Capitol eyeing housing program for employees

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu provincial government has decided to utilize the idle lot in Barangay Tunghaan in Minglanilla for its socialized housing program which beneficiaries would be the Capitol employees.

A ground survey is set be conducted soon at the area and is expected to be finished in June.

However, Jone Siegfred Sepe, Provincial General Services Office head, said the matter has yet to be discussed and that the province will still need to craft guidelines for the program.

The guidelines would include the payment scheme, rate per square meter, and beneficiaries who are qualified for the program, among others.

He said that the province has yet to look into the guidelines of the same nature of program implemented in the previous administration at a province-owned lot in barangay Kalunasan in Cebu City.

“We will come up a guideline. We are probably looking at copying some (provisions) of the guidelines,” Sepe told reporters.

The lot in Barangay Tunghaan has a total area of 8.4 hectares which was purchased by the Capitol in 1997, but portion of it is occupied by the beneficiaries under housing projects of Gawad Kalinga, a Philippine-based non-governmental organization.

The GK and Capitol inked an agreement in 2009 which allowed the former to utilize the area for its “GK Village” housing project.  Under the agreement, according to the Provincial Information Office, the members of the GK Village Homeowners pay the Capitol for the lots through a mortgage program within 35 years.

But Paul Entera, the Real Estate Division chief of the PGSO, said the agreement between GK and the provincial government expired in 2013 with only 1.09 hectares of the total land area utilized and occupied by 96 houses.

“Mao ang sobra nga wa nagamit i-allot sa Capitol employees for housing project,” Entera said.

The matter was discussed during the Kapistorya yesterday, a forum organized by the Provincial Information Office.

Sepe said once the survey is completed, they would submit a report to Governor Hilario Davide III who has the final say on the plan. — Michael Vencynth H. Braga/ATO (FREEMAN)