A year after ‘Pablo,’ housing woes linger

A TYPHOON “Pablo” survivor waits for the turnover of government-built houses in ceremonies that were canceled because of President Aquino’s absence. KARLOS MANLUPIG

For a farmer who lost his house to Typhoon “Pablo” a year ago, Johnny Agulitas does not find himself doubly blessed for having two shelters to go to nowadays in Baganga town, Davao Oriental. In fact, it presents a dilemma for someone who earns only from occasional work at a coconut lumberyard.

At night, Agulitas, his wife and their three children sleep inside a bunkhouse built by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Barangay Ban-ao. During the day, they occupy a still unfinished dwelling awarded to them by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), just meters away from across the highway.

The family has been staying in the bunkhouse since February, or two months after their house on the opposite side of the road was destroyed by Pablo. Just recently, they were awarded a core shelter by the CRS, which consists of a roof, floor and frames. The “skeleton design” was intentional as it was supposed to encourage owners to work for the completion of the core shelters.

Agulitas, 44, hardly earns enough to buy plywood or “amakan” (woven bamboo) as wall material for his new home. “The farm was destroyed by Pablo,” he says, adding that he finds only on-call work as a helper in an enterprise, processing felled coconut trees.

“The money I earn is not even enough to feed my family,” he says.

Housing materials

This may explain why his family lives in two houses.

“At daytime, when it’s really hot, we stay there,” Agulitas says, pointing to the CRS shelter, which is partly covered by a blue tent. “At night, when it’s really cold, we stay here,” he says outside his room at the DSWD bunkhouse.

Agulitas proposes a simple “solution”: Remove the plywood of the bunkhouse and use it at his core shelter. “If the DSWD  gives us the wall of the bunkhouse, then we will have walls for our new house,” he says.

The DSWD bunkhouse has 10 rooms with coco lumber frames, plywood walls, an iron sheet roofing and a concrete floor. It costs P550,000 to build.

At least 23 such structures have risen in the typhoon-devastated towns in the  provinces of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley. The DSWD has funded the construction of 39 more by contractors at a unit cost of P650,000 amid allegations that the contracts were tainted with graft and overpriced, and the housing materials were substandard.

Temporary shelter

Recently, the government announced the building of more than 100 bunkhouses in Tacloban City to serve as temporary shelter for people who had lost their homes to Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Eastern Visayas. This time, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will handle the project.

Tacloban will have 10 bunkhouses, Palo town in Leyte province, 10; Basey, 11, and Marabut, 18, both in Samar province; and Guiuan, 26, Hernani, 30, and Giporlos, 3, in Eastern Samar province.

According to Rolando de Asis, DPWH director for Eastern Visayas, each bunkhouse will have GI sheets, plywood walls and a concrete floor, with an estimated cost of P959,360. It will have 24 rooms with a floor size of 7 x 28 meters, and common cooking and bathing areas.

The proposed bunkhouses are similar to those erected in Cagayan de Oro City for survivors of Tropical Storm “Sendong,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said.

“Had they given us the materials, instead of building this bunkhouse, we would have constructed our own home,” Agulitas says. He would only need P30,000 to put up a “simple, complete house” from nothing.

Darwey Clark, parish priest of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in the coastal village of Lambajon, raises the same sentiment. “The DSWD should have given building materials instead of constructing bunkhouses,” he says.

From the debris

He recalls that immediately after the typhoon struck Lambajon (population: 4,000), residents went around looking for whatever they could save from the debris. “Then people started building shanties, rebuilding their homes,” Clark says.

“It did not matter if they had multicolored roofs because of the different GI sheets that they were able to gather from the debris,” Clark says. “All they wanted was a place to stay.”

During calamities, people need not have carpentry and masonry skills as these can be easily acquired, the priest says. “It’s in our nature—build a shelter.”

Clark insists that instead of building bunkhouses, the government should provide hand tools, such as hammers and saws, and materials, such as lumber, GI sheets, nails and plywood or amakan. “You give them these things and in no time they will start rebuilding,” he says.

Food for work

The rebuilding of homes should be made through a “food for work” scheme, with residents provided a steady supply of relief while they are involved in construction.

“People will work on building homes for food. They will help others rebuild their homes if they know that their families will not go hungry because the government is providing them with relief,” Clark says.

The priest is speaking from experience. His church, or what was left of it after Pablo, had become a hub for relief and medical supplies for months. Local and international nongovernment groups and private individuals went to his parish to extend assistance.

The CRS, with the help of Japanese engineers, built typhoon-resilient houses in Lambajon, urging beneficiaries to help in the construction as their “contribution.”