248 bunkhouses for ‘Yolanda’ survivors rise in storm-ravaged areas

President BS Aquino takes time out for a photo-op while inspecting the controversial bunkhouses (Photo : getrealphilippines.com)

MANILA, Philippines – It isn’t exactly “home, sweet home,” but a bunkhouse is what many survivors of typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) will have to make do with, for now.

Several months after the deadly super typhoon utterly devastated the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines on November 8, 2013, 248 of the 250 bunkhouses the government promised to put up for survivors have finally been erected in the provinces of Leyte, Eastern Samar and Western Samar.

Rolando Asis, head of the Department of Public Works and Highways Region VIII office disclosed this news to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday. Asis added that “the two remaining bunkhouses will be finished as soon as possible” by private contractors hired by the agency.

Via a text message to the publication, he further reported that the Department of Social Welfare and Development has been tasked with distributing 231 of the 248 temporary shelters to victims of the calamity.

Asis noted that at the moment, “only 71 bunkhouses have been occupied by typhoon victims,” and explained that the DSWD has been “strictly following some criteria in screening prospective recipients” of the shelters.

The breakdown of distribution of the bunkhouses, according to Asis, is as follows “150 of the completed bunkhouses are in Tacloban City and Ormoc City, both in Leyte, while 65 are in Eastern Samar and 33 in Western Samar.”

Each bunkhouse cluster costs P836,000, consisting of 24 individual units with a common bathroom and kitchen. A projected 6,000 units will be erected upon completion of the project.

The individual bunkhouses measure 8.64 square meters, with the option to combine two units to accommodate larger families. Units are made of corrugated roofing sheets, plywood and coconut lumber walls and floors.

Initial plans of the DPWH pegged the number of bunkhouses to be constructed at 222, with target completion in December of last year. However, Asis said that the temporary shelters’ construction was “hampered by bad weather” in the region

The agency eventually increased the number of units to 250, with a target completion date set sometime February, 2014.

The bunkhouses have thus far received widespread criticism from several sectors for reportedly being substandard in quality and overpriced.