PGMA visits housing project for homeless railway families

MANILA, Oct. 13 (PNA) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to visit on Monday the housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA) in Calauan, Laguna for the poor families who were rendered homeless by the ongoing rehabilitation of the country’s railway system.

The 58.86-hectare government property in barangays Dayap and Santo Tomas, both in Calauan, Laguna, is the proposed relocation site for the former railway families whose houses were demolished to give way to the South Rail project.

The Calauan housing project was initiated by former President Fidel V. Ramos and was later continued by his successor, Joseph Estrada.

Local NHA officials said informal settlers in San Juan, Manila were supposed to benefit from the project but the plan failed to materialize with Estrada’s ouster.

The project was never used since then.

In 2006, President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairman Noli De Castro to convert the government property into a relocation site for railway families.

“This is part of government efforts to find other options in providing homes for the poor families who are going to be evicted from the railways to give way for national development,” De Castro earlier said after he visited the housing project site.

To make sure that the site is fit for a relocation site, the NHA in coordination with the provincial government of Laguna and other local agencies put water and power systems in the area.