NAGA CITY—A groundbreaking ceremony for the housing projects to be implemented under the auspices of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) thru the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) program of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reeled off today, March 16, in a 1.2 hectare of land inside the Balatas New Development Area (BNDA).

Specifically, the area will be the site of 7 medium or high-rise condominiums called The Legacy Residences – each to have 12 storeys or more with over 220 suites. Every unit has a floor area of 6×4 meters.

The construction of the facilities is expected to help shape the BNDA as another center of commerce and development in the city.

The Marcos administration thru the DHSUD aims to provide shelters for over six million families in six years. The project aims to provide one million housing units per year.

In his message, Marcos assured the Nagueños that his administration will pursue the construction of the condominiums which is expected to provide the city with more than 1,100 homes in that area alone.

He even told the Pabahay program beneficiaries who attended the groundbreaking rite that aside from the housing projects, his administration will see to it that they will be provided also with opportunities to land a job and engage in the government’s livelihood program.  

Marcos gladly acknowledged Mayor Nelson Legacion’s achievements at the BNDA where his administration was able to put up a national high school, a modern hospital which is to be equipped with estate-of-the-art apparatuses, an event/evacuation center, and the Center for Safety and Resiliency (CeSaR) where the headquarters of the Naga City Police Office, Public Safety Office, the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, and the Bureau of Fire Protection are to be established.

The president said that the BNDA comes as an ideal pilot area for his Pambansang Pabahay program.      

He said the housing projects are offshoot of the national government’s determination to realize the objectives defined under its 4PH program. 

“I am glad to inform you that the DHSUD has signed 83 memorandum of agreements and four memoranda of understandings with the different local government units so that partnerships and collaborations can be forged toward the achievement of orderly and safe communities,” he said.

“We are also looking into the possibility of involving the idle estate-owned lands in the Pabahay program,” the president said.  Media reports said that he will implement Section 24 of Republic Act No. 11201, which mandates several government agencies to jointly identify idle state lands suitable for housing and rural development,” Marcos said.

The Pambansang Pabahay allows the commitment of Mayor Nelson Legacion to the city’s locals to build affordable homes for informal settlers and constituents who are low-income earners.   

Aside from the 7 buildings to be constructed at the BNDA, 5 more housing projects under the same program are up in other barangays of the city like those to be put up at Sitio Iwid in Barangay Balatas, and in the villages of Lerma, Sta. Cruz, San Felipe, and Carolina.

The groundbreaking rite is also graced by the presence of DHSUD Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar.