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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017
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ILOILO City – The “maninoy system” in the awarding of relocation lots to informal settlers must stop, according to the new chief of the Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office (ICUPAO).
Maninoy is Hiligaynon for godfather but is also colloquially used to refer to a patron or backer. Jeck Conlu said some beneficiaries would seek out maninoys from within ICUPAO so they could be “prioritized” in the awarding of housing units.
ICUPAO is overseeing the city government’s socialized housing program. Conlu acknowledged the need to make it more transparent to avoid corruption.
He did not say if these maninoys were demanding grease money.
“From what we have gathered, we have some people at ICUPAO giving this favor to some beneficiaries,” said Conlu.
He temporarily suspended the awarding of relocation lots to informal settlers and ordered a revalidation of previous beneficiaries.
Conlu plans to computerize his office’s database.
This is seen to stop the “maninoy system.” The awarding of lots will be based on the date when a beneficiary has applied, said Conlu.
“Kun sang una pa lang properly documented kag properly installed ang system, indi amo sini kadako ang problema. Kadamo kita informal settlers nagareklamo nga wala sila mauna or wala sila mabutang,” said Conlu.
In ordering a revalidation of beneficiaries, Conlu said Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog wanted to make sure that those previously awarded with relocation lots were indeed qualified beneficiaries of the socialized housing program.
There will be a digital mapping of informal settlers and those displaced by government projects such as road widening and river/creek clearing, said Conlu.
The computerization of ICUPAO’s database will eliminate discrepancies in the identification of beneficiaries and awarding of housing units, he stressed.
Since 1995 when ICUPAO was established, it had no proper documentation of beneficiaries, Conlu lamented, and this contributed to the inefficient implementation of the socialized housing program.
ICUPAO will prioritize those with ejectment cases (those displaced from private properties) and those affected by demolition to give way to government projects.
All the information about the beneficiaries or applicants will be stored in the ICUPAO database such their origin, date of application for relocation, family members who are also beneficiaries, etc.
The first relocation site to undergo computerization will be the Iloilo River Plain Subdivision in Barangay Lanit, Jaro district.
The master list of beneficiaries will be made public for scrutiny. Anyone can check if the beneficiaries are indeed qualified, said Conlu.
ICUPAO will be partnering with two universities for the digital mapping and computerization, said Conlu. He, however, did not identify them.
There are a total of 24 on-site and off-site relocation sites, according to the ICUPAO chief.
On-site are those acquired by the government with settlers already in place. The off-site are those acquired by the city government or established relocation sites like the USWAG Subdivision, Iloilo River Plain Subdivision and the So-oc relocation site.
In a previous interview, Conlu said previous beneficiaries may have committed violations, too.
Beneficiaries should have already left their previous abodes and transferred to their relocation sites. There were reports, however, that some beneficiaries refused to transfer because doing so would remove them far away from their sources of livelihood or that the relocation sites were far from their children’s schools.
Conlu did not discount the possibility that some erring beneficiaries would lose their relocation lots.
ICUPAO data showed over 200 socialized housing program beneficiaries were already issued with notices of violation.
Conlu said the revalidation may last until the end of March. He urged the public to help by giving information to ICUPAO regarding the beneficiaries they know.
“May ginapreparahan kita nga almost 300 ejectment cases by first and second quarters of this year,” revealed Conlu. They were in barangays Pali, Mulle Loney, Baluarte, Oñate, and Jereos, among others.
He added that the city government have already acquired a 6-hectare lot and is looking to purchase 10 more hectares for the relocation of the displaced./PN
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