Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday activated the Local Inter-Agency Committee on Housing Proclamations to address problems in the implementation of her housing proclamations for the urban poor.
Arroyo herself presided over the LIAC hearing at the House of Representatives as she moved to resolve issues in the housing proclamations, particularly in Pasay and Parañaque City, which are covered by Proclamation 9964 and Executive Order 67 signed by the Speaker during her presidency.
The issuance of titles for the estimated 10,000 housing beneficiaries in those projects had been delayed for various reasons.
Arroyo said she wanted to speed up the process to enable the beneficiaries to get their titles to their properties before she steps down from office in June 2019.
During the hearing, Arroyo initiated the overall simultaneous planning, census survey and lot survey of the properties which were undertaken from March 29 to April 3, 2019.
The prices of the lots, ranging from P1,000 to P4,000 per square meter, one of the contentious issues in the negotiations, were also agreed upon during the hearing.
She also pushed that some developments make use of the Medium Rise Building system rather than single detached homes in order to accommodate more informal settlers.
In the end, Arroyo was able to resolve the issues and schedule the issuance of titles to beneficiaries in two of the three areas within April 2019.
“We were able to solve some policy issues, very good. [The awarding process] will be a lot smoother like the pricing has been agreed, the MRB versus single-detached. A lot of things. I’m so glad, you know the LIAC is something to my knowledge, the LIAC is a mechanism that was constituted before when I was president and as you can see, it really works a lot. You discuss a lot and solve problems,” Arroyo said.
The hearing was attended by representatives from different agencies particularly from the first and second districts of Parañaque City, the National Housing Authority, Philippine Commission for the Urban Poor, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and various Barangays and People’s Organizations from Barangays Tambo, La Huerta, Dongalo and San Dionisio.
Representatives from the People’s Organizations expressed gratitude for the Speaker for giving priority to urban poor housing.
Arroyo said it was the priority of the legislature and the government to continue consulting and conferring with POs to address the growing problems being encountered with informal settlers.