BAGUIO CITY?The Gawad Kalinga and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) have stepped in to help build homes for 299 families displaced by the landslide that hit the community of Little Kibungan in La Trinidad, Benguet, last year.

Lawyer Floyd Lalwet, counsel of the Episcopal Diocese of North Central Philippines, said the churches and Gawad Kalinga reached out to Mayor Gregorio Abalos Jr. in July after the town government said it could no longer wait for funds from the national government to supplement the cost of resettling the victims of Typhoon ?Pepeng? that struck the Cordillera in October 2009.

This month, the local government has been building a road leading to a three-hectare lot that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had segregated from the Benguet State University (BSU) compound.

No gov?t funds

Abalos is also striking a deal to empower Gawad Kalinga, a group involved in helping the poor build decent shelter and communities, to coordinate the resettlement, which was estimated to cost up to P96 million.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said the promised resettlement funds for typhoon victims were still unavailable. He asked communities ravaged by the typhoon to seek alternative solutions or avail themselves of housing loans because of the government?s meager resources.

Binay chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) that oversees shelter agencies like the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund).

The slide that buried more than 30 houses in a mountainside community in Barangay Puguis on the night of Oct. 8 last year and which killed 76 people has become the vivid image of Pepeng?s wrath in the Cordillera.

Families, including many children, were asleep at 10:30 p.m. when heavy rains dumped by Pepeng triggered the landslide that buried them. It took days to recover many of the dead.

Danger zone

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau had advised Malacañang last year that the area had already been classified as perilous, but previous local administrations were unable to enforce a public safety protocol.

The displaced residents of Little Kibungan have been living in tents set up by outreach groups at the BSU compound.

Lalwet said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has promised P7 million to help in the resettlement efforts. The NCCP has remitted P400,000 to the local government, while the Episcopal Church pledged to raise P500,000 for the project.