NAVOTAS — The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) and Navotas municipal government asked the squatter residents on C-4 Road in Bagumbayan North to prepare to vacate the area which the government is converting to a bus terminal.
In an interview, municipal engineer Miguel Serrano said that they have held a dialogue with the residents especially those living under the bridge along the area and reiterated the government’s project to fully develop the "North Bus Terminal".
Serrano said last week, Mayor Toby Tiangco has sought National Housing Authority (NHA) officials to facilitate the papers of about 56 qualified residents to be able to fasttrack their immediate relocation to Towerville Subdivision, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan as soon as possible.
The local government has assured to extend some assistance to the affected families for humanitarian reason as soon as they start transferring to their new found homes at Towerville, one of the relocation sites reportedly developed by the government.
The relocation site, Serrano said, has been allegedly developed by the NHA with houses build complete with electrification and water facilities, Serrano said.
The MMDA agreed to jointly develop the area with the local government after Navotas officials reportedly presented it to the MMDA as the new bus terminal at the time when the MMDA was looking for a bus terminal plying in Navotas-Baclaran routes.
Development in the area, is like "turning garbage into gold," as Tiangco often said to his people.
The site was a former dumpsite before the "Navotas Dump Facility" was developed two years ago.
The Navotas government decided to make the area not only a bus terminal but make it as a sociocultural site, like developing park for children and adults where people could relax after rendering tiresome jobs the whole day.
Because of its strategic location, Tiangco said C-4 Road would be a "show window" of the municipal government of Navotas, one of the smallest municipalities in the Philippines.
At present, the circumferential road is now the place where sports enthusiasts from the municipality and nearby city of Malabon usually hold their regular exercises every Saturday and Sunday under "Oplan Kilos Katawan" designed to give free aerobics and tae-bo lessons.
