PASTRANA, Leyte — More than a decade since typhoon “Yolanda,” residents of this municipality whose houses were totally damaged by the storm will finally get their houses.

Pastrana Mayor Marites Cayaco-Marcos said construction of “Yolanda” houses in Pastranaville has resumed and at its present speed, the construction is expected to be completed either in November or early December this year.

“This is long overdue and many of our constituents who lost their houses during ‘Yolanda’ are still living in make-shift shelters made of light materials. They haven’t fully recovered from their losses,” she said.

“We are working to get them transferred to their permanent houses before the year ends.”

Marcos said that since her election as the municipal mayor in 2019, she has been relentless in appealing to the National Housing Authority (NHA) regional office to finish the “Yolanda” housing project.

She said the construction stopped at the height of Covid-19 pandemic when the cost of construction materials and labor started to go up and the contractor could no longer cope with price increases.

Marcos said she personally asked the NHA regional manager to re-bid the project since the previous contractor could no longer continue the construction. The municipal government also refused to have the funds downloaded to them but instead requested NHA to manage the construction.

“This is important and a big help to many of our constituents. We have residents who are still living along high-risk flood prone areas that we have to evacuate every time there is a typhoon or incessant rain,” she said.

However, to offset the increase in prices of construction materials and labor, NHA reduced the number of houses from the original 908 units to 794.

Marcos said the local government unit (LGU) has already completed the listing of the first batch of beneficiaries — those whose houses were totally damaged during typhoon “Yolanda” as identified by the municipal social welfare and development office.

The LGU also identified 344 possible beneficiaries — 138 families who were allowed by the former mayor to occupy the finished houses, 41 families who occupied the unfinished houses, 55 families who passed the first endorsement of the local inter-agency committee and 120 families on the second endorsement.

Marcos said the possible beneficiaries have undergone a pre-relocation orientation conducted by the NHA where it was clarified to them that in order to avail of the free “Yolanda” houses, they have to tear down their current houses especially those living in high-risk areas.

Pastrana is one of the poorest and smallest municipalities of Leyte. The town is considered a fifth class municipality with a population of 19,359 people based on the 2020 Census.