TABUK CITY, Kalinga – New housing units were turned over by the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to beneficiary families of the Core Shelter Assistance Program (CSAP).
The 58 families received on Wednesday, January 31, their Certificate of Occupancy from the department’s regional director Janet Armas.
In the occasion, Armas said the families from the six Tabuk barangays have already been occupying the housing units since 2014 but certificates were awarded just now.
She explained her office has assessed the over-all condition of the housing project before the awarding.
“It’s now in the hands of these families the success of their new community. Putting them together in one place takes good relationship and cooperation,’’ she said.
Armas also disclosed that each family was given P70,000 worth of construction materials to build their new abodes.
Meanwhile, as a counterpart, the city government donated a one-hectare land originally reserved under the Office of the City Agricultural Services operations, 300 square meters of which was utilized for the CSAP.
Apart from this, the city government also extended an additional P25,000.00 to facilitate faster construction.
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Susana Daluping said that the 58 families chosen to benefit from the project were the families gravely affected by Typhoon Juan in 2010 whose houses were totally damaged.
Daluping added in her statement that there are 13 families from barangays Bulanao and Ipil to be benefitted by the project.
According to Bernard Pimental, also of the CSWDO, each family occupies 80 square meters. House structure, he said, measures 5×4 meters while lot is 8×10 meters.
Pimentel clarified among beneficiaries that the title still belongs to the city government. This means that they cannot sale nor pawn either the lot or the house until DSWD gives them their right of legal ownership.
Also present in the event was City Mayor Ferdinand Tubban who expressed his gratitude to DSWD for the assistance and spoke to beneficiaries to take care of this help by strengthening their relationship with one another and to actively participate in all activities set in their new community.
With Merliza Maddugay, being the president of the Pumiyaan Village, a term coined by the recipients themselves, certain policies are implemented to attain orderliness.
She said in the interview that there are corresponding penalties for non-appearance in regular meetings, public disturbance, stealing, vandalism, gambling and ‘’tsismis.’’
Maduggay also mentioned that the village also enforces a total liquor ban and collects minimum of P20.00 contribution from each household as mortuary.
By Darwin S. Serion
