Yolanda survivors ready to protect claims in NHA project
BABATNGON, Leyte – Survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda of this town are prepared to hold a mass action any time to prevent members of the militant group Kadamay from taking over a housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA) that is intended for them.
Mayor Marife Galapon Rondina said legitimate beneficiaries of the NHA resettlement project in her town are set to hold a “people power” type of mass action at the Channel Ridge View Housing Project of NHA at the Poblacion to prevent members of the Kadamay from taking over the settlement site to coincide with the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte today.
"The beneficiaries themselves will be the one to hold a people power at the NHA resettlement site to prevent members of Kadamay from taking over the housing project. Ours is just to provide the security as they will be the one to prevent the Kadamay from entering the resettlement site," Mayor Rondina told Leyte media.
Rondina said the Leyte Police Provincial Office has dispatched an augmentation team of the Babatngon Police Station, as well as the Philippine Army, to provide security at the government housing project.
She said the entrance to the NHA housing project was not fenced off as the beneficiaries themselves knew who their family members are.
There were 1,774 housing units constructed by the NHA in Babatngon town, and 1,710 were already endorsed to the NHA and are already occupied.
Also available are 64 units which they still have to allocate to beneficiaries coming from 10 barangays of the town who will be affected by the no-build zone implementation, according to Rondina.
In Carigara, Leyte, the Local Government Unit has put up two barbed wire barricades at the main entrance of Eco Ville 2, while Eco Ville 1, also in Barangay Sagkahan, has been fenced off to prevent members of Kadamay from entering the two housing projects.
Mayor Eduardo Ong said they have hightened police and Army security in the two housing projects to prevent members of the militant group from taking over the resettlement projects meant for survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda in his town.