Saturday, October 27, 2007 De Castro asked to help secure Apas folk homes
VICE President Noli de Castro yesterday promised a “win-win solution” to over 1,000 socializing housing beneficiaries threatened by the Cebu Provincial Government’s lot recovery program.
Ma. Linda Paracuel-les, head of the housing beneficiaries in Barangay Apas, Cebu City, submitted to de Castro yesterday a letter asking him to ask Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to exempt the land they occupy from Capitol’s bid to recover its properties within Cebu City.
In her letter, she referred to a 32-hectare land in Apas that she said was declared a socialized housing site under Presidential Proclamation (PP) 409.
She and other occupants of the land also asked de Castro, who is also chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), to help resolve the issue of their relocation.
De Castro said he will discuss the matter with Garcia, but he did not say when.
The Capitol has already secured President Gloria Arroyo’s approval to get back the 80.7-hectare Central Command (Centcom) in Apas.
Centcom is transferring to Lapu-Lapu City.
Yesterday, de Castro met with Centcom officials, Paracuelles, Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez and Centcom officials.
The meeting was held after his speech at the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association national convention at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
Paracuelles, head of the Alliance of Barangay Apas Community Associations (Abaca), the umbrella organization of 10 homeowner associations in the barangay, handed de Castro a letter outlining the wishes of 1,200 families occupying 32 hectares of the Centcom lot.
Paracuelles said that while they felt secured after PP 409 was approved, they are now living in uncertain times because of the Capitol’s move.
They asked de Castro to, once and for all, decide on the issue and send a directive to concerned agencies to proceed with the process of giving the lots to the beneficiaries.
She identified the agencies as the National Housing Authority and the HUDCC.
The homeowners also asked the vice president to ask the Capitol to exclude them in its recovery efforts.
Fernandez said one possible solution raised was to “compress” the beneficiaries in a 10-hectare lot, which needs a re-blocking of the beneficiaries.
The Capitol plans to conduct a census of the families occupying the Centcom lots to determine who among them are actual socialized housing beneficiaries.
Once the census is done, the list will be compared with that of Abaca.
The 80-hectare Centcom lot was donated by the Capitol on Oct. 12, 1959 and was expressly specified as a military reservation.
But portions were occupied by soldiers and their dependents that on June 2003, President Gloria Arroyo declared 16 of the 47 lots as socialized housing sites.
Last Oct. 12, however, the Provincial Government and Centcom officials signed a memorandum of understanding turning over the property back to the Capitol. (RHM/LAP)
