By Julius D. Mariveles
BESIDE BUNKHOUSE B1 are the ruins of an old church. Beside the ruins is a cemetery where the dead have long been resting, unmoved for decades, remembered every first of November.
Bunkhouse B1 is beside the highway and close to the sea in the town of Hernani, Eastern Samar province.
Some survivors here are doubting if anyone still remembers them, wondering when they would be finally moved from this temporary shelter so they can continue rebuilding their lives.
This coastal town of more than 8,000 residents is one of the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines). Ten months after the storm, survivors still live in bunkhouses, still facing the same problems of homelessness, joblessness, lack of food, and facilities that would ease the hardships of their lives. They were already poor to begin with, the storm made their lives harder.
“The legal rights of thousands of people to be informed and consulted are not being met,” it added. And, if the more than 200,000 typhoon survivors would not be given a chance to voice their needs and take part in the planning, relocation efforts are “likely to fail and push survivors deeper into poverty,” the Oxfam report said.
The international relief agency Oxfam, in a report released last May 2014 or six months after Yolanda struck, had already warned that poverty might increase in Eastern Visayas if the government fails to address several concerns over the relocation of victims of the super typhoon.
In its report titled The Right Move? Ensuring durable relocation after Haiyan, Oxfam noted that government plans have ignored “key elements” of sustainable relocation processes, and also lack technical guidance and support.
This is a quick look at the lives of survivors who continue to survive and live their lives the best they could in Hernani.