San Alfonso is a swampy area that needs to be filled up with soil, and the thickness of the concrete floor of each bunkhouse was made eight inches instead of the usual four inches.
“We called the engineer of the IOM,” she said, citing that it turned out in the probe that the IOM’s bunkhouse costs higher by P50,000 to P60,000 than that of the DSWD.
IOM’s engineer did not give details about the cost, and the IOM’s bunkhouse has no toilet, kitchen and shower room, Razon said.
She added the DSWD included the electrical system in its costing.
She said some of IOM’s bunkhouses were built near those of the DSWD so that those living in them may share with the amenities provided by the agency.
On the question of at least 20 soldiers who built the San Rafael bunkhouse, Razon said they were not hired for the DSWD’s cash-for-work program.
But she said the DSWD gave them P30,000 as food allowance for 15 working days.
She said they have a copy of the acknowledgement receipt signed by their commander.
Trangia said the typhoon victims not the military should have been tapped for the construction of bunkhouses as they are the ones who need more food and relief assistance.
Bello Tindasan, Barug’s farmer sector leader, said the residents feared the military’s participation in the rehabilitation program might be used for counterinsurgency.
“We have received threats from the military, saying that those who joined the barricade were members of the NPA (New People’s Army),” he said in Cebuano.[]
Last January 15, some 5,000 Barug members barricaded the Montevista highway in Compostela Valley to protest the government’s handling of the relief work for the victims of Pablo.[]
