Heavy rains delay bunkhouses setup

MANILA, Philippines—Bad weather in Eastern Visayas has been blamed by the Department of Public Works and Highways for the delay in the construction of temporary shelters for the survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda in the region.

Rolando Asis, director of the DPWH office in Eastern Visayas, on Sunday said “bunkhouse construction activities have been hampered by the continuous rains.”

Another nine bunkhouses were built last week, bringing to 135 the total number of temporary shelters constructed for typhoon survivors, he said.

The government had planned to put up an initial 222 bunkhouses in the provinces of Leyte and Eastern Samar.

So far, bunkhouses have been built in the following typhoon-ravaged areas: Tacloban City, 41; Palo town and Ormoc City, both in Leyte province, 22 and 31, respectively; Basey and Marabut in Samar, 10 and 6, respectively; and Eastern Samar, 25.

Only 122 temporary shelters were completed before the Christmas break. Two of them, both in Barangay (village) Candahug in Palo, were turned over to typhoon victims by President Aquino during his visit to the area on Dec. 22.

But Asis expressed confidence the construction of the remaining 87 bunkhouses “would be finished by the end of January,” weather conditions permitting.

Additional bunkhouse projects in Eastern Visayas would depend on available resettlement sites to be provided by local government units, he said.

Last week, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson hit back at critics of the agency’s shelter program for typhoon survivors, saying there were “a lot of people claiming to be experts, who are self-styled critics and many more who are plain crazy.”