CAMP OUT. Members of urban poor group Kadamay and other informal settlers arrive at the AFP/PNP housing project in Barangay Felisa, Bacolod City to camp out as they ask to be allowed to apply for the housing units on Thursday (August 30, 2018). (Photo courtesy of Bombo Radyo Bacolod)
BACOLOD CITY -- Some 1,000 members of the urban poor group, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), and other informal settlers entered the Armed Forces of the Philippines/Philippine National Police (AFP/PNP) housing project in Barangay Felisa here on Thursday.
The members of the group, who came from various barangays in Bacolod, arrived at Ciudad Felisa around 8 a.m.
Berlita Ante, secretary-general of Kadamay Negros, said they are asking the government to allow them to apply so they can occupy these houses under the National Housing Authority (NHA), which have remained unoccupied for several years.
They cited Congressional Joint Resolution No. 2 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last May 9, authorizing the NHA to award unoccupied housing units intended for uniformed and government personnel to low-income beneficiaries.
NHA-Bacolod officer-in-charge Alejandro Ongsuco and personnel Jasmin Beloya and Renee Bandojo met with the group, who told them they will camp out inside the housing site while waiting for a specific action from the NHA on Friday.
The protestors brought with them rice and viand as well as sleeping essentials. Several of them came with their young children.
Superintendent Leonardo Borromeo, deputy city director for operations of Bacolod Police, said policemen were deployed in the area to maintain peace and order and protect government property.
The group will not enter the housing units and also assured they will not destroy or burn anything, Borromeo said.
Ongsuco said the project started in 2012 and was completed in 2015, and all of the 1,498 housing units have already been awarded to the intended beneficiaries, who are soldiers and policemen.
A few families are already living in their assigned units although the housing site still lacks power and water supply and other amenities.
Councilor Renecito Novero, chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on housing, said the developer is awaiting an occupancy permit for the housing site.
“It is not free. The awardees will pay for these houses. My request is for them (protestors) to wait for the right process, and not do something that could create more problem than solution,” he added.
Before 5 p.m. on Thursday, the Bacolod Homeless Facebook page posted photos of Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and Councilor Dindo Ramos, as well as staff of the City Department of Social Services and Development, meeting with the group camping out inside the housing site. (PNA)
