VP Binay unveils Bangsamoro housing project

Some 390 families in Sulu, including Muslim Filipinos recently deported from Sabah, will benefit from a new housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA), Vice President Jejomar Binay said Saturday. Binay, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said the national government and Sulu local government signed a memorandum of agreement on housing for the beneficiaries. “We want to ensure they will have a home they could call their own. We hope this would encourage them to stay here and not risk going to other countries by illegal means,” he said in a news release posted on the Office of the Vice President website. The Bangsa Moro Pabahay Project is a joint undertaking of the NHA, the Department of Social and Welfare and Development (DSWD)-National and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and the provincial government of Sulu. Cruz, Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan and other NHA–Mindanao project managers and officers attended the MOA signing. Under the project, the DSWD-ARMM and Sulu provincial government chose the 74,364.15-square-meter housing site from a 25-hectare NHA property in Anuling village in Patikul town in Sulu. Some 46,991.25 square meters were initially allocated for the project, but this was increased following an October 10, 2011 memorandum request to NHA General Manager Chito Cruz. The addition aimed to accommodate flash flood victims in Jolo. The DSWD released some P4.5 million for the construction of 180 core shelter units for the family-beneficiaries in Sulu, and 100 units for those living in flood-prone and danger areas. The project will also provide 110 serviced lots for flood victims. — ELR, GMA News