MANILA, Feb. 10 (PNA) — More than 8,000 disaster-resistant houses costing over P700 million will soon be built for families whose houses were totally damaged by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Bohol, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Monday.
According to DSWD Secretary Corazon J. Soliman, the department will undertake the project in partnership with the provincial government, and Habitat for Humanity.
Secretary Soliman said the partnership which targets to build 8,083 disaster-resilient houses was sealed under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the implementation of the Core Shelter Assistance Project (CSAP) in Bohol.
Soliman said that she, together by with DSWD-Field Office 7 Director Mercedita Jabagat, Governor Edgardo Chatto, and Habitat Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Charlito Ayco signed the MOA over the weekend in Sagbayan town in Bohol, the epicenter of the 7.2 magnitude quake that rocked Bohol and Cebu last October 2013.
“Sagbayan was the epicenter of the earthquake but it will also become the epicenter of rebuilding of communities and rebuilding of lives,” the DSWD chief stressed.
She added that through CSAP, environment-friendly, structurally strong shelter units will be built onsite that can withstand up to 220-kph wind velocity, at least intensity four earthquakes and other natural disasters is expected to be built.
Under the agreement, the DSWD will shoulder P70,000 while Habitat will share P18,000 as counterpart for each unit.
Each unit will cost a total of P88,000.
Each shelter units will be made up of locally available materials to revitalize local economy.
The total cost of the housing project is P711,304,000.
Of this amount, the DSWD will provide about P565,810,000 and the rest by Habitat.
Habitat, was chosen to build the core shelters due to its extensive experience in the management and implementation of socialized housing projects to address the shelter needs of the homeless and disadvantaged groups.
During the signing ceremony, the DSWD had turned over to the group a total of P371 million as initial tranche for its counterpart.
The provincial government, in coordination with concerned municipalities and DSWD, has already identified the beneficiaries of the core shelter program whose houses were totally damaged by the earthquake.
From the 17 hardest-hit towns of Bohol, Loon has the biggest number of totally damaged houses with 1,255 followed by Sagbayan with 1,035 then Maribojoc with 1,033.
Meanwhile, for families with partially damaged houses, the DSWD and the municipal governments will implement the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) program as an assistance to help them build their houses.
Under the ESA project, each household-beneficiary will receive P10,000-worth of materials for house repair.
DSWD will provide P346.8 million for this project.
Based on DSWD assessment, a total of 34,688 houses were partially damaged in the province of Bohol. (PNA)