City Hall to resume payment collection from Sugbo Homes project beneficiaries

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama ordered the resumption of payment collection from beneficiaries of the city government’s housing program.

The memorandum signed by Rama dated April 26, addressed to city treasurer Emma Villarete, Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP) chief Atty. Collin Rosell, and human resources head Atty. Evangeline Abatayo, lifted the preceding August 7, 2001 memorandum issued by then mayor and now Congressman Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña earlier ordered the office of the city treasurer to stop accepting payment for the Sugbo Homes Project.

The most recent memorandum was based on a report prepared by DWUP in response to a petition submitted by Cebu City Hall Homeowners Association (CCHHA) in October 2012 to lift the 2001 memorandum while also urging for the signing of an individual contract of the beneficiaries.

Sugbo Homes Projects, based on a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by city government and the CCHHA on July 29, 1998, has a selling price fixed at P800 per square meter and prioritizes city hall employees as its beneficiaries.

The 1998 MOA also specified that members are given three months grace period to settle its due payment and failure will mean forfeiture in favor of the city government.

Rama now ordered DWUP to determine the legitimate beneficiaries of the project.

The urban poor division said their office is currently revalidating the down payment made by beneficiaries and members to the office of the city treasurer.

The Cebu City Council last month pushed to ensure that city hall employees benefit from this housing program following a DWUP status report noting that the first phase had urban poor settlers.

Meanwhile, close to 400 urban poor families in four coastal barangays of Cebu City may soon receive the titles of their lots that they had acquired through the government’s Slum Improvement and Resettlement (SIR) project if they settle their remaining amortization balance.

DWUP chief Collin Rosell said that after reviewing the records of the SIR project he found that 399 beneficiaries in Pasil, Suba, Sawang Calero, and Sitio Alaska, Mambaling, have only a remaining amortization  balance of up to P5,000.

“Gamay na lang kaayo ang ilang obligasyon. Siyaro og dili nila bayaran ang maong kantidad nga bugti niini mahingpit na man nila nga mapanag-iya ang yuta nga ilang gipuy-an,” Rosell told reporters.

The records show that there were more than 3,000 beneficiaries of the SIR project through the Ministry of Human Settlement implemented by the National Housing Authority.

Rosell explained that the project, including the collection of the remaining amortization, was later turned over to the city government during the administration of then mayor Florentino S. Solon.

After more than 20 years since the SIR project was implemented, hundreds of beneficiaries have failed to pay their obligation to the government.— (FREEMAN)