Preparatory Steps Initiated Toward CLIFF Expansion in Bacolod City

BACOLOD CITY- "Hitting four birds in one stone", Sonia Cadonigara, regional coordinator for Western Visayas and over-all program coordinator of the Homeless People's Federation Philippines Inc.(HPFPI), happily said while riding on a cab going back to San Isidro, Jaro, Iloilo City. Wednesday; May 5, 2010, Cardonigara went to Bacolod City to set up the HPFPI office in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental which is part of Philippine Alliance's initiative of replicating the Community-led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) in other cities in the country. 

A room worth five thousand pesos (P5000.00) per month within the Farmers Marketing Center (FMC) building in Circumferential Road, Alijis, Bacolod City is to be rented to serve as HPFPI Bacolod City Office. The rental fee covers electricity, water supply and the lodging cost. Specifically, it is located at the ground floor of the FMC building adjacent to the FMC's field personnel office. Moreover, internet connection is very accessible because the whole building is a "wifi-zone". As a head start, the office was checked to identify the office supplies and equipments needed for the initial set-up.


A meeting with the Kapisan Homeowners Association (HOA) represented by Benedicto Quilla, HOA President and Marissa Parel of barangay Vista Alegre, Bacolod City was also held during the same day to verify the forthcoming city-wide survey in Bacolod which is expected to commence after the May 10 election. 

As focal persons, Kapisan HOA representatives, Benedicto Quilla and Marissa Parel were assigned to confirm to the trained community surveyors that the city-wide survey will surely start after the election.


On the other hand, as a way of giving value to the role of the city government in every activity of the HPFPI, Cadonigara also had a meeting with the Bacolod Housing Authority (BHA) department head, Josephine Segundino. Segundino reassured her assistance, especially in formulating strategies for the upcoming survey. Furthermore, recognizing the mutual gains that can result from a partnership with the Academe, Cadonigara also tapped the College of Engineering (COE) and the Research Development and Extension Office (RDEO) of the West Negros University in the person of Dean Dioscoro Maranon Jr. and Victoria Demonteverde for the technical assistance and logistics support through student volunteers. They came up with a decision of drafting a memorandum of agreement between HPFPI Iloilo and West Negros University to be signed tentatively on June 2010.

     Setting up the office and tapping of prospective partners were part of the preparatory activities toward the expansion and continuity of the Community-led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) which started in Iloilo. Despite the risks of project expansion and replication, CLIFF will certainly make another difference in the lives of the urban poor communities in Bacolod City.

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HPFPI-PACSII Iloilo Set Direction for 2011

ILOILO CITY- HPFPI and PACSII Iloilo staff and volunteers convened a meeting last January 5-6 to evaluate the federation’s performance in undertaking its development thrusts for the past year. Also, during the meeting the federation and its technical support organization, set their priority activities as new challenges and opportunities welcomes year 2011.

The federation enumerated its pipeline activities for this year which include follow through activities to update community savings status of CLIFF, Housing Materials Assistance and ACHR upgrading communities including those who availed the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s 4Ps Program (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). Since community savings has been the backbone and the primary organizing tool of the federation, there is a need to capacitate the existing savings groups in terms of financial management as well as to revive  those communities with inactive savings members. The federation has already identified key persons that will compose a team whose task is to validate and assist communities in updating their savings records and financial status. Follow-up orientation and hands-on training on community savings will be conducted for DSWD 4P’s beneficiairies who have not yet started their savings.


Monitoring of repayment status of communities who availed the upgrading loan from the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) is another task lined-up with the federation’s priority activities this 2010. It’s been three years already since the ACHR granted the seed capital to finance the 10 small-scale upgrading projects in selected pilot communities in Iloilo City. However, some factors like insufficiency of income sources of individual members, lack of receptivity of local government officials to the project and the skepticism of some members about the reliability of their leaders especially the designated loan collectors, have resulted to the unsustainability of loan repayment of upgrading communities. Difficulty of reorienting members of pilot communities about their loan repayment obligation poses another challenge to the Iloilo City Urban Poor Network which facilitates the community-led upgrading program. As a deliberate effort to address this problem, HPFPI will spearhead the regular loan repayment collection from upgrading communities every Thursday. Aside from regular upgrading loan collection, HPFP community leaders will also assist in recordings and bokeeping to keep track the community’s repayment collection.


These kind of initiatives being spearheaded by the federation to revive the savings and community-led upgrading program implementation is a good start for the year 2011. The federation also hopes to expand its membership on savings to its network communities including the non-affiliates. With proper and close monitoring of upgrading loan collection, the federation will have the opportunity to replicate the upgrading program to other communities who are also capable of demonstrating their own solutions to slum problems which they encounter.