Finally, storm survivors to move out of school

TACLOBAN CITY—Annabele Pido and her four children have been staying in an old Gabaldon-type building at San Fernando Central Elementary School (SFCES) for the past 10 months since Super Typhoon “Yolanda” pummeled this city last year.

Her house at Barangay 52 in the Pampango area was destroyed by storm surges spawned by the typhoon on Nov. 8, 2013, two days after she and her neighbors heeded the call of the government to leave and take refuge in a nearby school.

A total of 33 families, or 190 people, have sought shelter at SFCES, occupying their own “space,” walled in by “lawanit” plywood. On Oct. 7, they will finally transfer to their “transitional” houses in Barangay Utap, also in Tacloban City.

“We have been looking [forward] to the day we will leave this school and move to a better site or perhaps a home where we will feel secure and really feel that we live in a house,” Pido said.

The resettlement site was provided by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which rented more than 9,000 square meters of land owned by the family of Tacloban City Councilor Evangeline Esperas. The families, however, may stay for only two years, or until a permanent site is built by the city government in Barangay New Kawayan, according to Vilma Horca, CRS team leader for shelter.

Horca said the transitional houses complied with “international standards, with needed facilities like water and power to be provided to the beneficiaries.”

Put up early this month, the structures have areas of 18 to 24 square meters, the bigger ones to be given to families with more than seven members, she said. Each unit cost P76, 000 and is made of bamboo matting, coconut lumber and galvanized iron sheets. All are provided with latrines.

CRS is targeting 117 families from 17 barangays to be relocated to the site.

It has agreed to pay the lot owner P4,400 a month for the next two years. Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas