SECRETARY Jose Rizalino “Jerry” Acuzar of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) on Thursday said they are working with the National Housing Authority (NHA) in helping Abra recover quickly from a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that rocked the province this week.

“What we did there was instead of using the funds that are there, we [implemented] a compliance program,” he told reporters in Filipino in a chance interview.

The compliance program is a message from the DHSUD telling developers to prioritize Abra over other areas, according to the settlements and development chief.

“Under the program, we told the developers to put Abra on top of their list, instead of giving houses in other places,”

Acuzar said.

He, however, did not say what the compliance rate from the developers has been.

Acuzar said the rehabilitation work would be delayed if they used other funds of the province, so they just instructed the developers to focus on Abra since recovery efforts there are most needed at the moment.

This week’s earthquake in Abra is the second to hit the province this year, with the previous one striking in August.