STATEMENT: On the 2nd Anniversary of Typhoon Pablo Disaster

Statement of Panalipdan Southern Mindanao
On the 2nd Anniversary of Typhoon Pablo Disaster
December 4, 2014

Two years after the disaster that was Pablo, survivors are yet to recover from its economic and environmental impacts. Many communities in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental haven't felt the P10 billion rehabilitation project supposedly implemented by the BS Aquino government.

Worse, many pabahay residents have to suffer from poor housing conditions; many houses were built without proper foundation which thus spells further disaster. In Cateel, people have to shell out some amount to avail of the pabahay project.

Many families in New Bataan, Compostela Valley were forced to be dislocated from their farms just to avail of the housing project. In short, the rehabilitation effort of the Aquino government were effectively used as a tool to drive away residents from their communities.

Without the much needed help from the government, many Pablo survivors have realized their collective potential to rise up from the rubbles of Pablo. With the aid of disaster response and rehabilitation NGOs and concerned individuals and organizations, they were able to establish farms for their food security. They also adopted Rainforestation projects which aim to restore the forest and rehabillitate the environment that was damaged due to cash-oriented illegal logging. Aside from that, they found their strength in uniting against the entry of foreign large-scale mining.

Pablo survivors under Barug Katawhan together with support groups in Davao City stormed the DSWD once again on the 2nd anniversary of Typhoon Pablo. They also held protest in front of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to call for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995 and the end to the foreign-owned large-scale mining operations in Pablo-stricken areas.

They are joining the kampuhan in Davao City towards the International Human Rights Day on December 10 in order to highlight the various human rights violations they suffer under intensified militarization, which was a reaction to their opposition to the large-scale mining operations and their persistent move to expose the criminal negligence of the Aquino government towards disaster survivors.

More photos here.