GMA spends Labor Day in Pampanga

MEXICO, Pampanga — Thousands of local folk are set to welcome President Arroyo on Labor Day tomorrow at the Pandakaki resettlement here where she will issue certificates of housing award (CHAs) to 1,000 lahar-displaced families.

Lita Aquino, chief of the Mt. Pinatubo task force under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), said the 1,000 housing units cost an average of P49,000 each.

The President will issue the CHAs to the heads of families at the Pandakaki resettlement where 755 new housing units have been completed.

Mrs. Arroyo will also award CHAs for 162 new housing units at the Sta. Lucia resettlement area in Magalang and 83 other units at Madapdap in Mabalacat town.

The term of the Mt. Pinatubo task force has been extended until June 30 to pave the way for the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to assume jurisdiction over 14 resettlement sites which the Mt. Pinatubo Commission (MPC) has put up since the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

The 14 lowland resettlement sites, built at a cost of P5.9 billion from the P13-billion budget of the defunct Presidential Mt. Pinatubo Task Force and the P10-billion fund of the MPC, are located in various parts of Central Luzon, but mostly in Pampanga. They have a combined area of 1,890.89 hectares.

Aquino said the task force, tasked to wind up the activities of the MPC, would leave 4,563 other lahar-displaced families still in evacuation centers.

The 1,000 new housing units which the President will award tomorrow were built by the Army’s 51st Engineering Brigade.

At least 42,000 lahar-displaced families have been given new homes at the 14 resettlement sites.