THE Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development said on Friday the Yolanda rehabilitation was an “unfinished business.”
Romeo Dongeto, PLCPD executive director, hit out government’s snail-paced work in the rehabilitation of Tacloban City, Leyte and other areas in Eastern Visayas flattened by Typhoon “Yolanda” in November 2013.
Dongeto raised concern over the budget slash for housing programs to P15.363 billion in 2017 from P33.75 billion this year.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the budget cut was due to the Aquino administration’s huge budget sum for the housing program in Eastern Visayas.
About 1.1 million houses were destroyed by Yolanda, but the government only committed to build 20 percent or 205,128 houses, Dongeto said.
Nearly three years after Yolanda, 91 percent of the housing units have not been built, the PLCPD said.
Even the National Economic and Development Authority said that of the 205,128 houses to be constructed, the past administration only succeeded in completing only nine percent or 19,330 houses as of March 2016.
In addition, 87,405 proposed housing units or 40 percent of the total have not yet started.
According to Dongeto, many of the survivors have become even poorer due to lack of livelihood opportunities and basic services.
“Two years and 10 months after the onslaught of Yolanda, despite concerted efforts by the government, civil society and international organizations, significant challenges remained in the
recovery and rehabilitation of the affected communities and areas.
Among others, the rebuilding of houses for Yolanda survivors was slow and problematic,” he stressed.
At the Housing and Challenges to Housing Service Delivery under the Duterte Administration in Quezon City, Dr. Edna Co, University of the Philippines’ Center for Integrative and Development Studies executive director, called on Malacañang to use an accountability tool and ensure the adequacy of the housing units to be distributed to the Yolanda survivors.
“Assessing the accountability of government officials would help enable President Rodrigo Duterte and the new housing czar, Vice President Leni Robredo, to not only prevent the misuse of our resources but to make housing development a barometer for true public service,” she said.
Dongeto said PLPCD will gather local government officials from Yolanda-stricken provinces, along with representatives of various non-government organizations and lawmakers, on September 8 to plan the building of resilient and stronger communities in their areas.
Entitled “Resettling Communities, Unsettling Realities: The Unfinished Business of Resettling Yolanda Survivors,” he said Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Gonzalez-Romualdez; Oxfam policy and campaigns officer Rhoda Avila; Nestor Gadaingan, head of the Coalition of Yolanda Survivors’ Association of Tacloban; Algina Lacaba, leader of internally displaced persons in Tacloban City and engineer Israel Infante of Oxfam have been invited to assess the shelter program for the typhoon victims.