A day before the 3rd anniversary of  Supertyphoon Yolanda that devastated the Philippines, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) today released another excerpt from its extensive and still ongoing investigation on the department’s recovery and rehabilitation program to address the crisis created by the super typhoon when it ravaged the country in November 2013.

One of the priorities of DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo for her first 100 days in office was to review the status of donations and other funds that the department received for its relief and rehabilitation efforts with ‘Yolanda’ survivors. She has been receiving complaints from various individuals and organizations regarding their negative experiences with DSWD during the distribution of the relief goods as well as during the recovery and rehabilitation period. 

On August 12, she and other senior officials of DSWD had a dialogue with ‘Yolanda’ survivors in Iloilo City. A research team was organized in August to focus on various concerns connected to the DSWD’s recovery and rehabilitation programs.

The research is by no means very extensive as it was initiated only by the Office of the Secretary.  Data from DSWD Field Office 6 (FO6) and Field Office 8 (FO8) were prioritized since they received the highest amount of funds for ‘Yolanda’ programs. Data gathering was conducted in September 2016 in the following areas:

The research looked at the following recovery and rehabilitation programs: distribution of emergency shelter assistance (ESA); construction of transition homes and core shelters; other programs which were implemented from the donations; and, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services- National Community Driven Development Project (KC-NCDDP) sub-projects.  

The discussion in this executive summary will be based on the fund sources for the various programs implemented, as follows: cash donations;  Asian Development  Bank (ADB) funds for core shelter; supplementary budget from the Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda / Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan (RAY / CRRP) from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR); and, KC-NCDDP funds.

Focus on Core Shelters

This second excerpt focuses on the grants the DSWD received and then utilized for the construction of core shelters. The data primarily came from the Disaster Response Assistance and Management Bureau (DREAMB).

“We are releasing these data in response to the demands of both the public and the survivors of ‘Yolanda’ that a report on the DSWD’s handling of ‘Yolanda’ funds and implementation of shelter projects be released,” said Assistant Secretary Aleli Bawagan. Asec. Bawagan led the team of researchers involved in the investigation of the ‘Yolanda’ funds.

“It was very disappointing to see how three years later, 62% of all the core shelters of the DSWD for the ‘Yolanda’ survivors have been built. It was shameful because we are all aware of how much the survivors have already suffered during and after Typhoon Yolanda, and yet we were unable to provide for what was promised them – safe houses they can rest in as they try to recover from the extreme stress and trauma they suffered. Many of them lost their loved ones; most of them lost all they have worked for until the typhoon struck. The least that should have been done to help them was to ensure that they have safe and comfortable houses; we failed to do this,” said Asec. Bawagan.

Core Shelter Projects

The targets for construction of core shelters using funds from the ADB are shown on Table 1.

Here are the DSWD’ findings from some of the projects funded from cash donations and from ADB:

a. The contractor for the boat garage has billed the LGU of Guiuan, Eastern Samar for 85% completion. But on actual site visit, the construction is less than 20% completed based on plan.

b. The original location of core shelter project of LGU Guiuan, Eastern Samar did not materialize. Instead, during data-gathering, it was found that the LGU was demolishing some of the transition homes in Bgy. Cogon in preparation for the construction of the core shelters. These transition homes were constructed by IOM using DSWD funds.

c. IOM was awarded P189M for the construction of 2,480 transition shelters (TS) at P76,210 per unit in Leyte, Eastern and Western Samar covering the project duration from August 1, 2014 to December 2015. As of the September 2016 validation, they have been able to construct 770 TS  and 640 Timber Houses (total of 1,410 units, 57% of the original target)  for a total cost of P201M (additional 6.35% from the original budget). The balance of P12M was taken from Foreign Grants fund of ADB paid to IOM on June 20, 2016. Cost of the 770 transition shelters was P76,210.00 per unit and the cost of the 640 timber homes was P222,372.34 per unit. Table 4 shows the location of the shelters.

Table 2: Location of Transition Shelters and Timber Houses

d.      From the target of 1,559 units of core shelter using ADB grant, as of Aug. 15, 2016, only 8 have been completed (Hindang), 59 are ongoing (3 in Hilongos, 20 in Hindang, 36 in Tacloban) and 1,492 units have not yet started construction.

The status of construction of core shelters (as of Aug. 15, 2016) which DSWD has obligated funds are shown on Table 3 and Table 3b (with funds from quick response fund (QRF), cash donations, and ADB):

Table 3: Status of Construction of Core Shelters, as of Aug. 15, 2016

Table 3b. Distribution of core shelters per region

Source of funds for the 3,112 core shelter units are:

 f. As for the site visit in Inopacan on Sept. 28, 2016, only 286 beneficiaries (out of 350) have finally agreed to be part of the core shelter assistance program. Others have backed-out since they do not want to demolish their current houses, which is a condition of DSWD for the grant of P70,000.00.

g. The budget for the core shelter given to LGUs, in partnership with UN-Habitat  and Associates for the Urban Poor (AUP) is Php 70,000 per unit; budget provided to IOM is Php 100,000 per unit. #

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