Kaban ni D_BystandeR: LUOY ANG MGA BAKWIT

The construction of bunkhouses as temporary shelters for families of homeless typhoon victims has raised questions about the direction and integrity of the government's rehabilitation and recovery program. At least 203 bunkhouses - each unit divided into 24 rooms that would house as many families - are being built in more than a dozen towns in Leyte and Samar, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Each room measures 8.64 sq. m. – roughly the size of two pingpong tables - to be occupied by one family, said a DPWH paper, "shelter and reconstruction plan." The average size of a Filipino family is five, but in many cases there are as many as 10 individuals in one household. The construction of bunkhouses as temporary shelters for families of homeless typhoon victims has raised questions about the direction and integrity of the government's rehabilitation and recovery program. Allegations of overpricing and substandard work have raised fears that the entrenched pork barrel system that spawned the alleged P10B Janet Lim-Napoles racket exposed by whistle-blowers last July is again rearing its ugly head in this early stage of reconstruction following the most violent typhoon to hit this country. Field officers of the CCCM (Camp Coordination and Camp Management), involved in shelter programs in countries wracked by civil strife and natural calamities, have quietly discussed with municipal authorities apprehensions at the lack of privacy rooms separated by thin plywood walls and sexual molestation of children while their parents are away to eke out a living.

At the very least, consultations with the potential occupants have been suggested. While "protection issues" are the main concerns of the international workers, local authorities are worried about the potential for corruption in the government's reconstruction and recovery initiatives

in the ruined communities. One issue is the soundness of constructing temporary quarters nearly two months after Yolanda struck on  Nov. 8, after the emergency had passed, rather than getting people back on their feet and building permanent shelters instead. The 15-page CCCM cluster report could be telling. Politicians and priests in Leyte and Samar are worried about reports that a 24-room bunkhouse is being constructed at a cost roughly below P200,000 and not P959,360 - the price tag put on it in the DPWH plan. The nearly P1M expense in the DPWH "individual program of work" for each of the 11 bunkhouses now undergoing construction in Tacloban City, for example, includes such amenities as four toilets, two bathrooms and a common kitchen. In at least one municipality in Eastern Samar however, some of the bunkhouses do not have toilets, baths or kitchen.