IMELDA Tacalan, 48, has nothing but a heavy heart whenever November 8 approaches.
Like her fellow victims of 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, Tacalan has not yet been relocated to a government housing site in their area after it was found out that their units were allegedly "substandard."
She said that of the 460 housing units intended for them, only 230 were constructed and these were allegedly substandard.
“I envy those Yolanda survivors whose relocation sites are managed by non-governmental organizations. They have better place compared to us,” Tacalan told Sunstar Philippines.
“Parang hindi kasi kami magkapareho ng pagtingin sa problema. Sa amin, yung umuugang mga dingding, at mga ampaw na dingding, mababaw na pundasyon, at iba pa, ay substandard. Sa National Housing Authority, defective lang daw iyon na pwede pang ayusin,” said Lita Bagunas of Uswag Este-Katarungan.
Bagunas, whose group is part of the coalition of storm victims known as Community of Yolanda Survivors and Partners (CYSP), claimed that the housing projects under President Rodrigo Duterte remain substandard.
The group said beneficiaries of housing projects in Lawaan and Balangiga continue to complain about “poor quality.”
“In fairness, the government of President Duterte started on the right foot. At the start of his term, the Office of the President invited representatives of the CYSP for a meeting-dialogue where issues and concerns of survivors were presented. But reconstruction continued to be slow and, in some areas, anomalous,” CYSP said in a statement.
But CYSP said the relocation of 3,000 families of survivors was fast-tracked even as the relocation sites still lacked utilities and schools. The sites are also not accessible by public transport.
While house and senate hearings were conducted to investigate the complaints of survivors, the group said that no official results have come out yet.
According to Joli Torella of Urban Poor Associates, many housing areas in many parts of Yolanda area generally lacked basic social services.
The added cost of transportation and lack of access to these social services made life more difficult in the relocation sites, he said.
“Doon sa St. Francis Village, ang mga tao hirap na hirap pa rin dahil sa maliban sa kulang sa mga batayang pangangailangan, ang lugar ay binabaha pa tuwing tag-ulan (In St. Francis Village, people have a hard time because aside from the lack of basic needs, the place is flooded whenever it rains),” added Vincent Basiano of Barangay 68 in Tacloban City.
However, the group said they were “highly appreciative of the effort of Special Presidential Assistant Wendel Avisado who initiated at least nine grassroots consultations in Eastern Visayas which enabled survivors to elevate their concerns.”
“We, therefore, call on Malacañang, through the office of Under Secretary Avisado, to now fulfill its commitment to let the survivors evaluate with him the results of the grassroots consultations, and officially submit the report and recommendations to the President. Hopefully, the next steps of the government will be steps in the right direction, where reconstruction will be based on the peoples’ plan formulated by survivors,” CYSP said.