P200 million-worth donations in Red Cross for displaced Saint Bernard folks - Sen. Gordon

By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern Leyte)
March 21, 2007

NEW GUINSAUGON, Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte  –  Just how much did the Red Cross receive for humanitarian assistance out of the tragedy the world now remembers  --  and history later won’t forget  --  as the tragic Guinsaugon killer mudslide in this municipality?

It’s P200 Million, a straight and final answer, according to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), who also happens to be a Senator in the person of Richard Gordon.

Speaking with a handful of mediamen in a hastily-organized press conference here Sunday, March 18, Sen. Gordon said that the money will be used, as portions of it had already been used, for construction of more housing units including purchase of land for relocation sites, as well as continuing relief assistance, disaster-preparedness training, and basketball courts.

Told that other town in the province also had barangays located in zones declared by the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB) as hazardous and susceptible to landslides, Gordon retorted that the allocation was only for Saint Bernard, for Guinsaugon and other similarly-placed, dangerous barangays of the town whose residents had to be moved to safer places elsewhere.

He said there were only about 200 families that survived in Guinsaugon, but they (the Red Cross) included building houses for residents of neighboring barangays who had to be transferred in safe relocation sites, in effect “moving a lot of people out of harm’s way.”

“In other countries they build tents, here we build houses,” Gordon stressed.

Gordon was referring to a resettlement project in an interior village, barangay Catmon, which will be the future site for residents of three barangays, namely, Hinabian, Magatas, and Kauswagan, in which the Red Cross undertook to foot the bill for a duplex housing facility including purchase of the land.

The said project, which was started and went on for several months but left unfinished, had long been abandoned, reportedly for lack of funds on the part of the Contractor from Tacloban City.

Gordon was obviously peeved by a Reporter’s insinuation that the bidding process was rigged for granting it to a cash-strapped builder.

“To say that it was rigged was unfair, I had to be frank with you.  We value integrity here,” the Senator stressed, adding that he had approached several high-profile contractors in Manila for the project but all declined because of the nature of the undertaking, which is low-cost housing.

He also expressed sympathy on the part of the builder, saying it’s hard to bring along heavy equipment in the area.  “We don’t ask for thanks, but we thought of that,” he said.

Right after the brief news conference Gordon visited the Catmon relocation site, seeing for himself the abandoned work, and it upset him more.

About a hundred unfinished housing units were lying idle, erected in arranged rows and columns, their concrete hollow block walls already standing, some with roofing structures in place, others with roofing completed and some divisions done inside the house.

Shrubs, wild vines, and grasses competed in space with their solid counterparts.

Gordon instructed the ones in-charge to speed up the re-bidding process and exert all efforts to finish the project, which is being funded by the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).