10 yrs more for SIR beneficiaries

CEBU, Philippines - The City Council has allowed beneficiaries of the Slum Improvement and Resettlement to settle the payment on the lots they are occupying for 10 more years.

The Council allowed the extension through a city ordinance it approved yesterday.

The ordinance, proposed by Councilor Alvin Dizon, chairman of the Council’s committee on housing, restructures the accounts of delinquent beneficiaries, which constitutes 61 percent of the 3,651 beneficiaries.

Section 5 of the ordinance states that beneficiaries who wish to continue their contracts may apply for the restructuring of the accounts subject to certain terms and conditions, such as on the new pricing of lots.

For original beneficiaries, the new price for inner lots is P150 per square meter while the price for lots near the main road is P200 per square meter.

Actual occupants who bought rights and were admitted to the SIR program will have to pay a higher amount, from P500 up to P2200 per square meter, depending on the distance from the main road.

Payment will be made for 10 years with an annual interest of six percent or 0.0005 percent per month.

“All penalties are condoned and to encourage the beneficiaries to accelerate payment, the interest shall be on the unpaid loan balance computed monthly,” states Section 5-d of the ordinance.

Beneficiaries must sign a new conditional contract to sell with the city government. To avail of the restructuring program, an advanced payment equivalent to two months must be made.

Failure to pay the monthly amortization for three consecutive moths automatically forfeits the beneficiaries’ rights. A beneficiary is also automatically expelled from the program when he sells, assigns, encumbers, mortgages, leases, or subleases his rights without consent from the city government.

Councilor Jose Daluz III said yesterday that the 10-year extension will not be disadvantageous to the city, but will encourage the occupants to pay for their dues. The city government spent P20 million to purchase the lot from the national government.

The SIR lots are in barangays Ermita, Pasil, Duljo Fatima, Sawang Calero, Suba and Mambaling.

Dizon said the fact that 60 percent of the proceeds will go to community development programs intended for the beneficiaries will encourage them to pay religiously.

The Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor is tasked to implement the ordinance. Among the things the division needs to come up with are a new contract to sell, additional staff who will assist the SIR office, and a two-month information dissemination campaign to speed-up the release of the Transfer of Certificate of Title for beneficiaries who have fully paid.

SIR was implemented in March 1979. The original contract agreement is for 25 years, which expired last December 2009 with only 1,098 beneficiaries who have fully paid their obligations.

Before the contract fully expired, Resolution No. 09-1599 was passed extending the contract for a period of six months yet only 93 beneficiaries paid their obligations during the extension. (FREEMAN)