COA: LRTA neglected P980-M housing for settlers

The Commission on Audit (COA) has rebuked the Light Railway Transit Authority (LRTA) for allegedly neglecting a P980-million housing project for informal settlers displaced by its projects.

In its 2017 audit report, the COA questioned why the LRTA allowed 180 housing units, built at a relocation site in General Trias town, Cavite province, to deteriorate and lead to losses for the government.

According to COA records, the project is known as the Cavite-LRTA Housing Project and was implemented with the Cavite provincial government on a 21-hectare site in Barangay Santiago.

180 units

Aside from the houses, the site was to have an administrative office, a chapel, a health center, multipurpose halls, educational facilities, community and recreational facilities, water and power supply systems, an internal road system and other amenities.

The project started in 2009 and 180 housing units were completed by 2011.

“[But] ocular inspection conducted on various dates, the latest on October 2, 2017, disclosed that the condition of 180 housing units continues to deteriorate and the houses need immediate repair to make them habitable,” the COA said.

The LRTA, however, had not prepared for the cost of rehabilitation or repair of the deteriorating houses in its current plans but was already aiming to build 1,698 more houses for another project.

The housing units were being constructed within the same site for informal settlers displaced by the construction of the Line 1 South Extension Project.

According to the LRTA website, the rail project involved the extension of the existing 20.7-kilometer LRT Line 1 with an additional 11.7 km.

Plan of action

The extension line was envisioned to run from the Baclaran station southward through the cities of Parañaque and Las Piñas, and end at Barangay Niog, Bacoor.

“We recommended that (LRTA) provide information on the plan of action for the said 180 housing units as it appears that they already abandoned the units,” the audit agency said.

“(It must) provide funds for the repair/rehabilitation of the 180 housing units to prevent further deterioration and make it usable for the families affected by the extension project,” the COA added.

The LRTA explained that it could not repair the houses because several issues, including land ownership and support funding, still had to be settled between the LRTA and the province of Cavite.