Agency handling Pinatubo resettlements dissolved

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Confusion now besets 16 resettlement sites across Central Luzon, where some 46,000 families displaced by the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo now live, after the Pinatubo Project Management Office (PPMO) was ordered dissolved effective Sept. 1.

With the order, the 105 personnel of the PPMO, including the site managers who virtually act as "mayors" in the resettlement sites, were all ordered terminated.

The move to dissolve the agency is expected to derail its plans to generate some P600 million from the payments of thousands of families found to be illegally occupying housing units intended for legitimate beneficiaries.

"The order to scrap the PPMO was so sudden. Local government units hosting the resettlement sites are not prepared and do not have the resources to assume responsibility over these communities," said Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales.

Mabalacat town hosts the Madapdap resettlement site where thousands of Pinatubo-displaced families now live permanently.

Morales cited reports that the order to dissolve the PPMO has prompted syndicates to demand various fees from the resettlement dwellers, particularly those who merely bought the house-and-lot packages of original beneficiaries.

Morales appealed to President Arroyo to extend the term of the PPMO "until preparations have been made for the turnover of the communities to the local governments (concerned)."

The PPMO employees, who have mostly been involved in resettlement projects for Pinatubo victims since 1992 under the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission, said they were surprised by the order issued by Undersecretary Lucille Ortille of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

The order reportedly did not give the PPMO personnel any assurances that they would be getting their salaries unpaid since last February.

Virtual ‘mayors’

In the absence of any clear policy as to which local government has jurisdiction over the resettlement sites, the site managers virtually serve as "mayors," looking after the peace and order, health, medical and other basic concerns of the resettled folk.

Earlier, Vice President Noli de Castro, concurrent head of the HUDCC, assured PPMO employees of continuing employment once the President signs a proposed executive order extending the agency’s term to finish its job in five more years.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) is expected to endorse the proposed order.

Morales also cited reports that employees of other government agencies have been visiting the PPMO office here in an apparent move to lay claim to the latter’s vehicles and other properties.

Morales fears that "anarchy" might rein in the resettlement sites should there be no "clear delineation as to who should be primarily responsible in taking care of them."

The NHA is reportedly taking over the PPMO’s functions, but the leaders of the resettlement areas bewailed that it lacks the experience in running the affairs of their communities.

PPMO executive director Flor Arrozal said the political jurisdiction of most of the resettlement sites has remained unclear.

She cited the case of the Bulaon resettlement in the City of San Fernando where resettled families from lahar-devastated Bacolor town refuse to be considered city residents and still continue to vote in their hometown in local elections.

Because of this, the issue as to which local government the resettled folk should pay taxes has not been resolved.

Arrozal said the PPMO has distributed only 9,400 land titles to about 46,000 families who were given free house-and-lot packages in the 16 resettlement sites.

"It’s not an easy thing to issue titles since surveys and other requirements slow down the process. Five more years would be needed to finish this task," she said.

She also cited the need to resolve the cases of some 18,000 illegal occupants of housing units.

"Some of them are not the actual beneficiaries, but are also victims of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption so the properties could also be awarded to them for free. The others, however, are not qualified at all under our terms so they will have to pay for the cost of the properties," she said.

Arrozal said the proposed executive order, which her office prepared last April, would authorize the PPMO to collect payments from these unqualified occupants.

"We could collect some P600 million from them in five years to legitimize their occupancy of the properties. Part of this amount could be used for the operational expenses of the PPMO without relying on any budgetary support from the government, while enabling our office to finish all the needs of the resettlement projects," she said.

Arrozal said the executive order was supposed to make the PPMO an attached agency of the NHA.