Shelter Rebuilding Is This Year’s “Balik Cebu’s” Focus

After a super typhoon rampaged a big part of the Visayas region two months ago, which left many homeless, the Cebu City Tourism Commission (CCTC), along with its partner Ayala Center Cebu, with the Department of Tourism Region 7, ilovepilipinas.com, Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), Miss Cebu Charities, the Province of Cebu and the City of Cebu, zeroes in on rebuilding the houses of the typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) victims.

This time, they’re picking the coastal area of Sitio Experanza, Pilar Town in Camotes Island. CCTCommisioner Tetta Baad said that they have chosen the place because it is an area that badly needs help, being a far-flung community for relief aids to reach.

“Pilar town is located northeast of Cebu and is closer to Leyte than Cebu. We wanted to choose a beneficiary that badly needs the help,” said Baad during the press conference and booth opening of Balik Cebu yesterday at the Ayala Center Cebu Rotunda 1.

Balik Cebu is an annual event that welcomes balikbayans during Sinulog, with a booth stationed inside Ayala Center Cebu. In the booth, balikbayans can inquire and participate in a series of activities which the Balik Cebu Committee spearheads such as a welcome dinner, a cultural show, an exhibit of Cebu’s culture and heritage, and can purchase merchandises like T-shirts and Cebuano delicacies and other products. Balik Cebu is under the umbrella of CCTC and has been going on for the past 12 years.

BalikBalay model dimensions (Contributed photo)

This year, the committee has decided to respond to the call for aid for the survivors of the typhoon Yolanda, which happened last November 8 last year. It’s amazing to know that many balikbayans have expressed their willingness to help the victims ever since, through cash donations sent to CCTC. The aid received by the commission funded some relief packages distributed in Northern Cebu.

Now, to provide a more rational and systematic channel for the donations, Balik Cebu created a campaign that would spring out more meaning to the well-intended cause to help. They launched the BalikBalay campaign. BalikBalay aims to provide a more habitable dwelling for the beneficiaries who are those who lost their homes to the typhoon,  than to their previously tin-roofed-plywood shack. And what best alternative kind of house is good to give than something from one of our rich cultural traditions—Nipa Hut! Or, Bahay Kubo or in Visayan, Balay nga Payag.

If one comes to think about it a payag is traditionally built with bamboo, wood and nipa, which makes it simple and easy to build with materials that are cool, abundant and inexpensive. During tropical heat and flooding, it is an excellent shelter with the structure raised on stilts. And on earthquakes, it has survived with its system of posts allowing it to sway with the ground tremors. If it collapses, it won’t be as life threatening as a solid wall of concrete falling.

In a typhoon, the roof is held down by bamboo poles lashed to the ground and even if the roof is blown away, it is easy to replace. It can last 12 to 15 years before it needs to be repaired or reconstructed. In the face of imminent danger when evacuation is called for, the payag can be carried to a safe place with the help of neighbors in the spirit of the bayanihan (a Filipino term which refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective.). Not only that, the balay na payag traditionally has space for fruit trees and vegetables around it and the area below the raised floor (silong) has a room for backyard animals. These features augur well for a self-sufficiency program that can be enhanced by environmental practices.

Truly, a concept that rallies on a return home for the homeless of the typhoon Yolanda survivors, in a sense, BalikBalay also means to return to our cultural roots.

For P35,000, a donor can help one family to return to in a community of 30 to 50 houses. They will also be given other materials which they can start rebuilding their lives with such as a drum for collecting water, a starter kit of seedlings and farming workshops. BalikBalay targets to raise funds for a total of 100 houses. It will provide the materials while the beneficiary shall provide sweat capital with labor to put up the payag. The project shall run from January 2014 to January 2015.

For inquiries, email CCTCommissioner Tetta Baad at tettabaad@gmail.com and CCTC Executive Director Cinbeth Orellano at info@cebucitytourism.com or see Facebook page of BalikBalay. (With Press Release)

Photo above: Balik Cebu Committe members (from left front) Alice Queblatin, Dawnie Roa, CCTComissioner Tetta Baad, Cebu Holdings, Inc. President Francis Monera, Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board-7 (LTFRB7) Director Ahmed Cuizon, Ayla Center Cebu Marketing Manager Janice Parreno and CCTC Executive Director Cinbeth Orellano pose with the Miss Cebu 2014 candidates at the booth of the Balik Cebu which opened yesterday, January 6. The committee’s focus this year is to rebuild the homes of the super typhoon Yolanda survivors, which hit late last year. (Photo by MetroCebu News)