Maasin City Southern Leyte – Vice-President Jejomar Binay has urged Governor Damian Mercado to ask the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to enact a resolution for housing project intended for Southern Leyte to make it official.

This was the disclosure of former SP member Jason Calva, the undefeated third termer, now works as a Capitol Consultant to the provincial government, during the recent session held at the provincial capitol here.

Calva revealed that Governor Mercado had a discussion with the Vice-President in Manila during his visit there, the latter being the Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). He said Binay wanted to see personally the province of Southern Leyte for such plan of the aforesaid project.

above image shows the HUDCC projects (outside Southern Leyte)
during the time of Vice President Noli de Castro.
Image credit: hudcc.gov.ph

He said HUDCC is an umbrella organization of the LHURB and the National Housing Authority and other housing institutions of the national government. The housing institution, he said, was created thru Executive Order no. 19 dated Dec. 17, 1986 of which the Chairmanship is usually handled by the Vice-President.

The former SP Financial Chair claimed that Binay has committed 100 to 150 housing units for the province. The earmarked budget is something like P36M or more.

Asked by SP Albert Esclamado if the province has to put a counterpart, Calva answered in the affirmative, saying a lot where the housing units are to be constructed. That is, any LGU recipient would have to provide a lot as counterpart, he said.

The Consultant also made clear to Esclamado that if the project would materialize in the near future, the number of housing units would be distributed in selected municipalities after it would be identified by a task force formed and approved by the Governor.

However, SP Teopisto Rojas,Jr. has revealed that in Metro Manila where similar projects were existing, housing units that were distributed to the lower middle class were in the form of soft loans, but not for free.

Calva told Rojas and the rest of SP members, that according to the information he got in the HUDCC’s website relative to the housing program, if beneficiaries are considered indigents and certified by the DSWD, it would be a grant to them, as it was in other provinces. But for the higher income families like some of the beneficiaries in Metro Manila, he said, the procedure in acquiring might be similar.

In answer to Esclamado if the HUDCC Chair or its staff will be the one to identify the recipients, Calva clarified that it would be the provincial government, while the only role of the former is to provide the housing units in accordance with its specifications.

Moreover, the third termer SP member reiterated the earlier call of Binay for the SP to pass a resolution addressing it immediately to the latter’s office for approval.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

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