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[av_heading heading=’Halt in ‘substandard’ NHA housing project sought’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY IME SORNITO
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
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ILOILO City – The “substandard” P290-million mass housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA) in Barangay Bacjawan Sur, Concepcion, Iloilo must be stopped, according to the chairperson of the Committee on Public Order and Safety of the municipality’s Sangguniang Bayan (SB).
Representatives of NHA and project contractor Hercar Construction Corp. told the SB that the housing units were indeed substandard, said SB member Mark Ruffin Villaruz, committee chairperson.
Two SB committees (Housing and Land Utilization, and Infrastructure) summoned the NHA and contractor to a recent public hearing but housing project beneficiaries – survivors of super typhoon “Yolanda” in 2013 – were actually complaining of the following last year yet:
* cracking floors
* weak concrete walls
* leaking roofs
* poor paint job
* lack of water supply
* poor toilet construction
The NHA representative to the SB public hearing was Alone Poblacion. The contractor’s representatives, on the other hand, were Project Engineer Jose Dogelio III, Engineering Head and Operation Architect Juanito Bahido, and Wilson Rollan.
According to Villaruz, SB members agreed to come up with a resolution asking Mayor Millard Villanueva to issue a work stoppage order.
But actions should not stop there, said Villaruz. The SB may seek the help of the Office of the Ombudsman and National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a deeper investigation.
Reached for his comment, Mayor Villanueva said he had no problem issuing a work stoppage order but he would first like the NHA, project contractor and housing beneficiaries to sit down and discuss the problems.
“Para ma-pin down ang issues,” said Villanueva.
NHA and the contractor must commit to address the housing recipients’ concerns, he stressed.
Villaruz, however, was skeptical. He said NHA and the contractor vowed to address the concerns as early as Nov. 8, 2017 but nothing happened.
Last week, Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. suggested that the complaining beneficiaries haul to court those responsible for the substandard housing units.
The project involved the construction of some 1,000 housing units./PN
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