Rebuild Bohol gets support from real estate

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Earthquake survivors in at least six towns of third district can now move on from the devastation with new homes to start with.

Rebuild Bohol Foundation, through the support of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association Inc., completed 79 of the 389 Balay Bol-anon core houses to earthquake survivors in Loboc, Batuan, Bilar, Carmen, Loay and Sevilla.

Third district Representative Arthur Yap and Loboc Mayor Helen Alaba hosted CREBA national President Noel Toti Cariño and CREBA chairman for outreach programs Tetchie Bautista during the turnover of finished houses to beneficiaries last Friday.

Alaba led the ceremonial turnover at the municipal hall during a short program before they motored to the barangays where they installed CREBA markers.

The mayor of  Loboc said CREBA provided construction materials worth P45,000 for each house through Rebuild Bohol Foundation.

Yap created the Rebuild Bohol Foundation right after the October 15, 2013 earthquake to raise funds for the construction of new houses to replace the totally damaged ones.

Alaba expressed gratitude to Yap and CREBA for responding to the needs of her constituents in Loboc.

"I am thankful to Congressman Yap and CREBA that through the Rebuild Bohol Foundation, Inc. the earthquake survivors in Loboc managed to have new homes in replacement to those totally damaged by the earthquake," Alaba said.

In Loboc, Rebuild Bohol Foundation already completed 29 houses while still constructing three units to provide for the 32 beneficiaries.

After the short program at the municipal hall, the Yap and Alaba brought the CREBA officials to the houses of the beneficiaries to turnover the core houses and install a CREBA marker for each of them.

First they went to the residence of Pedro Marfe in Barangay Alegria.

They then proceeded to the houses of Pablito Sumampong, Ananias Lingatong, and Felomina Inutan in Barangay Gotozon.

Myra Jumanog of  Barangay Canlasid, one of the 32 beneficiaries in Loboc, was among those who attended the ceremony at the municipal hall.

From Loboc, Yap brought the CREBA officials to Carmen and tried the Chocolate Hills Adventure Park in Barangay Buenos Aires — the alternative view deck after the earthquake destroyed the Chocolate Hills complex.

In Carmen, 18 of the targeted 160 units were completed and construction of 71 units is still ongoing.  At least 71 more units are included in the next batch to be constructed.

In Batuan, Rebuild Bohol Foundation has 26 beneficiaries wherein 16 of them had their units completed already and 10 still have the construction of their units ongoing. — Angeline Valencia/JMD

The group also targets to build 36 units in Bilar wherein 13 were already completed and 23 still ongoing.

In Loay, Rebuild Bohol Foundation completed three of the 81 houses, while still working on the 53 units. The next batch includes the remaining 25 units to be constructed.

In Sevilla, the group is still constructing 18 of the 54 houses, while 36 units will be in the next batch.

Of the 389 houses to be built, 79 were already completed as of May 10, while works on the 183 is ongoing and the remaining 132 units will be in the next batch.

Bautista explained that CREBA is an umbrella organization of real estate developers nationwide which now supports Rebuild Bohol Foundation in the implementation of Balay Bol-anon core houses for earthquake survivors whose houses were totally damaged by the earthquake.

Yap's family had been a long-time member of CREBA and had maintained a good credibility.

"So when Congressman Yap approached CREBA for the victims of earthquake, we readily made available our assistance. We did a lot of programs. We had fund-raising, we had concert of your Loboc Children's Choir. So now we are very excited to meet with the beneficiaries," according to Bautista.

She said Yap presented a complete project profile which already included the design of the house, the costing per unit, and the kind of materials preferred which made it easy for CREBA to approve.

In the project, CREBA use indigenous materials which means the local industries also benefit from the program.

In the partnership, CREBA came up with the fund and Rebuild Bohol Foundation laid it on the Balay Bol-anon core shelter construction.

It is also an advantage that the houses were built on the site where the old one was destroyed. So there is no need to find the project site. —/JMD (FREEMAN)