NHA’s resettlement program gets funding boost

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released a total of P401.2 million to fund the government’s resettlement program, cash incentives for “centenarians” in Mindanao and the training-for-work scholarship program.

In a statement Tuesday, the DBM said it had released P212.9 million on Monday to the National Housing Authority (NHA) the national government’s subsidy for the state-run firm’s resettlement program.

“This NHA program provides new settlement areas for families occupying danger areas such as waterways/riverbanks, railroad tracks, sidewalks, and others, and those displaced from sites earmarked for government infrastructure projects. To the extent possible, the in-city resettlement approach is adopted to minimize the social, economic, cultural and political impacts of dislocation. Off-city resettlement is resorted to when all means to implement the former have been exhausted,” the DBM said.

In July, the DBM also released P55.9 million for the same NHA program, it noted.

The DBM also on Monday released P21.8 million to cover the cash incentives to be given to 218 centenarians or those who reached the age of 100 in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao  this year.

The Centenarians Act of 2016 mandated the grant of a one-time cash incentive worth P100,000 to centenarians.

Also, the DBM on Monday released P166.5 million for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda)-led training-for-work scholarship program.

“The [Tesda scholarship program] is directed toward filling up the skills gaps and job requirements of priority industries and sectors with high employment demand, improving the reach of quality Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to the grassroots and encouraging technical-vocational institutions to offer programs that cater to in-demand industry requirements,” the DBM said.

“The [scholarship program’s] qualifications and courses are focused on ‘key employment generators’ in the areas of: agrifishery/agribusiness/agroindustrial;  tourism; information technology-business process management; semiconductor and electronics; automotive and other priority manufacturing industries; logistics; and general infrastructure and new and emerging sectors,” it added.