Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna led the awarding on Friday, June 20, of the land titles to beneficiaries of the city's program "Land for the Landless."
The city government said the awarding of the land titles is the result of years of expropriation proceedings, ordinance approvals, negotiations, lots purchase, and subdivision.
"Nagpapasalamat tayo at pinupuri ang mga residente at neighborhood associations, ang Urban Settlements Office, ang geodetic engineers, at ang heirs ng mga orihinal na landowners. Nangyari ang awarding ng mga titulo dahil sa pakikipagtulungan nilang lahat (We thank and commend the residents and neighborhood associations, the Urban Settlements Office, the geodetic engineers, and the heirs of the original landowners. The awarding of the titles happened because of the cooperation of all of them)," Mayor Lacuna-Pangan said in her statement.
The mayor said they will keep implementing the Land for the Landless Program for a long as the city has lots to award to beneficiaries as they believe that housing is a key component of their vision to make Manila livable and whole.
The biggest batch of land titling involved 133 awardees of subdivided lots of a 6,619.40 square meters parcel located along Juan Luna Street in Barangay 158, Zone 14, in Tondo.
The City of Manila bought the property from YK Realty and Development Corporation for P264.776 million.
For the subdivided LICO Estate located at Rizal Avenue Extension in Tondo, the second batch composed of 24 families received their land titles.
The Manila City government purchased the 2,399.19 square meters parcel LICO estate for about P22.45 million whose land titles were awarded to the first batch of 43 beneficiaries.
Some 17 beneficiaries received their land titles for the Fajardo Estate, which caused complications in the titling process due to a lack of a subdivision plan.
The city acquired this parcel in 1978.
There were 10 more awardees of lots from parcels of four other estates, the city government added.