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WITH President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo no less
distributing “contracts to sell” to them, 748 informal settlers
(or squatters, to use the less politically correct term) settled
illegally at the National Government Center area in Quezon City were
instantly made legit and given the opportunity to buy and own the
home lots they had unilaterally occupied.
All the 748 contract
awardees—368 from the National Government Center (NGC) East Side,
and 380 from the NGC West Side—received the contracts that signal
the start of the land-acquisition process over their occupied lots
that were actually meant to comprise the country’s NGC, but which
the informal settlers started occupying in the late 1970’s.
The NHA, which processed the
papers for the latest home lot beneficiaries, said a total of 55,000
families living in the area stand to benefit from the latest
awarding of contracts to sell. It was the first time that the
squatters from the NGC East Side received contracts to sell.
Before the latest awarding
ceremony—at which the President was assisted by Mayor Feliciano
Belmonte of Quezon City and Federico Laxa, general manager of the
National Housing Authority—some 4,400 families had been awarded
the same, while 604 other families received their Deeds of Absolute
Sale.
The NHA said the National
Government Center Housing Project (NGCHP) is being implemented by
the NHA as trustee by virtue of Republic Act 9207, otherwise known
as the “National Government Center (NGC) Housing and Land
Utilization Act of 2003.”
The concept of the NGC has a
checkered history. From a total land area of 444 hectares, the area
left for the country’s NGC has now been cut down to some 50 odd
hectares.
The NGC was created in accordance
with the declaration in 1948 of Quezon City as the national’s
capital city in lieu of Manila. The NGC had an original area of 136
hectares which was donated by the Rodriguez family.
By April 25, 1975, then-President
Ferdinand Marcos issued Memorandum Order No. 828 which created the
NGC Development Committee, and expanded the NGC area to 359
hectares.
The area was further expanded to
444 hectares in 1979 through Proclamation No. 1826, with the
boundaries of the Constitution Hills area tagged on for good
measure.
Eight years later 150 hectares of
the NGC site were deducted by then-President Corazon Aquino via
Proclamation No. 137, opening the western area of the Batasan
grounds for disposition to bona fide residents.
Eleven years later then-President
Fidel Ramos declared 238 hectares of the eastern portion as a
mixed-use area, including for socialized housing, effectively
reducing to only 56 hectares the area now remaining for the NGC.
For her part, President Arroyo
granted the informal settlers security of tenure, thus strengthening
the validity of previous pro-settlers proclamations, by her signing
of Republic Act 9207—the NGC Housing and Land Utilization Act that
was used to process the contracts of the latest lot beneficiaries.
Very interestingly,
Manila—which was restored as the national capital in 1976—has
remained so ever since with no challenges seen to its imperial
status.
However, what this whole NGC
debacle shows is that squatting can eventually be a lucrative
business.
E-mail: bizzfizz_98@yahoo.com.
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