Cadiz City in northern Negros Occidental, in partnership with the Pag-IBIG Fund, launched a 12-hectare housing project for government employees on Monday afternoon, May 8.
On the site will rise 260 socialized and 411 economic housing units.
Called the Villa Tiglawigan, which is situated in the coastal Barangay Tiglawigan, the site of city’s crab industry, the project intends to provide affordable and decent shelter for the target-beneficiaries, who are personnel of the city government and the Department of Education.
The partnership, which supports the Marcos administration’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing (4PH) program, was formalized with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr., Councilor Shiela Tabanao – chairperson of the City Council’s committee on housing and land use, and Fermin Sta. Teresa Jr. – senior vice president for Home Lending Operations of Pag-IBIG Fund, in the presence of Pag-IBIG Fund trustee Anthony Cesar Arellano and other agency officials.
The MOU signing took place after the ceremonial groundbreaking.
“We thank the President (Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.) for giving people like us here in the countryside the opportunity to avail of this beautiful yet affordable housing program,” Escalante said.
He noted that the city’s Barangay Daga is also a site of the BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services), a holistic housing program of the President’s mother, former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, when she was minister of human settlements, which has 150 house and lot units being occupied until now.
“We thank the President for giving life again to the government housing program,” the mayor said.
Sta. Teresa thanked Escalante for the city’s partnership with the Pag-IBIG Fund.
“We are glad to be partnering with you. Thank you, Mayor for partnering with us. We are not just building houses, but also sustainable communities,” he said.
The socialized housing units, which has a package price of P580,000 each, come in duplex models while the economic units, with a price yet to be determined, have both duplex and single detached models.
Implemented under a public-private parternship scheme, the city government owns the 12-hectare property, which will be developed by contractor JVC Tough Core Construction and Builders Corporation.
The land is part of the 21-hectare lot purchased by the city for its land banking program.
Escalante said two hectares have also been allotted for a housing project for
informal settlers in the area.
In his message, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the provincial government is ready to support Cadiz to “achieve their common desire to make available, at affordable cost, decent housing to the Negrenses”.
“The government has been intensifying its efforts toward the housing needs of our people. It is just fitting that we extend the same to our employees,” he added.*PNA