Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) Tuesday, March 7, for the first Pambansang Pabahay Program in the country to be constructed in Bacolod City.
He signed the contract between the city of Bacolod, WRS Holdings and Pag-Ibig at the Bacolod City Government Center after the Sangguniang Panlungsod in a special session Tuesday granted him the authority to do so and ratified the JVA.
The JVA is for the financing, design, construction, operation and development of a mixed use integrated infrastructure for housing and sustainable community in Bacolod City.
Benitez will be the first city mayor to bring the Pambansang Pabahay Program of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) to reality as it firms up the strong chances of the city informal settler families (ISFs) to have decent homes they can call their own, a press release from the city government said.
IS with gross earnings pegged at minimum wage, or some Php12,000 a month, with still respectable take home pay prior to deduction of the computed housing loan amortization, are the primary target beneficiaries, provided they are or will become members of the Pag-IBIG Fund.
The Scheirman consortium will build an initial set of Asenso Yuhum Housing Units numbering 10,000 at the city relocation site in By. Vista Alegre (3,000) and on the city property in BREDCO (7,000), with a commitment to build another set of 10,000 units as additional land are made available by the city government, the press release said.
The PPP arrangement between the City of Bacolod and the Scheirman consortium is in a form of a Joint-Venture Agreement which contains the following essential provisions:
- The Asenso Yuhum Housing Program is the contribution of the City of Bacolod to the Pambansang Pabahay Program of Pres. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s administration, which is strongly pushed by the DHSUD and actively supported by the National Home Development Mutual Fund, commonly known as Pag-IBIG Fund;
- DSHUD will provide some subsidy to the informal settlers qualified to take-out housing loans from Pag-IBIG;
*The City of Bacolod will provide the land upon which the human settlement/housing units will
be built;
- The Scheirman consortium will provide P2 Billion to support its commitment to build human settlements/housing units for the ISFs of Bacolod City, in two sets of 10,000 units each. The constitution of the Buildings shall be undertaken by private proponent at no cost to the City of Bacolod and DSHUD; and
- The human settlement is a mixed of housing units, commercial spaces and open spaces, and on the revenues from commercial spaces, the city will have a share of 10 percent.
On March 3, the Committee on Public Private Partnership Program, chaired by the city mayor, awarded the privilege of building the first human settlement enclaves for the ISFs of the city, under a PPP, to the Scheirman consortium.
The award was made two days after the 21-day Swiss Challenge Period ended on March 1, the press release said.
Last year, the Scheirman consortium submitted to the City of Bacolod an unsolicited proposal to build Asenso Yuhom Housing units under a PPP arrangement.
A series of negotiations ensued with mayor taking the lead as chairman of the constituted Committee on P4 Program.
A successful outcome was achieved from the series of negotiations between members of the P4
Committee of the city and the Scheirman consortium leading to the publication of an invitation of interested Swiss challenge proponents, with no challenger coming forward, the press release said.
The Scheirman consortium, led by its Chief Executive Officer William Russell M. Scheirman Jr., has expertise in constructing residential buildings and other commercial establishments as well as in creating green and sustainable communities, it added.
Both members of the consortium, WRS Holding Inc. and the Scheirman Construction Consolidated Inc., are based in Cainta, Metro Manila.*