Bulaon relocatees to get titles soon

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Thousands of relocatees at the Bulaon Resettlement Center here who were displaced during the onslaught of lahar in 1995 are bound to get their respective land titles soon.

Sun.Star Pampanga learned about this over the weekend, after Governor Lilia Pineda, Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, Bulaon village chief Zenaida Bundalian and National Housing Authority (NHA) project manager Inez Gonzales conducted a dialogue with members of the Bulaon Resettlement Center Homeowners Association led by Jake Sawal regarding their queries about the land titles that have not been turned over to them the past years.

Earlier, Governor Pineda sought the assistance of Rodriguez, asking the latter to relay to Vice President Jejomar Binay the plight of the relocatees.

Gonzales said that 2,582 relocatees have not received their land titles yet, while 1,131 are up for validation.

"So far, 619 are being processed already and 642 have no technical description. We also found out that 192 are not original relocatees but come from other areas like Tarlac. We are now validating all of these and have requested the homeowners to submit to us the required documents for them to acquire their land titles," she told Sun.Star Pampanga.

Rodriguez stressed it is the immediate processing of documents that will address the concerns of the homeowners.

"This is because the Mt. Pinatubo Commission no longer exists. It is supposed to be under their jurisdiction and it was during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through an executive order that she signed, that relocatees would not have to pay a single centavo for the properties. It is good that the NHA is with us now and really very good that our governor has directed the immediate creation and establishment of an NHA Sub-Office here which would assist the relocatees on their concerns and look after the processing of documents," said Rodriguez.

Meanwhile, Governor Pineda urged the relocatees to submit as soon as possible the needed documents.

"Asikasuhin ninyo agad ang mga papeles an kailangan ninyo upag matugunan na ang hinaing ninyo. Nagpapasalamat ako at ang Kapitolyo sa NHA at kay Mayor Rodriguez sa mabilis na tulong nila sa atin (You prepare all the needed documents so they can address your concerns. I am grateful to the Capitol, NHA and Mayor Rodriguez for their help)," she told the relocatees.