The National Housing Authority in Central Visayas turns over today, December 31, a P10 million cheque to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama for aid to typhoon victims. | Photo Courtesy of NHA-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City received a P10 million aid from the National Housing Authority (NHA) as a form of assistance for families affected by Typhoon Odette.
Mayor Michael Rama confirmed that the city received the cheque on December 31, 2021, and the city would distribute this to 2,000 beneficiaries who would be qualified for the assistance.
“Under the Special EHAP (Special Emergency Housing Assistance Program), the NHA shall provide P5,000 for each beneficiary-family to augment in rebuilding their houses, regardless of the extent of damage sustained,” said the NHA-7 in a statement.
Mayor Rama said in a press conference on December 31, 2021, that the money would be used to provide housing materials to the affected families.
This will also supplement the city’s own financial aid distribution of P5,000 to structure owners in the barangays. The city’s budget can only cover 100,000 to 115,000 affected families.
“I think that is P5,000 per structure owner. There will be more coming. I wish there will be. Ang distribution naa nay template (There is a template for the template),” said the mayor.
Rama has recently sought the help of President Rodrigo Duterte for a P5 billion aid from the national government seeing that the damage in the city has reached over P2 billion and the city can only allocate P1 billion.
As of the last day of the year, the Cebu City government has not yet received a response from the Office of the President.
Still, the city has also began the distribution of the P5,000 aid to 7,615 families in 18 different barangays in Cebu City including Budlaan, Sirao, Pulangbato, Binaliw, Guba, Capitol site, Cogon Ramos, Sambag 2, Talamban, Paril, Cambinocot, Kamagayan, Pamutan, Sinsin, Pung-ol Sibugay, Tagbao, Sudlon II, and Pahina San Nicolas.
They are the first batch to receive such aid, and other barangays will follow shortly after when they have submitted a list of validated beneficiaries.
Rama has instructed all barangays to submit the validated list of beneficiaries as soon as possible, but he admits there has been conflicts between the elected barangay officials and the Mayor’s Information and Liaison Office (MILO).
Reports from the barangays state that MILO and barangay officials have conducted separate validation causing a conflict in the list. The Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) have decided to consolidate the data themselves to prevent redundancies.
This is one of the issues he will tackle in the new year as he wants this conflict to end for the sake of the residents.
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