Still homeless since Yolanda

Yolanda, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines, killed more than 6,300 people and displaced 4.1 million in 2013.

Yet, two years later, laments Chaloka Beyani, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, the government has failed to provide adequate shelter to thousands of people made homeless by the supertyphoon.  

According to Beyani, many families are cramped in collective bunkhouses that do not meet necessary minimum standards for the provision of basic needs and services. 

In fact, government figures show that only 2.5 percent of the targeted 21,012 permanent housing in the worst-hit Eastern Visayas region were ready as of June.

The National Housing Authority reported that only 542 houses were completed. In two towns on Samar island and six towns on Leyte island, not a single house had been built 20 months after the typhoon struck.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman admits that at least 2,000 families remain in bunkhouses and palm-thatch temporary homes.

President Aquino created an Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery in December 2013 to oversee rehabilitation efforts and appointed former Senator Panfilo Lacson to head it. But Lacson resigned from his post a little over a year later, saying that the task was better left to a permanent agency. Even with a Cabinet post, Lacson found that he could not give orders to government agencies involved in the rebuilding efforts.

The Philippines gets hit by at least 20 typhoons every year, exacting a heavy toll on lives, private property, public infrastructure and agriculture. But the government's priorities apparently lie elsewhere as many families left homeless by natural calamities are left to fend for themselves.

President Aquino's anointed successor, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, claims his department responded promptly and adequately to the needs of the Yolanda victims. But the UN says that government efforts to give them adequate housing have  been a dismal failure. Now who are we going to believe? –End-

Image by: Rappler