The Pag-IBIG Fund and the Caloocan North Mentors Ville Association Inc. recently led the groundbreaking ceremony of the Mentors Ville 1 housing project at Palmera Spring Ville, Camarin Road, Caloocan City, where 173 houses will be built on the 10,147-sq. m. lot.
“This is Pag-IBIG’s first housing project in Caloocan in partnership with a developer specifically for teachers. The beneficiaries have already been identified for the housing project and we hope that this will be an inspiration to provide more housing for teachers,” said Pag-IBIG Acting Deputy CEO for Home Lending Operations Cluster Marilene C. Acosta.
According to Pag-IBIG Acting Senior Vice President for Business Development Sector Benjamin R. Felix, Jr., there will be regular townhouse units and other units with firewalls. Each unit has a lot area of 35 sq. m. and a selling price of P1.2 million. “The housing project’s beneficiaries can avail of the units through Pag-IBIG’s End-User Home Financing program,” he explained.
CNMVAI president Ma. Luisa S. Dannug thanked Pag-IBIG and project developer Hauwei Builders and Development Corp. for helping realize the long-time dream of teachers of having their own home.
“We are blessed today because we were given the opportunity to fulfill our dreams as teachers,” Dannug said.
DepEd Division of Caloocan Supervisor Connie Bunag also thanked both parties for giving teachers the opportunity to own a house.
Pag-IBIG signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Education as early as Dec. 2, 2011 to give DepEd employees and teachers access to housing services such as housing loan counselling and pre-qualification screening, among others.
Formed on September 2014, CNMVAI is composed of 1,600 teachers from various public schools in North Caloocan.
Through the organizational expertise of the Institute for Social Welfare of Educators and Researchers, it was created purposely to have a group focused on working towards the provision of housing to member-mentors of the government.
Last September 2015, in coordination with the DepEd Central Office, Pag-IBIG met with CNMVAI to discuss the proposed housing project for teachers.
Since then, Pag-IBIG has assisted CNMVAI in finding a potential partner-developer/proponent willing to undertake a housing project that is superior in terms of design but more affordable than the regular inventories offered by developers.
Pag-IBIG also provided briefings on its programs to CNMVAI’s identified potential contractor/developer, conducted prequalification services to CNMVAI members, and used the data as basis for the type of housing units and package price that should be adopted.
CNMVAI finally found a partner in HBDC, which accepted the challenge of offering an in-city housing project that will provide higher-quality housing units that are very affordable to the teachers in North Caloocan.
HBDC used to be a DepEd-accredited contractor for school buildings, and acquired the one-hectare property for this project.
After a series of discussions on the unit design and package price, a partnership among HBDC (developer), CNMVAI (teachers-beneficiaries), and ISWEAR (mobilizer) was sealed last January 16.