SITE VALIDATION. Antique Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao confers with Laua-an Mayor Aser Baladjay (2nd from right, partly hidden) and other key officials about their recommendations to solve the flooding problem at the National Housing Authority (NHA) relocation site in Barangay Lugta, Laua-an during their site validation on Feb. 3, 2023. Mayor Baladjay said in an interview Friday (Feb. 10, 2023) that he is now negotiating with the landowners to purchase a portion of their lands along the relocation site for the drainage system. (Photo courtesy of Eby Butiong)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The local government unit (LGU) of Laua-an is negotiating with eight landowners to procure a portion of their lots to construct a drainage system that would solve the flooding problem at the National Housing Authority (NHA) relocation site in Barangay Lugta.
Mayor Aser Baladjay, in an interview Friday, said he immediately started the negotiation with identified landowners after their site validation and ocular inspection with the NHA, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Provincial Housing Affairs and Resettlement Office (PHARO), and other concerned government agencies on February 3.
“During our meeting, I was tasked to negotiate with the landowners so that we would know how much would be their selling price,” he said.
The provincial government will procure the lot for the drainage system, which stretches to about 300 meters from the relocation site to the Paliwan River, also in the same barangay.
Without the drainage system, the flooding could reach up to knee-level every rainfall.
“We just need to buy about 2 meters wide of the area along the relocation site for the canal,” he said.
Baladjay said he hopes to get the approval of the landowners soon as several of them are already based in Metro Manila or the United States.
He added that Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao has been instructed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to make the relocation site habitable on or before the end of this year.
The relocation site was originally intended for victims of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.
The LGU will also revalidate if the intended first recipients are still interested to avail of their units, otherwise, it will be awarded to families displaced by Typhoon Paeng that severely hit the province last year. (PNA)
