P200 house rent for cops, soldiers

HOUSE PROUD. President Aquino turns over the house keys to a policeman and his family during Friday’s symbolic turnover of 1,500 houses for soldiers and policemen at Ciudad Adelina 2, Barangay Luciano, Trece Martires City, Cavite. At right is Vice President Jejomar Binay. The President is committed to build 31,000 more houses for the government’s uniformed personnel. EDWIN BACASMAS

Police officer Rey Sarcon’s eyes lit up when he revealed how much he paid every month for his own piece of paradise in this city just outside Metro Manila.

“Two hundred pesos a month for the first five years!” Sarcon proudly announced, his wife and three daughters, aged 5, 6 and 7, beside him.

“This is really a huge help,” added the Makati City policeman and new homeowner, who used to rent an apartment for P7,000 a month.

His family’s new home is a row house in Ciudad Adelina 2 in Barangay Luciano, just a kilometer away from city hall.

Each unit costs P150,000 and measures an average of 22 square meters.

First phase

Sarcon is one of 21,800 soldiers and police officers who will get new houses under the first phase of President Benigno Aquino III’s housing program for the uniformed services. The government set aside P4.2 billion for the program.

On the eve of the 26th anniversary of the civilian-military uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, President Aquino said 31,200 houses more would be built for the government’s uniformed personnel.

Sarcon, who will be moving with his family to their new house by March, reckons that even with the longer commute to and from his workplace, there would now be more cash for the needs of his growing children and he would even be able to save.

Sarcon said a lot of money was lost by paying so much for rent.

The housing program was a fulfillment of a promise made by the Chief Executive last year during the 25th anniversary of the Edsa Revolution.

Mr. Aquino said 21,400 houses had already been completed. He said the government was still short of 400 units but expected these to be finished by the middle of March.

Also for jailguards

The second phase of the housing program, Mr. Aquino said, would also benefit jail guards from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Bureau of Corrections. Other beneficiaries are fire officers under the Bureau of Fire Protection.

The housing program would also be extended to regions in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“One-third of the salary of an ordinary police officer or soldier living in Metro Manila, goes to paying rent while two-thirds go to the other needs of their families,” Mr. Aquino said in his speech before soldiers and police officers at the Ciudad Adelina 2 homesite.

Mr. Aquino, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, National Housing Authority General Manager Chito Cruz, and military and police officials joined hundreds of soldiers and police officers during the ceremonial handover of the 1,500 housing units.

Local government officials and members of the House of Representatives from Cavite province also attended the rites.

Other housing communities under the program are in San Jose del Monte, Bocaue and Norzagaray in Bulacan province; Biñan and Calamba in Laguna province; General Trias and Trece Martires in Cavite; and Baras and Rodriguez in Rizal province.

Easing burden

President Aquino said, “If they (police and soldiers) find themselves short of cash, they would borrow money. And when they are already up to their neck in debt, doubt sets in on whether they would remain faithful or they would allow themselves to go with the flow of a rotten system.”

The President said this was why his administration immediately embarked on the program to provide affordable housing to the uniformed services.

“We didn’t waste time to look for funds and to construct homes that will ease your burden. We expect that this would lessen your worries about the security of your families whenever you would be assigned to a far-away place, and reduce your anxieties in paying expensive rent,” Mr. Aquino said.

Deserving of services

He said the community had a school, a livelihood center, a health center and a police action center.

Beneficiaries, the President added, were deserving of the services because of their hard work and professionalism.

Mr. Aquino said his administration continued to look after the welfare of the uniformed services even providing them with the necessary equipment to accomplish their tasks.

“Under our leadership, we successfully implemented 18 projects under our AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) modernization program,” he said.

“In the past one year and seven months, we were already able to allocate P28 billion, which is already nearing the P33 billion that was granted by all the past administrations in the past 15 years of the program,” he added.

Not one to boast

Mr. Aquino, who said he rarely boasted, pointed out that while past administrations allocated P33 billion to the modernization program, his government had already delivered P28 billion to the program in just 19 months.

He said more equipment would be delivered to the Armed Forces and to the Philippine National Police after the acquisition of the Hamilton-class cutter BRP Gregorio del Pilar, combat utility choppers for the military, and patrol vehicles and motorcycles for the police.

Mr. Aquino announced the handover soon of new houses to victims ot Tropical Storm “Sendong” in Cagayan de Oro.