A lawmaker on Tuesday chided the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council for its admission that the National Housing Authority only completed one of the Yolanda housing construction projects.
Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said that if there is to blame about what he described “very disappointing, highly incompetent and despicable performance,” it should be the Aquino administration.
In a recent statement, Robredo revealed that in Hernani, Eastern Samar, only 200 out of 900 housing units was completed by the NHA. She said that bureaucratic process and corruption were the main cause of such sorry delay. But she failed or rather deliberately did not mention that the Aquino government was behind the housing mess for Yolanda survivors.
“Ms. Robredo should blame the Aquino government for this Yolanda housing mess. The former administration was incapable of competent work and totally failed to provide decent and permanent housing for Yolanda survivors despite the billions of pesos of public funds and foreign donations poured in,” Casilao added.
Moreover, records from the Tacloban City Housing Office revealed that the NHA had only built 572 out of its target 14,162 permanent houses, while NGOs had constructed 556 out of its planned 2,169 houses, Casilao said.
In addition, Casilao, citing the NHA data in its website, said 5,767 houses have been completed as of mid-February, but admitted that it would not be able to hit its target of 13,928 housing units by the end of 2016.
The NHA is constructing 8,161 houses in 19 sites located at the northern villages of Leyte. But despite the completion of thousands of units, around 200 houses are occupied by families from high-risk zones due to the absence of a permanent water supply and electricity.
In the past 16th Congress, Anakpawis militant group filed House Resolution 669 seeking a house probe on the reported sub-standard bunkhouses, HR 947 on the implementation of the “no build-no dwell” zone and HR 1950 on the real damage assessment of Typhoons “Ruby” and “Seniang” on Yolanda-hit areas.