Recto: Itemize Yolanda projects

MANILA, Philippines - Rehabilitation projects in areas hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda should be itemized in the proposed 2017 budget to ensure their completion, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said yesterday.

“There is still much work to be done in Eastern Visayas, but the calamity fund is silent on the rehabilitation deficit,” Recto said.

He said there is no allocation for Yolanda rehabilitation projects in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF) or calamity fund next year.

This year’s NDRRMF amounting to P44 billion sets aside P18.9 billion for the rehabilitation of Yolanda-damaged infrastructure, livelihood and farms.

Recto said the absence of a “Yolanda earmark” in next year’s NDRRMF may be misinterpreted and seen as an indication that the government has stopped rehabilitation works.

“If reconstruction is still a work in progress, it must be reflected in the calamity fund to reassure Yolanda victims that what the government had promised would still be redeemed,” Recto said.

He said recipient agencies and the amounts they would get should be specified. 

Citing data from the National Economic and Development Authority, Recto said 175,467 housing units, 7,233 classrooms, 95 communal irrigation systems and 11 flood control structures have yet to be completed.

He called for a “last quarter rally” to step up the utilization of the budget for Yolanda-related projects.

The senator noted that  only P6.9 billion of this year’s NDRRMF had been spent as of August.

Recto said the low utilization rate is an indication of poor absorption by concerned agencies, to the detriment of the people.

Permanent houses

Meanwhile, only 4,000 of the more than 200,000 permanent housing units for Yolanda victims have been built, according to Rep. Rodel Batocabe, chairman of the House committee on climate change.

“Construction is super slow partly because the government lacks a template for rehabilitating victims of calamities and disasters,” Batocabe said.

He said lack of relocation sites hampered the construction of permanent housing units.

“The policy makers first decided that they would use public lands. But the available public lands were on hilly areas and do not have titles. They shifted to private lands, which also do not have titles. Titling took months,” he said.

Reports of construction irregularities such as the use of substandard materials slowed down the construction of permanent housing units, Batocabe said.