Housing project for farmers on

SAN ISIDRO, Nueva Ecija – The provincial government of Nueva Ecija has officially launched a P900-million LGU (Local Government Unit) Pabahay para sa Magsasaka Program for some 5,000 farmers in the province.

The housing project, the only one of its kind in the country, is a brainchild of Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson III. It will be pilot-tested in this town through the construction of an initial 40 houses.

The housing project, which involves construction of one-story, typhoon-resistant concrete houses, will be undertaken by Vazbuilt led by its chief executive officer, renowned Filipino inventor Evaristo "Gary" Vasquez Jr.

Vasquez said they expect to finish the 40 houses on April 5 in time for the birthday of President Arroyo who is expected to award the houses to the beneficiaries. April 5, coincidentally, is also the birthday of Vasquez, a commerce graduate whose father Evaristo Sr. is a civil engineer.

‘This is a very laudable project of Governor Joson for the benefit of Novo Ecijano farmers," he said.

The project was launched Feb. 5 with the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) among the municipal government, represented by Mayor Sonia Lorenzo, the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for the 40 houses at a cost of P7.2 million or a minimum cost of P180,000 each.

The MOA was signed by Margarito B. Teves, LBP president and chief executive officer (CEO), HDMF president/CEO Manuel C. Crisostomo and Mayor Lorenzo. It was witnessed LBP executive vice president Gilda E. Pico, director Rodolfo Feraren of the Department of the Interior and Local Governments (DILG) Region 3 office representing Secretary Joey Lina and Housing Urban Development and Coordinating Council (HUDCC) secretary-general Armando de Castro representing HUDCC chairman Mike Defensor at the multi-purpose hall of the Landbank main office at Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City.

Vasquez told The STAR that the house to be built for the farmers is a typical Spanish-European house made of concrete. The desired unit is a sturdy one-story, two-bedroom bungalow-type house with a toilet and bath room. Each house will have a floor area of 36 square meters and is 3.5 to four meters high, thus, making it look imposing along the national highway.

The roof will be made of concrete tiles whose brand is "Tegula" which is locally manufactured by Vazbuilt.

Vasquez said that the house is designed to be typhoon-resistant because all its materials, such as columns and beams are pre-fabricated concrete panels and will have steel trusses. He said that the roof is bullet-proof, rust-proof, noise-proof and maintenance-free. "The houses are so designed to withstand the strongest typhoons," he said.

The roof is also Cathedral-like with provisions for a second floor. The flooring and walls will be made of reinforced concrete.

Vasquez described the housing technology as the Vazbuilt system which makes available stylish and durable pre-fab houses measuring 36 square meters for individual lot owners at a cost of P288,000. With a 15-year guarantee, the house can be completed in 21 days, bringing down labor cost.

Vazbuilt has constructed 5,000 such units locally, 3,000 of which at the Sta. Rosa, Laguna Technopark and the remaining 2,000 in Batangas, Pampanga and Mindanao. The cost of the units range from P110,000 to P3 million.

Four such houses had already been built by Vazbuilt in Guam and there were inquiries from people in Indonesia. The housing technology, Vasquez said, would apply to Third World countries.

Vazbuilt homes come with a 15-year warranty. Its concrete materials have been tested and found to have a comprehensive strength of 2,800 to 3,000 pounds per square inch (psi), much higher than the conventional hollow blocks of about 600 to 700 psi.

The housing technology which he invented won for Vasquez the World Intellectual Property Award as an inventor in November 1995 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Vasquez said that each house will take three weeks to finish when done by eight people at eight man-hours a day. "It could even be finished earlier. In fact, the prototype house that we built took only three-and-a-half days to finish," he said.

"The beauty of this housing technology is that since the materials are pre-fabricated, the farmer can assemble and disassemble the house. We can start at 36 square meters and the farmer can then add more panels while we provide the technical assistance," he said.

"Also if you want to relocate, you can relocate it. With the Bayanihan spirit, you can build it somewhere and save labor cost which is 30 percent of the cost of building the house," he said.