COA orders eviction of illegal occupants in Manila dormitory units

The Commission on Audit has ordered the eviction of six retired public school teachers and dozens of alleged illegal occupants of dormitory units operated by the Manila city government that is also currently plagued by non-payment of maintenance fees reaching R1.82 million.

COA has also asked city officials to recover from the Department of Social Welfare Development the Universidad de Manila gymnasium currently being used as evacuation facility for streetchildren.

The construction of the UDM gymnasium is one of nine infrastructure projects that the city government failed to implement in 2016, according to the 2016 annual audit report for Manila that COA released Wednesday.

“The non implementation of nine projects with total cost of R159.400 million, funded out of the 20 percent Development Fund for CY 2016, deprived the constituents of the benefits that could be derived from the projects,” the audit report stated.

The audit report indicated that at least 200 occupants of units in the Numancia residences have incurred arrears in the payment of their R1,000 monthly maintenance fees for the dormitory units.

At least 16 of the occupants have not been paying for at least four years while 33 others for at least two years.

Located on Urbiztondo, Binondo, Numancia has 416 dormitory units offered to public school teachers assigned in several Manila schools. Under the Occupancy Agreement, no fee will be collected from the teachers, except for a minimal R1,000 in monthly maintenance cost.

“It was observed that majority of the unit owners are delinquent in their payment of the maintenance fee but the corresponding penalties and charges were not imposed, inconsistent with the Occupancy Agreement and the Numancia Residences House Rules and Regulations,” COA said.

Auditors also chided the city government for failing to execute the cancelation of occupancy agreements for 25 units being occupied by “persons not considered as legitimate occupants.” Most of these “illegal” occupants are relatives of teachers who signed the occupancy pacts.

Six others are also no longer qualified to occupy units for retiring and separating from the service for over a year now.

“Management to file appropriate charges and notice of cancellation to vacate the units assigned to all retired teachers,” the COA recommendation stated.

Further, the state audit agency also urged the city government to “legally take over the physical possession of “units occupied by 48 tenants whose occupancy contracts have been canceled due to non- payment of maintenance fees.

“It should be noted that residency at the Numancia residence is a grant or privilege given only to public school employees/teachers within the City of Manila. This privilege is non-transferrable even to relatives,” COA said.