Relief for QC homeless

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista has signed an ordinance that exempts socialized housing beneficiaries of the National Government Center (NGC) Housing and Development Project along Commonwealth Avenue from paying real property tax on improvements.

Bautista approved the ordinance last week granting relief to qualified beneficiaries of the housing project, which was set aside by Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos for the underprivileged and the homeless living in the property.

Beneficiaries will be spared from an assessment, covering 2003 to 2013, on improvements they have undertaken.

An improvement, according to the Local Government Code, is “a valuable addition made to a property or an amelioration in its condition, amounting to more than a mere repair or replacement of parts involving capital expenditures and labor, which is intended to enhance its value, beauty or utility or to adapt it for new or further purposes.”

Based on the ordinance, the 444-hectare NGC is occupied by 54,890 informal settler families, among which qualified beneficiaries will be selected and enabled to acquire their own lots under the NGC Housing and Land Utilization Act of 2003.

“The National Government Center Project Management Team is given until December, 2016 to complete the process of subdividing, reblocking and distributing the land and its accompanying original certificates of title to qualified informal settler family-beneficiaries for them to commence the process of consolidating their possession and ownership over the subject property,” the measure said.

The ordinance further states that the distribution of the NGC property to urban poor families will ensure that they have their own homes and would encourage them to be law-abiding citizens, paying the appropriate local taxes, fees, and charges.