Housing authority to build houses for Subanens

THE National Housing Authority (NHA) is set to build low-cost housing units for the Subanens in the province of Zamboanga del Sur.

The project, which is aimed to help improve the living condition of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), will be constructed in the municipality of Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur.

Salong Sunggod, Regional Director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) said NHA, the Municipal Government of Dumingag and NCIP, have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the implementation of the housing project.

The MOA signing, which was held last October 1 at the cultural hall of Dumingag town, was witnessed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino, III’s sister, Viel, Sunggod said.

The MOA states that the NHA will construct 100 housing units, each worth P100,000, in a five-hectare Subanen Ancestral Domain land in the village of Datu Tutukan, Dumingag, he said.

He described the project as a unique housing program and not a sub-division type citing the housing units shall be built according to the design and culture of the IPs.

The housing project will be built in an area where the Subanen-beneficiaries do their farming for livelihood using indigenous materials, he added. (Bong Garcia)