DINALUPIHAN, Bataan – Barely more than a year in office, Mayor Gila S. Garcia opened yesterday some 500 units of low cost but quality houses for the poorest among the poor in this town.
The opening of the 500 two-storey low cost housing units in Barangay Saguing, maybe the biggest awarded single housing project initiated here, by the local leadership and the National Housing Authority.
Nevertheless, Mayor Garcia said that they still have to construct some 800 units more to accommodate all the 1,300 families residing along the river banks and waterways of barangays Colo, Luakan, Pentor, Sta Isabel, Daang Bago, Layac, Torres, Saguing, Pita, Pag asa, Magsaysay, San Benito, Naparing, Happy Valley, Roosevelt, San Pablo, San Ramon, San Simon, and Sto Nino.
During yesterday’s turn over ceremony, 66 families who were pre-qualified by the NHA accepted keys to their units. “The housing units already have electricity and we are now rushing to construct more water pumps,” said Mayor Garcia as she was touring the area under the scorching heat of the sun.
Mayor Garcia, also announced that the first year of occupancy of the beneficiaries will be free after which, they are going to pay P200 only as monthly amortization for the next five years, which is even lower than renting a house.
She said that the construction of the said housing project was in response to Supreme Court’s Mandamus ( G.R. Numbers 171947-48) ” ordering concerned government agencies and local government units to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay and restore and maintain its waters to make them fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of recreation.”
