JDV says China to give relocation funds for Metro Manila squatters

House Speaker Jose de Venecia said yesterday China has agreed to provide concessional financing to relocate 75,000 Metro Manila families squatting along the railroad tracks in the country’s largest-ever urban resettlement program.

De Venecia said he requested the Chinese government to put up $150 million for the program as part of the $800-million package to rebuild the Philippine railway infrastructure under the railways modernization program the Speaker conceived and which President Arroyo has endorsed.

De Venecia said he informed the President of this major development last week following his return from a successful trip to Beijing. The concessional package and an action program are now being finalized by Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, Housing and Urban Planning Secretary Michael Defensor, and Director General Romulo Neri of the National Economic Development Authority, the Speaker said. They will be assisted by Public Works Secretary Bayani Fernando the concurrent Metro Manila Development Authority chairman and Philippine National Railways General Manager Joe Sarasola.

A 100-hectare site in Cabuyao, Laguna is the future community for more than 35,000 squatter families south of Manila, while three major sites in Malabon, Valenzuela and Bulacan totaling 100 hectares will be home for another 25,000 to 35,000 squatter families north of Manila, De Venecia said.

"We must ensure that these squatter families are given a decent house and lot which is the President’s objective," said De Venecia. He said that last year, during on-site survey of the railroad tracks, "these families live in sub-human conditions."

De Venecia said the Chinese government "will provide the financing and the Philippine government the relocation site" in a two-phase relocation program.

The Speaker recently visited beijing where he was honored with a banquet at the Great Hall of the People by Chairman Li Peng of the Steering Committee of China’s National People’s Congress.

De Venecia succeeds Li Peng as president of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace, which is scheduled to hold its next assembly in Manila in May.