The privately owned lot is located in Banilad village, around three kilometers away from the Dumaguete City Hall.
Dumaguete Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria said he expects NHA to finalize the initial purchase the of 3.7 hectares out of the total 8.7-hectare lot anytime soon.
NHA is still working out the purchase of the remaining five hectares.
“Once NHA has settled the purchase of the 3.7 hectares, we will immediately construct an initial number of 300 houses for the Sendong victims,” said Sagarbarria in an interview.
This developed after the mayor appealed to Vice President Jejomar Binay, who sits as the NHA chairman, to buy the lot for the resettlement area.
Part of the original arrangement was for the city government to purchase the lot as its counterpart while NHA will build the houses. However, the mayor said the city government does not have the money to acquire said lot after its Internal Revenue Allotment for this year was cut by P34 million.
“There are lots of land here, but the city government does not have the money,” he said.
The city government is targeting to build 1,000 houses in the resettlement area through NHA, the Department of Social Welfare & Development, and the Department of Public Works & Highways.
DSWD earlier allocated P19 million to establish over 300 core houses in the city for Sendong victims at P75,000 per housing unit.
“But due to the inter-agency arrangement in Manila for the construction of 1,000 houses here through NHA, that funding from DSWD will be given to NHA instead as their counterpart to the housing construction,” said Sagarbarria. (PIA Negros Oriental)
