Bunkhouse families insist on seeing Pope

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

PALO, Leyte, Philippines—Dressed in manila paper bearing cut-out pictures of Pope Francis, a group of families staying in bunkhouses gathered at the Government Center in Barangay Candahug here on Monday to protest their transfer to a permanent resettlement site.

“We want to see the Pope. If the government will insist on transferring us, this will deprive us of our only chance to see him,” said Virgie Sellario, 48. She and her seven children have been living in the bunkhouse since March.

Sellario lost her father Antonio, 62, son Elias Jr., 14, and their house in Candahug when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) caused storm surges that devastated Palo town, Tacloban City and other neighboring towns in Leyte province on Nov. 8, 2013.

Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in Tacloban on Jan. 17 next year. He will say Mass before proceeding to Palo.

More than 20 national and regional offices are located in Candahug. A portion of the Government Center property was used as a site for the bunkhouses of families that lost their houses due to Yolanda.

The protesting families are original residents of Candahug and Barangays Baras and San Fernando. They said their transfer would deprive them from seeing the Pope, though the bunkhouse community of 250 families, or 1,290 people, in Candahug has not been identified as a possible papal route.

“We want to have an audience with the Pope,” read one of the letters placed in a box by the families.

Some letters, however, expressed resentment over the purported negligence of the local government in helping them.

“We felt neglected by our local government. Since this month, we have not received our supposedly monthly food ration,” said Josefina Tampil, 55, a mother of four children.

Since they started to live in bunkhouses, the families had been getting one sack of rice, noodles and sardines from the local social welfare office, Tampil said.

She described as “very far” the resettlement site in Barangay Caloogan that was identified by the municipal government under Palo Mayor Remedios Petilla. The place is more than 5 kilometers away from the bunkhouses.

Petilla said the families must be moved, considering that permanent houses have already been built for them.

“We were informed, too, that once we transfer to Caloogan, we will no longer be entitled to financial assistance worth P30,000,” she added. The amount is provided to families whose houses were destroyed due to Yolanda.

The Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Foundation will also construct more than 200 prefabricated houses for families staying in bunkhouses.