SPECIAL REPORT: Sendong survivors 14 years ago struggle for survival in relocation site
Franck Dick Rosete of bulatlat.com / Patricio P. Diaz Fellow
CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 08 September) — Rhea, mother of two, waits for her turn to fetch water from a communal faucet on a streetside a few meters from her house in the 722 Resettlement Site in a far-flung area in Sitio Pahiron, Barangay Lumbia. This has been her daily groove and for all who relocated here.
Kagay-anon survivors of the disastrous Severe Tropical Storm Sendong (Washi) relocated here, their housing units awarded to many of them in 2021, a decade after the destructive typhoon struck Northern Mindanao in December 2011, displaced thousands of residents and killed at least 1,200 individuals, mostly in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
The construction of the housing units started in 2018, seven years after the typhoon ravaged the city. It took a long time to implement the project because of what former Mayor Oscar Moreno described as “uncooperative city council.”
The resettlement site is commonly referred to as 722 Relocation because of the number of housing units that were supposed to be built here. This resettlement site is just one of several for Sendong survivors.
For four years now, residents have repeatedly appealed to local officials for household water connection, expressing how exhausting it is to fetch water at the communal faucets, especially for those whose houses are quite far.
“I hope we have our own water connection because it’s too much hassle, especially if we have kids and senior citizens,” Rhea said in Cebuano. “There are residents here who spend their meager money just to pay someone to fetch water for them.”
The area intended for the resettlement site in Sitio Pahiron in Barangay Lumbia could not cater to the entire 722 housing units. Only 509 housing units were built and the remaining 186 were constructed in Sitio Macapaya, Barangay Camaman-an, and the other 27 units were placed in Gawad Kalinga, Barangay Balubal, according to Samuel Rollo, former chief of the City Housing and Urban Development Department (CHUDD).
Of the three relocation areas under the 722 housing project, only residents in Sitio Pahiron have been reliant on communal water sources.
Kim Ferido, spokesperson of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD), said they are waiting for the completion of the water distribution system handled by the city government, as well as the production wells that have been taken care of by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
She said coordination meetings among the three government offices have been continuing. However, no target completion date has been provided.
Distance affects education
Aside from water sources, transportation going to the city proper or even to the center of Barangay Lumbia causes too much headache for relocated residents.
They don’t mind the limited number of public transportation plying the route. Their main difficulty is the expensive fare, which costs 40 pesos, a huge burden for parents who have children studying downtown.
In the Barangay Camaman-an resettlement site, the relocated residents are luckier: there are schools for elementary and high school in the area.
The 722 Pahiron relocation site, on the other hand, only has a Child Development Center turned over by the city government in April 2024.
Rhea spends at least 150 pesos a day to send her daughter to a public kindergarten school located in the village proper. This is apart from her expenses to send her other child, who is in third grade. She said the salary of her partner, who works as a delivery rider, is not enough so absences in school are inevitable.
Previously, transportation was not a problem for parents sending their children to school because the barangay government had a “Libreng Sakay” (free ride) program. Unfortunately, this stopped after the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in 2023.
“We could save money when there was still a school bus. We just wait until the school hours end, and we know that our children are safe,” Rhea said.
Alexander Torralba, Lumbia barangay chair, said it would be hard for the barangay to resume the libreng sakay due to the rising cost of fuel. However, he said the barangay council approved a resolution asking Mayor Rolando Uy, who is the chair of the Local School Board, to set up kindergarten and elementary schools within the relocation site.
He said the resolution was submitted in the month of July, and the barangay has been waiting for the mayor’s response.
Unoccupied, abandoned, damaged units
Japan’s Non-Project Grant Aid and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) supplied the materials for the 722 housing units while the 7.6 hectare land in Sitio Pahiron was procured by the city government as its counterpart, at P26 million.
In an April 2017 report a week before the groundbreaking rites for the 722 Relocation, SunStar quoted Engineer Ermin Pimentel, CHUDD consultant, as saying the 27-square meter house is free but those who will be relocated were to pay P21,000 for the 70 square-meter lot, to fully acquire the unit and be given its title. Payment would be on easy terms, the mayor said.
Several housing units in the Pahiron resettlement site remain unoccupied. Some of them are already damaged while others are still unfinished.
During a committee hearing conducted by the City Council in September 2023, the contractor explained that they only install the doors, windows, toilet bowls, and electrical wiring, specifically in the Phase 3 housing units, when the beneficiaries are ready to occupy the units.
