Palace: Bunkhouses need not follow int’l standards

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that temporary shelters built for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) “don’t necessarily have to follow the international standards.” Government standards of safety and livable space were sufficient because the bunkhouses were temporary anyway and are better than tents or tarpaulins, he added. This was in reaction to criticism that government standards were not in accordance with the international standards spelled out in the Sphere Handbook, which sets as acceptable only in the short-term, 3.5 square meters per person. Following this, the 8.64-square-meter unit that government had originally set falls short of the more ideal 16.45-square meters for a typical family of 5. Government has adjusted living spaces to 17.28 square meters. Haiyan left an estimated 4.4 million people homeless.

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