The Department of Public Works and Highways will build 275 transitory houses for the Marawi City siege evacuees costing P241 million, which can accommodate 1,100 families.
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said Friday the department is now working on timely completion of site development works where the first batch of transitory houses for evacuees from the three-month-long battles between Maute Group terrorists and government forces will be built.
“The area being developed by DPWH in Barangay Sagongsongan, Marawi City, can accommodate 1,100 families,” Villar noted.
“Currently, we are preparing a portion of the site where the National Housing Authority can build a total of 275 transitory houses,” he said.
A total of P241.69 million is allocated for the land development of Sagonsongan Village, Villar said. This will cover the clearing and grubbing, fuel and model house, asphalt overlay and drainage works within the site.
“Additional four-hectare and two-hectare sites were proposed by Marawi City officials,” he said.
“Once the sites are developed, NHA may begin the construction stage of the needed transitory shelters of Marawi siege internally displaced persons (IDPs),” Villar said.
Villar also vowed to provide for latrines and water supply in all the nine evacuation centers for IDPs from the Marawi conflict.
“DPWH trucks have delivered water for the IDPs and backfilling materials to compact muddy grounds,” he said.
Lanao del Norte evacuation centers in Pantar; Pantao-Ragat; Beroni, Balo-i; and Barangay Landa, Balo-I have likewise received water, water tanks, deep well pumps, and insulators to cool down DSWD and DOH tents, along with gravel to improve pathways, roadways, and muddy grounds.
DPWH is a member agency of the Task Force Bangon Marawi Housing Sub-Committee, tasked to construct temporary and permanent shelters including provision of utilities.
The department also heads the Reconstruction Sub-Committee, which is responsible for the reconstruction, repair, and rehabilitation of all national roads and bridges, public schools, and government buildings.
The DPWH has also conducted quick response activities in evacuation centers including the distribution of relief goods and water supply, installation of latrines, improvement of deep wells, pathways, roadways, and flooring.
Qualified dependents of soldiers and policemen who were killed in action in the Marawi siege operation were also employed by the DPWH.
Meanwhile, in Clark Field, Pampanga, World Medical Relief Inc. announced it is donating $20 million (about P1.016 billion) worth of hospital equipment and medicines to Marawi City.
Dr. George V. Samson, president and chief executive officer of the worldwide non-government organization, said the equipment and medicines are now being prepared in Detroit, Michigan for shipment to Marawi and nearby areas this November.
Samson, who hails from Magalang, Pampanga, said the donations will be contained in 20-footer containers to help the city’s recovery from the ongoing siege.
Samson, who was the guest during a media forum here, also said the containers composed of basic medicines and requirements the residents would surely need.
“In fact, we also assisted 110 countries around the world after they underwent civil disasters and war,” he said.
Samson, who recently arrived from WMR’s headquarters in Michigan to oversee the donation, stressed the equipment and medicines will go straight to beneficiaries, numbering about six to 10 hospitals, in Marawi and nearby areas.
The multi-funded nonprofit charitable organization gets its resources from several hospitals and pharmaceutical companies in the US while being backed by 3,000 volunteers, mostly retired physicians and nurses from all over the world.
Founded in 1953 during the Korean War by a housewife Irene M. Auberlin, WMRI also helps international civic and religious organizations like Rotary International, Jaycees, Kiwanis in their dental and education programs.
In Pampanga, the organization recently donated several hospital equipment and medicines to the Kapampangan Development Foundation at the Jose A. Datu Medical Center (JADMC) in Bacolor.