President Duterte has approved the request of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) to provide free permanent housing to families affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano.
In news a statement issued on Wednesday, Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President made known his decision during a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday night.
Panelo said DHSUD Secretary Eduardo del Rosario estimated that around 5,000 to 6,000 households stand to be affected by the evacuation from a radius of 7 kilometers from the volcano, with the island of Taal itself housing 2,000 families.
“The President approved the request of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development to offer these housing units as a grant to the displaced families instead and commended such act of generosity,” Panelo said.
Panelo said the National Housing Authority (NHA) has previously allotted a total of 5,448 housing units in favor of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), which are spread out in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Quezon.
In separate news statement, NHA General Manager Marcelino P. Escalada Jr. said specifically, this included old AFP/PNP Housing Projects in Laguna, such as Valley Breeze Residences (553 units), Lake Breeze Residences 1 (176), and Lake Breeze Residences 2 (219).
The list also included Villa de Pio Homes (300 units) and Sea Breeze Residences (600) in Batangas, as well as Villa de Adelaida (500 units), Summer Homes/Summer Ville (1,000), and Sunshine Ville 2 (1,000) in Cavite.
Escalada also said the list includes San Manuel Homes (700 units) and Happy Valley Homes (400) which are both located in Quezon province.
“As of the moment, we are mobilizing our personnel on the field to prepare our housing sites to be ready for occupancy,” Escalada said, with an assurance that “all of these housing sites will be ready for its new occupants, the Taal survivors, within 30 days.”
This has become possible through Joint Resolution 2 which authorizes NHA to award unawarded, surrendered and canceled AFP/PNP housing units to qualified beneficiaries. It was created to address the clamor for housing of Kadamay, a people’s organization.
Escalada earlier requested Congress to issue a resolution to formally dispose of the then-AFP/PNP housing units which were not occupied by their intended beneficiaries.
This after Kadamay stormed and occupied housing sites for uniformed personnel in Pandi, Bulacan, demanding ownership of the houses.