Saturday, April 19, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
More than 300 poor families in Parañaque will soon have their own home through a low-cost housing project by Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. and Gawad Kalinga.
Today, more than a hundred families of informal settlers who have been government land around and under the Kay Buboy Bridge in Barangay San Dionisio for years will participate in a “ceremonial walk for a new life.”
Bernabe will personally join them in a symbolic journey to the location of what will be known as Parañaque’s JB Village, which they will soon call home.
Each of the 116 informal settler families belonging to the first batch will be given 20-square meter patch of land, for which they will pay P548 a month for 25 years to the newly-created Local Housing Development Office of Parañaque.
Julie Pascual, head of city’s Urban Mission Areas Development Office, said 200 more families will also be relocated before the year ends.
Bernabe said Gawad Kalinga will donate the building materials that the settlers will need to construct their individual single-level homes. The houses, he noted, will be built with the help of Gawad Kalinga members and volunteers through another display of the “legendary GK Bayanihan Spirit.”
“The relocation activity highlights the city government’s continuing commitment to give its informal settlers a fresh start and a better chance to improve the overall quality of their lives while reducing a factor that contributes to urban plight,” Bernabe said. – Michael Punongbayan
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