Gov. Migs, private developer ink P80-M joint venture for Sarangani employees housing

By Beverly Paoyon

ALABEL, Sarangani (January 7, 2010) – Governor Migs Dominguez on Wednesday (January 6) signed a joint venture agreement with Sarangani Land and Property Corporation president and chairman Benirando D. Claudio, developer of the 6-hectare provincial employees housing project here.

The housing project, called the Capitol Residences, is an initiative of the provincial government to “reduce the housing backlog and improve the provincial employees performance and service efficiency” considering the proximity which is only about 10 to 15 minute-ride to the Capitol complex.

Dominguez said the roughly P80-million investment would benefit homeless Capitol employees as the priority beneficiaries..

“It is a model housing project that the provincial government can be proud of,” the governor said.

The site would be subdivided into 180 housing units with 210 square meters land area and 39.24 sq. meters floor area each unit. “We made it larger than normal housing units size in subdivisions,” Dominguez said to anticipate plans for improvement by the owners.

Claudio said Capitol Residences is a formal subdivision with complete subdivision features but only at a socialized total package cost of P460,000 per house and lot at present available computation.

He stressed this is the “biggest investment this year on top of Conal Holdings not only in General Santos City but also in Sarangani which spends P80 million over the period of one year.”

Once the Capitol Residences is open, Claudio said this would also signal the jump-start of the socio-economic development in Alabel as more businesses would come in..

The provincial government purchased the land at Purok Sto. Niño, barangay poblacion of Alabel for P6 million but it has been agreed that the provincial government would recoup the raw cost plus one peso from the developer thru the take out proceeds or equivalent to P33,334 per housing unit.

Provincial Administrator office-in-charge Vicente Camacho said the 180 individual titles were already prepared to avoid ownership problems later on.

“Whoever gets into the community, hindi magkakaproblema except for the monthly amortization,” he said, but they have to pay religiously.

The housing project would be implemented thru a mortgage with the Home development Mutual Fund and other private financial institution to grant to interested and qualified buyers the financial assistance for the purchase of the housing units.

Dominguez wanted also to share the benefits of this project to the private sector and encourage greater participation from them.

South Cotabato Electric Cooperative, Inc. will provide for the electrical distribution system while the municipal local government of Alabel was tapped to provide the water system.

The joint venture agreement shall take effect within 30 days and would automatically expire upon the completion of land development, housing construction, and collection of all project receivables. (Beverly Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)