DPWH drops construction of last two bunkhouses

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA—The Department of Public Works and Highways is no longer going to build the last two of 250 bunkhouses it had planned to put up for survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda in Eastern Visayas.

The dec ision was relayed Wednesday to the Inquirer by Rolando Asis, head of the DPWH office in Region VIII, who said the contractor cited “scarcity of construction materials” as the main reason for scrapping the plan to build the last two bunkhouses, which were to be constructed in Western Samar province.

He did not identify the contractor, who is from Mindanao.

Asis noted that the construction of the temporary shelters was delayed by bad weather and the lack of construction materials, which had to be shipped to the disaster area from Metro Manila, Bicol, Mindanao and other parts of the Visayas.

Asis said in a text message that all 248 bunkhouses that have been completed had been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and that 245 of them were already occupied by typhoon victims who lost their homes when the typhoon struck Eastern Visayas on Nov. 8.

According to Asis, 53 of the bunkhouses are in Tacloban City, 46 in Ormoc City and 48 in the municipality of Palo, all in the province of Leyte. Sixty-three other bunkhouses were built in Eastern Samar and 38 in Western Samar, he added.

Each bunkhouse, which consists of 24 units with a common bathroom and kitchen, cost P836,000, officials said earlier.

Meanwhile, three more private contractors have waived payment for six bunkhouses they built in Tacloban City for humanitarian reasons, saving the government more than P5 million pesos.

Elizabeth Pilorin, head of the DPWH’s Public Information Division and Stakeholders Relations Service, identified the contractors as Goldrock, A. R. Lustre and Kings Builder and Development, all based in Region IV-B, or the Mimaropa region.

Earlier, the firm R. D. Interior Junior Construction, which has offices in Quezon City and Tuguegarao City in Cagayan, waived the P1.6 million payment for two bunkhouses it built in Barangay Tacuranga in Palo town.

Pilorin said a number of contractors had heeded a call by Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson not to charge overhead costs and excessive profit margins.

Late last year, the department lauded several construction and engineering supply companies for their prompt response to the agency’s appeal for help in road-clearing operations in the affected provinces. The DPWH said equipment belonging to private contractors, mainly from Metro Manila and Bicol, outnumbered what was deployed by the government in the disaster area.