Tacloban City – It is slowly becoming “business as usual” in the city, according to Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman.

Secretary Soliman, who has not left the Visayas since day one of the disaster operations on November 8, observed that some big grocery stores, bakeries, water refilling and gasoline stations, hardware, vulcanizing shops, and banks have already resumed operations.

She also added that buses and public utility vehicles have started to ply major thoroughfares.

The Secretary recalled that a day after the typhoon, people were wandering aimlessly on the streets.

“Today, we can see residents still on the streets but are now cleaning their surroundings,” she said citing her observations.

Positive Attitude

Secretary Soliman also shared that attitude plays an important role in rebuilding their lives.

She referred to the evacuees who somehow forgot their predicament as they were glued on the Pacquiao-Rios boxing match being projected in two big screen projectors set up by the Philippine Navy and SKYcable.

“Attitude is important. The people should derive inspiration from people with strong fighting spirit. There is still hope here in Tacloban,” the Secretary said.

Leonardo Abobo, Jr., a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program whose family survived the typhoon, possesses such positive attitude.

Recuperating from a recent operation, Leonardo has expressed his readiness to reconstruct their house and start a livelihood.

Children are coping, too

Children, too, are somehow slowly getting over their traumatic experience.

At the Sto. Niño SPED Center, one of the 37 temporary shelters here, cousins John Mike Sera and Anthony Alo enjoy riding the swing.

This is the exact opposite of how they were a few days after the typhoon.

Their mothers recounted how their children became quiet for sometime and would cry upon seeing rain or water.

In an interview with the two boys, John and Anthony enthusiastically shared how they survived the frightening typhoon.

Anthony narrated how he tightly held his brother to keep him safe.

“S’yempre unahon ko nak bugto. Importante kinabuhi nak bugto kaysa han ak mga kalapati (Of course I had to protect my younger brother. His life was more important to me than my pet doves),” Anthony said.

The children are now back to being young and hopeful. They said they wanted to be soldiers someday so they could help other people.

Cash-for-Work

To complement this return to normalcy of the residents, DSWD is now implementing the Cash-for-Work (CFW) Program for the clearing operations.

CFW is an intervention for disaster victims where they are given cash in exchange of doing community work such as clearing roads and canals of debris.

Secretary Soliman emphasized that it would also help victims if they have some cash now especially that life here is slowly getting back to normal.

“With their cash, they can now buy the food they want and the things they need,” Secretary Soliman pointed out.