Saturday, December 6, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
VICE President Noli de Castro is expected to visit Baguio City on Sunday to award land titles to 144 beneficiaries of the first homeowners' cooperative established in the Cordillera.
Located near the second view deck along the Palispis-Aspiras (former Marcos) Highway in Taloy Sur, Tuba, Benguet, the Cordillera Homeowners' Cooperative (CHC) housing project is the first of its kind established in the city, according to CHC chairman Jude Wal of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office in Baguio.
Wal said the distribution of land titles will be done by de Castro and Romero Federico Quimbo, chief executive officer of the Pag-ibig Fund; Pag-ibig deputy chief executive officer Jaime Fabiana; Tuba Mayor Florencio Bentrez; Pag-ibig Northern Luzon operations manager Vilma Flores; lawyer Guerrero Felipe, and regional directors of concerned government line agencies.
On Sunday's program, Pag-ibig Baguio branch manager Mary Jocelyn Necesito-Retuya will first introduce the guests and members before the welcome address of Bentrez.
According to Retuya, the CHC was accorded the funding from Pag-ibig to purchase the six-hectare lot from its former owner since it had fully complied with their office's legal and financial requirements, as specified in the Glad program guidelines.
"After we were already sure that the individual land titles were already registered under the names of the individual owners, we paid the former owner the 90 percent, which will be complemented by the 10 percent equity of the beneficiaries," she explained.
"After this, these individual lot owners will be given a two-year period in order to further develop their properties, which may be paid for in amortizations of their choice and depending on their present age for as long as 30 years," she added.
After a brief history of the Pag-ibig's Glad program will be explained to the participants on Sunday morning, the awarding of titles to individual lot owners will commence.
The introduction of guest speaker Fabiana will be done by Flores, who will then deliver his message, before the general assembly of the homeowners.
The CHC is a development project of Benguet Builders Inc., headed by Engineer Isabelo Abing.
