed that “the national
government has made great strides this past year to help the people affected by (Yolanda), especially in Leyte and
Samar.”
 
“We had to ensure,” he said, “(that) there were enough funds to support the rescue and reconstruction efforts and
that these funds were released as quickly as possible.”
 
By now, the destruction wrought by the strongest typhoon ever recorded in modern Philippine history has been well
documented. In its wake, Yolanda had left at least 6,200 killed, 28,600 injured, and thousands more still buried in
the rubble. Some 550,900 houses were destroyed and 589,400 more were damaged. 
 
In all, almost 16 million people were affected in 591 towns and 57 cities in 44 of the country’s 80 provinces. These
figures are based on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (NDRRMC) situational report
dated April 3, 2014.

P167-billion bill
 
The Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan or CRRP, consolidated by the office of then Presidential
Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (PARR) Secretary Panfilo ‘Ping’ M. Lacson, has envisioned a PhP167.9-
billion funding requirement to rebuild the affected areas until 2016. 
 
It’s a whopping figure, yet coming up with the needed money seems to be surprisingly easy. 
 
Some 58 foreign governments and the European Commission alone have already given some PhP29.84 billion or
US$ 667.5 million as of October 2014, according to donor documents. Combined with the total releases from the
public coffers for Yolanda as of November 2014, the funds and donations add up to PhP81.89 billion in all.
 
The massive sum, distributed directly across the nation, would have meant that every one of about 100 million
Filipinos should have obtained P819 each. The same total, applied to civil works contracts, would have secured the
nation a total of 75,000 classrooms, 80,000 health centers, 45,000 public markets, 7,800 kilometers of concrete
roads, according to the standard contract price for civil works projects of the Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH).
 
At an assessment forum on Yolanda held in November 2014, Abad also guaranteed that the balance of the
PhP167.9 billion would be made available in the 2015 and 2016 budgets -- PhP80.31 billion and PhP38.93 billion,
respectively, which in fact means a little bit more that the projected expense. 
 
“Money is not a problem,” Abad said.  “The problem is the assessment, preparation, execution, and delivery (of
aid).”
 
Abad could not have described the situation more accurately. When PCIJ sat down to unpack and parse the
government’s numbers, the big data did seem impressive. The small data, however, tended to belie the
government’s claims that public funds have so far been released fairly, quickly, and efficiently, and for all the right
purposes, to the communities ravaged by Yolanda.
 
Aid workers and government officials themselves interviewed by PCIJ admit that the flow of disaster aid has been
caught up in bureaucratic maze, tainted by partisan politics, impaired by uneven absorptive and technical capacities
on ground, and hobbled by the disconnected and inchoate operations of the concerned national and local
government agencies.