Relocated to bunkhouses, but...Yolanda survivors fear for their future

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Forty-eight-year-old Adelina Sales, along with her husband Avelino and their eight children, was one of the survivors of Yolanda who still have no idea how they could manage to survive in their new home, the bunkhouses at Barangay Caibaan in this city.

"We don't know how we can survive. My husband has no work and practically could not find one, as he is recuperating from an appendectomy last Jan. 8. And I am tied to taking care of my children and two grandchildren. Our lives became more miserable after the typhoon," Adelina said in the dialect.

Her husband Avelino, 58, a pedicab driver before Yolanda, had to stay at the bunkhouse and could not get any medicines for his recovery from the operation of his appendix. His daily hospital checkup of his operation wounds, which became swollen due to infection, and transportation fare to and from the hospital, are additional burdens for the family.

Before Yolanda, Adelina worked as a laundrywoman earning P2,000 per month, while her husband earned P100 a day from driving a pedicab. At the time, they could hardly make both ends meet and it becomes worse now. Her family relies solely on relief goods from the DSWD and some assistance from their neighbors for their daily sustenance. Practically, they have nothing.

"We depend for support from other people. We don't know now were to start for our survival," Adelina said. "Sometimes, my daughter who is working as househelp in a nearby town gives me P500 for a week's budget, because her two children are with me."

Another relocated family to the bunkhouses, Lilibeth Duran, 45, said her family suffered so much after Yolanda.

Lilibeth, a mother of three, said that from Feb. 14 when they moved into the bunkhouse, they waited for livelihood from the national government but nothing came until now. The government promised P40,000 as startup capital for livelihood-such as basket making, dressmaking, banig making. "When Pnoy came to Tacloban last Feb. 26, we waited for him to come to the bunkhouses, but he never did," she told The Freeman.

Lilibeth's husband Ronel is earning a living as pedicab driver, but the income is not enough. Her family does not know how to start a new life. "We hope the government will help us now for us to restart a life after Yolanda," she said.

A total of 344 families have been relocated to the Caibaan bunkhouse camp, consisting of 27 rectangular buildings or structures, each of which has 24 rooms or units, measuring 8-meters x 12-meters. One unit is designed for a family of five, and two units are given to a family of more than five members.

The initial 67 families who were moved there from the coastal barangay of San Jose district, said they were put in the bunkhouses, apparently in preparation for the visit of Pres. Benigno Aquino III last Feb. 26.

More homeless families, from the evacuation centers of San Fernando Elementary School in Sagkahan district and the Leyte National High School, were recently relocated to the Caibaan bunkhouse camp.

Camp manager Agnes Bugal admitted the lives of the relocated families there were not that easy, as some of them said their unclear future is a cause for worry or fear.

Bugal said the families are provided by the DSWD with relief goods, although some of them continue to receive their conditional cash transfer allotments under the 4Ps. She admitted however that the promised livelihood has yet to come.

The campsite is half-kilometer away from the talipapa where the occupants buy items for cooking their food. The schools of the children are two or three pedicab rides away, entailing a minimum expense of P70 fare a day.

Bugal admitted there is no electrical connection yet to the bunkhouses, thus no one can have a fan for ventilation. "The bunkhouses are too hot to live in," she said.

The Leyte Metropolitan Water District, headed by Nestor Villacin, had already done installing water pipes to these buildings to provide potable water to the families living in these temporary shelters. Bugal said the DSWD national office will shoulder the light and water bills for a period of six months, after which it will be on the occupants' responsibility.

On both ends of each building are separate structures for toilet/bathroom and kitchen for common use by the occupants. Garbage are piled at a distance outside the camp and burned, the occupants told The Freeman.

Bugal said the rules inside the camp are very strict. No one is allowed to set up a sari-sari store within the camp area, and that smoking, drinking liquor and letting visitors sleep over are strictly prohibited. But then again, the path to the future of the occupants remain unclear to this day. (FREEMAN)