TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte—While President Duterte was delivering his State of the Nation Address in Metro Manila on Monday, hundreds of Supertyphoon Yolanda survivors took to the streets and marched to the regional office of the National Housing Authority (NHA) here to demand accountability on the problems confronting the government-housing program.
“Hold accountable those responsible for the slow-moving and botched housing program. Will inadequate housing remain a never-ending issue?” asked the 300 Yolanda survivors and members of Coalition of Yolanda Survivors and Partners (CYSP) in a statement.
The survivors from the different communities were demanding a full accountability over the sorry state of the Yolanda Shelter Rehabilitation Program.
“During Aquino’s administration, nothing came out of the promised build-back better. In the current administration, the campaign promise for us survivors with one foot inside Malacañang seems to translate now into our feet going to the grave instead?” lamented Marife Juana of New Hope, Northern Barangay, Tacloban City, who was among the crowd when the President visited Tacloban in March.
Tessie Elacion, a resident of Balangiga, Eastern Samar, said that for years, they have been trying to raise their concerns to the government agencies tasked to provide housing for Yolanda survivors. Elacion said a host of issues emanated from the exclusion of the survivors from the entire process.
“We are counting on the National Economic and Development Authority [Neda] to report on the sloppy state of the relocation site in Balangiga. We are hoping this report would stop the application of urban solution to rural areas. We are farmers and fishers. We should not be placed in row houses where our tools and livestock have no place,” Elacion said.
The group said more survivors will be displaced as soon as the Tide Embankment Project is completed.
“If this is the type of relocation units given to us affected by Tide Embankment, are they expecting us to accept these? Lacking in services or without any basic service, far from our homes and places of work, we cannot live there,” said Edwin Torres, president of MABATAP HOA in Tacloban City.
CYSP Shelter Working Group Coordinator Joli A. Torella said their group is calling for the full audit of the relocation/resettlement sites, existing and ongoing construction, akin to the validation activity conducted by the Neda in Balangiga, Eastern Samar.
Earlier, Neda Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro ordered the Neda regional office to conduct an audit of the housing project in Balangiga amid complaints by the intended beneficiaries that the houses were haphazardly constructed.
“The audit should not just focus on the structural integrity, but also on the whole process of shelter rehabilitation, including whether survivors will have sources of livelihoods and adequate access to social services,” Torella said. “The housing units being constructed today are unfortunately without such provisions.”
“This is the primary reason survivors are refusing the houses. We fear the NHA is constructing ghost towns, or houses without occupants, if the government will continue to ignore the demands for genuine consultation and participation of survivors,” Torella said.
Image credits: Elmer Recuerdo