HOAX: Angat Buhay houses in Marawi have no water and power supply

(UPDATED)

Claim: Vice President Leni Robredo’s Angat Buhay housing project has “no water supply…no rain no water. No electricity…no electrical supply.”

Facebook user Odette Dequito Javier posted the claim on October 27. Its caption reads, “And this is their standard of competence…IBIGAY NA LANG SA KADAMAY YAN.” (Just give it to Kadamay.)

The post is a screenshot of an October 26 tweet of @dutertardme showing photos of Angat Buhay houses.

The Facebook post garnered 356 reactions, 48 comments, and 655 shares. The tweet garnered 138 likes, 48 comments, and 63 retweets.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The houses have water and power supply.

According to Angat Buhay lead coordinator Jill Javiniar, before the family beneficiaries occupied the units, the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative Incorporated or Lasureco finished installing power lines connected to the houses on July 14.

“We also have 3 water tanks in the area from Pepsi, PDRF (Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation), Provincial Government of LDS (Lanao del Sur), and Action Against Hunger,” she said.

Javiniar also sent photos to Rappler showing the houses have water and power supply.

PDRF Project Officer Anna Trina Aspuria confirmed to Rappler that they delivered a 20,000-liter water tank to the Angat Buhay shelter site on September 12 and that this was “coursed” through Office of the Vice President (OVP) Undersecretary Philip Uy and Angat Buhay program staff Raffy Magno.

In the photos attached with the false claim, the houses are seen to have blue drums at the receiving end of a rain drainage. This could convince readers that the residents are depending on rainwater for their water supply.

Javiniar said “rainwater catchments” were an innovation introduced by the United Architects of the Philippines Quezon City Elliptical Chapter, which was the designer of the houses. She said the catchments were used before the installment of the water tank. (READ: Rain barrels ease water woes in Marawi relocation site)

Robredo herself on Sunday, November 11, confirmed on her radio show Biserbisyong Leni that the houses have utilities.

“Iyon nga iyong pinoproblema namin noong umpisa, pero hinanapan namin iyon ng paraan…. Naglagay kami ng mga provisions sa tangke, mayroon kaming rainwater catcher sa bawat bahay na binuild,” she said.

(That’s what we were worried about at the start, but we found a way…. We placed provisions for water tanks, we have rainwater catchers for each house that we built.)

“Buti na lang kinorrect ng Rappler. Kasi kung walang nagko-correct ng mga ganito, talagang araw-araw yata may pasabog silang kasinungalingan,” the Vice President also said.

(It’s good that Rappler corrected the fake post. Because if no one corrects these kinds of things, lies could really be spread every day.)

Angat Buhay is the flagship anti-poverty project of the OVP launched on October 20, 2016. The project benefited 83,707 families in its first year. The houses are part of the program which provides shelters for displaced Marawi residents after the 2017 siege. It is located at Area 7, Barangay Sagonsogan.

Meanwhile, Odette Dequito Javier is followed by more than 7,000 Facebook users. Javier mostly posts pro-administration and anti-opposition content.

A commenter asked in the post if the claim is confirmed. “Still looking for some more details,” Javier replied. – Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com

If you suspect a Facebook page, group, account, a website, or an article is spreading false information, let Rappler know by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.