‘Yolanda’ houses unlivable

There are no takers to the relocation sites for the hapless victims of the super typhoon.

TACLOBAN CITY — Flagged by the Commission on Audit (CoA) for poor performance in building houses for the victims of typhoon “Yolanda” at the end of 2018, the National Housing Authority (NHA) has quickly rebounded with more units built this year.

But there are no takers to the relocation sites for the hapless victims of the super typhoon that devasted this province in 2013.

Tacloban City Housing Office records show that as of 5 September 2019, only 7,034 families have been transferred to the NHA-constructed permanent houses in the city’s northern barangays.

The number is way below the 11,723 units the agency reported as occupied by recipient owners as of July 2019.

The local government has lamented that the completion of housing units remains slow that thousands of families still live in dangerous zones of the city, rendering it helpless in transferring them to safer communities.

In its Status of Accomplishment for Permanent Housing, the NHA reported that as of 31 July 2019, it has already completed a total of 119,185 houses all over the “Yolanda” corridor. The figure is slightly higher than the 117,167 completed houses cited by CoA in December 2018.

The CoA explained that among the reasons for the low percentage of completion are the “land boundary disputes, issues on road right of way, unbuildable area on site, non-issuance/delayed approval of permits, inclement weather condition, change of site location/housing design, issuance of Notice and Order of Termination of Contracts and termination of contracts.”

The CoA report added that of the 117,167 completed housing units, only 54,693 were occupied while 62,474 remain vacant.

“The causes of low occupancy were due to lack of water and power supply, accessibility of the housing site to a source of livelihood, delay in the approval of individual lot titling and delay in the final inspection and acceptance of completed housing units,” the CoA said.

The report added that the audit team also found that 127 units were occupied by “unqualified” families. There had been reports that some NHA officials have availed of the housing program.

The NHA targets to complete 205,128 houses under the Yolanda Permanent Housing Program. It has a total budget of P58.43 billion. Of this number of houses, 8,760 will be in Palawan; 102 in Masbate; 90,148 in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo; 27,055 in Negros Occidental; 22,423 in the province of Cebu; 56,140 in Tacloban City, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar and Biliran; and 500 in Dinagat Island.

In the case of Palawan, Masbate, Southern Leyte and Dinagat Island, funds for the program have already been downloaded to their respective local government units although no activity has started.

The same accomplishment report also shows that NHA has already completed 12,783 units in Tacloban City with 11,723 of them already occupied, while 1,060 units are ready for occupancy.

But the records of the Tacloban City Housing Office show that as of 5 September 2019, only 7,034 families occupied the NHA-constructed permanent houses in the city’s northern barangays.

There is no record on the exact number of houses that have completed, but City Housing Office head Leonard Tedence Jopson said they could not transfer beneficiaries to their permanent houses because construction is still ongoing.

“As early as first week of September, we already talked to barangay officials, so that families who have been awarded with houses will voluntarily transfer,” he said.

The NHA regional office has already raffled off and awarded 11,136 units to the beneficiaries.