Welcome to the Philippine Alliance!

Greetings!

This website aims to showcase the work being done by the Philippine Alliance in their regional Office in Mandaue City, Cebu!

The blog contains documentation of work progress between 2010 and 2012. 

A new blog has been created, which documents the current projects being implemented in Cebu.

Photo Update of the housing construction at 6.5 Ha Relocation Site

Monumenting (October 3, 2011)

 Foundation works (July 2012)

Laying of Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks (ICEB)

The new SDI project in Mandaue City
(The 6.5 Ha Relocation Site Housing Project)

Forty-one (41) out of 1,200 household members of the 6.5 ha Relocation Site of Paknaan, Mandaue City are expected to transfer to their new housing units early of November 2012. Relocation Management Council of the 6.5 Relocation Site are in the rigid process of beneficiary selection for this 41 units.   

This new community initiative from SMASH is the newest Slum Dwellers International (SDI) 7 Cities Program Housing project supported in Mandaue City following the SDI Incremental housing project in Lower Tipolo Homeowners Association Inc. (LTHAI) both under the supervision of Philippine Alliances’ HPFPI, PACSII and TAMPEI.  

Below are some photo documentation for the relocation site. 

(21 workers from the community commenced the construction job on June 18, 2012)

(Houses built by some beneficiaries who did not avail for housing loan from the federation)

(The new satellite office for federation's savings program at the  6.5 ha Relocation Site)  

(Front: construction worker's bunkhouse  Back: Savings office)

(Rain water collected utilized for toilets) 

(Government provided bunkhouse as temporary shelter for evicted Paknaan residents)  

Initial Meeting with the PA-CV Legal Team

PA Regional Office, Mandaue City - The Philippine Alliance  (PA) consist of Homeless People's Federation Philippines, Inc (HPFPI) and Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives, Inc. (PACSII) is on their way to a bigger scope in implementing housing projects all over Cebu.  This year the PA started expanding its operations and along the way encountered legal problems in the past and foresee more legal complications in the future. 

Thus, last March 29, 2012 one of the agenda for Sustainability Planning which was attended by Atty. Marlon C. Baruc, Housing and Urban Development Office representatives Tonypet Juanico and Corazon Tumulak, Atty. Jose Vicente Arnado, Federation's City Management Committee members, and  Area Resource Center In charge of the 3 cities (Mandaue, Cebu and Talisay) comes out the need to create a Legal Team that would address the immediate and long term needs of our communities.

(L-R) Atty. Jose Vicente Arnado, Atty. Giovanni Tianero of
Mandaue City Legal Office and Tonypet Juanico  of HUDO)

The Legal Team consists of Mandaue City Legal and/or City Administrator, business professionals, technical person federation's City Management Committee In-charge who can assist in directing, organizing and sets policy for the large projects that the PA undertake. 


During its initial meeting held last May 2, 2012 at the PA's regional office, prior to the main agenda the team members confirmed their commitment to the alliance.  Moreover, the group also reminded that being the legal team of the Philippine Alliance doesn't mean that they are legal adviser rather the team’s main objective is only to set up policies for the entire PA- Central Visayas endeavors.


The outcome of the meeting was the finalization of the Memorandum of Agreement between HPFPI and MMVHAI which was prepared by MMVHAI's 20 first batch housing project and  Nonoy Chavez. 

New housing lay-out commences for additional 11 households

On September 2012, eleven household member of the Lower Tipolo Homeowners Association, Inc.  (LTHAI) located in Lower Tipolo, Mandaue City expected to receive their housing units.  Last April 12, 2012 community members of the association started to do the lay-out for the 4th batch housing construction.  During the first quarter of this year site clearing was done by community including women and children to give way for the said construction.  

LTHAI was an informal settlers organized through the savings program of the Homeless People's Federation Philippines.  According to Dometilla Subang, they started the savings program in the year 1996 for secure tenure.  Even before the Mandaue City government donated the lot to the actual beneficiaries, it was their intention to buy the lot from the government.  However, in February 1998 the City Mayor donated 9.2 hectares to the actual settlers in which LTHAI has a parcel of 1.6 hectare.  

The community started the site development after they were hit by fire in 2007 by land filling with the help of Urban Poor Development Fund and in 2009 housing construction began.  Financial assistance from Slum Dwellers International made the housing projects to happen with the technical assistance of Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives, Inc.   For 2 years time, a total of 126 housing units has been built by the community.  Community participation, active in savings, are among the criteria for identifying batch members. 

