DAVAO CITY – Urban poor residents of the Katuparan Housing Project trooped this morning to the headquarters of the National Housing Authority to demand for tenement repairs.
The residents were accompanied by partylist lawmaker Rep. Emmi De Jesus of Gabriela Women’s Party.
In a statement to the press, De Jesus said the residents feared plans by the City of Manila to condemn the medium rise structures for which they are paying regular amortizations to the NHA.
She said they are pressing the agency to fast-track its promise to carry out the long delayed tests to declare their row houses still fit for quake proofing before the feared quake render their 12 buildings unsafe.
Residents also said that the NHA must repair the buildings as part of its mandate to provide socialized housing for the poor and help strengthen their position against the City of Manila’s plans to evict them.
Newly installed NHA General Manager Atty Sinforoso Pagunsan acknowledged the plight of the Katuparan residents and assured them that the planned technical inspections will be started in October once the Department of Public Works and Highways makes available the needed machinery to begin the testing procedures.(davaotoday.com)
