NHA releases P20M for Benguet landslide victims’ housing

A gold miner moves a stone while searching for victims believed to have been buried by a landslide after Typhoon Mangkhut barrelled across Itogon, Benguet province, northern Philippines on Monday, September 17, 2018. Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said that at the height of the typhoon’s onslaught Saturday afternoon, dozens of people, mostly miners and their families, rushed into a three-story building in the village of Ucab. The building, a former mining bunkhouse that had been transformed into a chapel, was obliterated when part of a mountain slope collapsed. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

ITOGON, Benguet — The National Housing Authority (NHA) has released P10 million for the acquisition of land to resettle families removed from landslide-prone areas and danger zones here.

Earlier, the NHA already released P10 million to purchase building materials for families evicted from their homes after landslides triggered by typhoon “Ompong” (international name: Mangkhut) in September weakened many of the mining town’s inhabited areas.

On Saturday, around 500 people gathered at the Ucab gymnasium where NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. handed out the check and signed a Memorandum of Agreement on a resettlement assistance program with Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan.

Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito joined the gathering and gave P1 million aid from the San Juan City government, on behalf of his mother, San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also attended the gathering and gave P3 million assistance. Of the amount, P2.5 million would be distributed to Cordillera families affected by Ompong while the remaining P500,000 would be given to Itogon.

Ompong pummelled northern Luzon last month and left 114 people, mostly from Itogon, dead. /kga