Noy turns over houses to CDO 'Sendong' victims

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino led yesterday the turnover of housing units to the survivors of tropical storm “Sendong” at the Calaanan permanent resettlement site in Barangay Canitoan, Cagayan de Oro City.

The residents lost their homes when Sendong battered the city last December, triggering flashfloods that left several people dead and properties destroyed.

In his speech, the President said he was fulfilling his promise to help the Sendong victims and ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways to finish the construction of roads and bridges by June 30.

Aquino also said the Department of Science and Technology has launched the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH), a flood warning system wherein 600 automated rain gauges and 400 water river censors were installed in 18 major river systems and watersheds across the country to mitigate disaster risks on people.

He appealed to the people to help make the system work and protect the weather gauges and censors and not steal them and sell them to junk shops.

“Help us arrest these people without conscience,” he said.

Aquino recalled that he assured the Sendong victims last December that all their houses would be finished by August, and that in only four months, a lot of the housing units have already been turned over.

In Calaanan Phase III, 500 units were turned over by the President to the survivors and that 4,700 had been awarded in eight places.

“Who are the superheroes who made this? All of us,” he said.

The President said his administration can now address the needs of the people more speedily because of good governance.

He said the problems on typhoons and disasters that went with them were not new but were never solved before.

Aquino said he wondered why with 23 typhoons and tropical storms hitting the country each year, many are still residing in dangerous areas.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development reported that more than 1,500 new housing units were turned over yesterday in Cagayan de Oro and of that figure, 1,200 were in Barangay Canitoan.

Two hundred families from Barangay Macasandig are the first occupants of the Indahag Phase 1 resettlement site, which was also awarded yesterday.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman reported to the President that they are targeting to relocate 8,000 Sendong survivors and provide them with new houses by August.