Javier turns disaster into blessing

JAVIER, Leyte -- Unlike Tacloban where the debris from super typhoon Yolanda still clutter the city, reminding one of so much suffering and grief, Javier town, 73 kilometers away, has cleaned up and is moving on.

Javier is a 16,000-hectare fourth class municipality with a population of 26,000. When Yolanda lashed through the town for four hours, its strong winds peeled off roofs and toppled walls of 90 percent of the houses, and cut down coconut trees that were the source of livelihood of the people, its mayor, Leonardo “Sandy” Javier, said.

But 10 days after Yolanda hit, residents had cleaned up their town so that when one visits Javier today, reminders of Yolanda can only be seen on rooftops covered with tarpaulins, cement bases of what were once houses, crumpled galvanized roofing of gymnasiums, and cut down trees.

“We knew Yolanda would be a horrific typhoon, so we prepared for the worst,” the mayor said.

“We prepared thousands of hard boiled eggs and noodles to tide residents over until outside aid came in,” he said

The mayor also had residents who refused to evacuate from danger zones brought to the town police station. We told them they were being brought in for "attempted suicide", figuring that by the time they discovered that there was no such crime, the typhoon would be over, he said.

The town recorded only three deaths - one fell asleep in his house, another went out to save a pig and one went to pick up coconuts as the typhoon was in progress, and all died after being hit by falling debris, he said.

After the typhoon, Javier who is president of the Municipal Mayor League of Leyte and of the national league, worked for 36 hours non-stop leading a team in bulldozing the debris blocking the 73-kilometer highway from his town to Tacloban.

“We worked without food, driven by pure adrenalin and courage to get the highway cleared so aid could come in,” he said

“It was horrible, we found about 1,000 dead bodies along the highway and my own driver lost 19 members of his family to Yolanda,” the mayor said.

Residents wrapped the bodies in sheets, plastic, and whatever they could get hold of. Some bodies were lined along the highway, while others were placed in front of churches for their relatives to identify and pick up.

In his town, residents and the town government cleared up the debris brought on by the typhoon in 10 days, he said. “I told them that since they were getting relief goods, I would appreciate it if they clean up even just their backyards, Javier said.

Javier, who is the owner of Andok’s Corp. that has a chain of restaurants nationwide, and is on his second term as mayor, has been the cheer leader and motivator for his people.

Applying his entrepreneurial skills, he drew donations to his town and is starting new livelihood opportunities for his people.

“There are two sides to a coin, one side is disaster and the other is a blessing…In this situation there is no place for the negative, it should always be the positive in order to move on,” he said.

“We experienced devastation never ever experienced anywhere in the world before, but it is also an opportunity to start again and build a new town,” he said.

Yolanda has brought aid to Javier town from around the country and the world, as new sources of livelihood are rising that are giving residents larger incomes than in the past.

Before the typhoon, the per capita income of the Javier town residents was P4.65 a day. Now there are livelihood projects that allow residents to earn as much as P200 a day, he said.

Javier has set up a hollow block-making livelihood program to meet the reconstruction needs in the area. Town residents working at the factory will earn P200 a day, he said.

Also to be launched soon in the town is the production of coco twine for ropes, he said, adding that they are already producing ginger tea, coco sugar, coco vinegar, and necklaces, buttons, lamp shades and hats out of coco shells.

The mayor said he and Negrense Volunteers for Change president Millie Kilayko are also setting up a livelihood project for residents of his town. Residents will be trained to make fibreglass bancas to be given by NVC to fishermen-victims of Yolanda , he explained.

NVC is also providing 6 months to three year old children in Javier town with a six-month mingo (mongo, rice, malunggay) feeding program. It is a nutritious and delicious porridge to keep young children healthy, he said.

To boost the health needs of his constituents, the mayor has also started a massive backyard vegetable planting campaign. Aside from growing their own food needs, he said, residents can now earn from P400 to P800 a week from the sale of their vegetables.

The town has a water purifier for potable water, which was donated by the province of Pampanga. It also received commitments from Habitat for Humanity, Assisi Foundation, and Phinma Foundation for the construction of 500 new houses for displaced residents.

A Dutch group is also donating a primary health care facility, while the Department of Health is constructing a new rural health center to replace the one destroyed by the supertyphoon.

“We have seen the best of the Filipino and the world. There has been an unimaginable outpouring of support and good deeds. It has been amazing,” he said.

The mayor who began building his Andok’s fortune when he was 35 with a small stall along West Avenue in Quezon City, said he is used to starting from zero.

And he is doing the same now as he creates a new town by turning disaster into blessing.* Carla P. Gomez

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Source: Google Alert - "Leyte"