Return to Tacloban: One year on from Typhoon Haiyan's devastation

It has taken Lorna Mabag a year to find the strength within her to make the 45 minute journey from her home.

She knew it would be the most painful, gut wrenching journey of her life. One that would tear her apart. And so it proved.

She is on her way to visit the grave of her young children, all swept from her clutches by a massive wave caused by the strongest typhoon ever to hit the Philippines. It struck on November 8 last year.

They were torn from her in an instant, five of them aged between two and twelve. Her desperate attempts to cling on to them were futile in a storm of unprecedented force.

The children were later found dead by their father. Their bodies taken away with countless others by recovery teams overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

They were dumped unceremoniously in a mass grave outside the city of Tacloban, and it is towards that burial ground that we now drove nearly 12 months after the fateful day.

“I had to come here,” she told me. “If I don’t come to mark the anniversary of their death, then I will never come, but it is so hard - so hard”.

Once there, she and her husband walk slowly towards the large patch of land at the back of the more formal memorial garden.

It is unkempt, unremarkable and largely unmarked land. Were it not for a few candles and dying flowers scattered haphazardly across the area you wouldn't know it was a grave at all.

Lorna and her husband knelt to light their own candles. Five of them, the flames battling to survive in the strong breeze and gentle rain.

They said their prayers with tears in their eyes and hurt in their heart. And they left. They sat in silence holding hands all the way home.

I first met Lorna three days after the typhoon. We found her in the partially destroyed hospital in Tacloban, in the third floor chapel that had become a makeshift maternity unit.

She had a black eye, other bruising and cuts to her face and she was clutching a baby she had given birth to 24 hours after the storm that so devastated her life and her city.

A year on I have returned to see how Lorna and the thousands of other people brought to their knees by Typhoon Haiyan are coping. And the answer, by and large, is not well.

I found Lorna in the same fishing village the hurricane force winds blew away that day. Like others, she has rebuilt her shack of a home with driftwood, old sheets of corrugated iron and aid agency tarpaulin.

But it leaks, there is no electricity, no sanitation, no running water and no hope. She cries as she tells me they were promised compensation and new homes away from the exposed shoreline, but have received nothing from the government. The village is now more of a shanty town.

All they have had is rice and vegetables from local charities. Lorna was poor before the typhoon but she and her family survived. Now it is much, much worse, she tells me.

Her husband, Bonifacio, lost his three-wheel pedal taxi in the storm and has had no job since.

She cries as I ask her what the future holds for Ronnel, their one-year-old son born in the storm. “Not good,” she says. "Not good.”

Lorna is not alone in her suffering. In fishing villages, or barangays, throughout the San Jose area they are trying to recover from wrecked homes and destroyed livelihoods.

Many of the fishermen are back to work, in new boats provided by charities and private donors. But others are not so fortunate, having lost the animals or vehicles on which their survival depended. They feel neglected and abandoned.

The local mayor says he feels their pain and suffering, but blames central government in Manila for the failure to provide promised funds.

Alfred Romualdez says he is angry and frustrated and suggests party politics are putting people’s lives at risk.

He is the nephew of Imelda Marcos, one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Philippine politics.

The government is run by a member of the rival power family here, the Aquinos. It is a murky world in which the truth is hard to fathom, though the president denies any bias in the way aid money is dispensed.

But all is not lost here. There is another, much more optimistic picture emerging. Tens of thousands of people are being helped back on their feet by the enormous efforts of the international aid agencies.

The British public alone gave a record £95 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which then distributes the cash to the big aid organisations.

I saw that money being put to great use in rural villages whose great misfortune it was to lie directly in the path of Haiyan.

Efren Mariano is a Filipino construction expert, working for CARE International, who is transforming the way villagers rebuild their homes. I watched as he supervised locals building new houses with new strengthening techniques and metal bracing.

“They will be more resistant to storms and give greater protection,” he told me. "The British public can be very proud of what they are helping achieve here."

It is a success story reinforced by Rachid Boumnijel, who also works for CARE.

As we travelled from village to village where new homes are under construction, he told me that thousands of families, who had lost everything in the storm, were getting real help to rebuild homes and livelihoods.

“And all this is a direct result of the money given to the DEC by British donors. It would not be possible without this money and it is making a real difference. There really is a positive story to tell here," says Rachid.

And he is right. We met many families who through international help and their own resilience and resourcefulness are getting their lives back on track.

But it is impossible to ignore the continued suffering of families like Lorna’s.I go back to visit the local Catholic priest in San Jose, Father Hector Hamil.

Just after the storm we spoke in front of his wrecked Church. The roof was torn off, the wooden pews broken apart, ornate windows smashed and there was mud and debris everywhere.

He told me then that the community would endure great suffering and psychological trauma. He was not sure they would recover from such a catastrophe.

"I can’t say that with any certainty at all,” he said with great sadness.

A year on, the Sunday morning mass was being held in a church with new pews, a new roof and new optimism.

“With the help of God and the international agencies we are pulling through,” Father Hector said.

Given the hardship of those still living in tents and ramshackle temporary homes all around his church it is surprisingly optimistic.

But he too says the government in Manila is being very slow to respond. “I just think they could be doing more, more quickly. I hope that it is not politics that is preventing the money coming through."

“My message to the politicians is that they must remember they were elected to represent the whole country not just part of it."

It is a powerful warning from a man of a church that has great influence here.

A year ago Tacloban was a broken city. It was a place of death and disease and despair. It was, in short, a desperate place to be.

Coming back I have been surprised at the renewal. The streets are packed with the bustle of life, traffic and noise. The markets are teeming with fresh fish, fruit and vegetables. There is a stunning renewal underway here.

But before we left I went back to see Lorna. With her sister, she was helping to cook a huge pot of pork and vegetable stew.

Within minutes dozens of hungry small children were standing in line with bowls in hand waiting for their one good meal of the week.

It was Lorna’s turn to help provide the lunch, paid for every Sunday by a local charity.

She dispensed the food with a smile. But for Lorna and so many other families here, the grief at the loss they suffered this time last year is just beneath the surface.

And it is a grief compounded by a feeling of abandonment. They needed help a year ago and they still need help now.

Hopefully they will soon be able to rebuild. It is far more uncertain whether they will ever truly recover.

Watch Mark’s report for On Assignment, Wednesday 10.40pm on ITV1.