Housing exec denies land overpricing try

By NITZ ARANCON and LITO RULONA

Correspondents

THE chairman of city hall’s Shelter and Housing Development Task Force yesterday strongly denied Councilor Alexander Dacer’s allegation that there was an attempt to overprice a 10-hectare Lumbia property being eyed by the Moreno administration as a relocation site for some 700 families displaced in the aftermath of the Typhoon Sendong devastation in 2011.

Ramon Fernandez, the task force’s chairman, said Dacer lied when the councilor alleged that city hall wanted to buy the Lumbia property for P265 per square meter when landowners’ price was supposedly only P265 per square meter. The landowners are heirs of Rizal Gador. Fernandez said the original price was P300 per square meter, and not P200 as claimed by Dacer. He said the National Housing Authority (NHA) offered P285 per square meter, and then city hall asked that it be reduced to P265 per square meter for the sake of the Typhoon Sendong survivors.

City treasurer Glenn Bañez called Dacer’s accusation “premature.” “What overpricing is he talking about? The property has not been bought yet by city hall,” Bañez said. City hall has eyed Gador’s property as a potential relocation site which is a requirement for the release of some P54 million in Japanese aid for Sendong survivors.

An official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) told the city council on Monday she feared the Japanese government would take back the aid unless it is used by the government within three months.The DSWD also sought a city council authority for Mayor Oscar Moreno to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Department so the foreign aid could be used in building 772 housing units within a 10-hectare property. Dacer, for his part, said there were serious issues and concerns about the Lumbia property, and “dili pa gayud mo-act ang committee until such time that these are corrected.”

The councilor is the chairman of the city council’s subdivision and landed estate committee. He pointed out Bañez and acting city engineer Rolando Pacuribot’s recommendation to buy the lot for P265 per square meter. But Dacer said the zonal value was only pegged at P155 per square meter, and sales data show P200 based on information from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).City legal officer Donald Delegencia issued a third and final endorsement to the city council’s committee on finance and ways and means, attaching Appraisal Report on Lot no. 20450, the Gador family’s Lumbia property.

The appraisal report was also endorsed to the Local Finance Committee for the issuance of a certification of availability of funds in the amount of some P29.522 million. The city assessor, and appraisal committee chairman Joshua Delbando certified that the market value of the property as contained in the appraisal report was “fair, just and reasonable.” Another concern is a certification issued by Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) that part of the 10-hectare property may not be suitable for housing.

The certificate issued by Cenro Aldrich Resma on Jan. 13, 2013 declared a portion of the property––or some eight thousand square meters––as a timberland. Dacer said the committee inspected the property, and found that nearly a hectare was composed of slopes.

He said another portion of the property would also be affected by a farm-to-market road project of the public works department.“Mao nga dili gyud namo maecommend for acquisition because daghan pa i-consider nga usabon, not to mention the overpriced assessment of the appraisal group,” Dacer said.