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By Rosemarie Francisco and Karen Lema MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines faces perhaps the most daunting reconstruction task since the 2004 Asian tsunami as it figures out how to rehouse four million people made homeless by a typhoon - and for President Benigno Aquino, the stakes couldn't be higher. Aquino, under fire for a slow start to relief efforts and a somewhat aloof response to the scale of the disaster, is now feeling the strain from a resurgent scandal involving lawmakers' misuse of public funds. Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the central Philippines on November 8 killing at least 4,000 people and reducing most of what was in its path to matchwood and rubble. A successful reconstruction effort, costing as much as 250 billion pesos ($5.8 billion) according the latest government estimate, would make Aquino a hero.
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