“Ang pag-angkon og usa ka desenteng balay maoy damgo sa usa ka ginikanan ug karong adlawa nasaksihan nato ang pag turnover sa 12 ka balay; 12 ka pamilya ang makapahimulos sa balay. (To acquire a decent shelter is the ultimate dream of a parent to their family, and today we witness the turnover of 12 houses; 12 families can benefit these houses.) What you have done shows what that courage, integrity and perseverance dreams would come true”. – Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes (May 29, 2011 @ the MMVHAI)
The turnover ceremony was led by Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and Rev. Fr. Norberto Carcellar, CM the Executive Director of PACSII as they hand-over a key (a gesture which the City government and PACSII turnover the units) to Dollieta Magdadaro the MMVHAI president.
It was a dream come true for the beneficiaries of a 1.5 parcel of 9.2 hectares donated lot by Mandaue government to informal settlers located amidst a commercial district where commercial building entrapped the community. The area also lies in a swampy, low lying and no proper sanitary and drainage system built.
Following the declaration of the 9.2 hectare as socialize housing for the informal settlers of Mandaue City pursuant to the Memorandum of Agreement dated February 4, 1998 the community started the land-filling of their swampy area and constructing drainage last September 2009 after the association acquired financial assistance from Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA). Structural mapping followed in the month of October 2009, had a subdivision planning workshop where men and women grouped separately to show the priorities and preferences of each gender. HPFPI team together with technical team of PACSII helped the community to come up with a housing design during the workshop; a house design was agreed to stand on a 32 square meter a two-storey with 3 bedrooms on the second floor and a terrace. The housing project is intended for 311 informal settlers of Lower Malibu, Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
The association granted a loan of 1.5M for first batch of 20 housing units from Community-led Infrastructure Financial Facility or known as CLIFF through PACSII which means each beneficiary has to pay to the association of P75, 000.00. The loan is payable monthly within five (5) years to build more units for their community.
This housing project is a replicate from Lower Tipolo Homeowners Association Inc. (LTHAI) which utilizes an alternative low cost technology known as Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks (ICEB). The community also provide their sweat equity as another factor to lessen the housing cost. These are some of the fruitful results of the community initiative to improve their way of living.
“Let me take this opportunity to thank all the involve stakeholders in this cause and let our partnership be a testament of what we can do.” This is the parting words of Mayor Jonas Cortes during the ceremony following his full support to continue the housing project even with all the few opposing the development.
