NHA soon to construct housing units for Dumingag IPs

By Claro A. Lanipa

PAGADIAN CITY, Oct 15 (PIA) – To help improve the living condition of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), the National Housing Authority (NHA) will soon construct low-cost housing units for the Subanens in Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur.

National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Region IX Director Salong Sunggod said that NHA, the local government unit of Dumingag and NCIP, has recently entered into an agreement for the implementation of the said housing project.

Sunggod said, no less than the President’s sister Bell Aquino witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between NHA, NCIP and LGU-Dumingag held October 1, 2012 at the cultural hall in Dumingag.

Under the agreement, 100 housing units will be constructed in a five hectares Ancestral Domain land at barangay Datu Tutukan. Each unit will cost P100,000 to be funded by NHA, Sungood said.

“This project is a unique housing program and not a sub-division type. The housing unit shall be built according to the design and culture of the IPs. It shall be built in an area where they do their farming for livelihood using indigenous materials,” Dir. Sunggod explained.

Meanwhile, NCIP is celebrating Indigenous People’s Month and 15^th anniversary of Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 this month with the theme “IPRA ay Gabay sa Kaunlaran Isaisip, Ipabatid at Isakatupran.” (JPA/CAL/PIA9)