Knowing what's value receives and value taken away

Accounting for Non-Accountant Seminar/Workshop

February 19, 2012 @ Villanueva Resort, Catarman, Liloan Cebu 

Thirty-eight (38) Area Resource Center Bookkeepers and Cash Custodian from Mandaue City and Cebu City and the Young Professionals from University of San Carlos participates in the whole day seminar/workshop with Atty. Marlon Baruc, CPA being the speaker/lecturer. 

The workshop started at 8'o clock in the morning with its first activity singing the Happy Birthday in the tune of “Leron Leron Sinta” with questions written on the crumpled paper ball.  There were approximately 30 questions on the ball that whenever the music stops and whoever got the ball he/she has to answer the question. 

The workshop given was just to refresh their knowledge for proper reporting and bookkeeping in each Area Resource Center; to assess the processes they’ve practiced and shared to other satellite resource center. 

The whole day event was full of fun activities and learning. Tessie Viacrucis from Malibu-Matimco Village Homeowners Association Inc. (MMVHAI)  said “The activities during the workshop appear to be very difficult and I almost got crazy with the problem solving, yet I am very thankful for this because I gain more knowledge in accounting”.

The group of young professionals (from USC CAFA-IPD)

Photo Update for 2 Demonstration House in Paknaan Relocation Site, Mandaue City

A back-to-back two-storey houses with two to three bedrooms, living room cum kitchen area with individual sanitary toilets and septic tanks. Between the rows of houses are 3-meter road right of ways, and the triangular-shaped total area is circumscribed by 10-meters wide streets.

The construction of these 2 units were completely done
within twenty days only. 

Engr. Noel Zeta (PACSII) and Leopoldo Chavez (HPFPI)
turnover the key to Danilo Maranga and Vergie Martel.

Rev. Fr. Rolyn Vics, CM blesses the units

Mayor Jonas Cortes at the second floor
(during the blessing and groundbreaking) 

A Possible Knowledge transfer to Iraq

Six Iraqi government officials led by Iraqi Ambassador to the Philippines Wadee Batti Hanna Al-Batti,  arrived in Cebu on December 10, 2011. The purpose of their visit is the signing of a sister-city agreement with Mayor Jonas Cortes  at the Cebu International Convention Center will highlight the visit.  

Al-Batti said they chose Cebu among other provinces in the Philippines considering Cebu's significance in terms of business and employment, among others.  The sister-city agreement opens numerous job opportunities for Mandauehanons who wish to work in Iraq.

After the signing, the delegation went to a business matching with Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

The Iraqi officials said they will be spending $300 million dollars for the next five years for the re-construction of Iraq’s technology and infrastructure.

(Carlo Bongcac shares ICEB Technology to Iraqi visitor)

Part of their 3-day visit, the Iraqi officials spend time to visit Lower Tipolo Homeowners Association Inc.  Carlo Bongcac of Technical Assistance Movement for People and Environment Inc. (TAMPEI) explains to the delegation the Interlocking Compressed Earth Block technology.  Moreover,  Engr. Noel Zeta of Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives Inc. (PACSII) offered his willingness to share his knowledge such technology should the delegation needs it could be in Iraq or in the Philippines.       

(The Iraqi Delegation at the LTHAI ICEB production area)

(House to house visit at the LTHAI)

Construction commences for 6.5 ha relocation site's Model house

Following the November 7, 2011 housing design workshop initiated by Technical Assistance Movement for People and Environment, Inc. (TAMPEI), Sitio Mahayag Alliance of Structures Household Inc. (SMASH) community decided to construct a model house to showcase the low-cost housing technology in the upcoming Urban Poor Solidarity Week on December 11, 2011.

The construction commences last November 21, 2011 in Paknaan 6.5 ha Relocation Site with the LTHAI community construction workers under the supervision of Engr. Noel Zeta and Carlo Bongcac both from Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives Inc. (PACSII).  Mandaue City government provided land filing material to a portion of the area where construction materials can be loaded. Furthermore, dump trucks from different barangays were also used in hauling Interlocking Compressed Earth Block from LTHAI’s ICEB production site.

This 6.5 hectare land area would be the relocation site for 1200 household living along Mahiga Creek in Mandaue City subject for demolition and some communities living in a private land who are under eviction threats.   

New CLIFF community

SMASH members are currently living near the exit point of Mahiga Creek (at the back of SM Hypermarket in Subangdaku, Mandaue City. They have been identified for this project because of their savings initiative.  They became a member of Homeless People Federation Philippines Inc. (HPFPI) through the federation’s savings program in the year 2008 and as of September 2011 the community has 28 savings groups (including children’s group) which has a total savings of approximately Seven Hundred Thousand Pesos (P700, 000.00). 

