ON DECEMBER 20, the city government of Bacolod will be turning over 288 housing units/cubicles to its first batch of beneficiaries under President Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH).
This is four-storey tenement located at the Arao relocation site in Barangay Vista Alegre.
The President, per press release from the Bacolod City Public Information Office, is coming for the said event that also coincides with the birthday of Mayor Albee Benitez.
As of this posting, however, neither the Philippine Information Agency nor the Bacolod City Police Office could confirm the President’s coming.
Per record, President Bongbong “snubbed” invitations from Bacolod City twice in the recent past – first, during the city government-organized mass wedding in March and second, during the MassKara Festival highlight in October. The reasons remain a “mystery” among political kibitzers in Bacolod and Negros Occidental.
Thus, the well-publicized arrival of the President this Dec. 20 is being much-monitored.
Is he coming or not?
BEYOND AFFORDABILITY
Let’s go back to the housing topic.
Why only 288 out of 10,000 units to be built within his 365 days in office as promised by the sitting mayor?
Mathematically speaking, these 288 units are only 2.88% of the 10,000.
What are the underlying challenges in this Asenso Yuhum Housing Project (AYHP) attached to the 4PH of the Department of Housing and Urban Development DHSUD?
The equation states that each unit with a measurement of 24 square meters costs P1,020,000 or approximately P50,000/sqm.
Then, it’s beneficiary must pay P2,300/month over a period of 30 years.
If the beneficiary belongs to the “poorest of the poor” or sector of informal settlers, how can he/she afford this housing package?
Really, it’s beyond affordability so he or she will gonna be “paying through the nose”.
Beyond affordability means something that is too expensive for someone to afford, while “paying through the nose” is a popular idiomatic expression which means paying an excessive amount for something beyond someone’s capacity.
BE REALISTIC
Mayor Albee must be realistic. After he won in last year’s elections, he promised “free housing” for the city’s more than 40,000 informal settlers. Such was coupled by the tagline, “Balay Mo, Sabat Ko!”
This promise remains “fresh” in the minds of Bacolodnons. Scores of squatter families hope they could avail themselves of free units in this maiden housing project of the mayor.
But with the unit price set, “Paano kami makasarang sinang P2,300 ang bulanan kay ahaw re-pack sang oling ang amon palangitan-an,” said Evelyn (not her real name), a mother of four and whose family currently resides beside the disaster-prone Magsungay creek.
“Ang promisa, libre balay, amo na ‘ya ang amon ginabantayan,” she added.
RESPECTABLE TAKE HOME PAY
Pag-IBIG Fund stressed that to qualify as beneficiary of the housing project of the city, “you must be a bona fide member of Pag-IBIG and have a respectable P12,000 monthly take home pay.”
Pag-IBIG Fund was tapped by both DHSUD and Bacolod City government as financier for the project.
“Many wanted to avail themselves of the nits, but only few can afford,” declared by Manang Suzette of Barangay Banago.
“Indi ni ‘ya lahug-lahug ang P2,300 kada-bulan sa sulod sang 30 anyos. Paano kami ni ‘ya kasarang kay ahaw panginhas sa baybay amon palangabuhi-an,” she added.
REALITY OR FANTASY?
With the remaining one year and six months in office (for the mayor’s current term), it’s a gigantic test to prove that he can build the 9,712-unit deficit.
Let’s be reminded that during a press conference on March 8, 2023, he said there will be a “housing boom” in Bacolod that will surely create 10,000 jobs.
He was referring to AYHP.
Question: Did this happen? Nope!
World-renowned prolific author Richard Paul Evans warned everyone that, “Broken vows are like broken mirrors. They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at fractured images of themselves.”/PN
