Wages of apathy

“Multiple layers of subcontracting the project resulted in greatly sliced up funds resulting to a small amount going to the actual construction.

Corruption and indifference were two characteristics of the previous government, which are to blame for the massive corruption in the shelter program that recently resulted in the filing of charges by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC).

The anti-corruption body submitted criminal and administrative charges against 12 National Housing Authority (NHA) officials before the Ombudsman after fact-finding inquiries revealed anomalies in housing projects in Eastern Samar.

A favored contractor, J.C. Tayag Builders, which is expected to be the subject of another complaint, was found to have cornered a P741.53 million contract to build 2,559 shelter units in four towns in Eastern Samar, which came out as unfit for human use.

The project is part of the rehabilitation of towns devastated by super typhoon “Yolanda” in 2013.

Congressional hearings held on the “Yolanda” housing scam indicated that complaints against the contractor started as soon as the projects were awarded several months after the typhoon.

Edwin Torres, president of a homeowners’ association of “Yolanda” survivors in Tacloban, said, in one of the public hearings, issues on the quality of houses should have been resolved earlier had the government listened to the complaints of the supposed beneficiaries.

“We have been incessantly complaining but our complaints are not being heard,” he said. “The government’s failure to listen to survivors created a new more complex problem such as substandard houses, housing without social services, and other problems. The specter of ghost towns is now more real because of these issues,” Torres added.

Poor shelter projects were prevalent in the past administration and the abuse in the “Yolanda” projects was not isolated.

Former senator JV Ejercito, who served as chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement, estimated that about P30 billion in government funds was put to waste due to the poor housing projects by the NHA.

The government spent P66 billion on housing projects for victims of typhoons “Yolanda,” “Pablo” and “Sendong” and those displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga City siege — and not even 50 percent were completed during the previous regime.

Apart from the P66 billion allotted for victims of calamities, Ejercito also cited failed projects for personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police worth P20 billion where only 13 percent of shelters built were occupied.

A probe conducted by Ejercito’s panel showed subcontracting and improper sites of housing projects wasted government funds.

One of the subcontractors in Balangiga, Eastern Samar issued an affidavit saying he was tapped by a subcontractor of J.C. Tayag Builders, the general contractor.

The subcontractor was paid P120,000 per housing unit in the resettlement area and accomplished 40 percent to 45 percent of the contracted units, while admitting that materials used in the construction provided by J.C. Tayag Builders were substandard.

The multiple layers of subcontracting the project resulted in greatly sliced up funds resulting to a small amount going to the actual construction, according to Ejercito.

“Just think about this — there is a contractor who has a subcontractor, and then there is another subcontractor… It’s three layers. So, what will be left of the quality of work on NHA projects,” he said.

Aside from the multilayered subcontracting, Ejercito also cited the improper location of NHA projects defeating the supposed “no-build zones” policy in danger areas adopted by the previous regime.

He said he visited a relocation site in Compostela Valley for victims of typhoon “Pablo,” which was located at the foot of a mountain along a danger zone.

The 300 relocated households were later on transferred due to the danger posed by the landslide.

“They have been victims of a typhoon and relocated, and now they need to be relocated again because they are on the danger zone,” Ejercito said.

Poor planning and implementation were the hallmark of the past administration, which was mainly the result of the hypocrisy and indifference of those in government that provided a fertile ground for corruption.