President Gloria Arroyo motored to Rizal yesterday to visit flood victims who were rescued from danger zones and brought to housing units payable on installment for P200 a month.
At Southville 8-A in Isidro, Rodriguez, she said relocation was enforced for the safety of the settlers even as other means were being pursued through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Police.
“The floodwaters that inundated Metro Manila also came from the mountains that have been deforested. So I am ordering the PNP to intensify and renew its vigor in running after illegal loggers and the DENR to boost its reforestation program,” she said.
“I am also appealing to those living in danger zones for them not to take it against the government if they are no longer allowed to return to their houses and are relocated to safer areas.”
According to Mrs. Arroyo, residents near the Napindan Channel in Taytay are among the forced evacuees to benefit from transferring to San Isidro with jobs for beneficiaries occupying the site for 5,000 socialized housing units.
“That is one of the specific orders we have the special private-public reconstruction commission—to ensure that there are employment projects for the relocatees.”
Vice President Noli de Castro seconded Mrs. Arroyo, saying at least 27,000 jobs have been created for constructing 3,000 houses in Southville alone, averaging eight persons hired to build one unit along with 2,000 houses more in Teresa between Antipolo City and Morong town for other victims and resettlers.
De Castro said a unit worth P202,000 was ordered recomputed by Mrs. Arroyo to apply a subsidy for the flood victims, reducing the purchase amount to P150,000.
“Payment will also be deferred for a year, so residents will only start paying about P200 per month in November 2010,” he said.
About 500 relocatees from Rizal and Lupang Arenda in Taytay have moved in as initial occupants of Southville, where a three-story 15-classroom building will rise.
But Mrs. Arroyo still wanted to reassure herself of the safety of the new settlement itself.
She extended her inspection trip for a look-see of a section along the Marikina Valley fault line about 600 meters away from Southville.
Mrs. Arroyo was pleased to learn that the new settlers were outside the buffer zone. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
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