400 houses turned over to ‘Yolanda’ survivors

DISASTER-RESILIENT VILLAGE Some 400 houses that can withstand a supertyphoon are given free to survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” by donors led by the SM Group in Tacloban City. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

AT LEAST 400 families hardest hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) which pummeled Eastern Visayas in November 2013 will finally have new and permanent homes in Tacloban City.

SM and its donors awarded 400 new houses in a village in Tacloban City, Leyte, to chosen Yolanda survivors for free.

The village, called “Pope Francis-CFC Ancop Canada Community – SM Cares Village,” is the biggest of all the four SM Cares housing projects.  Other villages only have 200 houses each.

The first village in Bogo, Cebu, was turned over to beneficiaries in November 2014 while the second village in Iloilo City was inaugurated in October 2015. The fourth and last village in Ormoc City is undergoing construction and will be turned over in July this year.

The SM Cares Village in Barangay New Kawayan in Tacloban is the third batch in the 1,000-house SM Cares Village housing project which was launched in the aftermath of Yolanda.

SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy led the turnover ceremony accompanied by Tacloban City officials led by Mayor Alfred Romualdez. It was also attended by Leyte Archbishop John Du, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder, Yedda Romualdez (representing Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez), Ricky Cuenca and Jimmy Ilagan of Couples For Christ-Ancop, Mikee Romero of Global Port and Julian Payne of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Aside from SM, other donors include Zonta Club, Duty Free Philippines, Forever 21, ANCOP, New Golden City Builders & Development and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Global Port and Sultan 900 donated the basketball court.