When 44-year-old Lilia Tipait lost her seaside home in barangay Polambato, Bogo City to supertyphoon Yolanda last year, she almost lost all hope for a good future.
“I was so devastated. I thought, perhaps, we won´t be able to get out of the rut we lived in back then,” she said in Cebuano.
For five months, Lilia, husband Melchor, 18-year-old daughter Mary Grace and a three-year-old grandchild from their eldest daughter, lived in a makeshift shanty of scrap wood and tarpaulin just a few meters away from their ruined house.
The shanty offered little or no protection from the sun and the rain. By December, her daughter had given birth to her own baby.
Things got better when Melchor´s employer, Michael Fernan, provided them with construction materials to rebuild their home.
Lilia Tipait and husband Melchor huddle with their grandchildren inside their new home at the SM Cares Village in Polambato, Bogo City.(CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
Social responsibility
The Tipait family lived in the house they built with those materials for the past seven months.
Then her family was chosen as one of the beneficiaries of the housing project spearheaded by retail and property giant SM Prime through SM Cares, its corporate social responsibility arm.
About 200 houses were turned over to their respective owners yesterday at the SM Cares Village in barangay Polambato, Bogo city.
¨Walay kabutangan ang among kalipay. Wa mi magdahom nga maapil mi ani (We cannot find the words to describe our happiness. We never dreamed that we would be included),¨ Lilia said.
Only 100 families were given the keys to their homes yesterday since the city government is still doing its validation of potential beneficiaries.
Building standards
Present during the ceremony yesterday were Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery Sec. Panfilo Lacson, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Chief Margareta Wahlstrom, SM Prime Holdings Inc. President Hans Sy, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, and Bogo City Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr., among others.
Designed to exceed the requirements of the Building Code and mandated building standards, each house can withstand Category 5 supertyphoons without sustaining major damage.
Aside from its resiliency, the houses also have heat-resistant painted roofing to help lower interior temperature and increase energy efficiency.
The windows and doors are made from an aluminmum frame and PVC to provide a high level of resistance to corrosion.
The village has utilities, basic amenities like streetlights, a community center and basketball court.
The one-hectare lot where the village stands was donated by the heirs of Wenceslao and Margarita Fernan.
Hans Sy President of SM Prime Holdings Inc. shows Sec. Panfilo Lacson and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III the SM Cares Village in Barangay Polambato in Bogo City. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
High risk areas
SM is building 1,000 homes in the Yolanda corridor, prioritizing families that are still living in no-build zones and high-risk areas.
Aside from Bogo city, several SM Cares villages will also rise in Concepcion, Iloilo, Ormoc, and Tacloban City, Leyte.
Each village will have 200 houses each, except for Tacloban which will have 400.
The housing project is on top of the P100 million contribution SM gave to rehabilitate areas hardest hit by supertyphoon Yolanda.