The City Council passed on third reading two ordinances amending the pricing scheme for the Marapangi Homes resettlement and Tigatto Homes resettlement project under the urban land reform program of the local government.
Councilor Rene Elias Lopez, chair of the committee of housing, rural, and urban development, passed the said ordinances during the regular session at the Sangguniang Panlungsod yesterday.
“The City Planning and Development Office will now start to collect payment from the actual beneficiaries of the urban land reform program of both Tigatto and Marapangi for the 80 square meter land provided by the city government,” said Lopez in an interview.
According to Lopez, more than 150 awardees each of the resettlement project have not paid since the beginning of the program.
“The program was initiated under then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in 1998 but the beneficiaries never paid ever since,” Lopez said.
In 1998, the city government acquired the 29,839 square meter land for the Tigatto resettlement at P7,459,750, while the 20,291 square meter for the Marapangi resettlement was acquired at P5 million.
“The city planning executive admitted that they neglected to collect. This is the reason why we remind the city planning to be consistent with their duties especially with the use of the public funds,” he said.
“The funds used to acquire the land needs to be recollected back so that it can be used again to buy more lands for our Davaoeños,” Lopez added.
The city pricing committee proposed a pricing scheme on an installment basis in three, four, or five years for Marapangi and one or 10 year for Tigatto.
For the Marapangi resettlement project, the principal cost is at P67,544.40 with 6% per annum total interest rate and monthly amortization. While for the Tigatto resettlement, the principal cost is at 62,544 with 6% per annum total interest rate and monthly amortization.
“The prices we are using are still on 1998 because that is the price used by the city government at that time so it is really very affordable,” Lopez said.
