TACLOBAN CITY-At least 500 housing beneficiaries from this city stand to lose their units if they could not justify why they don’t occupy their houses, more than five years after they received them.
The beneficiaries totally lost their houses after this city was pummeled by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ on November 8, 2013.
But Leonard Tedence Jopson, chief of the City Housing and Community Development Office (CHCDO), said that despite awarding to them their units, these 500 beneficiaries are not actually occupying their units.
It was learned from Jopson that since last month, their office wrote a letter to these erring beneficiaries asking them to explain why their units would not be taken away from them.
He explained that these families were given the houses for reason that they have totally lost their houses due to Yolanda’s onslaught and they should occupy these units.
“They are staying in danger zones. What is the use of giving them their own house at the resettlement sites if they will not occupy these houses given to them by the government,” Jopson said.
Allowing these beneficiaries not to actually occupy their units would defeat the purpose of giving them a safe and secure houses, the official added.
According to him, the 500 beneficiaries were among the more than 11,000 families who received the housing units.
The government, through the National Housing Authority (NHA), is tasked to construct 14,433 housing units to families whose houses were completely destroyed due to Yolanda.
Jopson said that since they have notified these erring beneficiaries, about 200 of them came to their office to personally explain their reasons.
These beneficiaries decline to occupy their units claiming that removables like doorknobs are damaged or they continue to live at their previous villages which are mostly located along the shores, which have been tagged as no build or danger zones, due to economic reason.
Jopson said that they will observe due process before they would remove these beneficiaries from their units within the year.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
