NEWSFLASH

GMA VOWS HOME LOTS TO 150,000 MM SQUATER FAMILIES IN ONE YEAR

Malacanang, Aug. 14, 2001 - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday that she is confident her administration will be able to fulfill its commitment to provide 150,000 families in Metro Manila with their own home lots within a period of one year as she pledged during her State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month.

"Kaya iyong sinasabi natin sa SONA na 150,000 families, hindi yon suntok sa buwan. Itong ginagawa natin ay pagtupad tungkol doon (So, what we pledge in our SONA is not just a bluff. This project is a fulfillment of that commitment)," the President said in her remarks in yesterday’s turnover ceremony of the $1 billion grant for a relocation project of railroad squatters in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila

The President said the project, funded by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, is expected to reduce poverty in the communities of Buli and Cupang in Muntinlupa City.

She hailed the signing of an agreement between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Philippine government for the $1 million project, saying that this is a big step towards the realization of her government’s urban renewal program.

According to the President, this was the second $1 million released for Metro Manila’s urban poor through the ADB. The grant will benefit some 570 urban poor families in Muntinlupa City.

The agreement was signed by ADB Vice President Joseph Eichenberger, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman, Assistant Finance Secretary Roberto Tan, Muntinlupa Development Foundation president Alfred Xerex-Burgos, Jr., and Muntinlupa City Mayor Jaime Fresnedi.

Also present at the signing ceremony held at Barangay Buli, Muntinlupa City was Minister Yoshiyuki Sadaoka, deputy chief of mission of the Japanese Embassy in Manila.

The Muntinlupa project, will also provide guidance to the proposed $50 million Metro Manila Urban Services for the Poor Project being administered by the ADB.

Mathew Westfall, ADB project officer and senior urban development specialist, said that conditions along the railroad tracks are not fit for human habitation. "Quite apart from the lack of basic services, lives have been lost in accidents involving passing trains," he said.

"This project will create and test new partnerships at the community level to secure lasting solutions to a problem that has plagued Metro Manila for decades," Westfall added.

The ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, which is funded by the Japanese government, has total resources amounting to 17.9 billion yen (approximately $145 million). This was established last year to provide grants for poverty reduction activities in depressed areas in Metro Manila.

Led by the Muntinlupa Development Foundation in partnership with Muntinlupa City’s Socialized Housing Program Committee (ShoPCom), the project will provide bridge financing for off-site land purchase under the Government’s Community Mortgage Program for the affected families of two partner communities.

The project will finance basic services such as water supply, sanitation and roads. It also includes sustainable revolving funds for housing construction, livelihood and micro-enterprise development loans for beneficiaries which, when repaid, will be extended to additional communities.

The Muntinlupa project, which will be a model for the relocation of informal settlers, is scheduled to be completed in year 2002.