MANILA — About 70 percent of houses built for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City are substandard, the local chief executive said Wednesday.

According to Mayor Alfred Romualdez, about 10,000 units were built by the National Housing Authority.

"I would say, substandard would be about 70 percent," he told ANC's "Headstart".

Romualdez said the housing units, which he described as "too cramped," also lacked basic utilities.

"The problem here, in terms of construction, NHA may say that it's fully constructed but we can’t give an occupancy permit because we can't install utilities," he said.

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On Tuesday, the city government commemorated the ninth anniversary of the deadly super typhoon.

"It took longer than it should, but as far as the people are concerned, they moved on very quickly," Romualdez said when asked about recovering from Yolanda nearly a decade later.

"The problem there, overall, nakikita ko, the structures and infrastructures that were built, ito 'yung malungkot, maganda 'yung mga kalye, mga tulay, pati embankment bilyon ang ginastos, bakit sa pabahay hindi?"

"'Yun naman ang sinasabi ng mga tao at 'yun ang mas importante sa kanila," he said.

Romualdez proposed of allowing the local government to take over the housing projects.

"Para kami na ang magtatapos at kami na ang gagawa ng paraan para maayos na ito at makalipat na ang mga tao," he said.

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Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) left some 6,300 dead, more than 1,000 missing, and over 28,000 injured in all affected areas.

According to the report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the super typhoon made a total of six landfalls on Nov. 8, 2013, affecting over 16 million people and displacing 5.1 million.

Yolanda destroyed 1.1 million houses, and the cost of overall damage reached P95 billion, the NDRRMC said.

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