The church’s recovery and rehabilitation program amounts to about US$50 million, writes Ronald Reyes for ucanews.com, Asia’s Catholic news website. 

It is no surprise that the efficient response from the church has been compared with how the Philippine government implemented post-Haiyan rehabilitation programs.

Almost five years after the disaster, the government response has been beset with issues of corruption and alleged substandard construction of houses for survivors.

When asked what has made the church projects more successful than government initiatives, Father Virgilio Canete of Palo Archdiocese pointed to the absence of “red tape.” The priest said government “procedures on procurement demand a lot of signatories.”