08/04/2009 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Some 7,000 families displaced by the ongoing Philippine National Railways (PNR) rehabilitation will find new homes on the 50-hectare relocation site in Barangay Poblacion in Muntinlupa City, the local government said.
Ferdinand Diaz, officer in charge of city’s Urban Poor Affairs Office (UPAO), said the relocation project "ensures the security of shelter tenure of the homeless citizens" in accordance with the priority programs of Mayor Aldrin San Pedro.
Some 10,555 families were left homeless after their shanties were torn down along the PNR right-of-way as part of the modernization and rehabilitation of its main railway system.
But Diaz, a lawyer, explained only 6,940 families were qualified to be accommodated at the housing site located at Southville 3 near the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) Reservation area in Poblacion.
The new housing site will include public elementary schools, day care centers and health clinics to provide education and health care to the families.
As for the housing units, they will be made very affordable as each beneficiary-family is given a 30-year amortization period starting with a P200 monthly pay during the first five years of occupancy.
Compared to the housing program of other local governments where "squatters" are moved to far-flung relocation sites, the Muntinlupa housing plan is providing homes within its property.
"We want to keep our people within our city so that their livelihood and employment won’t be affected," Diaz said. Pat C. Santos
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