HUNDREDS of typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) survivors in Eastern Visayas, including townsfolk of Balangiga in Eastern Samar province, paraded the streets of Tacloban City and staged a rally in front of the National Housing Authority-Region 8 office on Monday before President Rodrigo R. Duterte delivered his 2nd State of the Nation Address (SONA). The groups were demanding the government to account for its housing program that they claim has not met their needs. In a statement given to the media, the members of the Coalition of Yolanda Survivors and Partners, said: “Hold accountable those responsible for the slow moving and botched housing program. Will inadequate housing remain a never-ending issue?” They assailed the government’s Yolanda Shelter Rehabilitation program as having failed in providing decent housing to those displaced by the devastating typhoon in 2013. “During Aquino’s administration, nothing came out of the promised build back better. In the current administration, the campaign promise for us survivors with one foot inside Malacañang seems to translate now into our feet going to the grave instead,” according to Marife Juana, resident of New Hope relocation site in a northern barangay of Tacloban City.

BALANGIGA
The groups also cited the displacement of residents in Balangiga town due to the tide embankment project. Tessie Elacion, a resident of Balangiga, told The Freeman that they could not accept the poor state of relocation units they are about to receive. “We are counting on the NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) to report on the sloppy state of relocation site in Balangiga,” she said. Ms. Elacion added that they are appealing to the government not to put them in a housing site that is far from their sources of livelihood, considering that they are farmers and fisherfolk. The President took a swipe at the US government in his SONA, citing the church bells taken by the American army from the town following what has now been dubbed the Balangiga massacre in 1901. — The Freeman

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