The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has recommended the distribution of Emergency Shelter Assistance to those living in No Dwelling Zones in Tacloban City.
No Dwelling Zones are defined as areas less than 40 meters from the shore.
Region 7 Director Nestor Ramos on Tuesday sent a letter to Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman recommending financial assistance to survivors in the no-build zone as they await the completion of their permanent housing units.
Under the Emergency Shelter Assistance Program, households with totally damaged houses will receive P30,000 while those with partially damaged houses will receive P15,000.
Ramos action was interpreted to be a result of a dialogue between him and members of People Surge in the city.
A provision of Memorandum Circular No. 24 or the ESA guidelines prohibits the NDZs from receiving the cash assistance.
Pol Escalona of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY)-Tacloban Chapter said: “This is one step victory for us disaster survivors. DSWD “Dinky” Soliman should ultimately scrap the memorandum and give to NDZ dwellers what they duly deserve. Two years of waiting is more than enough,” he added.
In the petition letter signed by several organizations under the banner of People Surge, the biggest alliance of disaster survivors in the country, the alliance argued that the ESA does not serve its purpose since its distribution has not been timely.
No less than Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman conceded she said in a media interview that ESA should just be a “shelter assistance” and no longer an “emergency shelter assistance.”
In a statement, KUSOG Han Barangay 37, a local organization of KADAMAY in Barangay 37 Reclamation Area Tacloban and affiliate of People Surge, said that ESA and permanent housing should not be made mutually exclusive.
Elderly members of Kusog join protest walk to DSWD regional office to petition the release of ESA for NDZ dwellers.
“The government has always reasoned out that those living in NDZs should not be given ESA because we are the priority in the permanent resettlement. But where are those houses? The National Housing Authority itself said that completion of the resettlement would still be in 2017,” the statement with a subtitle “ESA vs pabalay” reads.
The group argued that disaster survivors should benefit from both ESA and permanent resettlement, stating that the budget for each was appropriated to two different government agencies: ESA was budgeted under DSWD while the permanent housing under NHA.
The rationale of the ESA, as stated in the Memorandum itself, is an “urgent assistance for the purchase of housing materials for the repair and reconstruction of their damaged houses.”
