Housing project brings hope to 3,500 Cavite families

From fear of losing the roofs over their heads and hopelessness to a new lease in life for the new year.

This is what’s in store for some 3,500 squatter families in Rosario, Cavite who have lived in fear of ejection and demolition following the issuance of an order by the court finding their occupancy of government-owned land illegal.

Recently, in keeping with President Arroyo’s housing for the poor and poverty alleviation program, Filoil Management and Development Corp. (FMDC), a real estate arm of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), has embarked on a P100-million socialized housing project for the affected 3,500 squatter families in what used to be the old Filoil Refinery site in Rosario.

PNOC president Thelmo Cunanan said more than 25 hectares of the 118-hectare Filoil property has been earmarked for the socialized housing project which is part of the overall thrust of the administration to alleviate poverty in the country.

Filoil president and chief executive officer Cirilo Martinez said the project’s implementation is being undertaken by virtue of Executive Order No. 59 recently signed by the President.

He said the housing project is being implemented jointly with the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) under chairman Mike Defensor with Assistant Secretary Rado Dimalibot as the project’s coordinating official.

Martinez said the initial effort aims to construct 500 low-cost housing units in two phases. Construction work has already started for the first 143 housing units in a one hectare site. Each housing unit will have an area of 40 sq. meters.

Overall, he said a total of 1,000 to 2,000 housing units will have to be built to accommodate a portion of the 3,500 illegal dwellers in the area.

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

He explained that the construction of these socialized housing units would enable Filoil to start the development in the area. "We cannot start developing our poverty and contribute to the national coffers if we don’t settle the squatting and land tenure problems with these residents," he said.

Filoil plans to convert a portion of its P1.8 billion, 118-hectare property into a mixed use commercial-residential estate.