P43M allotted for 610 Capiz homes

MANILA, Philippines–Funds totaling P42.7 million have been earmarked for the construction of 610 houses in Capiz and Iloilo provinces for survivors of Super Typhoon “Yolanda,” according to Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the United Nations Human Settlements Program, or UN Habitat, last week inked an agreement with the local governments of the two provinces in Roxas City, Capiz, for the project Post Yolanda Support for Safer Homes and Settlements.

Under the agreement, each house will cost P120,000, with the DSWD shelling out P70,000. The rest will be shouldered by UN Habitat.

The project will cover 610 houses in the towns of Roxas, Panay and Pontevedra in Capiz and Estancia in Iloilo, Soliman said.

Before the agreement, UN Habitat consulted with the residents on designing sturdy houses for the beneficiaries.

The local governments and the homeowners’ association will be in charge of monitoring the materials used and the actual construction of the houses.

The DSWD field office director, Ma. Evelyn Macapobre, expressed gratitude to UN Habitat for the partnership with the government to provide safer houses for the typhoon victims.

“Let us do this fast so that we will be able to bring the survivors in their own homes the soonest time possible. I already saw a good number of houses constructed here,” she said.

Human settlement officer Bernhard Barth from UN Habitat regional office for Asia and the Pacific stressed the importance of “building back better.”

“This partnership with the national government is important not only because of the sharing of resources but also in finding ways on how to rebuild houses in a cheaper, faster and culturally accepted way through the involvement of communities,” he said.

Capiz Gov. Victor Tanco urged the beneficiaries to take good care of the houses as he thanked the DSWD and UN Habitat for the post-Yolanda project.