4,541 units unoccupied

ALMOST six years after Super Typhoon Yolanda hit Northern Cebu, 5,272 of the 22,423 allocated housing units for the victims were fully completed but only 731 houses are occupied.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Friday, May 17, that of the 5,272 completed housing units, Daanbantayan has 1,728; Tabuelan, 220; Medellin, 631; San Remigio, 501; Tabogon, 67; and Bantayan Island, 2,045 (broken down as follows: Sta. Fe, 1,000; Bantayan, 1,027; and Madridejos, 18). The location of 80 other houses was not mentioned.

As secretary to the Cabinet, Nograles heads the Cabinet secretariat which assists the President in setting the agenda of Cabinet meetings.

He was in Cebu to get updates on the construction of houses for typhoon victims and to inform government agencies of preparations to making reports to be included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) to be delivered in July.

Nograles said the low occupancy rate on fully-completed houses is due to lack of water and electricity and the location of the houses, far from the victims’ workplaces.

He is coordinating with the Department of the Interior and Local Government to fast-tract the occupancy of the 4,541 fully completed houses, and to complete the remaining over 17,000 housing units.

Meanwhile, Nograles said that as a prelude to the President’s Sona, various government offices have been formed into clusters to render reports to be presented in Cebu on July 10. The Sona of President Duterte is scheduled for July 22 before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives. /