TABACO CITY – The National Housing Authority (NHA) has assured the local government here of at least PHP800 million for the construction of 4,000 housing units to resettle victims of Typhoon Nina that ravaged this city and other contiguous areas in Albay province on Christmas Day last year.
Each housing unit costs PHP200,000 while the local government’s counterpart is the lot area which NHA-Bicol Director Albert Perfecto has fixed at 40 hectares.
The city acquired last year a 21-hectare lot in Barangay San Vicente and devoted six hectares to the local Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).
“The remaining 15 hectares shall be devoted to resettlement of Typhoon Nina victims along with the adjacent lots the city is willing to purchase soon to fully accommodate this NHA Project,” said Mayor Cielo Krisel Lagman-Luistro in an interview Wednesday.
Previous efforts by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in providing assistance to those typhoon victims with totally and partially damaged houses through its Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) will not affect NHA’s selection of priority resettlement beneficiaries.
“The ESA is not resettlement. It was for reconstruction of totally damaged and for repairs of partially damaged houses where they are originally located,” City Administrator Gerardo Colarina told the Philippine News Agency.
City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) records show there were 4,008 totally damaged and 10,262 partially damaged houses in the aftermath of Typhoon Nina.
Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman extended assistance to typhoon victims by providing each of them six pieces 12-foot corrugated G. I. sheets for the totally damaged houses and four pieces for every partially damaged house, and tarpaulins for damaged schools.
Mayor Luistro, the congressman’s daughter, said: “It came from his own pocket, from our family, from friends and from corporate sponsors with the ardent intention of providing immediate roofing for the victims and for affected schools while efforts using government funds, local and national, are on its way.”
Jennifer Mayo, CSWDO ESA coordinator, also confirmed 1,182 typhoon victims were extended financial assistance by the DSWD last August 24, the department's fourth payout for victims with totally damaged houses. The following day, it started the first payout for those with partially damaged houses. (Freddie Vargas/PNA)
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