One hundred nine (109) internally displaced families now have homes to call their own as they received certificates of conditional award for permanent houses from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
They comprise the first batch of internally displaced families affected by the Marawi Siege to receive the certificates during the Inauguration of Marawi Resettlement Site and Permanent Houses (Phase 1) at the SHFC Phase 1, Brgy. Dulay West in the Islamic City of Marawi.
The event was attended by Secretary Eduardo del Rosario of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), President Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling of the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), Mayor Majul U. Gandamra of Marawi City, and Dr. Minalang M. Barapantao, Sr. of the Ministry of Human Settlements and Development of BARMM.
The houses were built by UN-Habitat under the Rebuilding Marawi through Community-Driven Shelter and Livelihood Project with a USD 10-million funding from the Government of Japan. The houses are located on a 1.8-hectare land area provided by SHFC, the project partner for land acquisition and site development.
SHFC also officially turned over during the event the site development and community facilities such as electric feeder line, water reservoir with water pump, concrete road network, storm drainage, and box culvert.
This new resettlement site hosts 109 families from the villages of Saduc Proper, Raya Saduc, South Madaya, Dagubduban, West Marinaut, and Datu Naga who were displaced as a result of the heavy fighting between pro-ISIS militants and government security forces in May 2017. These families, who are the project’s home-partners, are members of four Homeowners Associations (HOA) who were organized and duly registered with the support of the project: Agus Malangas HOA, Saduc Riverside HOA, Dariday Datu Naga HOA, and Dawa’h Datu Naga HOA. The HOAs decided to name the new settlement, Hadiya Village, since, according to them, this place where they can continue to rebuild their lives is indeed a gift (hadiya).
Cabling said, “We in SHFC hope that these new homes will help foster peace within the families who will now live there and hopefully this peace will radiate to the greater society. We know that post-conflict recovery takes time and has been complicated by this pandemic. We, therefore, hope that with their new abodes, our Maranao brothers and sisters will be able to feel that they are in control of their future and those of their children. We are very happy to have been part of this process of empowerment. We thank our partners and funders, especially the Government of Japan, for its continued commitment to the development of the Philippines, particularly to peace and housing rights in the country.”
UN-Habitat Country Programme Manager, Christopher Rollo, said, “Now in the time of Covid-19, more than ever, a house becomes a matter of life and death. When everybody is encouraged to stay at home, wash hands regularly and practice physical distancing, the houses we are inaugurating today make compliance to these basic guidelines possible. We are inspired by the homeowners associations and families who have patiently worked with us in this journey, together with our partners from national and local government, CSOs, and private sector. These houses are particularly special because they are designed with the families themselves who incorporated elements of the Maranao culture into the design. Our home partners were involved in the whole process from planning to actual construction, purchasing, quality control, and monitoring. They will also be responsible for estate management as they make this community grow and prosper in peace.”
The two-story core house has a floor area of 42 square meters and built on a 100 square meter lot. Each unit has a toilet and bathroom, a kitchen, basic electrical lighting and outlets, water lines, and a sewage piping system. The families can make improvements to the core house such as installing room partitions for two to three rooms. The Rebuilding Marawi Project will continue to assist the home-partners in finishing touches, and operations and maintenance of the community.
Abdul Rasad, one of the home-partners who received the Certificate of Conditional Award, expressed his relief that after a long wait, he now has the ownership to a house he can call his own.
According to him, “Patuloy na mahirap ang buhay pagkatapos ng giyera lalo na nang dumating ang Covid-19. Ang konting hanapbuhay ko na pagtitinda ng prutas ay naapektuhan pa ng magkasunog sa aming pwesto. Nagrerenta kami ng maliit na tirahan na sobrang masikip para sa aming mag-asawa at apat na mga anak naming mga binata. Ngayong may sarili na kaming bahay, ang PhP 2,000 na renta namin kada buwan ay pwede na namin magamit para pambili ng pagkain, mga gamit sa bahay, at iba pang pangangailangan namin.”
Life continues to be difficult after the war and even more so in this Covid-19. The small fruit-selling business I had was affected by a fire that happened two months ago. My family is renting a small space which is too small for my family – my wife and our four teenage sons. Now that we have a place we can call our own, the PhP 2,000 monthly rent can now be spent on food, utensils, and furniture for our new house, and other essential needs.
Abdul laments that her only daughter cannot be with them in the new house for she died two months ago when she succumbed to her heart disease worsened by trauma from the fire that razed their fruit stand, almost reaching the place where they are renting.
UN-Habitat, through the Rebuilding Marawi Project, is simultaneously constructing permanent houses in four other construction sites: Brgy. Dulay Proper and Brgy. Patani, in partnership also with SHFC; and in Brgy. Kilala and Gadongan in partnership with the National Housing Authority. A total of 1,057 permanent houses are slated to be completed within the year in all of the project’s construction sites. (UN-Habitat)
Source: PIA.Gov.Ph
No comments:
Post a Comment