Govt looking for designers of appropriate houses for displaced Badjao families in Zambo

The government is now looking for designers who could make culturally-appropriate houses for displaced Badjao families in Zamboanga City, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman said Wednesday.
 
“The challenge is help design a coastal settlement with the necessary sanitation, with the necessary access, away from the storm surges, with people’s values, with people’s culture intact but at the same time, free from the risk of disaster,” Soliman said during the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum in Makati City.
 
“We welcome suggestions on design,” she added.
 
She said that of the 118,000 displaced individuals in Zamboanga City as a result of the skirmishes between Moro National Liberation Front fighters and government forces, 30 percent are living in the coastal areas.
 
“We have a group of people there who have been displaced, whose main habitat is by the sea, the Badjaos,” she said.
 
Soliman stressed that “what is important aside from rebuilding the structure is building the shelter with culture in mind.”
 
In an interview, DSWD assistant secretary Javier Jimenez said the houses should be culturally appropriate.
 
“They live either on boat houses or in stilts, they don’t live on the land so definitely land-based kind of subdivision or houses won’t work for them. At the same time the stilts, sometimes they are environmentally safe, they are vulnerable and then (there’s a problem with) sanitation,” he said.
 
He said architect Jun Palafox, founder and principal architect-urban planner of Palafox Associates, is now coordinating with the government for the possible design of the houses.
 
Meanwhile, on Saturday, a groundbreaking for a relocation site will be held, Soliman said.
 
“We are looking forward to working with Habitat for Humanity, we are going to do groundbreaking on Saturday with Habitat for Humanity in one of the areas,” she said at the forum.
 
No other details on the groundbreaking were available as of posting time.
 
Jimenez said there will be a stakeholders meeting this week to discuss the groundbreaking. — RSJ, GMA News