MANILA, Philippines?Flood victims cooped up in evacuation centers in Metro Manila are raring to start life anew, not in their hometowns but in government resettlement sites just outside of the metropolis.

So far, only a few displaced families have grabbed the government offer to transport them back home for free under the "Balik Probinsiya Program,'' but thousands have signed up for relocation elsewhere.

"On seeing their new home, one of the homeless residents remarked, ?Thank God for the flood. We now have a home','' said Vice President Noli de Castro, who welcomed busloads of displaced Marikina City families to a government resettlement site in Biñan, Laguna, on Friday afternoon.

Those who have enlisted for the back-to-the-old-home-province program so far were 300 displaced families from Pasig City, where, in contrast, some 3,000 families have signed up for relocation in the government?s resettlement sites, according to him.

And it's not surprising why they prefer relocation to a homecoming.

The government housing units come cheap at P150,000, and are payable in 30 years. And to help them get jobs, the government is offering free livelihood training for the "relocatees.''

"There's a six-percent interest for the lot, but no interest for the house. So they will be paying P200 a month for the house, but this will escalate every year,'' De Castro said by phone late Friday afternoon.

As chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, he has been put in charge of the government's massive relocation program for the tens of thousands of calamity victims living near rivers, creeks or lakes.

In contrast, displaced families opting to go back home to their hometowns are given a financial assistance of some P23,000 (minimum wage multiplied by 60 days), a small sum in these tough times.

So for the 300 Pasig residents, that would amount to P6.9 million which the Department of Budget and Management has promised to release to De Castro soon.

"That's a good program if they have a province to go home to. Plus, we need to decongest Metro Manila,'' De Castro said, reminding the Department of Social Welfare and Development to personally see them off at sea ports and bus terminals to ensure that they go home.

Some 39,000 displaced families are still staying in evacuation centers in Metro Manila, Rizal and Laguna provinces weeks after fleeing rising floodwaters spawned by storms "Ondoy'' and "Pepeng.'' More than half of them?between 23,000 and 25,000 families who lived near riverbanks, creeks, and lakes before the great flood hit on Sept. 26 ?could qualify for relocation, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said.

At last Thursday's Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) in Malacañang, Ms Arroyo reiterated her order to bar them from going back to the the danger zones, and relocate them.

But in the metropolis, the number of informal settlers requiring immediate relocation from danger-prone areas could go as high as 70,000 families, officials said.

So far, close to 600 families from Marikina alone have been bused to a resettlement area in Sta. Rosa and Biñan, Laguna, a province south of Manila. Over 200 families more from the same city would be relocated there.

According to De Castro, there are now 2,350 house-and-lot units ready for occupancy in relocation sites in Sta. Rosa and Biñan, Laguna, and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

According to De Castro, there are 5,825 developed lots available, but the government needs two more months to develop the relocation sites and build the homes.

Once completed, there will be 3,212 house-and-lot units in Calauan, Laguna?the target site for displaced families from Pasig?and 2,613 units in Rodriguez, Rizal, he said.

"Perhaps this may not even be completed before my term ends. There are only a few available sites, and then of course, we're also talking here of the availability of funds,'' he said of the relocation.

It took the government four years to relocate the 76,000 families who lived close to the railroad tracks? "the fastest relocation in history,'' he said.

"I agree, relocating these people is not going to be easy and it's going to take some time,'' Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Friday. "I think the actual major relocation will take place, three, six months from now, and will last very much longer.''

In last Tuesday's Cabinet meeting in Dagupan City, De Castro said two housing projects?one in Tuba, Benguet for 223 families and another Uringan, Pangasinan for 1,000 families?have been identified.

The next batch of relocatees?some 400 families from Quezon City?would be transported by bus to their new homes in Towerville in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan beginning Monday, he said.