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NHA expects 10,000 applicants for ‘Balik Probinsya’ program via manual application

By TED CORDERO,GMA News

The National Housing Authority (NHA), lead implementing agency of the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program (BP2),” is expecting at least 10,000 more enrollees for the program as barangays in Manila can now facilitate manual applications for those who were not able to register online.

NHA General Manager and BP2 executive director Marcelino Escalada Jr. said application forms are “available at the barangay levels right now so they can enroll manually.”


“We expect another 10,000 applications via manual,” Escalada said during the Laging Handa public briefing on Thursday.

The NHA official said manual applications will add to some 79,000 people in the National Capital Region who registered online to avail of the BP2.

The official said the NHA made manual applications available for those who do not have access to internet.

Apart from barangays, the agency is also looking at setting up BP2 desks in the offices of member departments to facilitate applications.

Member-departments of the BP2 include the interior and local government (DILG), social welfare and development (DSWD), agriculture (DA), agrarian reform (DAR), trade and industry (DTI), labor and employment (DOLE), health (DOH), information and communications technology (DICT), finance (DOF), budget and management (DBM), public works and highways (DPWH), transportation (DOTr), tourism (DOT), human settlements and urban development (DHSUD), environment (DENR), and education (DepEd).

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The other members are the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) and the director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)  as well as the heads of the Mindanao Development Authority (MDA) and Cooperative Development Authority (CDA).

Early in May, President Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order for the implementation of the BP2— a program aimed to decongest Metro Manila and promote countryside development.

Duterte’s former top aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, had been pushing for the Balik Probinsya program.

The lawmaker said this will be a long-term solution to prevent future disease outbreaks as it encourages people, particularly informal settlers and those living in danger areas, to move out of Metro Manila and go back to their home provinces.

With a lower population density, local government units in Metro Manila would be able to respond better to health crises, he added.

Last May 20, the NHA sent off the first batch of BP2 beneficiaries —around 100 of them were sent back to  their home province of Leyte.

Escalada said the NHA is planning to have a simultaneous send-offs beginning June 11 to send people to Leyte, Samar, Negros Occidental, Norther Samar, Camsur, Eastern Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, and Lanao del Norte.—AOL, GMA News