MAYOR Rexlon T. Gatchalian is looking forward to finally attain the zero informal-settler families (ISFs) living along Valenzuela City’s waterways that includes Tullahan river this year.
Gatchalian’s target of no more squatters living along all the waterways in the city is based on the target that all the remaining beneficiaries composed of more than 3,000 ISFs will be transferred to the Disiplina Village in Barangay Bignay by the third quarter of this year.
Gatchalian said in an interview he hopes all the housing units will be finished by the National Housing Authority (NHA).
“The construction of the structure is with the NHA,” he added. Once this is done, “Valenzuela City is the first city in the National Capital Region or even in the whole country that has no informal-settler families living along waterways or in any body of waters.”
Elenita Reyes, head of the City’s Housing and Resettlement Office, told the BusinessMirror there are some areas that require further activities.
Reyes cited as example the Disiplina Village in Barangay Ugong, which still needs a barangay outpost, relocation area and sources of income for the residents. She said these are part of the whole package of helping the ISFs.
Product of Ondoy
THE concept of the Disiplina Village was started in 2010 by Gatchalian’s older brother and then mayor Sherwin. The concept was hatched after thousands of families residing in makeshift structures along the Tullahan River and other waterways and riverbanks in Valenzuela City were severely hit by Tropical Storm Ondoy (Typhoon Ketsana) in 2009.
According to the Valenzuela City government’s Public Information Office (PIO), “the onslaught of Typhoon Ondoy prompted the local government to ultimately solve the problem of ISFs in the city.”
It said that as an immediate response to the urban-poor people’s problem at that time, the local government called on the private sector to help in providing them with better and safer living condition in a community they can call their own. This paved way for the construction of the only local-government unit (LGU)-initiated housing project for the typhoon victims, which it called the “Disiplina Village Ugong.”
The Valenzuela City government donated the 1.9-hectare property, while the NHA and the non-governmental organization Gawad Kalinga worked together to build the housing units.
Reyes said the administration under Sherwin T. Gatchalian was convinced Disiplina Village Ugong was not enough since it accommodated only 890 ISFs. Thus, it put up a second Disiplina Village in Barangay Bignay to accommodate more than 3,000 ISFs who continued to reside along the Tullahan River and other waterways and riverbanks in the city.
His younger brother Rexlon continued the housing project after becoming the city’s mayor in 2013.
Gatchalian carried out the Disiplina Village project so as to “decisively” and “completely” end the problem of the ISFs’ occupation of the waterways and riversbanks in the city. The problems intensify every time a typhoon hits Metro Manila.
The mayor made sure all the necessary elements of a community, such as health center, police station and so on, were put up in the city’s housing project.
Renters only
VALENZUELA City records showed that the Displina Village in Barangay Bignay has a size of about 11 hectares, while that in Barangay Ugong has 1.9 hectares.
The total beneficiaries of the two Disiplina Village are 4,594 ISFs.
The majority came from Tullahan River, the city’s biggest waterway, while others from riverbanks in Valenzuela City.
Reyes told the BusinessMirror out of 3,704 ISF-beneficiaries, about 1,854 ISFs has yet to be transferred to the Disiplina Village in Barangay Bignay.
The Disiplina Village Ugong, on the other hand, is fully occupied with 890 ISFs.
However, she clarified that the beneficiaries would not own the unit where they are residing.
“They can rent for 30 years, 50 years or beyond that,” Reyes said.
Each family pays P300 per month for a 27-square-meter floor area housing unit with loft provision. The village also has complete amenities, Reyes added.
But families can be removed from the Disiplina Village if they consistently violate the rules and regulations pegged by the city government, she said.
Their removal, however, is subject to the City Council’s approval.
While welcoming the project, some residents said they hope the Gatchalian administration would make them “real owners” of the housing units they are renting so that eventually they would have a house they could rightfully call as “our own.”
Funds, award
ACCORDING to Reyes, the project recently received a boost from the Department of the Interior and Local Government-National Capital Region (DILG-NCR). The DILG-NCR reportedly gave P6.9 million to the Valenzuela City government in December 2017 as Resettlement Government Assistance Fund (RGAF) intended for the Disiplina Village in Barangay Ugong. In a statement, PIO said the fund will mainly be used for the construction of a two-story evacuation center and barangay outpost, seed capital for several business proposals and for the management of the community’s Tofu Production Facility.
According to the PIO, the RGAF “seeks to capacitate LGUs with resettlement sites to improve and provide a holistic resettlement program.”
It has two main components: the technical assistance, which aims to assist LGUs in terms of structures, process and planning, while the financial assistance aims to provide funds for the needed facilities and services of the resettlement sites, it continued.
The RGAF is awarded to any LGU that complied and completed all the requirements set by the DILG, which means the potential recipients of the RGAF have the capacity and intent to maintain the resettlement sites.
According to Kristine Marie Torres, DILG-NCR Local Government Operations officer, the principal purpose of RGAF was to assist LGUs in the improvement of the resettlement areas of the ISFs who have been living along waterways and riverbanks on makeshift houses.
Implementing the Disiplina Village project bagged for the city a Galing Pook (good place) Award in October last year.
“Besides ensuring safe, affordable, decent and humane housing for informal settlers, the [on-site] and in-city relocation approach of the program ensures that beneficiaries are linked to their sources of livelihood and have access to more employment opportunities,” the Galing Pook Foundation said.