City housing project breaks ground

Some Cebu City Hall employees may soon have housing units they can call their own.

The Cebu City Government Employees Housing Cooperative (CCGEHC) broke ground yesterday on its first housing project at the Phase 2 B Sugbo Homes, Redemptorist Home in Nivel Hills, barangay Lahug.

“This had been a two-year planning ordeal. It was hard for us in the beginning. We thought nobody needs this housing program. But as it turned out, a lot of our employees don’t own their homes,” said CCGEHC board of directors chairman Dominic Dino.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella leads the groundbreaking ceremony for the housing project of Cebu City Employees Housing Cooperative. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

According to Dino, who works as Mayor Michael Rama’s chief of staff, the housing project will be a four-story building with 60 units, each having a floor area of around 18 to 25 square meters.

He said construction is expected to start next month. The entire building is slated to be finished within 12 months.

The cooperative has partnered with Singaporean developer Wei Kiat Management and Development Corp. for the construction of the building which will be funded through the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG).

Dino said the cooperative will be drafting the guidelines as to who can avail of the housing units.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who attended yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony on behalf of Rama, suggested that the cooperative include in the contract with qualified beneficiaries a prohibition on the selling or subletting their units.

“Charity begins at home. We must be thankful to Mayor Rama because this is his pet project considering that 70 percent of the Cebu City Government employees do not own houses,” Labella said in his speech.

He added that those who do not own homes should be prioritized by the cooperative for the housing project.

Alixes Roy Lopez, regional director of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), said he is thankful to the city government for initiating the project. He said the CCGEHC is the first housing cooperative in the Visayas.

“This is the first time in the Visayas that there’s a condominium to be constructed by a housing cooperative. Through this, our housing backlog of 5.5 million will be lessened. We hope there will be more initiatives from the city,” Lopez said in his speech.

The same was echoed by Ronelo Labiaga of the Pag-IBIG Fund who said their agency is more than willing to provide loans and give financial projects as long as the requirements are complied with.

The CCGEHC, which was registered with the Cooperative Development Authority last January 2014, currently has around 700 members.

Dino said they closed their registration two months ago to ensure that most of the cooperative’s members are provided with housing units.