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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—Armed with paint rollers, screw drivers and
shovels, sailors from USS Frank Cable (AS-40), a
submarine tender homeported in Guam, took time out from
repairing warships to help build houses at a
resettlement area here.
The
three-day community-service project that began on Monday
brought 135 volunteers, or 45 sailors a day, to the
Cawag resettlement area in Subic, Zambales, where some
270 families affected by the Hanjin shipyard expansion
will be relocated starting April 9.
The
volunteer sailors, who were supervised by Lt. Louis
Urban, the ship’s chaplain and community-relations
coordinator, helped in masonry work, painted newly
constructed units, installed doors and cleared yards of
construction debris.
USS
Frank Cable’s chief electronics technician, Thad
Bolivar, who served as the outreach project’s assistant
officer in charge, said the volunteers wanted “to help
the community in any way we can, and make it a better
place.”
The
ship’s command group learned about the housing project
through its religious ministries program, he added.
On
Wednesday the ship’s captain had reportedly requested
for a storeroom where the crew can stock tools and
construction materials to be used by a second batch of
volunteers from another inbound US Navy vessel.
The new
village, with most of the 300 houses now ready for
occupancy, is being prepared for squatter families from
sitio Nagyantok, an area within the Subic Bay Freeport
that sits next to the $1.7-billion shipbuilding facility
of Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.
Nagyantok, officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority said, will be utilized for Hanjin’s inland dry
docks, which require huge open spaces.
When
Subic was still an American naval base, Nagyantok was
part of the naval reservation used for military
training. It is now geographically a part of the
Subic
Bay Free Port while under the political jurisdiction of
the Subic, Zambales.
According to the SBMA, the construction of new houses
and the orderly relocation of Nagyantok residents, is
part of an agreement between Hanjin and the agency that
manages the free port.
Under
the agreement, the Korean shipbuilder provided funds to
acquire land and materials for house construction, while
the SBMA supervised the relocation of the affected
residents and the establishment of a new community for
them.
Gawad
Kalinga (GK), a nongovernment organization involved in
similar housing projects, was then tapped to build the
houses and help develop a complete community for the
relocatees.
As of
now, close to 70 percent of the affected families are
ready to move in, said Amethya dela Llana-Koval, who
heads the SBMA task force that coordinated and assisted
Nagyantok residents in the relocation.
To help
the Nagyantok residents settle in their new homes, the
SBMA has also launched an “adopt a home” project, so
that donations of various housewares would be given to
the poorest relocatees, said Knette Fernando, SBMA
deputy administrator for corporate communications.
Fernando
added that the so-called Hanjin-SBMA-GK village is
expected to be a model community where residents would
have decent homes, a well-managed neighborhood, and the
motivation to grow and progress as a community. |
