THE National Housing Authority (NHA) and Manila City government have guaranteed proper relocation sites for displaced families in Vitas-Katuparan Housing Project in Tondo, Manila, a lawmaker said on Sunday.
Manila Rep. Manuel Luis T. Lopez, the House Committe on Metro Manila Development chairman, said the NHA and other government officials gave this assurance to residents of Vitas-Katuparan Housing Project in Tondo, Manila, as they gear for a decent and sustainable rehabilitation of the housing project in the next years.
Upon Lopez’s interpellation at a budget hearing last week, NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. said they will abide by President Duterte’s order not to implement demolitions without proper relocation sites for displaced families Vitas-Katuparan Housing Project in Tondo, Manila. Manila City Administrator Felix Espiritu assured the same in a radio interview on September 11.
According to Lopez, the NHA committed to allot P1 billion for the first phase of high-rise building onsite development for Vitas-Katuparan, to accommodate around 800 families.
“These commitments are a welcome development not just for me but most especially to our constituents who have been fearing for their future in the past weeks. We have a long way to go in the development of the Vitas-Katuparan housing project but knowing that the national and local government are with us,” Lopez said.
“The development or rehabilitation of in-city housing for the poor can serve as a landmark project for the Duterte administration. Years from now, this administration will be lauded and remembered for their malasakit in uplifting poor Filipinos from homelessness and hopelessness,” the lawmaker added.
Lopez said residents of Vitas-Katuparan Housing in Barangay 101 received a demolition order on September 1, giving them 15 days to vacate the buildings. Earlier this year, the 27 four-storey buildings housing around 1,760 families since the late 1980s were declared unsafe by the City of Manila. Sometime in 2019, the Department of Public Works and Highways said the housing buildings are no longer safe for occupancy and are about to be declared condemned.
Lopez wrote Escalada to ask for the timeline and a detailed schedule of activities in relation to NHA’s commitment to provide a comprehensive and well-planned human settlement for the marginalized and low-income families of Vitas-Katuparan.
“Tondo stands as the symbol of poverty in the Philippines. Starting then with Smokey Mountain and now with Happy Land and Parola, Tondo remains as the sticking image of everything that ails our country,” Lopez said.
“I envision and dream for Tondo to overcome this and to become the new symbol of progress of our beloved country: From poverty let us convert this area to become the new image of the new and progressive Philippines,” he added
Lopez has laid the groundwork for two crucial housing projects in Tondo: the Isla Puting Bato Housing Project (White Rock Township) located in Parola, Tondo and the Vitas Katuparan Housing Project along Mel Lopez Blvd (Formerly Road 10) also in Tondo Manila.
The White Rock Township project involves the development of a five-hectare property owned partially by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). On February 26, 2019, the NHA, Department of Transportation, PPA, GSIS, the City of Manila, and International Container Terminal Services, Inc, together with former Speaker and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed an MOU stating in general terms that all parties agree that the project will proceed.
Meanwhile, the Vitas Katuparan Housing project involves a two-phase development on an existing NHA housing project. The first phase covers 9,183.56 square meters of the total development covering 3.5 hectares.
NHA has made initial studies on this and presented the same to the Metro Manila Regional Development Council (RDC) on February 26, 2020. The RDC included these two projects as part of their submittals to the Department of Budget and Management for inclusion in the 2021 National Expenditure Program.