LBP TACLOBAN 3WKS AFTER THE STORM

November 29 my trip to Tacloban was unimaginable ever there were so many 1st in my travel experience.  It was the 1st time I traveled  alone  on aerial, fluvial and terrestrial domains of the Visayas in just one day. It was also my first to eat just bread and water for a day in Tacloban.

The flight to Tacloban City was fully booked so I opted to go via Cebu. The plane left Manila at 4:45 A.M for a 1 hour flight to Mactan Cebu then by sea on a fast craft to Ormoc City, Leyte for 2& 1/2 hours and a van to Tacloban for another 2 hours.  

Upon arrival at Ormoc Port, the devastation of Yolanda was felt.  Most structures are roofless while others are tattered or disarrayed although there were few ones lucky enough to be spared.  The mountains are brown with trees uprooted and lying everywhere. When the van approached Palo, Leyte about 1 & a half hour after Ormoc and just 12 km away from Tacloban, the scene was very depressing and the destruction was truly overwhelming that I kept myself from crying.  Thinking how the people made it to survive in the face of the most powerful typhoon in terms of wind and water was  really a miracle.

Three weeks had passed, the place is still terrible but then much better than day one or 1st week after Yolanda.  A lot of foundations-domestic and foreign gave support in the restoration of Leyte. LandBank Tacloban is located few meters facing the sea.  According to Annie Abella an LC Employee whom I talked to while viewing the devastated Tacloban on the 2nd floor of LBP, the water from the sea was brought to the land when Yolanda came. The place around LandBank was  a huge garbage of debris with dead bodies lying everywhere.  But it is much better now where thousands of people are hired to do the cleaning and clearing of Tacloban paid daily at P500.00 each or cash for work financed by the Tsu Chi Foundation. I was really awed by the compassionate relief of this Buddhist foundation.   

Our LandBank Building is a newly constructed building in Tacloban.  It was inaugurated only this March 2013.  The supertyphoon left the building roofless with shattered glass walls. Many evacuees went in the ground floor of the branch to seek shelter and were luckily saved.  Despite the looting in most parts in Tacloban, our building was saved because of the presence of evacuees and police who secured its safety.

At present, the restoration is ongoing half portion with roof already but without ceiling boards.

LandBank Tacloban building used to house our Regional Office in Region 8. 2nd floor is shared by the Lending Center and Agrarian Operations Center. The ground floor houses our Branch and Accounting Center.  Tacloban Branch is the 1st bank to open on November 19.  The branch used wireless connection for its transactions. 4 Mobile ATMs from head office were sent to support our banking operations.  There are no landline, no power, and no internet connections yet and  celphones are the only means of communication.