Beneficiaries to pay P1 per house

DAVAO CITY—New houses for P1 each.

Beneficiaries of a housing program for survivors of Typhoon “Pablo” in the provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental will soon move into their new homes after the National Housing Authority (NHA) completed and is set to turn over a total of 3,505 new houses to those who survived Pablo, which left a trail of devastation in Southern Mindanao in 2012.

Pablo killed more than 1,200 people and displaced at least 100,000 others.

Engineer Alfonso Borlagan, head of Task Force Pablo, said that of the 3,505 units, at least 2,967 were built in Compostela Valley.

Housing sites

These were in the villages of San Antonio, Maparat; Lower Ulip, Poblacion, and Sariwarain, Union, in Monkayo town; San Roque and Andap in New Bataan town; Barangay New Visayas in Montevista; and Barangay Kidawa in Laak.

Five hundred thirty-eight permanent housing units were also built in at least three villages of Cateel town in Davao Oriental.

Carolina Angel, officer in charge of the NHA in Southern Mindanao, said the houses were built in partnership with local government units in the two provinces.

Because the construction cost is government-subsidized, she said, each beneficiary has to pay only P1 for their new houses.

Angel said the houses, built using typhoon-resilient designs, had a floor area of 22 square meters and cost P220,000 each.

Ruin still felt

These formed part of the total 17,030 housing units earmarked for Pablo survivors in Southern Mindanao, according to Borlagan.

Borlagan said 6,000 units had been completed, but only 3,505 units were ready for occupancy.

The devastation left by Pablo is still being felt at least two years after the storm struck.

The Philippine Banana Growers Association (Pbgea) said at least 4,000 hectares of farmlands that Pablo had devastated had yet to be rehabilitated.

These farmlands, according to Pbgea president Anthony Alexander Valoria, belong to small growers who don’t have the money to rehabilitate their farms.

He said the inability of these small growers to rehabilitate their areas was taking a toll on the banana production in Southern Mindanao.

“After Typhoon Pablo, the banana industry is still struggling,” Valoria said, adding that most of the plantations that suffered damage are in Compostela Valley. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao