As one walks toward the center of Barangay Marcilla in Coron, Palawan, one can witness the light of hope embodied by the enthusiastic shoveling and hammering of local carpenters. They are rebuilding their own public school which had poorly stood against Yolanda’s rampage in November 2013.

Alongside the school is light illuminated from the newly installed roofs of several households in the community.

The Emergency Shelter Assistance, an initiative under the Angat Calamianes Project of Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), Christian Aid, and Palawan Advocates for Good Governance and Empowerment (PAGE), facilitated the rehabilitation of Marcilla by providing each household with PHP 5,000 consumable fund in order for the residents to reconstruct their houses.

The process was community-driven. As stated by Teodorico de Guia, the Field Coordinator of PAGE, “Mga tao ang naging bahala kung anong gusto nilang materyales para sa kanilang bahay” (The people were the ones responsible for choosing the materials for their houses). PAGE purchased the construction materials based on material requests from the barangay.

To facilitate this process, the barangay office submitted a master list to PAGE as the basis for distribution and record-keeping. A total of 90 households benefitted from the shelter assistance in Marcilla.

There was no major problem that occurred in the implementation of this initiative except when project authorities had overlooked the material order of Kapitan Pe, the head of the barangay, during the initial round of distribution.

Barangay Marcilla is only one of the many coastal areas damaged by typhoon Yolanda in Coron, Palawan. However, as it negatively stood out as the second most damaged barangay in the area, the emergency shelter assistance is by no means sufficient for building-back better.

Further assistance is still needed. Concerns over water, sanitation, and agriculture still linger in the community. There is no existing water system. For instance, the people of Marcilla get their drinking water from a community faucet and they tap the local well for water for bathing and dish washing. Given this situation, it is hard to devise a centralized sewerage system. Irrigation for agriculture is also non-existent, leaving the community deprived of easily accessible fruits and vegetables.

Upon talking to the residents of Marcilla, it was evident that most of those who received assistance were generally satisfied and thankful to PAGE.

In addition, some residents of Sitio Palasan in the barangay felt that the shelter assistance program is way much better than the assistance given by the municipal government. This is because the latter aid seem to have been subjected to wrong channeling. Some residents believed that imported goods did not reach them but were instead brought somewhere else.

While chewing “nganga” (betel nut), Amancio and Avelino, both Tagbanuas, said, “Kapag imported, hindi para sa amin, pero kapag lokal para sa amin” (If imported goods, it is not for us, but if it is local, it is for us).

Notwithstanding all the struggles that the people are now facing, the light of hope remains in Marcilla. By empowering the residents through the effective provision of social services, improving decision-making, and formalizing a Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) plan at the municipal and barangay levels, it is never impossible for Marcilla to cope and build back better.

The emergency shelter assistance of PHILSSA is a good example of participatory and community-driven efforts on rehabilitation. With the support of the municipal government and the openness of Marcilla residents to outsiders who are willing to share resources and technical expertise, the residents become the active agents of their own empowerment.

This initiative may only be a starting point to a long series of activities aimed at rehabilitation in Marcilla and other parts of the Calamianes Group of Islands in Palawan. What stands out as a good practice is the initiative’s emphasis on the process of inclusion, where ideas and concerns of residents are placed at the center of aid provision.

Karl Patrick Mendoza is an MA Political Science student at De La Salle University. He is also an NSTP Facilitator from the same university. Apart from research, Karl is interested in joining volunteering projects most especially those that tackle disaster risk reduction, governance and development issues.