Resettled Pinatubo families to get titles by yearend

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes has assured some 54,000 families displaced by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 that they would be given titles to their new homes, given to them for free by the Arroyo administration, in at 16 resettlement sites across Central Luzon before this year ends.

Reyes, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) chairman Mike Defensor said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will also likely agree to their proposal to waive capital gains and other taxes normally required for property transfer, for the resettled families.

Deinrado Dimalibot, executive director of the Pinatubo Project Management Office (PPMO), said that since President Arroyo announced last April that the resettlement houses and lots would be given to the Pinatubo victims for free, only 2,000 titles have been distributed so far.

Defensor, in an interview during the first congress of homeowners’ associations of the 16 resettlement sites at the Expo Pilipino here, said he has objected to the BIR’s plan to impose capital gains and transfer taxes, registration fees and documentary stamp fees on the resettled families.

"The policy we agreed upon is free houses and lots because the Pinatubo victims have remained in need of help, so why impose the taxes on them?" Defensor said.

Defensor, however, said he expects the BIR to agree to their proposal. Capital gains tax is computed at six percent of the property worth, while documentary fee is about 1.5 percent. Registration fee is P100, while transfer tax is 0.5 percent of the property worth.

Since the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, some 54,000 families who lost their houses and livelihood due to lahar flows have been given new homes, averaging from 36 to 50 square meters in floor area, in 16 resettlement sites in Central Luzon.

The resettlement sites were mostly built from the P32-billion budget of the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission (MPC).

But Dimalibot said 9,000 more families still have to be resettled by the PPMO, which took over the functions of the MPC.

He said the PPMO no longer has funds and is set to fold up as soon as its budget, retrieved from the surplus funds of various agencies that had coordinated with the MPC, is depleted.

"Unless resettlement funds for them are allocated by the government, our plan is for them to be absorbed by regular housing agencies. But they have to pay for such housing under the policies of these agencies," Dimalibot said.

During the congress, leaders of the homeowners’ groups appealed to the President to extend the PPMO’s term and provide it with enough funds to enable it to resettle the 9,000 remaining families.

The 16 resettlement sites are in Mawake, Epza, Bulaon, Madapdap, Camachile, Acli, Florida, Pandakaki, San Isidro, Pio and Sta. Lucia in Pampanga, Taugtog and Balaybay in Zambales, and O’Donnel in Tarlac.