Capitol cleanup, construction of IP houses kick-off New Year activities for country’s newest province
DAVAO CIT Y—Davao de Oro (DDO), the country’s newest province, started the year with a cleanup drive around the provincial capitol and the first pronouncement that the provincial government would construct additional houses for its indigenous peoples (IP).
On its first stretching up for the year, the province has declared January 3 as “Clean-up Day” after the Christmas holidays that left decorations to be torn down and garbage to be collected.
Gov. Jayvee Tyron Uy issued Memorandum 1438-2019 on December 26, declaring January 3 to be a general cleanup activity. The memorandum came almost two weeks after a December 7 plebiscite unanimously ratified the change in name from Compostela Valley to Davao de Oro.
“After a long holiday, the DDO Capitol Employees tore down Christmas and other decorations to give way to the new change of the year and the new name of the province as Davao de Oro,” the provincial government said.
Meanwhile, First District Rep. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora announced in a government convocation program last Monday that different tribal groups in the province would receive another batch of 500 houses this year.
This latest batch of proposed dwellings would be on top of the 300 houses approved for construction by the provincial government.
Zamora said the announcement came from the National Housing Authority (NHA), which broke the news to him, “even as the provincial project to construct the [first batch of] 300 houses was still being processed.”
The NHA construction would be done in the five tribal communities in the five towns of Davao de Oro province. He said the NHA would also allocate an addition of P100 million to the provincial project.
The provincial project was also a joint project with the NHA contained in three memorandum of agreements, allocating 100 housing units each to the following tribes in various localities: Mandaya, Manobo, Dibabawon and Mangguwangan tribes in Barangay Awao, Monkayo; the Dibabawon and Mangguwangan tribes in Barangay Prosperidad, Montevista; and Mandaya and Mansaka tribes in Barangay Pagsabangan, New Bataan.