Senator orders to hasten housing project

ILONGGO Senator Franklin Drilon ordered the National Housing Authority (NHA) to fast-track the construction of 1,000 housing units for at least 1,000 families to be displaced from the Iloilo River and other danger zones.

NHA Regional Director Isagani Jalbuena assured the senator during the monthly meeting of the Iloilo Batiano River Development Council of his agency’s commitment to the housing project component amounting P170 million to build the houses for informal settlers and river bank dwellers.

Drilon said Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad has already called his attention on the non-movement of P100 million from the Office of the President for housing of another batch of 1,000 riverbank dwellers.

The senator said the DBM has observed the slow utilization of funds and suggested that the P100 million from the Office of the President be coursed to the City Government of Iloilo to be used for the housing of displaced families.

More than 3,000 families are set to be displaced and relocated from the river and its tributaries to the city’s relocation sites. The city has already bought a 5.6-hectare lot in Barangay Lanit, Jaro district as housing village for the first batch of 1,000 displaced families.

The city also bought a three-hectare lot in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo, for the housing units of another batch of 300 families.

Jalbuena said the construction of houses is ongoing at the Lanit site and scheduled to accommodate the first batch of relocated families early next year.

Drilon said the 79 families at the Iloilo River area along Barangay North San Jose and beside the old slaughterhouse in Molo district will be given priority in the Lanit relocation site. The move will start the rehabilitation of the Iloilo River in that area.