Housing project for ‘Odette’ victims set

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Victims of typhoon “Odette” here on December 16, 2021 will soon have houses in a relocation site in Barangay Dansolihon, a hinterland barangay in this city.

The city government has availed of the National Housing Authority (NHA)-Northern Mindanao’s Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) for local government units to fund the 152 units (76 duplexes) under the Cagayan de Oro City Balik Probinsya Bagong Pag-asa housing project.

On January 15, the city council passed proposed Ordinance No. 2024-356 authorizing Mayor Rolando Uy to represent the city government for the upcoming Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing with NHA-10 for the project.

The project is currently under review with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and it needs to be completed before they can proceed with the MOA signing, said lawyer Samuel Rollo, acting department manager of the City Housing and Urban Development Department (CHUDD).

“After the MOA signing, we can now start with the land development,” Rollo said.

The city government owns more or less 172,840-square meters of property in Barangay Dansolihon and it will also fund the land development. 

Based on the MOA draft, the NHA will provide technical assistance for the project, and the cost will be funded by the financial assistance from the Chinese government.

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CHUDD, the office that manages all relocation sites here, has a lineup of beneficiaries but could not provide the exact number.

However, data from the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) showed that around 500 houses from 19 barangays – eight in the first and 11 in the second district – were damaged by Odette.

The city government started communicating with the NHA for the project on September 12, 2022, almost nine months after the typhoon struck this city. The City Mayor’s Office wrote a letter to the agency expressing intention to avail of the RAP for dedicated beneficiaries.

Succeeding steps, based on documents from the city council, began in 2023. Rollo could not elaborate on the reason for the long process but he said there could possibly be a budgetary concern on the part of NHA.

Nevertheless, they are targeting to start project construction within this year and it is expected to be finished within 360 calendar days.

Informal settlers in Misamis Oriental

Informal settlers, particularly within the Philippine Veterans Industrial Development Corp. (Phividec)-Industrial Authority’s (PIA) 3,000-hectare industrial estate in Tagoloan and Villanueva in Misamis Oriental will soon acquire socialized housing units, possibly within this year.

Lawyer Joseph Bernedo, PIA administrator and chief executive officer, announced this in a press conference on Tuesday, January 23, for the agency’s 50th anniversary.

It is a joint project between PIA and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and targets to build 3,000 to 4,000 socialized housing units under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s priority program, the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH).

Bernedo announced that the PIA Board of Directors approved the joint project on Tuesday morning that will benefit around 2,000 registered informal settlers within the Phividec system.

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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Franck Dick Rosete.

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