Life—tough and wet—in MMDA Village

19 January 2007
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—Even if life at the refugee camp has not been easy for her family, Salvacion Banania, 33 and a mother of four, has decided not to go back and live in Barangay Padang again.

“It’s not just my life that I am worried about. I cannot put the lives of my children at risk again,” Banania said, while carrying her daughter and cooking at the same time. Her daughter was running a fever for the fourth day.

Two of Banania’s other children were sick of fever, cough, colds, and diarrhea.

Banania said she thought it was because of the lack of potable supply of water and weather conditions in the refugee camp.

Staying in a transitional camp called the “MMDA Village” in Barangay Taysan here, 410 families are each living in a makeshift shelter made by the Metro Manila Development Authoriy.

“It’s too hot here during the day and too cold during the night. One night it was raining hard and my son was all wet,” she said.

Each shelter is a small cubicle made of plastic tent material.

“My husband tried to dig for our belongings and clothes so that we would have enough to wear but he was not able to find any because of the huge boulders and sand that buried our house,” Banania said.

She said all their belongings now were the goods they received from relief-giving organizations.