THE National Housing Authority said on Monday it is ready to redistribute houses to members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap or Kadamay, who occupied NHA-built houses in five areas in Pandi, Bulacan for uniformed personnel, once a law is passed to formalize the redistribution.
Elsie Trinidad, Resettlement and Development Services Department head and agency spokesperson, however said the NHA’s hands are still tied over a restriction under the General Appropriations Act of 2012 to 2014, preventing the agency from allocating the units involved to non-uniformed personnel.
Trinidad noted at a news conference at the NHA central office in Quezon City that an enabling law must be passed to allow the redistribution of the houses to Kadamay.
“While the House of Representatives has passed its version to authorize the NHA to reallocate the units originally awarded to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police, the Senate has yet to approve its own version of the measure,” she told reporters.
While awaiting the enabling law, the NHA has already come up with the proposed resolution’s implementing rules and regulations ahead of time “so we could readily redistribute the units anytime,” Trinidad said.
“We are prepared once the resolution has been approved,” she added
The redistribution of shelter units, however, is not absolute, according to Trinidad.
“Not all those who occupied the housing units for the uniformed men and women can be awarded. We made our own homework. We have this eligibility screening. All of their names will go to our database (of beneficiaries) for validation,” she said.
To date, 71 Kadamay members have already availed themselves of the NHA shelter program in some other areas, Trinidad added, and an investigation is still “running.”
“We have subjected the families to pre-qualification. (There is no truth to statements that) we are snail-paced in our actions. We are working it out to be covered by the law. We have drafted IRRs as to how to operationalize the resolution once it is approved. We are very much ready,” she noted.
Trinidad said those who have illegally occupied the structures devoted for the relocation of the informal settlers in Metro Manila in two areas in Pandi, Bulacan must move out.
“Not really… We will entertain the homeless and the underprivileged,” she clarified.
The agency sees the need of the metro’s informal settlers living along the danger zones to be relocated immediately, she said.
In March, 8,494 Kadamay members illegally occupied the housing units of the NHA in Pandi as well as in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.