en. Challenges in delivering critical childbirth and newborn care services were specially great in Tacloban and Leyte.
Meanwhile, Oxfam warned that 200,000 survivors in coastal areas are at risk of worsening poverty because the government plans to relocate them to safe settlements without adequate consideration as to how they will later earn a living.
Professor Carl Ramota visited the Palo campus of the country’s premier state university and reported the deplorable conditions in the school:
Six months after typhoon Yolanda decimated its campus in Palo, Leyte, there is still no clear plan for the rehabilitation or relocation of the UP School of Health Sciences. While nearby structures are already being reconstructed, the Palo campus remains in ruins. Worse, the asbestos roofing in the old SHS building has not yet been removed, posing a threat to the maternity clinic beside it and other residents.
Months after Yolanda, Leyte is still a tent city. I've cried buckets since I arrived, hearing the survivors’ stories just breaks my heart.
Government statistics placed the number of dead at about 6,300. But the figures could be higher because dead bodies are still being retrieved in the region. Al Octaviano, a resident of Leyte province, said that many dead bodies are not being reported to authorities:
I personally retrieved 14 bodies — two children, four women, the rest were men. I tied them together so they would not be washed away by the sea, but you know when bodies are immersed in sea water, they fall apart. There are also many bones buried in the mud of the shallows, but people don’t report these anymore.
For its part, the government acknowledged the criticisms of its relief work but warned against politicians who are exploiting the situation to advance their political agenda:
…we are likewise cynical of those whose agenda includes misleading our people to believe that government is not sensitive enough to alleviate the suffering of the survivors. We detest politicians and political groups who strive to put blinders in exploiting the vulnerability of victims of Yolanda.