In Bogo, ‘Yolanda’ survivors find new homes livable

A COUPLE and their children who survived the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” look out the window of their new house built by SM Cares, a program to rebuild the areas devastated by Yolanda and spearheaded by the country’s biggest mall developer. LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS

BOGO CITY—Nenita Verallo and her husband Apolinario will no longer have to be packed like sardines, sharing only one house with their nine children.

Nenita’s is among the 200 families who are beneficiaries of the 200 houses that SM Cares has turned over to the Bogo City government.

Nenita, who lives in Sitio Balwarte, Barangay Polambato, is also among the 4,000 families in this city that survived Supertyphoon ”Yolanda” and also identified to be living in a coastal area vulnerable to storm surge.

Nenita told the Inquirer that the typhoon damaged their house and left only the kitchen portion standing.

She said their kitchen was converted into a bedroom, living room and dining room in one, since she could not afford to have their house repaired.

Nenita’s husband Apolinario is a fisherman who earns an average of only P200 a day, not even enough to feed their nine children.

Two of her children, now married, had lived with them in their damaged house, which made the space very small and difficult to move in.

Plus, she added, when it rained, they had to stand, since water usually dripped from their roof, which had holes.

“We now have a decent home. We don’t have to worry sleeping at night when it rains. We don’t have to sit in our kitchen-turned-house to wait for the rain to stop,” she said.

The 200 houses sit on a 1-hectare lot donated by the heirs of Wenceslao and Margarita Fernan in Barangay Polambato, Bogo City.

This is the first batch of the 1,000 disaster-resilient houses mall giant SM and its business partners have committed for the survivors of Yolanda.

Hans Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings, said each house could withstand the winds and strength of a Category 5 storm without any major material damage.

Sy said the houses also have heat-resistant painted roofing to help lower interior temperatures and increase energy efficiency.

Named SM Cares Village, it also has utilities, basic amenities like streetlights, a community center and a basketball court.

The SM Cares Housing Project is on top of the P100 million SM had already committed to rehabilitate areas hit by Yolanda in the Visayas.