LILOAN, Southern Leyte — Almost a year after typhoon "Odette" (international name "Rai") devastated Southern Leyte, coconut farmers in the province are still in quandary as to when the rehabilitation program to recover their lost livelihood starts.

Raul Cordova, a 49-year old farmer-fisherman from Pintuyan town, can only shake his head when asked if they have already recovered their livelihood. "We haven't even started replanting coconut for the trees that were felled during the typhoon," he said.

Cordova said he is focused on his cassava farming and marginal fishing to bring food on the table. When there are tourists who want to go on whaleshark watching, Cordova checks on the schedule if it is his turn to serve as the tour guide.

Rehabilitation of the once flourishing coconut industry of Southern Leyte is going painfully slow prompting Southern Leyte Second District Representative Christopherson "Coco" Yap to call the attention of the Philippine Coconut Industry regional office to shed light on the problem.

PCA regional manager Joel Pilapil said that as of this December, PCA was able to acquire 110,000 coconut seedlings — delivered six months ago — as the initial stock meant to replace the 3.5 million coconut trees that were destroyed by the typhoon. He said some of the seedlings have already been distributed to interested individuals and local government units while most are still in their seedling farm in Maasin City.

Farm clearing

Pilapil said PCA is still focused in the farm clearing to remove felled coconut trees until the end of the year so that the trees will not get infested with rhinoceros beetles that can also affect surviving trees.

"We are doing a debris clearing. We cannot start replanting, intercropping under coconut and fertilizing to hasten the recovery of the surviving coco trees until the farms are cleared," Pilapil said.

He said the PCA has deployed a total of 240 chainsaw operators to the different municipalities to help in the debris clearing until before Christmas. "Once they are cleared it is the only time that they can start replanting," he told Daily Tribune in an interview last Thursday.