Naga landslide victims to get new houses for free

The victims of the September 2018 Naga landslide are all smiles after President Rodrigo Duterte announces that they will get free housing units that will be built for them by the National Housing Authority during the housing project launching in Naga City on Sept. 6, 2019. |Cebu Capitol Photo/Tonee Despojo

NAGA CITY, Cebu —The 213 families who were displaced by the massive landslide in Naga City landslide in September 2018 will have their new homes for free.

President Rodrigo Duterte made this announcement as he led the groundbreaking ceremony of the permanent housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA) for the landslide victims on Friday afternoon, September 6, in this city.

The NHA will construct 192 housing units for the landslide victims at the two-hectare portion of the Balili Property in Barangay Tinaan.

NHA is targeting to complete the housing projects within 408 calendar days. The first 200 days will be for the land development of the project site while 208 days is allocated for the actual construction of the houses.

The housing project will be constructed in a rowhouse type with a floor area of 26-square meters per unit. The September 2018 landslide claimed the lives of over 70 people and permanently displaced 418 families.

According to Acting Naga City Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong, only 213 of the affected families opted to take the relocation project while the other 205 chose the financial relocation assistance of at least P100,000 each from the city government.

Chiong assured that there will be enough housing units for the affected families since the city government has also initiated a 50-unit housing project with a design similar to that of the NHA.

The city’s counterpart housing project is located in another site, still in Barangay Tinaan and has started construction last March 2019./elb