DSWD awards shelter units to families displaced by typhoons

The Department of Social Welfare and Development turned over on Friday more than 400 core shelter units worth more than P42 million to families displaced by super typhoons that hit the country in 2006.

DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral turned over 495 core shelter units, worth P85, 000 each, to families in Barangay Mauraro, Guinobatan, Albay.

Likewise, the DSWD also turned over 417 houses to families who have been displaced in the mudslide that happened more than two years ago in Ginsaugon, Leyte.

Cabral said that the turnover of the 417 houses completed the project to construct 517. The civic organization Habitat for Humanity was the government’s building partner.

The funding came from the DSWD and the Japanese government. She estimated that about $1 million (or P50 million) was spent to construct the new homes.

“The core shelter units were completed on Aug. 31 and are already being occupied by the identified beneficiaries,” Cabral said in a statement.

The houses were constructed under the DSWD’s Calamity Assistance Rehabilitation Efforts (CARE) program.

The CARE project is focused in areas devastated by super typhoons “Milenyo, “Paeng,” “Reming” and Seniang” in 2006. These are Regions II, III, IV-A, IV-B, V, VI, and VIII where some 309,518 families lost their houses and 150,000 families lost their main source of livelihood or income.

The project has a total funding of P750 million for shelter assistance (P375,000,000), cash for work, (P125,000,000) and livelihood assistance (P250,000,000) covering all the affected regions.

The shelter assistance funds cover the construction of 5,357 shelter units, of which 4,100 or 75 percent shall be constructed in Region V, the most devastated area with 233,607 totally damaged houses, Cabral said.

“The construction of core shelter units for the displaced families in Albay and the rest of the Bicol region is in response to President Arroyo’s directive to provide immediate assistance and strengthened rehabilitation efforts to families affected by the 2006 typhoons,” Cabral said.