Tacloban gets P315.5M from DSWD for housing assistance

By: 10 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Social Welfare and Development announced Tuesday it has turned over P315.54 million to the Tacloban City government for distribution as emergency shelter assistance to more than 30,000 families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Super Typhoon Yolanda last year.

The 31,554 families who will be given the emergency shelter assistance are not among the beneficiaries of the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, who will also get similar shelter assistance.

Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez received the funding from Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera and DSWD Regional Director Nestor Ramos on Tuesday, the press statement said.

The statement reported Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman as saying families whose houses were damaged would receive P10,000 while those whose houses were destroyed would get P30,000.

The Tacloban City government is to distribute the shelter assistance within the week so the beneficiaries could start fixing their houses, the DSWD said.

Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program will also receive shelter assistance on Wednesday, with Soliman and former senator Panfilo Lacson, presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery, leading the distribution.

More than 1,000 families will receive the shelter aid by batches for easier distribution and liquidation of the funds, the statement said.

The DSWD used the database of the conditional cash transfer program to identify beneficiaries of the shelter assistance.

The United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Program used the same method in identifying beneficiaries of their unconditional cash transfer programs worth P51.05 million and P262.434 million, respectively.

Soliman noted that social protection programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction were are helpful in the aftermath of disasters.