TAGBILARAN CITY, Feb. 4 (PNA) -– Mounting complaints from angry housing beneficiaries-to-be, have prompted officials concerned to move to speed up completion of core shelter projects in the province.
Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto vowed to call the attention of Habitat for Humanity Foundation, Inc., in-charge in the construction of core shelters for the earthquake victims, to fast track their completion, reports said.
The governor also said that he will be meeting with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman soon to thresh out kinks in the housing construction and apparently to address the alleged slow pace, if not delay, as well as procurement and delivery of materials of the project.
For its part, Habitat through its officer Vince Delector said that they’re trying their best. He appealed to the beneficiaries and concerned citizens to help each other and not blame each other, the report said.
He urged the beneficiaries concerned to take care of the materials already delivered in their area, such as the sand and gravel.
Just recently barangay chairman Meliton Tolop of Sto. Rosario, Antequera, Bohol said in interview that not a single (core house) has been completed by the Habitat in his barangay. He said that there are 66 beneficiaries, whose households were ruined by the quake, but only 33 availed of the Habitat project.
He also confirmed that indeed the beneficiaries are the ones to haul their core shelter materials from the gym of Cortes town where the supply are stored. He said they’re thankful that Mayor Mario Pahang through the help of the town provided the hauling expenses.
He said that they were told to procure more than 2,000 pieces of bamboo cut into same sizes (“lipak”) as material component for walling based on the plan or program of work (POW) as their counterpart. But when an engineer he did not name came to their place he was told that only some 600 of “lipak” are to be used.
Asked what they do with the other “lipak,” he said in vernacular they throw them away. He said even their social welfare officer cannot understand the delay in the building of the core shelters. He said that he heard during an activity in Barangay Tupas that even Gov. Edgardo Chatto has commented the same thing.
Earlier, chairman Edwin Cuenca of nearby barangay Tupas in Antequera town said that not a single core shelter under Habitat had been built.
It will be recalled that the core shelter cluster handled by the provincial government has reportedly turned over partial 2,000 plus core shelters to the beneficiaries in quake-stricken 17 towns during the first anniversary of the earthquake on Oct. 15, 2014.
Based on the field validation, the province has reported that some 5,609 beneficiaries of the targeted 8,083 housing units in 17 towns were qualified to receive the housing assistance, report said.
Secretary Soliman early last year turned over to Habitat the first tranche of a check amounting to PhP 317,520,000 during a ceremony in Sagbayan town for core shelter construction. The second fund release to the tune of Php 248,290,000 will come next. Sec. Soliman said that the government intends to build 8,083 quake victims’ houses funded by the said fund. (PNA)