The Philippines is regarded as one of the world's most disaster-prone countries reflecting both its high incidence of natural hazard events and significant vulnerability. Cutting a deadly path across Visayas, the scale and magnitude wrought by typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) warranted the declaration of a "state of calamity" to hasten response, recovery, and rehabilitation efforts of the government and the private sector, including international humanitarian aid. In response to the worldwide appeal for support, funds from different sources and all corners of the world poured in for Yolanda survivors. More than two years after this disaster, the Philippine Working Group (PWG) spearheaded by the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) aided by UAP Emergency Architects (UAP EA) visited Basey and Marabut, Samar and Hernani, Eastern Samar to engage with local government officials and communities that are in various stages of recovery. Key informant interviews with stakeholders as well as photo-documentation of post-disaster houses and communities were conducted. These were reviewed visa -vis Philippine Government Revised Standards for Housing and Construction set forth by the National Housing Authority (NHA). The study yielded important inputs that will inform the process for managing post-disaster reconstruction in support of the "build back better" (BBB) agenda.