A TOTAL of 3,000 housing units are eyed to be built in Barangay Budlaan, Cebu City for the National Government’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing (4PH) program.
In a social media post on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, Councilor Jerry Guardo said during a meeting with members of Task Force Pabahay, private firms expressed interest in partnering with the Cebu City Government to develop housing units under the 4PH national program.
Guardo particularly mentioned Taft Properties of the Gaisano Group which had presented themselves on Friday, and Manila-based developer Ingenium Construction.
In a phone interview on Friday, Guardo said aside from Taft Properties, other interested companies have yet to present themselves in the coming weeks.
“They will have profit; there is a calculation and a formula,” said Guardo in Cebuano.
Earlier, Guardo said the application process for the housing units is ongoing before the office of the City’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP).
He said the key qualification for an applicant is to be a Pag-Ibig Fund member with a minimum salary of P15,000 a month individually or jointly as a family.
The DWUP will endorse qualified applicants to the Pag-Ibig Fund, which will then assess the applicant for approval. Once approved, the applicant can choose which specific site they prefer to take.
The applicant has to wait for the formal turnover of the units.
In an earlier interview, Guardo said under the 4PH program, the National Government will take five percent of Pag-ibig’s 6.25 percent interest rate, so that the beneficiary would only have to pay the remaining 1.25 percent interest rate.
He said a 27-square-meter unit normally costs up to P5 million; but with the 4PH, the beneficiary will only have to pay up to P1.8 million for the unit.
Guardo said availing of the program will be a good investment for an individual.
“Most rentals in Cebu City will cost up to P6,000. It would be better to invest that money in that program instead,” Guardo said. / JPS