SM Prime to build row houses for Yolanda victims

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the umbrella firm of SM Group’s property businesses, plans to build socialized housing units to aid in the rehabilitation of typhoon-hit Leyte province in Eastern Visayas.

Victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda would be the recipients of the row houses from SM Prime which is advocating business resiliency amid disasters, its top official said.

“It’s a proposal I have with the private property owners. If they can donate the property, I can build the house,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said on the sidelines of the Top Leaders’ Forum organized by the mall developer and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Sy said SM Prime would work with government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to facilitate the distribution of the row houses.

So far, the integrated property firm has sent workers to typhoon-ravaged areas like Tacloban City to assess the situation, Sy said.

Early this month, Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest storm in the world recorded this year, hit Eastern Visayas, leaving more than 5,000 dead and millions homeless.

For its part, SM Prime intends to build socialized housing units.

“Speed is also the issue,” Sy said, adding that row houses would be faster to build than high-rise developments. SM Prime earlier committed to build row houses in Cagayan de Oro and Cebu.

The country’s largest mall developer hosted Friday the Top Leaders’ Forum that tackled increasing private sector resilience through business practices and investment.

The event gave the private sector the venue “to discuss possible incentives for our investments in resilience,” Sy said.

“Disaster resilience is not only prioritized to protect commercial interest... it has become a humanitarian imperative,” Sy said.

Businesses and private sector are crucial in building disaster resilience in communities as such entities account for 75-90 percent of investments, said Margareta Wahlström, special representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Top Leaders’ Forum addressed three key themes: Resilience rating systems for increased shareholder value, metrics to make resilience marketable, and sustainability reporting to communicate disaster risk management successes.

The outcome of the discussion would steer the 6th Asian Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction in June in Bangkok, Thailand.