spot_img
28.6 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Solon assures: ‘No demolition’

- Advertisement -

A legislator on Monday gave assurances that “no demolition without relocation” would be carried out for residents of Vitas-Katuparan Housing Project in Tondo, Manila.

Manila Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez made the assurance as he said agencies of government, including the City government, would provide decent housing for the affected residents through a sustainable rehabilitation project in the next years.

In the interpellation of Lopez during a budget hearing, National Housing Authority general manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. said that they would abide by President Rodrigo Duterte’s order not to implement demolitions without proper relocation sites for displaced families.

Manila City Administrator Felix Espiritu gave the same assurance in a radio interview on September 11.

Lopez, chair of House Committee on Metro Manila Development, welcomed the NHA commitment. “These commitments are a welcome development not just for me but most especially to (sic) our constituents who have been fearing for their future in the past weeks. We have a long way to go in the development of the Vitas-Katuparan housing project…” 

- Advertisement -

According to Lopez, the development or rehabilitation of in-city housing for the poor could serve as a landmark project for the Duterte administration.

“Years from now, this administration will be lauded and remembered for (its) malasakit (compassion) in uplifting poor Filipinos from homelessness and hopelessness,” he added.

Lopez also said residents of Vitas-Katuparan Housing in Barangay 101 received a demolition order on September 1 which gave them 15 days to vacate the buildings.

Earlier this year, the 27 four-story buildings housing around 1,760 families since the late 1980s have been declared unsafe by the City of Manila.

Sometime in 2019, the Department of Public Works and Highways said the housing buildings were no longer safe for occupancy and are in the process of being declared condemned, he said.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles