TWELVE members of the Cebu City Local Housing Board (LHB) won’t be going to Singapore to study the city state’s advanced housing program.
The City Council did not give them the go-ahead.
The three-day trip would have cost P564,000 and would have been charged to the City’s P5-million Social Housing Fund this year.
The entourage would have included Councilor Hanz Abella, LHB head; Councilor Gerardo Carillo; Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor Chief Collin Rosell; City Assessor Ferdinand Cañete; City Legal Office lawyer Carl Sasuman; and Department of Engineering and Public Works Chief Jose Marie Poblete; Engr. Joel Reston of the City Planning and Development Office; Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman; Ellen Cañete of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council; Grace Solis of the National Housing Authority; Evangeline Abejo from a private organization; and City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia.
‘Too much’
The group was invited by Surbana, a consultancy firm that submitted an unsolicited proposal for the formulation of a master plan for the City’s housing project at the Citicenter Commercial Complex in Barangay Kamagayan.
Surbana specializes in sustainable urban planning, design, engineering, construction and building technologies.
For the trip, Surbana vowed to shoulder the group’s food and inland transportation.
In a committee report, Councilor Alvin Dizon who heads the committee on housing, said they do not object to the trip, but the amount needed was “too much.”
“The hard reality is that the City’s fund for its socialized housing program is never enough to address the increasing housing needs of its urban poor. The City must prioritize the use of its limited funds for projects that will effectively address the needs of the people and benefit as many beneficiaries as possible,” he said.
Specific use
Also, Dizon said, the P564,000 can already fund one site development project for the City’s relocation sites.
“It must be noted that the socialized housing fund is to be used exclusively for a socialized housing project within the city and that will benefit the city residents,” he said.
Dizon invoked City Ordinance 2336, also known as the Ordinance Creating the Socialized Housing Trust Fund, which he authored.
Section 4 provides that the fund can only be used for lot acquisition for socialized housing, site development, slum upgrading, relocation of families living in danger zones, and construction of medium-rise buildings.
It can also be used for the construction of housing units for socialized housing beneficiaries as well as in the installation of basic services to housing sites such as roads, drainage, water and electricity.
Suggestion
Dizon’s committee suggested negotiating with Surbana for the latter to shoulder the cost of the whole trip, considering it had made the invitation.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, for his part, suggested cutting the number of people who will be going.
Carillo, however, said there may be conflict of interest if Surbana shoulders all expenses since it has submitted a proposal to help the City in one of its projects.
As to reducing the group’s number, Carillo said that can be done.
If the LHB intends to push through with the trip, Dizon asked the group to look for other sources of funds and coordinate with the Office of the Mayor regarding the matter.