SAN MIGUEL, Leyte- More than 1,000 housing units are needed in this town for the relocation of residents living along the five coastal communities and identified as danger and flood-prone areas.
However, the National Housing Authority (NHA) only allocated 117 housing units for the town, Mayor Cheeryl Enrica Esperas said.
“May be we’re less priority because of the number they allocated to us but our residents badly need these housing units for them to have a safe house to stay during rainy and typhoon season,” Esperas said.
“I hope that they can prioritize us now,” she added.
Esperas said that they want that all relocation sites should be within or at least near where the beneficiaries get their sources of income to avoid being economically dislocated.
The town mayor disclosed that the bidding for the construction of housing units in San Miguel held at the central office of NHA failed with the second bidding has yet to be calendared.
And if this second bidding will fail again, they might ask the NHA for them to do the construction of these housing units, Esperas said.
“If downloading the fund is the only way for the project to be implemented, we don’t have any choice but to accept the challenge and we will coordinate with the NHA and (the) Commission on Audit,” Esperas said.
Almost four years since super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ battered San Miguel, only 86 families were relocated to their permanent housing units located in Barangay Cayare.
The housing units were donated by the San Miguel Corporation and implemented by the Habitat for Humanity.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
