The municipal government of Naic, Cavite has agreed to accommodate at least 700 more informal settler families the city government of Manila is planning to relocate there, Mayor Joseph Estrada said Wednesday.
Estrada said he and Naic Mayor Junio Dualan are set to sign an agreement for the “off-city” relocation of the ISFs living along Manila’s road right-of-ways that are considered danger zones.
“We thank Mayor Dualan for his commitment to take in our informal settlers. This is a big development in our efforts to provide safe and decent homes to our poor constituents,” he said.
Among the mayors in Bulacan and Rizal that he had asked for help, Estrada said only Dualan readily obliged to work with Manila to resettle the city’s indigent.
As an expression of gratitude, Estrada said he is open to having a sister-city agreement with Naic, a first class municipality in Cavite 47 kilometers to the south of Manila.
Danny Isiderio, chief of Manila’s Urban Settlement Office, said the soon-to-be-finalized agreement with Naic was concluded in just a couple of discussions.
Dualan paid a courtesy call to Estrada last week, Isiderio said.
Based on the memorandum now being reviewed by the City Legal Office, Isiderio said Naic, being the “receiving” local government unit, has agreed to absorb 700 ISFs or about 3,500 individuals from Manila in exchange for a few concessions.
These include Manila donating to Naic two brand new dump trucks worth around P3.4 million and financial assistance of P2,000 per year, per family, or around P1.4 million a year, to the Cavite town.
“We find this reasonable because we’re talking here of 700 families who will be receiving basic services from the host LGU,” Isiderio said, noting this would appease Naic residents who would be deprived of the town’s services in favor of the ISFs.
Manila will be giving this post-relocation assistance to Naic until 2019, when the transferred ISFs, through government census, become legitimate residents of the municipality, Isiderio added.
Manila will also be shouldering the expenses of transporting the relocatees to Naic, while the National Housing Authority will fund the preparation of the relocation site, the USO chief said.
The settlers going to Naic are those living along Manila’s roadways, sidewalks, and under the bridges, specifically in Del Pan; the San Miguel area near Malacañang; Muelle de la Industria near the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters in Port Area; R-12 NDC compound in Sta. Mesa near the Polytechnic University of the Philippines; Pina Avenue, Sampaloc; and Panaderos Street in Sta. Ana.
“We will also provide power and water supply to the (housing) site, and also job fairs and medical missions,” Isiderio added.
Since 2013 when he was elected mayor of Manila, Estrada has relocated 7,403 ISFs from esteros and other danger zones, 500 of them in city-managed properties in Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna.
Estrada recently teamed up with a real estate company in turning a former slum area along Estero Dela Reina in Binondo to a clean, well-manicured greenery park.
The affected ISFs were transferred to government relocation sites in Norzagaray, Bulacan and Montalban, Rizal and given P18,000 each.
Last May, Estrada also signed an agreement with Chinese real estate developer Shanghai Nanjiang (Group) Co., LTD to provide a major mass housing project for 7,000 ISFs living in esteros and other high-risk areas.