NHA to rebid contract for Yolanda housing projects in East Samar

The National Housing Authority (NHA) will rebid the resettlement project contract worth PHP800 million awarded to JC Tayag, the main contractor of the Yolanda housing projects in Eastern Samar. (Photo: National Housing Authority/Facebook)

MANILA — The National Housing Authority (NHA) will rebid the resettlement project contract worth PHP800 million awarded to JC Tayag, the main contractor of the Yolanda housing projects in Eastern Samar.

NHA Assistant General Manager Froilan Kampitan disclosed this on Tuesday during a joint congressional hearing of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development and House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

Kampitan said it will issue a letter of contract termination to JC Tayag Builders following the revelation of substandard materials used in the construction of over 2,000 housing units.

Kampitan said the NHA will rebid the contract to ensure that the project implementation would adhere to standards and be expedited thoroughly.

“We are trying to locate some properties already that are available (under the contract of JC Tayag),” Kampitan said.

Tayag, for his part, maintained his denial of using substandard materials in the housing units, saying that it was a possible “sabotage” against him.

A certain Camilo Salazar alleged in a previous congressional hearing that Tayag used eight-millimeter steel rods in the house construction in Balangiga, Eastern Samar instead of the required specification of 10 millimeters.

This allegation was further verified by a joint inspection team dispatched by the NHA and Department of Public Works and Highways.

The inspection team uncovered that the size of the reinforcing steel bars averaged at eight millimeters. The contractor also used undersized bars of 12 millimeters, which is below the requirement of 16 millimeters.