The hearing was called after Councilor Malvern Esparcia made a special report during a regular session that there were damaged housing units in 722 Relocation.
Residents also claimed that there were some beneficiaries who abandoned their units due to the distance of the resettlement site from the city proper. In fact, a notice of violation was plastered by CHUDD on one of the units due to alleged abandonment, compelling the beneficiary to report and explain.
Data on the occupancy rate of the housing project is still unavailable, despite multiple follow-up with CHUDD on the July 17, 2025 e-mail asking for the data and a request for interview.
City Engineer Joel Momongan confirmed there are still housing units that are unfinished but could not provide a figure.
Chose to stay
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A report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council showed that a total of 1,206 deaths were reported in the Northern Mindanao region after Typhoon Sendong. Misamis Oriental province tallied the most number of deaths with 674, most of them from Cagayan de Oro. This was followed by Lanao del Norte, including Iligan City, with 490 deaths.
Another survivor, Crispin Nagales, 43, was awarded a housing unit in a relocation site in Barangay Canitoan. But Nagales spends most of his time in his old house in Zone 7-A, Barangay Carmen, one of the areas submerged by war during Sendong.
He said he chose to say in Carmen to have a better income.
Section 29 of the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 clearly states that “The local government unit, in coordination with the National Housing Authority, shall provide relocation or resettlement sites with basic services and facilities and access to employment and livelihood opportunities sufficient to meet the basic needs of the affected families.”
Nagales sells balut (fertilized duck egg) to put food on their table. “If only we have a lot of money, we can always stay there (relocation site),” Nagales said in Cebuano.
Monitoring the surroundings, the balut vendor said, has been his routine when there is heavy rain. But he said they have not experienced a flood yet since the establishment of a flood risk mitigation project. His house is situated several meters from a “No Build Zone” area near the Cagayan de Oro River.
The project near Nagales’ residence is part of the Flood Risk Management Project for Cagayan de Oro River (FRIMP-CDOR) undertaken by the Philippine government with the help of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It’s a 12-kilometer stretch of flood control dikes with a boulevard connecting several riverside villages.
The master plan and feasibility study in the Cagayan de Oro River started in 2011 and was conducted by DPWH in collaboration with JICA. An urgent review and update of the plan were made after Typhoon Sendong ravaged the city in December of the same year.
In 2012, the preparatory survey for FRIMP-CDOR was conducted.
According to the DPWH, the project was implemented in three contract packages. In May 2023, FRIMP-CDOR Package 2, which covered a floodwall along Barangay Consolacion, was inaugurated. The remaining package 3, which covers flood control dikes connecting the villages of Kauswagan, Carmen, Balulang, Nazareth, and Macasandig, has yet to be turned over, Nick Jababat, chief of the City Disaster Rist Reduction and Management Department, said.
No more climate-related displacement?
If Cagayan de Oro experiences the same amount of floodwater level from the river brought by Sendong, it may have less impact compared to the 2011 tragedy, especially with the participation of the residents, Jabagat said in an interivew.
He explained that the floodwall built under FRIMP-CDOR was one meter higher than the water level of the Cagayan de Oro River during the tropical storm. However, this doesn’t mean, he said, that the city will be free from the impact. He added the Mines and Geosciences Bureau refused to scale down the high risk level of riverside areas.
The CDRRMD noted 12 barangays in Cagayan de Oro that were considered high risks during storm surge based on a risk assessment. These have been the priority villages when there is a heavy weather disturbance.
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Data from CDRRMD showed that when there is a storm surge, the entire population of Barangay Macabalan, for example, could possibly be affected. Apart from this, the CDRRMD also noted 27 villages that were considered high risk from floods.
Aside from monitoring rainfall advisories within the city, the CDRRMD also closely monitors any weather disturbances in the neighboring municipalities, as 94 percent of watersheds of Cagayan de Oro River are outside the city. They are from the towns of Baungon, Talakag, Libona, and Manolo Fortich in Bukidnon province.
This means that even if there is no intense rainfall in Cagayan de Oro, flood-prone areas in the city will still be in a delicate situation if it rains heavily in these municipalities.
[Franck Dick Roseate / bulatlat.com. This story was produced under the Patricio P. Diaz Fellowship Program, implemented by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism and MindaNews under the Media Impact Philippines project. The program is supported by International Media Support (IMS) and co-funded by the European Union and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA)].
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