This new community initiative from SMASH is also the newest Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) Housing project supported in Mandaue City following the construction of first batch of twenty (20) row house units at MM Village Homeowners Association Inc. (MMVHAI) both under the supervision of Philippine Alliance’ HPFPI, PACSII and TAMPEI.

Housing Design Workshop for Paknaan Communities

(Leopoldo Chavez of HPFPI)

November 7, 2011 – The Technical Assistance Movement for People and Environment, Inc. (TAMPEI) a technical support group for Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives Inc. (PACSII) initiated a whole day housing design workshop for Paknaan 6.5 ha property relocatees.  A total of 209 individual excluding numbers of children attended the said workshop coming from Bantayan sa Hari, Centro, Dunhai, Maguikay, Mahayag, Mahusay, Marna, Nawanao, Orel, Rosal/Philcadan, Sapasapa, and Visayan B.  Majority of which were female with a percentage of 60 while male consists only of 40 percent.

Morning Session

The event started with opening remarks from Leopoldo Chavez, HPFPI’s Regional Coordinator followed by PACSII Regional Coordinator Engr. Noel Zeta’s overview of housing design workshop.  

(Engr. Noel Zeta of PACSII)

The minimum standard and requirements for economic and socialized housing project stated in Batas Pambansa 220 (BP220) was also discussed by Israeli Esnardo, a 5^th year BS Architecture student from USC and at the same time on-the-job trainee of PACSII.   The discussion includes types of housing with its corresponding minimum area, the standard design and the minimum area of 28 square meter of a row house in which the total of 1,200 relocatees share with an equal of the same size 28 sq. meter each.

Considering the number of relocatees, a row house type with 1.5 setback has been proposed to the assembly since it is only appropriate type to accommodate such number for the 6.5 hectares.

Inputs from the City Planning                                    

In addition to the discussion of Ms. Esnardo, Archt. Florentino Nimor of Mandaue City Planning and Development emphasizes that it would be proper to design a house to check its “purpose” first rather than the “structure”.  Other considerations to design a house were added as the following: 

(Archt. Florentino Nimor)

·         The usual setback is 2 meters wide but for the 6.5 hectares we only allocate 1.5 meters

·         Open spaces’ design will be at our responsibility (city government’s discretion)

·         Door height according to BP220 is 2 meters but 1.8 is considerable

·         Make sure also that your house has a proper ventilation and an area for vegetation

He also assured the assembly of his help most importantly that this is initiated by HPFPI/PACSII whose housing processes already demonstrated in LTHAI and MMVHAI community. 

Bubble Diagram by Aldrin Luzares (TAMPEI Young Professional)

A bubble diagram has been introduced by a power point presentation.  This diagram shows which part of a house you should go first.  It also indicates the functional spaces within a house. It is a good idea to create simple house bubble to design floor plan in a very loose form.  This will allow us to play around with the location of rooms and how they interact with one another.

Afternoon Session

Floor Plan Design, Scale Model Making and Finalization/Approval 

During this time the whole assembly was grouped into 11 communities.  They were given a time to draw their individual floor plan and make a scale model according to their floor plan.  After an hour, each group presented for deliberation of their scale model and after which it has been agreed by the whole assembly to use ORHAI group design as the housing design for the 6.5 hectare.                                                                         

 The output of the workshop

The whole group come up with the following housing design and features:

1.       A two (2) storey row house with a terrace on the second floor and a 1.5 sq. meter setback   

2.       With 3 bedrooms at the second floor

3.       A clerestory window at the second floor for ventilation

4.       A Kotec Plastic Septic tank and piping’s will be placed in front of the house unit. 

5.       For floor plan the group come up with 2 schemes

Concluding Remarks by Corazon Tumulak (HUDO) 

(Corazon Tumulak of HUDO)

“The speech of Nonoy (Leopoldo Chavez) as your core person for the 6.5 hectares, you should move forward to your journey.  The government officials change every now and then but you have to continue what you have started.  Let us explain to those who didn’t come today what we have done for the workshop.  The government will issue a passport/gate pass to those qualified family before building structures, so please coordinate with your leaders.  Don’t look up to what the government can give you.  Do what you can do with the help of PACSII as NGO. They are here to help us so that we can move to our relocation site accordingly.  Our success is only at our 

hands.”   

(11 design from 11 communities)