NHA: Sale of Kadamay house ‘not isolated’

Members of the urban poor group Kadamay take over unoccupied units in a government housing site in Pandi town, Bulacan province. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The sale of a government housing unit in Bulacan province, which was brokered by a member of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), was not an isolated case, an official of the National Housing Authority (NHA) said on Monday.

A video footage taken by a supposed buyer, which started circulating online last week, shows a Kadamay member striking up a deal for the sale of a unit at the Padre Pio resettlement site in Barangay Cacarong Bata, Pandi town.

Validation process

“Is this an isolated case? No. There are reports coming in that we are already validating,” John-Christopher Mahamud, NHA chief of staff, said on Monday.

The NHA, after the controversial video surfaced, started revalidating the 8,494 Kadamay members who occupied the housing units in Bulacan.

In a statement, Kadamay called the NHA’s allegations of widespread selling of Kadamay-occupied units a “smear campaign.”

“NHA is trying to [destroy] Kadamay because we exposed them. In truth, no one has been held responsible for their negligence in the government housing program … They want to evict Kadamay and slander the progressives who exposed their sins,” said Gloria Arellano, Kadamay chair.

Arellano believed that the supposed buyer shown in the video was a “trap” set by the NHA itself.

Protest

In March last year, members of Kadamay occupied 5,278 idle low-cost housing units in Pandi as a form of protest against what they called as slow and unproductive pace of the government’s housing program.

President Rodrigo Duterte, in April last year, allowed Kadamay members to stay in the occupied houses, with both chambers of Congress issuing a resolution allowing the redistribution of housing units intended for personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Romuel Alimboyao, NHA department manager for Central Luzon region, said that of the 1,483 units occupied by Kadamay members in the Padre Pio site, 667 were observed to have “changing occupants,” a sign that these were possibly being rented out.

Illegal sale

NHA records showed that 71 families in Pandi were found to have been awarded government housing units in the past while 19 others had pending applications for other units.

Mahamud called on the public “not to fall prey to unscrupulous practice of illegal sale of [government] properties.”

“We will not recognize the sale … so aside from liabilities, your money will be wasted,” he said.