DSWD core shelter program in Pangasinan now 90% complete

By Venus H. Sarmiento

Bani, Pangasinan (14 July) — The identical core shelter houses in barangay Dacap Sur, this town, sponsored by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the municipality of Bani are now 90 percent complete with 70 percent of the 100 units now occupied.

From the road leading to the relocation site, the core shelter houses look like mushrooms on top of each other, bearing resemblance to the famous Ifugao Rice Terraces.

Engineer Virgilio Cave said the ladder -like structure was inspred by the terraces and was conceptualized primarily to prevent land slide. Huge corals were cemented together to finish the beach look of the slopes leading to the houses.

“Our construction started in February 1 and we hope to finish all the houses by July 23,” Cave said.

The DSWD allocated P7 million for the materials with each of the 4 x 5 square- meter- unit having a P70,000 budget. Bani’s counterpart is the 50 hectare lot, architects and engineers from the municipal government, pipelines for the water subsystem and electricity and waste disposal facilities.

Mayor Marcelo Navarro plans to invite President Benigno Aquino III for the project’s inauguration tentatively scheduled on September 28.

“DSWD gave P7 million, our LGU counterpart if monetized is close to P8 million and the Word Food Organization’s 4,200 sacks of rice could amount to P5 million. So, the project costs roughly P20 million. We already wrote a letter to the President to inaugurate the project and hopefully, he can come,” Navarro said during the media tour arranged by the DSWD.

The United Nations World Food Program provided five kilos of rice fro the workers-beneficiaries that forms part of the’sweat equity.’ This means, the family members who are the beneficiaries themselves assist in the construction of their own houses. Instead of cash payments, they receive five kilos of rice. Residents of other barangays who came to help were provided with 10 kilos of rice per daily work.

Navarro bared he plans to develop the relocation site into an eco-village which can be copied by other institutions.

The families were organized in the Neighborhood Assistance Shelter Association (NASA) and fondly call their place “Borobor Ti Ayat” (Spring of Love).

The core shelter beneficiaries are informal settlers whose light houses were washed out by floods and strong winds during typhoon Emong in 2008. They number around 100 families with population estimated at 600 individuals. (PIA-Pangasinan)