CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A councilor here on Monday, September 18, revealed that a housing project for victims of typhoon “Sendong” in Sitio Pahiron, Barangay Lumbia, this city, remains unfinished.
HOUSING units at the relocation site in Sitio Pahiron, Barangay Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City. (Photo courtesy of Councilor Bernie Bitokbitok Esparcia Facebook page)
Councilor Edgar Cabanlas disclosed that 511 houses were scheduled to be built in the area and the contractor to date has completed over 300 units but only turned over 225 to the city government. Over 100 houses have been completed but yet to be turned over and more than 100 units still have to be constructed.
"Maybe there are some fees that are lacking, something like that, or there are some lacking that has not yet been completed…Before the turnover, we need to check if they were built correctly," Cabanlas said after the city council session on Monday, September 18.
COUNCILOR Malvern Esparcia delivers a special report during the session of the 20th City Council on Monday, September 18. (Franck Dick Rosete)
The groundbreaking ceremony for the housing project was held on April 25, 2017, an online post in the official Facebook page of then-Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno said. Land development started that year and construction started in 2018.
Cabanlas revealed these details after Councilor Malvern Esparcia released a special report on Monday about the damaged housing units he discovered when he visited the relocation site.
Esparcia showed photos of damaged window glasses, units that were partially destroyed due to landslides, and unoccupied units full of grass and vandals inside. There were also units, he said, with missing toilet bowls allegedly carted away by thieves.
Cabanlas said there are 722 units under the project and these were not built in Sitio Pahiron alone as the land area could not accommodate this number of houses.
Only 511 housing units, he said, can be built in Sitio Pahiron. The rest was built at the Macapaya Relocation Site in Barangay Camaman-an and Gawad Kalinga in Barangay Balubal with 186 and 25 housing units, respectively.
Two-hundred twenty-five have been turned over to the city government.
Cabanlas told the city council about the plan to recommend to Mayor Rolando Uy the repair of damaged houses and award these units to beneficiaries without the proper turnover process between the contractor.
"That has been our instruction to CHUDD (City Housing and Urban Development Department), even if they have not yet been turned over, because after the next few months or years, they will deteriorate more," Cabanlas said.
Esparcia asked the CHUDD, the city hall office that handles all relocation sites here, about the awarding process for beneficiaries who will not occupy their units as there are people who are willing to take advantage of the housing program.
A HOUSING unit with broken glass windows at the relocation site in Sitio Pahiron, Barangay Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City. (Photo courtesy of Councilor Bernie Bitokbitok Esparcia Facebook page)
Lawyer Samuel Rollo, head of CHUDD, confirmed Cabanlas’ figures on the number of units that were completed but has yet to be turned over and unbuilt houses in Sitio Pahiron.
However, he said that contractor CDH Construction has yet to finish the project that stopped for over two years because of Covid-19 pandemic.
Rollo said he could not provide the exact date but when he assumed as CHUDD officer-in-charge last January, construction had already resumed.
"In two years, there was no one who checked there because the employees were working from home; it hasn’t been monitored; there are units that have deteriorated by nature because no one was living there," Rollo said.
Rollo said the contractor is willing to shoulder the repair of damaged units.
Figures presented by Cabanlas were also clarified by CHUDD, saying that 509 housing units are expected to be built in Sitio Pahiron. The 186 units, which were correctly mentioned by Cabanlas, were built in Macapaya, and the remaining 27 units were built in Barangay Balubal.
THE office of the City Housing and Urban Development Department at Cagayan de Oro City Hall. (Franck Dick Rosete)
In response to Esparcia’s query, the CHUDD head said that they have a process for cancellation, which is still being finalized, especially for awarded beneficiaries who no longer occupy their units despite the multiple attempts made by the office to inform them.
Prior to the cancellation, the CHUDD will try to contact the beneficiaries using their contact number listed on its database and by posting notices to their units to determine the reasons.
During the city council session on Monday, Councilor Jose Pepe Abbu Jr. urged the CHUDD to provide an inventory to the committee on rural and urban poor and housing development to determine the number of occupied and unoccupied housing units in all relocation sites in this city.
The CHUDD was also urged to provide a list of present occupants to confirm their eligibility following the issue of alleged illegal occupants in some of the relocation sites here.
Rollo said they can provide the data once they receive a request.
The CHUDD head assured that they are committed to the directive of the local chief executive to organize all relocation sites in Cagayan de Oro.