05/28/2012 [ tribune.net.ph ]
In support of Quezon City Mayor
Herbert “Bistek” Bautista’s flagship program of providing affordable housing
units to the city’s informal settlers, the 26-member city council has welcomed
the reported plan of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) to construct
“on-site” and “in-city” relocation sites for the poor.
In a resolution introduced by 3rd
District Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes, the QC councilors led by by their
presiding officer Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte expressed their strong support to the
proposed project of NAPC and other offices under the Office of the President
which is intended to benefit the informal settlers of Metro Manila.
A multi-agency presidential task force
was formed for the purpose and a P38-billion budget was proposed to implement
the project within five years.
Members of the Sangguniang Panlunsod
believed that housing for the poor is a matter that should be strongly
supported as this is one of anti-poverty alleviation moves that will help the
city’s poor.
“It is deemed necessary that the areas
within QC be identified by the multi-agency presidential task force as possible
locations for the on-site and in-city relocation sites,” said the resolution, a
copy of which was obtained by the Tribune.
Once pushed through, the NAPC housing
program will be another option of QC government for relocating the city’s
informal settlers aside from its own city-housing program such as the
Bistekville I and Bistekville II which were already launched early this year
and the two other Bistekville projects in Barangay Escopa and Barangay Culiat
to be launched soon.
The Bautista administration is
determined to fulfill its commitment to provide housing assistance to poor
families who are being relocated from danger zones to safe housing communities
in QC or in national government-initiated relocation projects near the city.
Arlie O. Calalo
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