DWUP eyes services as payment in lieu of cash for SIR

CEBU, Philippines - Beneficiaries of the Slum Improvement and Resettlement (SIR) project who have been in default may soon be given an option to pay their obligation to the city government.

Lawyer Collin Rosell, chief of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor, will be recommending to Mayor Michael Rama to allow services as payments for those beneficiaries who cannot afford to pay in cash. 

“Kun dili sila makabayad og kwarta maayo nga ato ra sila nga patrabahoon ug ang sweldo nila maoy ibayad sa ilang obligasyon ngadto sa gobyerno ( if they cannot pay in cash we will ask them to render services to pay the government),” said Rosell.

Rosell said he is making a formal recommendation to the Mayor and hopes that it will be given a favorable action.

Rosell said the city had spent about P500 million for various housing programs in the past several years, but the city has so far collected only about P100 million because of poor collection efficiency.

The Cebu City Council has already made series of amendments to its ordinance reducing the penalty for those delinquent beneficiaries but still several of them failed to pay their obligation.

In the case of the SIR project, a national government housing project that was implemented for the urban poor families in Sitio Alaska-Mambaling, Pasil, Suba and Sawang Calero, many of the beneficiaries failed to settle their obligation after the lapse of the 25-year period.

The government decided to allow occupants of the foreshore lands in Barangay Mambaling to own it through installment payment but only very few of them paid their amortization.

The records show that most of the beneficiaries have been delinquent in their obligations for the past 25 years.

Several SIR beneficiaries trooped to Cebu City Hall last week to ask for help from Rama to solve their problem and to stop the alleged illegal activities of some government personnel managing the project.

Ernesto Cardoza, one of the beneficiaries, said the city failed to release the documents of those who have completed payments already.

The SIR is a national project being implemented in Cebu City during the incumbency of then mayor Florentino Solon. It was aimed at providing decent homes to some 5,000 homeless urban poor families. (FREEMAN)