FIVE barangays in Bugasong town in Antique province suffered its worst flood this year because of an unfinished Supertyphoon Yolanda relocation site, residents told a fact-find mission conducted by the Kilusang Pagbabago (KP).
The incident happened on October 20, 2017, 20 days before the country marks the fourth year since the super typhoon carved a large path of destruction across the Visayas on November 8, 2013.
“In the 55 years I lived in Lacayon, I have not experienced floods until now,” said Consolacion Espino of Barangay Lacayon, Bugasong.
Tagged as the fifth and the most devastating flood this year, the waters inundated Barangays Puho, Hatay-Hatay, Calog, Lacayon and Cubay in South Bugasong.
Some 35 residents, who attended a community dialogue conducted by a KP team headed by Fr. Jose Elmer Cajilig, KP lead convener for Region 6, pointed to a nearby housing project by the National Housing Authority.
The project, being constructed by EDDMARI Construction and Trading, will have 1,787 units once completed. No Yolanda survivor-family has yet been relocated in Lacayon.
The residents said the construction firm bulldozed the hilly and forested portion of Barangay Lacayon and reclaimed four creeks. The waters from the creeks are dumped into a single tributary when it rains, and causes the flooding.
On August 22, 2016, some 82 residents signed a complaint addressed to Mayor John Lloyd M. Pacete of Bugasong, Antique, a copy of which was furnished to the Presidential Action Center.
Pacete has not acted on the plea, nor on a letter dated January 29 from Presidential Action Center director Jaime Llaguno Mabilin.
During a recent statement, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino blamed uncooperative local government units and members of a pro-Duterte organization.
Lacayon residents, however, said Dino has not visited the area since the presidential order designating him as President Duterte’s Yolanda housing czar.
Dino also had been accused by Yolanda survivors in Tacloban City for failing to follow up on the completion of Yolanda housing projects.
Feeling neglected and uncared for, the Lacayon villagers sought the help of the KP. Cajilig of the KP Region 6 said he is bringing the concern of Lacayon residents to the attention of President Duterte through Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr.