Resettlement houses of 608 Pampanga families crumbling

MAGALANG, Pampanga — After years of languishing in evacuation centers and finally finding refuge in resettlement sites, at least 608 families have again abandoned their government-built homes which have started to crumble at the P450-million San Isidro resettlement here.

Engineer Wilson Musngi, of the Pinatubo Project Management Office (PPMO), the forerunner of the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission, admitted to The STAR that the concrete floors of the 608 housing units have cracked and sunk since monsoon rains battered Central Luzon last July 6.

"The walls have also started to lean because they were not founded on the tie beam," Musngi said.

The houses were constructed late last year. There are a total of 2,000 housing units at the San Isidro resettlement site, each with a floor area of 26 square meters.

Fearing for their safety, the families have abandoned their homes amid the continuing heavy rains. Some of them have sought shelter in relatives’ homes elsewhere, while the others have pleaded to temporarily stay in undamaged dwellings at the resettlement site.

Rodrigo Bermudez, the PPMO’s project manager for resettlement sites in Pampanga, said the duplex housing units at San Isidro were built by the Philippine Army’s 51st Engineering Brigade, headed by Brig. Gen. Francisco Bravo.

While each unit cost P86,000, he said the government spent some P450 million to develop the entire 36-hectare resettlement site. The resettlers, however, still have no electricity and a water system.

Musngi said the cracked concrete floors were noted to be only about two inches thick when the design specified three inches.

He said the houses were constructed on top of one-and-a-half meter thick earth filling. "When the rains came, the materials apparently compacted underneath the floorings," he said.

PPMO chief Flor Arrozal, however, said the 51st Engineering Brigade has started to repair the damage at no extra cost to the government.