Council defers loan for workers' housing

CEBU, Philippines - Aside from refusing to allocate for Mayor Michael Rama’s plan to construct a housing project in barangay Kamagayan for City Hall employees that do not have their own houses, the City Council also did not allow the mayor to avail of a loan for such purpose from the Philippine Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-ibig).

In his proposed 2012 annual budget, Rama had allocated P100 million for the construction of such housing project but the budget was slashed by the City Council which believes the item is not an urgent need.

The City’s Local Housing Board, through the Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP), also wants to avail of the Pag-ibig Fund’s Group Housing Loan Program to help fund the proposed high-rise building housing project at what used to be the CitiCenter Commercial Complex.

The housing board had requested the City Council to authorize the mayor to submit the Citicenter Complex as collateral for the loan. But the board has not explained on how to go about it, especially since the proposed housing project is also planned to be built on the same property.

This is why Councilor Alvin Dizon, chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Housing, did not recommend for the Council to authorize the mayor sign a loan contract with Pag-ibig officials.

The housing board, through a resolution, intends to avail of the Pag-ibig group housing loan program to provide a new housing scheme to address the requests from the city employees.

But Dizon observed that the resolution that was endorsed to his office for review does not have supporting documents to provide details on the project like the projected number of beneficiaries and the terms for the housing loan.

“Project details should be provided so the members of the City Council can be apprised on the project and so they can also provide whatever assistance necessary,” Dizon said.

The City Council requested DWUP, being the primary housing agency of the City of Cebu, to provide documents outlining the project description like the location, number of beneficiaries, project type vertical or horizontal development, the floor area for every beneficiary, project cost, selling price and other terms and conditions.

The report said Pag-ibig Fund, through the GLHP, can lend only about P40 to P50 million thus the City would still need to partner with private groups to implement the project. The GLHP is a new program of Pag-ibig intended to help local government units provide housing to its employees and constituents.

DWUP head Collin Rosell had said that the housing project targets to benefit 1,000 City Hall employees. (FREEMAN)