The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office Eight (Eastern Visayas) has released, as of to date, Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) funds to eight Leyte municipalities, one city and three other municipalities in Samar, totaling to more than P2B.

ESA in Tacloban City has been partially released, to the LGU on November 24, 2014 and payouts to Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries was done on the 25th to 28th of November of the same year.
The municipalities of Leyte which have received their ESA in 2014 were Tanauan and Tolosa, while Palompon, Javier, Palo, Mahaplag, Kananga and Tunga had theirs in 2015.

Three municipalities in Samar which had their ESA released in 2015 are Guiuan, Talalora and Mercedes.
The Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) is defined as the provision of emergency “self-build” shelter assistance through limited materials or financial assistance to augment resources of affected families who opted not to be transferred to a resettlement site to enable them to purchase materials for their damaged houses.
Memorandum Circular No. 24 Series of 2014 states a Memorandum Circular No. 24 Series of 2014 about the guidelines for the implementation of the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) project for families with partially and totally damaged houses due to typhoon “Yolanda“.
Its objective is to provide standards for the implementation of ESA project for family-victims of typhoon “Yolanda“ either with totally or partially damaged shelter units located in safe areas or in sites provided with engineering or scientific interventions to make their location habitable. It also provides policy in the identification and selection of households who will be entitled to avail ESA in all the affected LGUs located within the 50-kilometer radius of Yolanda’s path.
According to the said guidelines, the following are eligible to receive the ESA:
1. Families whose houses were either totally or partially damaged located in safe or in controlled areas;
2. Families who are renting or sharing houses provided they are listed in the official DSWD list (DAFAC);
3. Families whose heads are employed in government/private sector whose terms are not permanent/regular and do not have access to housing loans;
4. Regular employees of govt and private sectors with fix monthly salary below ₱15,000.00 provided they have not received the same assistance from other agencies;
5. Individuals who are considered lone survivors due to the typhoon provided he/she is issued with DAFAC and in the masterlist of beneficiaries, and
6. Families listed in items 1-4 who already did self-repair as long as they are included in the masterlist of beneficiaries through DSWD-DAFAC.
The ESA’s rate of assistance are ₱30,000.00 for individuals whose houses were totally damaged and ₱10,000.00 for those with partially damaged houses due to super typhoon Yolanda.
Inorder for an LGU to avail of the ESA, the following requirements had to be submitted to the DSWD-Field Office:
1. Disaster Terminal Report;
2. Project Proposal;
3. Rehabilitation Plan;
4. Certificate of Eligibility of the Beneficiaries;
5. Masterlist of Proposed Beneficiaries, prepared by C/MSWDO and approved by the C/Municipal Mayor;
6. Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP); and
7. Certification from either from the Provincial, City or Municipal Engineering Office certifying the areas as safe from hazards based on the CLUP of the LGU.

Meanwhile, in consideration of the funding constraints of ESA, the department is agreeable to the suggestion of LGUs to initially implement a uniform rate of assistance to cover all the families targeted provided that these families are within the target of DSWD in the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRRP) for the typhoon Yolanda-affected area, regardless of the extent of damage to their shelter units. However, this should be covered by a Sangguniang Barangay resolution submitted to the DSWD thru the FOs emphasizing their request and/or agreement for such arrangement.