Government delivers first starter home in Port Loyola

Published by BBNTEAM at January 5, 2023

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Posted: Thursday, January 5, 2023. 3:08 pm CST.

By Benjamin Flowers: The Ministry of Infrastructure and Development (MIDH) today delivered the first of several homes to be distributed in the Port Loyola constituency.

At a brief ceremony this morning, 50-year-old Apolinaria Choc, received her new home, handed over by MIDH Marketing and Publicity Manager, Marissa Alamilla, with area representative Gilroy Usher in attendance.

Choc, a mother of seven children, most of whom are now grown, said that she was grateful to receive her home, and plans one day to expand it with an extra room. The house was to be handed over from December 2022; however some issues with the contractor caused a delay in the handing over.

“That contractor was terminated…and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, we dealt with it in-house,” Alamilla said.

“I would rather deliver 100 high-standard houses than 1,000 low-standard houses,” she added.

Alamilla noted that in some instances, contractors take on jobs without fully grasping the Ministry’s emphasis on quality and overestimating their ability to deliver on the standard the ministry upholds.

She went on to say that the instance with Choc’s house was not the first such issue that the Ministry had with a contractor and assuredly will not be the last; however, the Ministry is not going to compromise its standards while trying to ensure that small contractors benefit from the starter home housing project.

Usher, who had previously been outraged at the Ministry for not being able to meet the original handing over ceremony date, has publicly thanked the MIDH, Minister Julius Espat and all other stakeholders for making the home for Choc possible. He added that all parties have agreed on a way forward to ensure that the issue in December 2022 does not repeat itself.

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