Mayor Olivarez highlights housing program in first 100 days

Parañaque City Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez on Thursday reported the many accomplishments of his administration during his first 100 days in office, highlighted by the award of several socialized housing projects to hundreds of beneficiary families in the city’s depressed communities, among others.

The mayor also spelled out his Executive-Legislative Agenda in his report before the City Council, which suspended the rules of its regular session to allow Mayor Olivarez to deliver his message that centered on making Parañaque business and environment-friendly, as well as focusing on academic excellence through education, good governance and public order, livelihood and housing, nutrition and health, and God-centered governance.

“When I came to office, we found out that there is no cohesive plan to move our so-called informal settler families from danger areas along the banks of the Parañaque River so we instructed the Local Housing Development Office to identify relocation sites, giving priority to in-city or on-site relocation to avoid undue displacement of the ISFs, including their children who are attending our schools,” the mayor said.

Since he took over last July 1, Olivarez said the city government has acquired several lots for socialized housing, including a 1,287 sqm property in Interior Tramo, Barangay San Dionisio whose titled was transferred to the Back of Saulog Homeowners Association last September under the Community Mortgage Program, benefitting 63 families living in the property.

The mayor said another housing initiative, called the Bagong Parañaque Housing Project in Barangay La Huerta, also got a big boost when a big property developer agreed to donate Php15 million to jumpstart the construction of some 700 rowhouses that will benefit an equal number of families in the area.

Likewise, the mayor reported the purchase of a 16,012 sqm property at the Seacom Compound in Barangay San Antonio worth Php55.24 million that will benefit 328 families who are members of the Bagong Pagkakaisa ng Parañaque Neighborhood Association, Inc.

He said the property will likewise be enrolled in the Community Mortgage Program, under which beneficiaries must agree to pay for the cost of the housing project in affordable installments to the Social Housing Finance Corporation – which in turn will refund the lot purchase amount to the city government to be used for other housing projects.

Lastly, Mayor Olivarez reported that an expropriation case filed by the city government way back in 1987 for a 18,298 sqm property, which has been pending before the Supreme Court, was finally decided in favor of the city early this month. The decision will benefit members of the Sampaguita Hills Homeowners’ Association in Barangay Marcelo Green.

The mayor said that as part of the decision, the city government will pay the lot owner only Php3.5 million, including the interest that accrued for the past 26 years. The amount translates to a bargain purchase price of only Php192 per sqm, and the property will be immediately enrolled in the CMP.

“It is heartening to note that in the short period of our first 100 days, we have accomplished so much in our socialized housing thrusts,” Mayor Olivarez said. “But we are just starting; we have more properties acquired by the city during the past years whose titles have not been transferred to our poor constituents, and we will also develop them with funds from the Social Housing Finance Corporation.”