By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Thousands of disaster survivors from across the Philippines converged Friday on Tacloban City to mark the first anniversary of the landfall of Typhoon Yolanda.
The survivors -- from Leyte, the island most affected by Yolanda, as well as the southern island of Mindanao, the site of violent storms the previous two years -- are protesting at the "continuing negligence, government corruption and anti-people rebuilding plan" following the deaths of more than 8,300 and displacement of tens of thousands, protest group Anakbayan said in a statement.
Anakbayan said around 20,000 people are expected to join protests Saturday in Tacloban City, the regional capital of Eastern Visayas on Leyte island and the city hardest hit by Yolanda.
Vencer Crisostomo, chairman of Anakbayan, accused President Benigno Aquino III’s government of "crimes against the disaster survivors."
He said: "No notable relief and rehabilitation has been done, calamity funds are being pocketed by government officials while big corporations are set to benefit from the ‘rebuilding’ plans."
The group further accused the administration of aggravating victims’ suffering by preventing rebuilding and "transferring them to overpriced substandard bunkhouses, so that Aquino’s rich friends… can grab the land for their business."
The late distribution of the relief goods further intensified survivors' suffering, Crisostomo added, alleging that most food relief distributed by the government was "rotten and spoiled."
Citing data from the IBON Foundation, a Philippine development NGO, Crisostomo said 364 houses had been built a year after the tragedy.
He said: "That is only 0.03 percent of the 1,200,000 houses destroyed by the storm. Only 213 classrooms were built out of the 19,648 destroyed. Aquino should definitely explain to the people where the billions for reconstruction went."
Aquino has been criticized for not visiting Tacloban City for the anniversary and it has been claimed this is due to personal animosity towards Tacloban's mayor, Alfred Romualdez, the Rappler news website reported Friday.
Romualdez is from the same clan as Imelda Marcos, whose husband, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, jailed Aquino’s father, subsequently assassinated in Manila as he returned from self-imposed exile.
The devastation caused by Yolanda in central Philippines on Nov. 8 last year was preceded by Typhoon Pablo in 2012 and Tropical Storm Sendong in 2011, which both hit Mindanao.
Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman has acknowledged that much work remains to be done to repair the damage caused by Yolanda.
In an interview with the Philippine Information Agency, a government body, she said: "By year-end, none of the remaining survivors in all Yolanda-hit areas will be staying in tents and makeshift [accommodation]."
The Philippines is located on the Pacific ‘ring of fire,’ making it prone to typhoons and other natural disasters.
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