Kadamay offers to pay for occupied houses

CITY OF MALOLOS—The National Housing Authority (NHA) on Monday lifted the eviction orders against families who forcibly occupied 5,000 houses in low-cost housing sites in Pandi town and San Jose del Monte City, after the militant urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) agreed to apply for the houses they took over.

The seven-day eviction notices lapsed on Monday for 324 families who took over the houses at the Villa Elise housing site in Barangay Masuso in Pandi two weeks ago.

About 6,000 people occupied the idle and still uncompleted units on March 8 to dramatize the government’s failure to provide affordable houses for the urban poor.

Kadamay also demanded that these houses be given for free to poor families.

But during a three-hour dialogue at the NHA office in Manila on Monday, the housing agency withdrew the eviction orders after Kadamay leaders agreed to allow government teams to process the housing applications of its members beginning March 28, according to Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao.

He said Kadamay members were willing to pay in installments the P240,000 cost for each house, using government loans, provided the NHA agreed to amend its payment terms and to relax some requirements.

For example, Kadamay families who had no valid identification cards could use barangay clearances or community tax certificates to establish their legal personalities, Casilao said.

On Monday, policemen continued their patrol in Villa Elise as well as the occupied housing projects in Padre Pio in Barangay Cacarong Bata, Pandi Heights 1 in Barangay Cacarong Matanda, Villa Louise in Barangay Siling Matanda, and Pandi Heights 2 and 3 in Barangay Mapulang Lupa, all in Pandi.

The NHA neither confirmed nor denied Casilao’s announcement that its three-week standoff with Kadamay was over.

Casilao said the NHA would begin receiving applications for 324 houses in Villa Elise and would look into the social and financial profiles of each applicant. The families would also undergo a validation process.

On March 29, the NHA would process the applications of Kadamay families who occupied 440 houses in Pandi Heights 1, the same day they were supposed to have been evicted.

Casilao said housing projects intended for soldiers, policemen, firemen and jail personnel would undergo a new inventory to determine how many beneficiaries were still willing to pay for these units. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE