Parañaque housing program goes full gear

MANILA, Philippines — Two hundred more homeless Paranaque residents will benefit from the social housing project as the city government identified the beneficiaries who will receive their respective certificates of ownership early next year.

Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez disclosed that they will be allocating P15 million from next year’s budget for the housing project dubbed Bagong Parañaque Homes III in C-5 Extension in Barangay La Huerta.  

He said the identified beneficiaries next year are hundreds of families mostly residing near the runway of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Airport Village in Barangay Moonwalk.

The remaining beneficiaries are long-time informal settlers whose shanties are located in danger zones, riverbanks, creeks and those with court demolition orders in several barangays in District I.

Olivarez also turned over 204 housing units to beneficiaries of Bagong Parañaque Homes II located in the same housing project in Barangay La Huerta.

Aside from the socialized housing project, Olivarez also unveiled three other major projects: a new materials recovery facility, the city motorpool and an animal shelter, all located near the housing project.

The housing units are given free to the beneficiaries who will only pay the city government the cost of the land on easy installment terms.

The city’s socialized housing project is a model of two-story condominium to optimize the utilization of scarce and costly land in the city.

It consists of three-hectare land owned by the city government which, when fully developed, can accommodate about 1,000 housing units, PIO chief Mar Jimenez said.

He said among the beneficiaries since the project started 2015 are families from Bacass, Hotiveros in Barangay San Antonio; Balicanta in Barangay Don Bosco and Icarna in Moonwalk.

On April 2015, the local government also turned over 144 housing units to beneficiaries of Bagong Parañaque Homes I.

The construction of the housing units was realized through the initiative of the city government with the help from Department of Interior and Local Government, Rotary International District 3830 Rotary Homes Foundation Inc., Couples for Christ-ANCOP Tekton Foundation Inc.

It was also implemented by Habitat for Humanity Phils. and South Metro Manila iHome Foundation Inc., a National Housing Authority-accredited NGO implementing builder.