AROUND 30 percent of clients of the National Housing Authority (NHA) District 1 in Davao Region are delinquent borrowers, said officer-in-charge Atty. Alper Alcaraz on October 14.
Alcaraz said during the One Davao virtual presser that around 67 percent or most of their clients in District 1 are well-paying while the rest are delinquent borrowers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the NHA-Davao District 1 office sends demand letters and presents legal actions to their clients in order to notify them of their outstanding balance.
As of the moment, the NHA is not offering any condonation programs for their clients since the last one was in 2019 but Alcaraz noted that the contributions to be paid are affordable and not overly expensive.
“Very minimal ang aming sinisingil, usually mataas na ang P1,000 kada buwan. Sometimes nga P100 lang kada buwan (Our collection is very minimal, usually P1,000 is already expensive. Sometimes, clients only pay P100). Sa halagang iyan, kapag fully paid na iyan, sa kanila na ang lupa so sana maayos nila (They could already own a lot for that amount, as long as they pay, so hopefully they fix their balance),” Alcaraz said.
District 1 covers Davao City, Disgos City, Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Sur, and Davao de Norte.
In the District 2 office on the other hand, district manager Engr. Sonia Bulseco said they are not facing major challenges when it comes to delinquent borrowers because most of the projects in the district are new developments.
“Lahat kasi ng old projects andito (In District 1), wala kasi sa Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental (Most of the old projects are in District 1 and not in Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental). Puro mga bagong projects ang nasa distrito ko (What we have in my district are usually new projects),” Bulseco said.
According to Alcaraz, some of the newer projects of NHA are funded by grants and those that are not, need to be paid by the clients.
“Ang mga old projects ng NHA na (The old projects of NHA are) community-based initiative approach... hindi lahat grant, pero may portion na grant, at iyon ang sinisingil namin (Some are covered by grants but we collect from those that are not covered by grants)” he said.
Meanwhile, The NHA-Davao District 1 and District 2 offices are establishing housing development for indigenous peoples (IP) communities.
In District 1, the IP housing is concentrated in Davao del Norte, particularly in the municipality of Talaingod with 16 developments with 100 house units each. There is also one development in Davao Occidental.
For District 2, Bulseco said there are seven developments in Davao Oriental and six in Davao de Oro.
In addition, NHA-Davao also continues its resettlement assistance program for clients in different local government units.
“Ito po yung mga nakatira sa (These clients are those living near) danger areas like rivers and landslide-prone areas. Kasali rin diyan ang (Also included are those) affected from government infrastructure projects,” Alcaraz said. ICM