ABS-CBNnews.com, April 24, 2007
President Arroyo has assured the more than 200 families who lost their homes to a fire last Monday at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City that they will soon be given new homes.
In a visit to the site of the fire at Barangay UP Campus, Botocan and Krus na Ligas, the President vowed to provide the 234 families with a new home within the campus.
She asked Vice-President Noli de Castro, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Council, to assist the affected families.
A statement from Malacañang indicated that the proposed housing project is a medium-rise building patterned after the Marcos-era BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services) buildings. The proposed site is near the Sikatuna BLISS building at the UP campus.
Mrs. Arroyo was accompanied by Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Councilor Ariel Inton, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Undersecretary Lualhati Pablo.
The displaced families are now staying at Pook Libis’s barangay hall. The UP administration assured the fire victims, who are informal settlers, that they will not be evicted from the areas they occupy inside the UP campus.
Inton said Mrs. Arroyo called up UP president Emerlinda Roman, asking her that the displaced families be allowed to stay in campus until the housing project is completed.
Mrs. Arroyo instructed the DSWD and the Quezon City government to "provide the immediate needs" of fire victims such as food and water.
