Relocation of rehabilitation center in Tondaligan seen
SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral has responded to the SOS sent by the Area I Vocational Rehabilitation and Training Center in Bonuan.
The location of the center by the beach shoreline is slowly eroding, moving the shoreline dangerously close to it. It is feared that the center will be wiped out in 5-7 years.
Cabral, who was in Dagupan on April 26, vowed to seek an immediate solution to the problem.
Cabral was informed by Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Director Margarita Sampang and AVRC staff that a large chunk of the land where the facility is located has already been swallowed up by the sea over the years.
The building facilities of AVRC are now only 20 meters away from the sea and if the erosion continues, most of the buildings there will be washed away to the sea by 2015.
“Relocation is one option but there ought to be a solution in order to stop erosion,” Cabral told newsmen in an interview.
Otherwise, she said, the property next to the AVRC and the whole community in Bonuan will also be the next to be threatened by erosion.
“Okay we move, but we should also think about the plight of the others in the vicinity,” she added.
Being proposed as a relocation site is the lot beside the Haven for Children and Haven for Women in barangay Bonuan Binloc, also being administered by the DSWD.
Another option raised as the secretary suggested is to find a way to stop erosion in the vicinity.
AVRC was established in 1962 as the first Regional Rehabilitation Training Center in Dagupan City.
It serves the entire Region 1 as well as Abra, Benguet and Mt. Province in the Cordillera Administrative Region; and Zambales, Tarlac and Olongapo City in Region III.–LM
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