SAN FRANCISCO, Southern Leyte (PIA) -- Personnel from the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) came to this town in Panaon island Friday, February 4, to hold a pilot pay-out for emergency housing assistance program of the National Housing Authority (NHA).

Recipients were families with totally damaged houses.  “A total of 1,195 individuals from the said municipality received P5,000 cash each,” the provincial LGU posted in its FB Page.

Attending the initial pay-out distribution were Vice Governor Christopherson Yap, Municaipal Mayor Fe Maruhom, and provincial board members in the province’s second district - Myrna Rentuza, Rolando Bacoy, and Napoleon Regis.

On December 30, 2021, NHA downloaded P45 million to the provincial treasury, the move was a quick response intervention of the agency to ease the plight of people who lost their homes after Typhoon Odette lashed the province in the afternoon of Dec. 16, 2021, along with other provinces in the Visayas lying in its path.

In the ceremonial turnover, Gov. Damian Mercado announced that during a meeting with the mayors of the province, it was agreed that the four towns in Panaon Island -- Liloan, San Francisco, Pintuyan, and San Ricardo  --  including the historic, island-town of Limasawa, be given priority first.

The number of totally damaged houses in these five municipalities has matched the P45 million NHA fund at P5,000 per household to buy needed housing materials to rebuild homes, hence the basis of the decision, Gov. Mercado said.

Meanwhile, top officials of the housing agency had vowed to push for more funds this year to reach out to other similarly situated victims in other municipalities, whose houses were also badly destroyed by the typhoon. (LDL/MMP/PIA8-Southern Leyte)