TACLOBAN CITY – The Gawad Kalinga (GK) is targeting to provide shelter to an estimated 15,000 informal settlers in this city through their partnership with various civic and private sectors based in this city, especially with the help of Mayor Alfred Romualdez, said Jade Quicot, GK city coordinator at the weekly press forum “Express it at the Park.”
At present, the GK has two pilot areas in the city, one in Cabalawan where an initial total of 16 residential houses constructed through the process of volunteerism are to be awarded to its beneficiaries by March.
The other project site is in Palanog area that covers 10 hectares with a total of 77 houses to be constructed.
But Quicot revealed that in their Palanog project only 37 potential beneficiaries are active in the various activities conducted by their organization like in their values formation seminar and on housing construction activities.
Aside from Tacloban, there are other GK sites in the region-Leyte with a total of 30 GK villages, among which aside from the two in the city of Tacloban are found in the municipality of Palo, Kananga, Bato, Ormoc City, among others.
Quicot revealed that aside from the two project sites, the GK management with the help of the city government is now on the stage of planning to put another GK site in the Sto. Niño area, a barangay in the northern part of the city which most of the beneficiaries are the informal settlers residing in Sitio Alimasag, San Jose.
Residents in Sitio Alimasag are among to be affected on the planned expansion and upgrading of the DZR Airport.
Quicot added that in the process of awarding the title of houses to the beneficiaries, there are certain qualifications that each beneficiary should meet and abide. This include their sincerity to help the organization in the construction of their would-be houses and by attending various seminars organized by the coordinators such as the value formation seminar conducted every week.
He added that beneficiaries of houses from GK are bound to observe and follow the condition stipulated in the “deed of restriction” that includes the non-conversion of their houses into a boarding houses, store or sell it to other individuals.
“If they wanted to engaged in business inside the GK village, we had allocated a space inside the village where they can put-up their business,” said Quicot.
Aside from providing area for business purposes, Quicot added that there is also an area allocated for schools, multi-purposes area and other buildings that is important in a community.
He added the organization is strongly requiring beneficiaries to have a small garden where they can plant vegetables for their own consumption.
“This project is to encourage residents in the village to be closer with nature and to allow them to have fresh foods served on their meals,” Quicot explains. (ROEL AMAZONA)
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