Storm victims: No transfer until we see Pope

AP FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Families displaced by Typhoon “Yolanda” are staying put in tents until January instead of heading for halfway houses in the northern part of the city because they want to be with Pope Francis, local officials said.

“They themselves do not like to be transferred at this point. They told us that they want to see first the Pope before they will be transferred,” said Mayor Alfred Romualdez.

Francis is expected to arrive at the city’s Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport on Jan. 17, 2015, and visit nearby Palo, another typhoon-devastated town, passing through San Jose District, where the families occupying tents are found.

The district is the area hardest hit by Yolanda in the city.

The national government had asked the city government to transfer those still living in tents and bunkhouses to transitional or permanent shelters on or before the first anniversary of Yolanda on Nov. 8.

Transitional houses serve as halfway homes for survivors who lost their houses.

Romualdez said the city government could not force the families to transfer to the transitional houses despite having a deadline to do so.

At least 800 families need to be transferred to New Kawayan, Sto. Niño and Tagpuro, where the transitional houses had been built. The city social welfare and development office, however, cited a lower figure of 528 families from San Jose.

“Almost every day, there are families living in tents that are being transferred,” Romualdez said. “I don’t think we can meet the deadline,” he said.

The city government started to move families in July. Currently, more than 200 families are staying in transitional houses made of bamboo, nipa and coconut lumber and each has a floor area of 18 square meters.

Romualdez said he wanted the complete transfer of families living in tents since the rainy season had already started.