Negotiations are underway between Cagayan de Oro City Hall and representatives of housing agencies to secure housing assistance under the national government’s Pambansang Pabahay Para Sa Pilipino or 4PH program.

During the ‘In Focus’ program series hosted by the City Information Office, City Housing Urban Development Department (CHUDD) chief Atty. Samuel Rollo said these officials visited Cagayan de Oro City to discuss the 4PH program with their office.

 

‘They want to implement the program in the city in keeping with the government’s target of one million housing units a year or six million in six years,’ Rollo said in Visayan.

Under the program, Rollo said local governments like Cagayan de Oro City need only provide a list of identified beneficiaries while the national government through the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) will handle land acquisition and development and build the housing units.

 

‘They identified some areas in the city (for the 4PH program),’ he said in Visayan.

 

During his second State of the Nation Address last July, President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr announced the issuance of Executive Order No. 34 creating the 4PH program that seeks to cover the 6.5 million housing backlog for the country’s poor families.

 

Rollo didn’t state how many beneficiaries in the city will be listed for the 4PH program but said the housing development will be a medium-rise structure.

‘The 4PH program (doesn’t exclude local government involvement in other aspects). The city has one of several properties in Sitio Pamalihi, Barangay Pagatpat that already underwent land development which we’re looking to build single detached housing units. Then we learned about the 4 PH program….and the 4PH program is geared towards building medium rise, condo type housing,’ Rollo said in Visayan.

 

Rollo said while they’re looking to negotiate for single detached socialized housing units in the city’s relocation site to be funded under the government’s 4PH program, he sees the medium rise condo housing arrangement as beneficial since it can house more families.

 

About 30,000 out of 50,102 illegal settler families (ISF) in Cagayan de Oro City applied for City Hall’s socialized housing program, Rollo said.

The DHSUD previously said under the 4PH program, beneficiaries will pay P3,500 to P4,000 monthly for their units.

 

‘The 4PH program is focused on medium rise housing types in part because it’s influenced by the land area in Manila which is getting scarce for housing….here in Cagayan de Oro City we still have land but there will come a time when land space will be limited,’ Rollo said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)