Employees call for ouster of NHA general manager

Employees of the National Housing Authority (NHA) are seeking the resignation of NHA General Manager Edgardo Pamintuan over charges of corruption and inefficiency.

In a statement, Rose Nartates, president of the Consolidated Union of Employees of NHA, said Pamintuan has failed to release their benefits.

The protesting NHA employees staged a picket for the second day yesterday at the NHA office along the Elliptical Road in Quezon City.

One of the questionable projects undertaken by Pamintuan, the employees said, includes the P47.5 million joint venture agreement with the Australian company Trustek Conclad Aus-Phil Inc. for the manufacture and construction of socialized and low-cost housing units using pre-fabricated materials.

The employees said the Trustek-Conclad System, which could build 50,000 housing units within period of two years has not been used and is already rotting since it was delivered two years ago.

Pamintuan explained that the facilities needed to run the Trustek-Conclad System is still being constructed at an NHA property in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Under the joint venture agreement with Trustek, the NHA will provide the plant facilities or warehouse for the software and machines.

Construction of the said warehouse is now ongoing after some delays due to lack of funds, Pamintuan said in statement.

The NHA employees also lashed at Pamintuan over an allegedly questionable property acquisition in Cabuyao, Laguna.

They claimed Pamintuan allowed the NHA to purchase a P500 million property in Cabuyao, Laguna using a PAG-IBIG loan and using a NHA-owned property in Calauan, Laguna as collateral.

Though Pamintuan admitted that he had permitted the purchase of the property, he said there was nothing illegal in the deal.

Pamintuan said the Cabuyao property will be used for relocating 75,000 families living along railroad tracks who will be displaced by the rehabilitation and modernization of the Philippine National Railways.

As for the alleged delay in the employees’ benefits, Pamintuan admitted that the NHA does not have enough funds for some of the benefits such as the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

However, he said that since 1987, the NHA has managed to release P306 million of the P680 million COLA due its employees.

Pamintuan said that at the moment, the NHA does not have enough funds as many government agencies still owe the NHA for the use of properties.

Among these agencies, he said, is the Department of Transportation and Communications, which owes the NHA some P1.5 billion for the use of various properties owned by the NHA, such as the sprawling property at North EDSA in Quezon City now being used as a depot by the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).