Yolanda housing sites in Antique unfinished

ILOILO CITY — Four years after Super Typhoon Yolanda, housing projects for typhoon survivors in Antique remain unfinished. Fr. Jose Elmer Cajilig, Western Visayas convenor of Kilusang Pagbabago (KP), said his group received complaints from residents of Bugasong and Pandan towns where resettlement sites were built by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

In Bugasong, KP found that 1,787 housing units at the P518.23-million relocation site have not been completed.

Residents outside the project site said their homes are flooded every time it rains hard. They said the flooding happened only after EDDMARI Construction bulldozed the forested portion of Lacayon village and reclaimed four creeks for the Yolanda housing project.

In Pandan, residents complained that a P290-million housing project in Tingib village has destroyed tracts of farmland. Michele Placio, a school teacher, told Manila Bulletin that predevelopment works were under way even while the houses have not built.

Residents brought their complaint to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Pandan Mayor Jonathan Tan, but no action has been taken.

Cajilig vowed to bring the concern to the Office of the Participatory Governance under Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr.

NHA Regional Project Manager Luz Ysatam told Manila Bulletin it talked with the complainants in Antique last Tuesday.

Ysatam explained that the Bugasong site is still under construction and the contractor has vowed to finish it.

NHA is also verifying qualified beneficiaries for the free Yolanda housing.

Ysatam also assured that the project site in Tingib village in Pandan has the necessary papers and that the land was converted from agricultural to residential.