AWARDING of certificate of ownership will be pushed by the Cagayan de Oro City Government within this year, said lawyer Edgar Cabanlas, task force chairman for the emancipation of piso-piso beneficiaries.
Cabanlas said there is an estimate of at least 6,000 citizens under 17 homeowners associations who are included in the piso-piso program scattered in the program's 37 sites.
Representatives of the Home Owner Association beneficiaries for the piso-piso acquired land properties attended a planning workshop and land titling briefing of the City Government on Friday, January 13.
The workshop has given focus on the process by which the lands can finally be transferred to beneficiaries.
Engineer Armen Cuenca, executive director of the task force for the emancipation of the "piso-piso" beneficiaries, discussed the recently approved City Ordinance with regards to the acquisition of the "piso-piso" beneficiaries which is the ordinance 13178-2016.
Within this, lots under the "piso-piso" program can be transferred to the beneficiaries upon, namely payment of acquisition cost, declaring of hereditary succession, and final transfer upon payment.
In the recent City Administration under the former city chief executive Vicente Emano, city ordinances 9888-2005 and 10046-2006 were drafted to make the Comprehensive Socialized Housing Program for homeless citizens or the "piso-piso" program.
Within this program, eligible housing relocation beneficiaries like citizens who were left homeless because of government infrastructure projects, those who are living in riverbanks, creeks and who are living in the road-right-of-way, families affected by demolition orders by the court, families in the Socialized Housing Registration master list and landless government employees acquired land properties for only P1.00.
As of today, the beneficiaries are residing in their own areas in the "piso-piso" sites but with only a certificate of occupancy from the previous administration.
The incumbent mayor Oscar Moreno has pledged to grant certificates of ownership to the beneficiaries in order for them to be secured in their acquired lands.
"Because if we do not grant them actual certificates of ownership over these lands, aside from them not really having an assurance as to the security of their time of residence, the next mayor or administration will have the right to make them leave these lands any time. Maybe if an investment by the next administration may come wherein these lands might be needed, these beneficiaries will not have any legal documentation that says they have the right to stay there. Ultimately, they will be forced to evacuate again and the whole thing will repeat itself," said Cuenca.