Long-neglected informal settler families are at the heart of the nationwide Enhanced Community Mortgage Program (ECMP) which provides them with secure land tenure and decent housing under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s flagship Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.

Spearheaded by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) through the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), the ECMP is among the people-centered housing modalities revitalized under the Expanded 4PH following the assumption to office of Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling last year.

It is the revived and streamlined version of the older Community Mortgage Program that seeks financing for organized communities, particularly low income and informal settler families to legally acquire the land they’ve long occupied.

In Isabela province recently more than 700 individuals were awarded checks for the acquisition of the land they called home for years. The latest ECMP beneficiaries were members of the Plaridel Village CMP Homeowners Association in Barangay Plaridel, Santiago City.

Priceless security

The Plaridel Village HOA became the 25th ECMP project to receive land acquisition assistance since the program’s re-launch last year. The awarding was led by DHSUD Region 2 director Marvin Feraren, SHFC North Luzon vice President Jones Tomas, and LGU officials.

In Cordon, Isabela, more than 134 families of the Amianan CMP Homeowners Association in Barangay Sagat received checks as land acquisition assistance.

“In accordance with President BBM’s directive, we will step up efforts to expand and enhance the ECMP across the country,” Aliling said.

ECMP awarding events were also held in Zamboanga City, Bacolod City and Cagayan province.

In Cagayan, 77 families from the Ibay CMP Homeowners Association in Barangay Gadu, Solana received cash assistance to acquire a 1.1-hectare property occupied by their community.