SAFER HOUSES. Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario (second from the left) awards the certificate of turnover and acceptance to Naga City Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong (third from the right) for the initial 86 out of the 192 permanent housing units in Barangay Tiraan, Naga City. Some 1,440 families were relocated to safer houses in Cebu province. (Photo courtesy of DSHUD)
MANILA – The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) relocated about 1,440 family beneficiaries to decent and safe housing units in Cebu province.
In a statement on Thursday, DHSUD Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said the housing sector’s initiative is part of the Duterte administration’s commitment to provide decent and safe shelters as well as push sustainable communities for the underprivileged, especially the informal settler families (ISFs) residing in danger zones and calamity prone areas.
"And for us in the Department, we consider shelter as a right of every Filipino family and it is our responsibility to provide access to adequate, livable, affordable, and inclusive housing communities to all,” he said.
Del Rosario on Wednesday visited select areas in Cebu province to inspect the relocation sites initiated by the department.
During his visit to Mandaue City, del Rosario handed over to the local government unit the certificate of project completion of the land development for the 6.5-hectare relocation site in Barangay Pagnaan, wherein 1,200 ISFs—most of them living in hazardous communities and some were fire victims in the city.
On the same day, del Rosario went to Barangay Carreta, Cebu City to distribute Certificates of Entitlement for Lot Allocation (CELA) led by the National Housing Authority (NHA), to a total of 44 beneficiaries.
“The beneficiaries, mostly senior citizens, received their CELAs after 20 years,” del Rosario said.
On top of this is the awarding of an initial 86 out of 192 permanent housing units to informal settlers in Barangay Tiraan, Naga City.
The Naga City Permanent Housing Project, also supported by the NHA, will assist the survivors of the Naga landslide in 2018, to rebuild their lives.
The local chief executives in these areas have expressed their deepest gratitude to the DSHUD and its key shelter agencies for the realization of the housing projects for their constituents.
President Rodrigo Duterte led the groundbreaking and capsule-laying rites for the construction of PHP90-M permanent shelters for Cebu landslide survivors on September 6, 2019. (PNA)
