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Bunkhouses for Yolanda survivors being built by govt in Leyte, Samar


(Updated 6:40 p.m.) Florentino Homeris says he cannot remember the exact way his one-room shack once stood in the coastal town of Dulag in Leyte.

Still, he tries to recreate his vanished dwelling, gathering pieces of wood, tin sheets, and crooked nails from the rubble dotting the coastline after super typhoon Yolanda devastated his community on Nov. 8.
 
But this new shelter may only be temporary if his town receives the same kind of bunkhouses being constructed by the Department of Public Works and Highways in Tacloban City and Palo, both in Leyte, and Basey and Marabut in Samar. Although Homeris lost his five-year-old daughter in the typhoon, he still has another child and a wife to look after.
 
With the rehabilitation of ruined areas ongoing, the next focus after the distribution of relief goods is the rebuilding of the houses of affected residents.
 
Providing shelter to residents rendered homeless by the typhoon was on the agenda of the command conference of Task Force Yolanda Tuesday morning, GMA's Victoria Tulad said in her report on News To Go.
 
 
Bunkhouses are now being built in different areas in Leyte and Samar. These will be the temporary shelter of typhoon victims while the government is still preparing permanent housing for them.
 
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman was quoted as saying the beneficiaries will be determined by the city and municipal social welfare workers.
 
DSWD is now conducting a profiling and rapid needs assessment of the typhoon victims. The social workers are going around evacuation centers and coordinating with the local government and barangay officials to get in touch with the affected residents.
 
To be given priority in the bunkhouses are families with persons with disabilities, senior citizens, lactating mothers, small children and solo parents who head a family.

Design perspective for the bunkhouses. DPWH
The affected residents will be asked to fill up a Disaster Family Assessment Card which will be used by the social workers to know which families need to be given shelter immediately.
 
A DSWD officer, who refused to be named, said they have yet to formulate mechanics for those who left Tacloban and Samar and will later decide to return to the province.
 
"Hindi pa alam ang mechanics. Hindi naman alam kung babalik pa sila o kailan sila babalik," she told GMA News Online over the phone.
 
She said as of now, they are following the procedures they formulated in rebuilding the areas hit by previous disasters.
 
In a press statement Monday, DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson said the sites for construction of bunkhouse projects are identified, authorized and certified by the concerned local government units.
 
“DPWH conducts immediate verification, and if the area is determined feasible for a bunkhouse, directs partner contractors to mobilize and commence work,” he said.
 
The bunkhouses will be made of coco lumber wooden frames, GI sheet roofing, plywood walls and flooring, and cement footing. A bunkhouse with a common toilet/wash area and kitchen will be composed of 24 units with an area of about 8.64 square meters per unit to accommodate a family of five members.
 
Activities are ongoing with footings ready for pouring for the construction of initial bunkhouse units in Barangay Abucay, Tacloban City which will benefit some 240 families, said Singson.
 
Footing excavation has also started for the four bunkhouse units at the government center area in Baras, Palo, Leyte while seven similar projects expected to benefit a total of 2,400 families are on mobilization stage with the contractors awaiting arrival of construction materials and additional manpower.
 
In Samar, about 240 families will benefit from the temporary shelter being constructed at the two-hectare Basey First Housing Area in Sitio Bangon, Basey, Samar as the contractor starts working for the construction of 10 bunkhouses.
 
Other sites with secured LGU authorization verified by DPWH, and the contractors on the progress of mobilization include a two-hectare area for 960 families in Barangay Amambucale, Marabut, Samar; a two-hectare area for 960 families in Barangay Pago, Tanauan, Leyte; and a five-hectare shelter area in Barangays San Roque and Olot, Tolosa, Leyte which will benefit about 2,400 families. 

Meanwhile, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director Eduardo del Rosario said the DPWH has built 116 bunkhouses—30 in Hernani, Eastern Samar; 26 in Guian, Eastern Samar, 18 in Basey, Samar, 18 in Marabut, Samar; 11 in Palo, Leyte, 10 in Tacloban city, and three in Giporlos, Eastern Samar.

One bunkhouse can accommodate 120 individuals from 24 families, he added.

“It's a long building with partitions and a centralized kitchen and comfort rooms. They ahve provisions for health facility, a space where doctors and nurses can provide medical assistance,” Del Rosario added.
 
Transition from relief to recovery
 
During a press conference on Tuesday, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) head Herminio Coloma Jr. said the transfer of affected families from tents and evacuation centers to temporary bunkhouses "signals the transition from relief to early recovery and reconstruction."
 
He said that upon the instruction of President Benigno Aquino III, the DPWH began the construction of bunkhouses in Tacloban, Palo, and Ormoc in Leyte, and Basey and Marabut in Samar during the weekend. On the other hand, construction began in Guiuan, Hernani, and Borongan on Monday.
 
"In coordination with the local governments, DPWH has begun site preparation in identified resettlement areas to facilitate transfer to the bunkhouses to be completed," he said.
 
He likewise said that the department has been preparing "sufficient" stocks of construction materials such as coco lumber, wooden frames, and GI sheet roofing for distribution to thousands of affected families with partially damaged houses.
 
Coloma said the Yolanda victims are also being encouraged to participate in the reconstruction efforts under the cash-for-work or food-for-work programs.
 
But he clarified that the assistance offer from the International Labor Organization (ILO) for cash-for-work programs is in the amount of $300,000, and not $300 million as previously announced.
 
He said the Department of Labor and Employment, on the other hand, has prepared to roll out an emergency employment program, which may give workers up to 12,500 clearing and cleaning jobs. —With a report from Kimberly Jane Tan and Marc Jayson Cayabyab/KG/KBK, GMA News
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