BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TUBIGON, Bohol, March 9 (PIA)
–Impoverished earthquake victims with totally ruined houses and have no means
of rebuilding their homes can negotiate with private lot owners for consented
stay, said international humanitarian organizations into shelter assistance.
With such consents or documents that
show expressed ownership or permission to build, buildings could immediately
start.
International Organization for
Migration’s (IOM) Christie Joy Bacal revealed this amid what settlers term as
“no clear information” on how they are to go to transition shelters, after
spending over four months in tents and makeshift shelters all over 19
evacuation sites in Bohol.
This too as the 22 shelter assistance
groups of local and international groups race against time to pool funds and
resources so they could do part of the deal: fund the building of temporary
core shelters where tent dwellers could graduate into their way to gradual
recovery.
As agreed, the foreign donors and local
humanitarian organizations put in the funds along with the country’s social
welfare agency, while the national, provincial and local governments acquire
the lots for resettlement sites, according to sources from international
donors.
But, four months after the massive
earthquake which collapsed Boholano souls, very few of the 19 hard hit towns
have acquired their resettlement lots, according to shelter assistance
organizations.
Shelter assistance groups name Carmen,
Loon, Tubigon and Inabanga accomplishing full or part of the LGU tasks of
resettlement lots acquisition.
More than 10 towns are still struggling
to put up the counterpart funds to acquire lots, according to reports.
Shelter Cluster former coordinator
Birgit Vaes said the humanitarian organizations and foreign shelter donors need
to put in their promised core shelters before they are pulled out for another
humanitarian mission all over the globe.
With the termination of stay of several
international and local humanitarian groups, which could also mean reverting
the unspent funds to their donors, IOM advised settlers to explore the
possibility of asking private land owners to allow them to temporarily build
transitional shelters in their lots.
With local and international
humanitarian organizations giving out core shelters or household repair kits
are ready with their assistance, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction
Management Council resolved that these aids can only be accessed following
compliance of necessary requirements.
Would be core shelter beneficiaries
need to have incomes below P10K, or have persons with disabilities and with
pregnant woman and disadvantaged are given top priorities.
Beneficiaries not building in
government lots but private lots need to show ownership papers like titles or
land declarations, or owners’ consent of the victims’ staying in the lot.
While local governments waive the
building permit fees in the duration of the calamity, beneficiaries however
need to secure Mines and GeoSciences Bureau of the environment agency
certification that the lots for rebuild are disaster-risk free.
According to a DSWD Admin Order, the
MGB certification is a precondition to receiving the aid award. The DENR MGB
however admit they cannot issue certifications as their tasks only include
ground assessments, sinkholes, fissures and landslides.
The DENR adds the agency lacks
manpower and are thinly spread.
Over the ongoing legal tug or war, and in the race to make it
before the organizations pull out, negotiations with private lot owners should
start. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)