ZAMBOANGA CITY – The National Housing Authority (NHA) said all of the 4,487 houses on stilts project of the Zamboanga Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) have no occupancy permits.
Engr. Al-Khwarizmi Indanan, NHA district manager, disclosed in an interview with the Philippine News Agency Friday that the city government did not issue even a single occupancy permit because the houses lack sanitation facilities.
Indanan disclosed that the installation of the sanitation facilities of stilt houses in Sitio Hong Kong, Barangay Rio Hondo, falls under the jurisdiction of the Local Water Utility Administration (LUWA).
The housing units are being occupied by the victims of the 2013 Zamboanga siege.
“There was a ceremonial turn-over because of the clamor of the IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) that should there be ready housing units, it should be immediately awarded (to them),” Indanan explained.
He added that the NHA still needs to officially turnover the houses to the local government.
Meanwhile, Cesar Jimenez Jr., City Hall spokesperson, said the local government has already issued occupancy permits to more than 2,000 units of houses constructed on land for the 2013 Zamboanga siege victims.
Jimenez said these houses are located in Barangays Kasanyangan, Sta. Barbara, and Sta. Catalina and at the city government resettlement site in Barangay Tulungatung.
NHA was tasked to build 8,161 housing units–houses on stilts and on land–for the families displaced during the 21-day 2013 Zamboanga siege. (R. G. Antonet Go)
