Lacson: P11B given for storm victims’ homes

Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

BANTAYAN ISLAND, Cebu—At least P11 billion had been released to the National Housing Authority (NHA) to help fund the construction of houses in areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Panfilo Lacson, who heads the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the additional funding was released by the Department of Budget and Management in October.

The amount would be used by the NHA to build 205,128 houses in Yolanda-hit areas in the Visayas, including the acquisition of lots.

The national government has yet to find sites for 20,000 of the 205,128 housing units.

Danger zones

Lacson said it took time to look for sites for the houses because authorities had to make sure these areas are not in danger zones identified by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

“We could not just dump those who are living in danger zones anywhere,” he said.

The P11 billion is on top of the P39 billion initially released by different national government agencies involved in the rehabilitation program, Lacson said.

He said the task ahead in rehabilitation remained daunting. More than a million houses, he added, are still in need of repairs.

The government, he said, is still in the process of reviewing a proposal to increase financial assistance to storm survivors who lost homes from P30,000 to P70,000 amid reports that many of the survivors are getting buried in debts to have their houses repaired or new ones built.

He said he was still waiting for the approval of a P170.9-billion budget for a rehabilitation plan that he submitted two months ago.

The rehabilitation plans of four areas—Samar, Leyte and Cebu provinces and Tacloban City—have been approved and are being slowly implemented, Lacson said.

Out of funds

Last month, NHA officials said they had run out of funds to build more homes for Yolanda survivors.

Gavino Figuracion, engineer and NHA regional manager, said the amount left to buy building materials for houses, which is about P388 million, had been used for earthquake survivors in Bohol province.

The lack of funds, said Figuracion, was the reason the task of giving housing materials to storm survivors had been given to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The NHA had earmarked P60 billion to build 205,393 permanent houses in areas hit by Yolanda.

In an interview last month, Figuracion said only P2.2 billion had been left with the NHA to build 7,000 out of more than 200,000 houses for Yolanda survivors.

Of the more than 200,000 houses, at least 22,423 houses would be built in 15 towns and a city in northern Cebu.

The province of Cebu needs at least P6.5 billion to build the houses.