ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/11 April) – The government on Friday turned over 50 loftable duplex housing units worth P12.6 million to families displaced during the 21-day standoff between government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) here in September 2013.
The beneficiaries of the housing project are the members of the Lustre Homeowners Association in Barangay Sta. Catalina.
The barangay of Sta. Catalina was among the hardest hit barangays in the 21-day siege that started on September 9, 2013 when hundreds of MNLF members loyal to MNLF founding-chair Nur Misuari entered the city.
Engr. Al-Kwarizimi Indanan, National Housing Authority (NHA) district manager, Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco’s Executive Assistant Yahiya Abdusalam and Housing and Land Management Division chief Rodrigo Pagotaisidro led the turnover of the completed housing units to Sta. Catalina Barangay chairman Jimmy Villaflores and Lustre Homeowners Association president Eulalyn Francisco.
Indanan said the housing projects for the Lustre Homeowners Association covers 154 loftable duplex housing units with a total cost of P38.8 million, each unit costing at approximately P252,000.
The construction of the remaining 104 units is being undertaken by the NHA for the Lustre Homeowners Association.
Indanan said the turnover is in compliance with a directive from Vice President Jejomar Binay to fast-track completion of the houses and to turn over housing units as soon as they are completed.
Indanan said the remaining 104 units are targeted to be completed by May this year.
The turnover Friday of the 50 housing units marks the fifth turnover to displaced families of permanent homes built under the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) plan since August last year.
Other permanents houses had been turned over to the following associations: Martha Homeowners Association, 44 units; Paniran Homeowners Association, 143 units; St. Peter Homeowners Association, 16 units; and, Taluksangay resettlement site, 100 units of houses on stilts. (MindaNews)
