2 years after ‘Pablo,’ execs admit shelter target unmet

THE RECENTLY opened shrine in Cateel, Davao Oriental to remember those who died and survived Typhoon Pablo on Dec. 4, 2012. NICO ALCONABA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

TAGUM CITY—Exactly two years after one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Philippines leveled two provinces in Southern Mindanao, thousands of survivors remain homeless, authorities admitted.

This despite billions of pesos that the national government had allocated for the construction of new homes for survivors of Typhoon “Pablo” (international name: Bopha) in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces.

“We’ve been making progress but the sheer number of houses that had to be built is great that we simply can’t finish it in two years,” said Compostela Valley Gov. Arturo Uy.

The province, which bore the brunt of Pablo in terms of deaths and destruction when Pablo struck on Dec. 4 two years ago, counted at least 27,000 houses destroyed across 11 municipalities, Uy said.

President Aquino, in his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) last year, said the government would build 53,106 houses in Pablo-devastated areas by 2014.

Mr. Aquino had ordered the creation of a task force to focus on the rehabilitation of the two typhoon-stricken provinces, with the national government allocating some P10 billion for the task.

National agencies, like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Housing Authority (NHA), are the main implementers of the housing program for the typhoon survivors.

For Compostela Valley, the government targets 15,000 on-site homes (areas where recipients’ houses used to stand), while 12,000 in areas away from where their former homes were.

Uy said it would be impossible to finish the shelter component of the rehabilitation program by yearend.

“We expect to be able to complete the shelters by June next year,” said Uy.

So far, the DSWD’s Modified Shelter Assistance Program (MSAP) has completed 1,600 houses in the province, way below the target of 12,000.

Priscilla Razon, DSWD Southern Mindanao director, cited several factors for the delay. Among these, she said, are rising costs of materials, a ban on government projects in 2013 (an election year) and bad weather.

In Davao Oriental, the MSAP is building 10,173 units with a budget of P1.3 billion. As of Nov. 22, at least 2,779 houses had been completed and turned over to beneficiaries in the hard-hit towns of Cateel, Boston and Baganga, according to the provincial government.

The NHA also built 10,000 duplex-type housing units in eight towns in the two provinces.

Lawyer Chito Cruz, NHA general manager, said the agency would build a total of 17,202 houses in the two Southern Mindanao provinces, with about 14,000 of the P220,000-worth duplexes to be built in Compostela Valley while the rest will be in Davao Oriental.

“We were asked to ‘build back better’ so (typhoon survivors) would have safer and quality homes,” said Cruz.