The National Housing Authority (NHA) has approved Governor Pamela Baricuatro's request to reinstate the P712 million in housing funds for victims of Super Typhoon Odette, according to the Cebu Provincial Information Office (PIO) on Thursday, November 20, 2025.

These funds had been returned to the National Treasury after the NHA and the previous Capitol administration failed to agree on their implementation.

Baricuatro said that NHA General Manager Joeben Tai called her, upon the instruction of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to confirm that the funds will be released to Cebu in December 2025.

It may be recalled that the governor sent a letter to the NHA general manager on November 18 appealing for the reinstatement of the grant for Cebuanos whose homes were destroyed in December 2021, noting that the new Capitol administration is ready to cooperate fully with the agency and not impose additional guidelines on it.

“As the People’s Governor, I firmly believe that the affected Cebuanos deserve to receive what is rightfully theirs despite the years that had passed,” Baricuatro said in the letter.

"The disagreement between the NHA and the former Capitol leadership arose from differing approaches on how the assistance should be distributed," Capitol PIO pointed out.

"The NHA’s plan was to directly provide P10,000 to each of the 72,209 qualified households identified by the Office of Civil Defense," it added. 

However, the previous administration wanted the provincial government to "implement the program and release the assistance through the Dasig Sugbo Card system instead of direct cash payouts."

NHA 7 Manager Engr. Hermes Jude Juntilo explained that adopting the province’s proposal would "violate the agency’s Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP) guidelines, possibly leading to audit issues, accusations of fund misuse, and irregular allocation."

He earlier confirmed that the NHA Central Office rejected ultimately the Capitol’s request to manage the distribution.

“Our general manager did not allow the province to handle the implementation. In the end, the funds were returned to the National Treasury,” he said.

With her appeal now granted, Baricuatro said she will coordinate closely with NHA 7 to reconcile beneficiary data and ensure the smooth distribution of financial aid to affected families. 

(Info courtesy: Cebu Province/Capitol PIO)