KAWIT, Cavite — The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) on Thursday forged a partial acceptance and turn-over agreement with the provincial government of Cavite and host relocation site General Trias City for the housing units of some 500 displaced informal settler-families who will be affected by the light rail expansion project.
LRTA Administrator Reynaldo Berroya, Cavite Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla and General Trias City Mayor Antonio Ferrer signed the turnover agreement at the Island Cove Hotel and Leisure Park in Binakayan, Kawit before project proponents and Cavite local officials.
This is the second batch of 500 informal settlers-families who will be relocated to the resettlement site in Barangay Santiago in General Trias City.
Berroya said that it was on September last year when he requested Remulla on LRTA’s plan to buy a land in Cavite worth PHP500 million for the light rail expansion project.
He said the extension of the LRTA Line 1 project in Cavite, once completed, would speed up travel time among Cavite’s LRT commuters for only an hour from the station in Niog, Bacoor City up to Quezon City.
But, the land was not sufficient for their project, prompting the LRTA administrator to propose the PHP340 million more for the land as relocation site and settlements of 484 more families in the said barangay.
The resettlement of some 1,185 informal settlers-families in Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor started in 2008 since they will be affected by the construction of Line 1 extension from Niog, Bacoor city to Metro Manila.
Subsequently, around 21 hectares of land in Barangay Santiago in General Trias City was developed as the resettlement site of the informal settlers from the affected areas of the extension project.
Remulla expressed elation on the partial turnover of the housing units which took five months for the next batch of around 500 informal settler-families who could move in this year, after some 484 families were relocated earlier last year.
“The settlement of these people in a clean, humane and inhabitable environment will be appreciated by them,” Remulla said, citing that the housing site had clean, potable water, clean environment and other necessities to improve their lives better. (Rogelio Limpin/PNA)
