OPENING REMARKS OF PARR Secretary Panfilo M.

Lacson
Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation & Recovery (PARR)
Presentation & Approval of Provincial & City Rehabilitation Plans
30 May 2014
Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu

Greetings.

We Filipinos are known for possessing some unique positive traits. We are MAABILIDAD, for being skillful
and hardworking; MAPARAAN, or resourceful because we find solutions to challenging problems and
maneuver well in difficult situations. Typhoon Yolanda exposed yet one more of those unique traits -
Filipinos have become widely known, even among the community of nations as resilient, and with an
amazingly high spirit for survival - we are mas MATATAG than any race in this world.

I believe that these inherent Filipino traits will equip us to bounce back and then forward from the world-
record breaking calamity named Haiyan aka Yolanda, and rebuild our country better.

Let me tell you a little story -

At the time of my appointment as PARR last December, we had to operate with practically no manpower
and zero financial resource. Needless to say, we were largely incapacitated. In fact, Usec Danny Antonio
and I were a team of 2 tasked to rebuild badly devastated 171 cities and municipalities along the Yolanda
corridor. We had no office or tables. But because we are Filipinos, we are MAABILIDAD at MAPARAAN.
We have evolved into at least a functioning office complete with staff and volunteers. It has been a
continuing mantra in our office that we will make do with what we have. Modesty aside, I can say without
hesitation that OPARR has made progress in carrying out its mandate with very little resources.. Paging
Secretary Butch Abad.

Levity aside, Sec Butch, if you haven't noticed, hindi po ako pala hingi at pala daing sa aming mga
pangangailangan.

Compounding our problems is the common challenge that any government anywhere in the whole wide
world faces - bureaucracy, red tape and cumbersome laws inherent in our system of governance, even
those relating to disaster response. Now, this is understandable since, at the time our laws were crafted,
the Philippines and whole world had never before experienced an onslaught as devastating as Yolanda.

But because Filipinos are resourceful, MAABILIDAD and natural survivors, we were able to find a way to
fast-track our rehabilitation and recovery efforts by adopting a bottom-up and piecemeal approach,
empowering LGUs to formulate their respective rehab plans, complemented by a cluster framework
approach to come up with action plans and programs to validate the local government plans. Thanks to
the President, his Excellency approved this approach in principle during our special cabinet meeting last
May 16. So far, rehabilitation plans have already been submitted and presented to the cabinet cluster
groups by Cebu, Leyte, Western Samar and Tacloban city.

That is why we are here today and I have high hopes that this will be our final vetting day - at least as far
as the 4 LGUs I mentioned earlier.

I also hope that from this day on, we will continue to receive from the rest of the LGUs - Iloilo, Aklan,
Antique, Capiz, Biliran, Negros Occidental, Palawan and the rest of the Yolanda affected areas so we can
continue to be on track in rehabilitating all those areas.

Speaking of plans, what actually makes a plan good, if we may ask ourselves - if only to serve as our
guidepost when we decide today to sign off on the rehabilitation plans that we will see and hear later, a
good plan must, first, support a goal and pursue an objective; it should be realistic and implementable
and never inflexible. Its progress must be measurable. A plan is a roadmap to a destination, which is its
defined goal.

Our objective is to alleviate the suffering of the survivors in the most expeditious but efficient manner. Our
goal is to build back better, so the typhoon prone areas will be better prepared for future disasters as
powerful if not stronger than Yolanda, which we now regard as the new normal.

Before I end, I want to give special mention to another trait which has continued to touch me and the rest
of my staff throughout our experience since we became OPARR (Office of the Presidential Assistant for
Rehabilitation and Recovery). The Filipino trait of being MAPAGMALASAKIT or giving genuine empathy
and care. MALASAKIT is what I continue to see to be crucial in supporting rehabilitation efforts by the
public and private sectors as they go above and beyond their calling, even beyond their means, such as
those who have given and continue to give financial and material donations; or those who are directly
involved in rebuilding homes, classrooms and providing means of livelihood, even those who worked for
months without pay, like most of my staff at OPARR.

And, I will never forget the members of the cabinet who spend extra working hours in our pursuit of a
common objective - to help in the noble cause of helping uplift communities and ease the pain of the
typhoon survivors.

Let me end with this challenge - let us continue to be MAABILIDAD, MAPARAAN, MATATAG, but most of
all, let us not lose our MALASAKIT for our kababayans who direly need our help now, not a year, not 6
months, not even a month from today.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!