NHA urged to relocate squatters around NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - A party-list lawmaker urged the National Housing Authority (NHA) yesterday to relocate squatter families around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

In making the appeal, Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA) said the NHA is getting an extra P1.3 billion next year to build “additional resettlement projects.”

“There is ample funding for community housing to allow the orderly transfer of settlers around our busiest airport,” Ty, who is a member of the House committee on housing and urban development, said.

He made the appeal days after at least 14 people were killed and 20 others were injured when a cargo plane smashed into a slum in Barangay Don Bosco, Parañaque City. The pilot was trying to make an emergency landing when the place crashed.

Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas III has turned over P750,000 to Parañaque Mayor Florencio Bernabe as financial aid to the victims’ families. An investigation is underway to ascertain the accident’s likely cause.

“The tragic mishap has underscored the need for government to establish acceptable clearance zones around the NAIA and other key airports, in compliance with global civil aviation safety standards,” Ty said.

He said the United States and the European Union downgraded the Philippine aviation system’s safety rating in 2008 and 2010, respectively, for not fully satisfying international requirements.

The lack of a buffer zone, or sufficient unpopulated open spaces around the NAIA, was one of several reasons stated for the downgrade, he said.