Filoil starts housing project in Cavite

The Filoil Development and Management Corp. (Filoil), a real estate development arm of Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), has started building an initial 500 socialized housing units in its property in Rosario, Cavite.

Filoil president and chief executive officer Cirilio S. Martinez said the construction of the low-cost housing units is being undertaken by the virtue of Executive Order No. 59 signed by President Arroyo recently.

The socialized housing units, Martinez said, would occupy 25 hectares of the 118-hectare property of Filoil in Rosario, Cavite.

He said they would be constructing a total of 1,000 to 2,000 units to accommodate a portion of the 3,500 illegal dwellers in the area. The project is being funded by the Land Bank of the Philippines.

According to Martinez, families living in the area would be given a chance to own individual house and lot by paying the government less than P1,000 a month for the P180,000 40-square meter housing unit.

He said the construction of these socialized homes would enable them to start the development in the area. "We can’t start developing our property if we will not settle our problems with these residents," he said.

Filoil plans to convert a portion of its P1.5 billion 118-hectare Cavite property into mixed use commercial industrial estate.

Unlike other subsidiaries of PNOC, Filoil will only privatize its real estate assets. PNOC plans to sell all of its subsidiaries to the private sector.

PNOC president Thelmo Cunanan said this effort is part of the overall thrust of the Arroyo administration to alleviate poverty in the country.

Recently, Filoil agreed to forge a joint venture agreement with publicly-listed Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) which is engaged in an extensive cargo handling scheme. – Donnabelle Gatdula