DAVAO CITY (PNA) – The Department of Education (DepEd) will make as a model the city government’s project here that provides housing to public school teachers and non-teaching personnel.

This developed after top officials from the government’s key housing agencies signed here recently a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the city government here that would provide housing to homeless public school teachers and non-teaching personnel in the city.

No less than DepEd Undersecretary Ramon Bacani attended the signing in behalf of Secretary Jesli Lapuz.

Bacani said DepEd would look into how the Davao City project could be replicated nationwide to benefit teachers throughout the country.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held for the two-hectare project in Lasang – the country’s first ever joint venture on low-cost housing for public school teachers between a local government and key government housing agencies and the private sector.

The MoU on the undertaking involves Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, DepEd Secretary Jesli A. Lapuz, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) Chief Executive Officer Jaime A. Fabiana, National Housing Authority (NHA) General Manager Federico A. Laxa, and Habitat for Humanity Philippines Foundation, Inc., Chairman Francisco F. del Rosario.

City Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, chair of the Committee on Housing, Rural and Urban Development, said 250 public school teachers and non-teaching personnel would find home in the teachers’ village where Habitat would build low-cost housing priced at P400,000 per unit for a total cost of P100 million.

Under the MoU, Cabling said the local government provides the raw land to be developed by the NHA where Habitat would build low-cost housing for qualified beneficiaries screened by DepEd who will be taking out loans from Pag-IBIG.

The project is under the Pabahay Program of DepEd that aims to provide decent and affordable housing to teachers and non-teaching personnel of the department who cannot acquire housing due to their insufficient salary and the restrictive cost of housing, he said.