FORMER Housing Chief Marcelino Escalada corrected President Bongbong Marcos’s claim that the administration he succeeded did nothing for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.
President Marcos said,
“We haven’t fully recovered from Yolanda yet; we only really started two years ago because nothing was done in the previous administration, nothing was done in the administration before that,” according to Pres. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.
In an exclusive interview with SMNI News, Escalada, the former general manager of the National Housing Authority during the Duterte administration, stated that the President received incorrect information.
In fact, under the Duterte administration…
“Under the leadership of former President Mayor Rody Duterte, we built more or less 160,000 houses,” said Marcelino Escalada, Former General Manager, National Housing Authority.
The target was to build 205,000 houses as part of the Yolanda Rehabilitation Program based on data from the Pnoy Administration.
Each house, including the land, cost ₱290,000, and the government allocated a total budget of ₱60 billion.
The Yolanda Housing Program was initially designed as a ‘deliverable’ or paid program according to the Aquino Government’s plan.
However, under the Duterte government, the housing was provided for free as the victims of Typhoon Yolanda were in dire need.
“So, the awardees in the Yolanda Housing Project didn’t have to pay. We started distributing the titles to them during our time,” Escalada added.
Why did President Marcos claim that the Duterte government did nothing for Yolanda victims?
When in fact, he praised President Duterte in 2017 for the government programs for typhoon victims?
“There was misinformation given to President Bongbong Marcos by those responsible for providing information,” Escalada added.
According to Escalada, the Marcos Jr. administration only needs to build 30,000 to 40,000 more houses to complete the Yolanda Housing Program.
And they still have four years to do this.
“Only 30,000 more out of the 205,000 target. That’s probably what he meant by their starting point. Of course, they started because that was when the DBM budget was released—in 2022, 2023, and 2024. But in fairness to the Pnoy administration and PRRD, I was onboard. I was there across all 9 provinces, close to 190 LGUs from Samar, Guian Eastern Samar to the Yolanda Corridor in Palawan,” Escalada expressed.
Escalada’s challenge to the Marcos administration,
“Let the people reveal and testify to the production and accomplishments made by the Pnoy administration and the Duterte administration. The people of Tacloban, who were badly hit by Yolanda, can very well tell what really happened,” he ended.
