NHA: No substandard ‘Yolanda’ housing in Tacloban

TACLOBAN CITY, Jan. 26 (PNA) -– The National Housing Authority (NHA) dismissed reports of substandard permanent houses for super typhoon Yolanda survivors in the city.

General Manager Marcelino Escalada, Jr. said that all he noticed during the site inspection of government housing projects on Wednesday are only defects.

“People will look at it as substandard house, but if you will check the design, you will actually see that it is not substandard,” Escalada added.

The official assured that if a developer constructs a substandard house, they will have to reconstruct the house.

“But if it is only a defect, they will have to repair or replace it or we will have the 10 percent retention. We will not accept the project not unless they fix the problem,” he said.

Escalada said that all designs and plans of NHA housing units are approved by the board.

Developers are now catching up with the repairs of the defect to avoid facing suspension and termination of contract and filling of liquidated damages from the NHA.

The NHA had awarded 6,619 housing units to typhoon Yolanda displaced families in Eastern Visayas from the 12,048 housing units completed by the developers.

Majority are constructed in Leyte province with 16,199 housing units, Tacloban City with 14,433 units, Biliran with 8,905 houses, Samar with 8,900 units, Eastern Samar with 7,573 houses, and Southern Leyte with 130 units. (PNA)
LAP/SQM/ROEL T. AMAZONA/EGR