URBAN poor families in lower and upper Carreta, Cebu City may now have a good night’s sleep after the National Housing Authority (NHA)-7 agreed to defer their demolition pending negotiations with the city government.
NHA owns the almost one hectare-property at the back of the Carreta sports center.
Councilor Alvin Dizon, head of the council’s housing committee, said NHA-7 Director Gavino Figuracion agreed to a series of meetings to resolve the dispute.
Their first meeting was held at the vice mayor’s office conference room yesterday morning. A second meeting is scheduled on August 22.
The NHA agreed to study the occupants’ proposal for their accommodation in the national government agency’s on site development project, said Dizon.
The lot in barangay Carreta used to be privately owned. The national government under former President Joseph Estrada acquired the property to put an end to the demolition of occupants which had turned violent.
But the NHA and a private sector partner asked the 127 affected families to relocate to their urban poor housing site in sitio Tac-an, barangay Budlaan, so that the NHA and its partner may recover the P200 million cost of developing the Budlaan lot.
Only 63 families agreed to the transfer . The 64 others opted to remain in barangay Carreta.
Since the last NHA survey made in 2003, the number of upper and lower Carreta lot occupants continued to increase, said Dizon.
The NHA is aksed to do another survey of lot occupants to know their exact number.
“As far as NHA is concerned, they are only prepared to help families listed in the 2003 survey but as far as the city is concerned, motabang gyud ta sa tanan ug pangita ug asa man gani sila mopuyo,” said Dizon.
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