Marcos slams ‘substandard’ houses for Yolanda survivors, says improvements are ongoing

January 17, 2025 , 11:05 PM

By Rodolfo Dacleson II

(January 17, 2025) – Pres. Bongbong Marcos Jr. on Friday said the first batch of houses built for survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda are being fixed due to their “substandard” materials.

During the ceremonial turnover of 3,500 new houses to survivors of the super typhoon in Burauen, Leyte, Marcos told reporters that the government has allocated funding to the National Housing Authority (NHA) to complete the housing projects in Tacloban and other parts of Leyte.

“’Yung unang proyektong ginawa, substandard. Kulang sa kuryente, sa tubig, at napakalayo kaya hindi masyado nagamit,” said Marcos.

He also ordered the NHA to ensure that the houses are typhoon-ready.

“Lahat ng NHA project na hindi magamit, gawan ng paraan para mas maging maganda at technically maging matibay-tibay,” added Marcos.

In November 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated Leyte and other provinces in Eastern Visayas. Considered among the world’s most powerful tropical cyclones in history, it left around 6,300 dead, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The death toll, however, remains unclear until today.

It also damaged 1.1 million houses, prompting the late former president Noynoy Aquino III to create the Yolanda Permanent Housing Program under the NHA in 2015.

Aquino was criticized for his alleged inadequate response in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Nearly a decade later, the Commission on Audit found that the NHA still has a backlog of almost 31,000 houses.

The NHA pinned the blame on budget constraints, project sites unsuitable for construction, and unresolved boundary disputes.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte vowed to relocate displaced families but that did not happen. Halfway through his term, over 90,000 houses were still unfinished based on the presentation by the NHA and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).

Marcos tasked the DHSUD to finish the project in Eastern Samar this year.

(PM)

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