Refer to: Ms. Dale Zapata
                                                                                                                                                            83321148/8334507

                                                                          

Fil-Chinese business chamber

Backs De Castro’s shelter program
02 September 2005

 

THE largest ethnic-based business organization in the country recently demonstrated its support for the national housing program currently spearheaded by Vice-President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) concurrent Chairman Noli ‘Kabayan’ De Castro.

 

De Castro said that the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCI) committed the other day to donate a school for the children of former informal settlers from the Northrail right of way now residing in Northville 6.

 

According to De Castro, the move is proof of the growing interest of the private sector to partner with the government in sheltering millions of homeless and under privileged Filipinos.

 

“This only shows that our friends in the private sector believe in the importance and urgency of the government’s shelter thrust. I thank FFCCCI for lending us a helping hand in making the lives of our poor countrymen better,” he said.

 

FFCCCI president Francis Chua joined De Castro in the groundbreaking and capsule laying ceremonies for the two classroom-size schools to be built in a 1,156 square meter lot area situated at the rear portion of the Northville 6.

 

The project, with an estimated cost of a little more than P300,000, is expected to be finished in less than a month, according to Bobby Lim, director for  the Welfare Committee of the FFCCCI.

 

Lim said there is a big possibility that FFCCCI would replicate the project in other Northville communities as the federation sees it as an opportunity to contribute its members’ share in nation-building.

 

“I believe the Vice-President and Mr. Chua are currently discussing the matter,” he said.

 

Lim said the FFCCCI plans to add two more classrooms for the school in Northville 6 next year to accommodate more children.

 

Meanwhile, De Castro lauded the National Housing Authority (NHA) for job a well done in Northville 6 where the completion rate stood at almost 50 percent.

 

NHA general manager Federico Laxa reported to De Castro that out of the 1,141 families to be relocated from the railways of Baranggay Longos, more than 500 families are already sheltered at the Northville 6.

 

Rico Abueva, NHA project manager for Balagtas, Bulacan, said the project might be completed before the end of September, a month earlier than the October target.

 

De Castro likewise awarded certificates of lot allocation to the newly relocated railway families during simple ceremonies also attended by local government officials from Bulacan led by Balagtas mayor Reynaldo Castro.   

 

 

Ref. No. VPMEDIA 05-115