Part Two
DAVAO City—The violence in Marawi City impacts on the economy and security of Mindanao.
But the need for housing appeared to be more pressing for the rest of the island as to conspicuously post a spike in the application and takeout of housing loans even in cities next to Marawi in the northern Mindanao area.
Overall figures for Mindanao may be affected though by the conflict, according to Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) CEO Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti.
Moti said there are 9,500 members of the HDMF, more popularly known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, in Marawi City. However, the main responsibility in ensuring mass housing and urban resettlement in the city was assigned to the National Housing Authority, he added.
The surge in the housing demand, despite the armed conflict in Marawi City, has offered a quick and likely indication there is, indeed, a potential housing demand in more areas outside of cities and capital towns in Mindanao.
The move toward countryside housing development, crafted three years ago, was a step on that direction, Moti said. However, he explained, the inroads going outside the main cities and capital towns were still on a trailblazing path.
Projects
MARIE Antoniette D. Diaz, Pag-IBIG vice president for home lending operation in the Visayas and Mindanao areas, said the early phase of the program has brought more housing construction activities to General Santos City and, lately, to its adjacent pineapple plantation town of Polomolok, South Cotabato.
Diaz, who is also a lawyer, added that the offer of the pineapple company management to provide the land for the housing community of its workers contributed largely to the entry of a housing development project in the rural town.
One leading housing developer, 8990 Housing Development Corp., is nearly finishing its Deca Homes project in General Santos City with 2,772 units. Its general manager for Mindanao, Mary Ann Chua, said the project is just one of their ventures into other areas in Mindanao other than Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.
Chua said that, while the firm’s General Santos City project happens to be in a workers’ community, 8990 still put in place amenities similar to what the company builds higher middle-class subdivisions. Doing so, she said, increased the uptake in units of which more than half were already taken out or sold.
In the next five years, we hope we could be present in as many areas in Mindanao, she said.
Diaz said there are also housing projects under Pag-IBIG amortization in Dangcagan,
Bukidnon, and in Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental.
Negotiations
MOTI, himself a native of Marawi City, said the Pag-IBIG Fund
has lowered the cost estimates for the takeout of units built in the countryside.
He cited Gingoog as example where the housing units could be taken out at values between P300,000 to P350,000 each. The units at low-cost or subsidized units are sold P50,000 higher in existing subdivisions in the cities.
“There is also an invitation to us from Compostela Valley and Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte,” Moti said. The invitation was also as far as the southwestern most province of Tawi-Tawi, he added.
Just like in Marawi City, Moti said the “Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya at Gobyerno” (Cooperation for the future: You, Bank, Industry and Government) Fund has already asked local government units (LGUs) “to provide the land for our housing developers to undertake construction projects”.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte reported in her State of the City Address in mid-September the city government has already accepted the partnership offer of San Miguel Corp. (SMC). The Pilipinong May Puso (Filipino With a Heart) Foundation of SMC offered to build tenement houses in the relocation area in Barangay Los Amigos in Tugbok District, some 20 kilometers northwest of downtown.
Showcase
DUTERTE, daughter of the Philippine president, said the housing project would be funded by the National Housing Authority.
She explained the partnership project with SMC was named Biyaya ng Pagbabago (Benefits of Change) and would “showcase what we want to do for relocation in urban areas: multistory residential buildings”.
The mayor said the contractor already started its “prebuilding construction on the site and we are waiting for the final survey result”.
Moti said Duterte is just one of many officials the Pag-IBIG is talking to. “We are talking with mayors and governors in Mindanao, to explore the possibility of us going into their areas and see how we can help provide the housing requirement of their respective constituents,” he said.
The only requirement was for the LGUs to provide the location for the construction of the units, he said. The Pag-IBIG has already an offering of collecting only a 3-percent interest in loans of its clients whose monthly salary or wage is under P12,000. “Basically, it’s lower priced for still quality units and lower interest on loans,” he added. The countryside housing program “is our foray to reach the unserved and underserved areas across the country”.
To be concluded
Image credits: Nonie Reyes