SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Amid the controversy over the construction by Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. (HHIC-Phil) of an apartment complex, the South Korean investor silently turned over some 300 housing units to families affected by its shipyard-expansion program at the Redondo Peninsula here.

On Wednesday, some 270 families from the former Nagyantok community in Redondo received certificates of award for a house-and-lot package, courtesy of the South Korean company.

The beneficiaries are mostly fisherfolks who had settled at the seaside village, formerly a military reservation used by the US Navy for military exercises.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, which now manages the area under the Subic Special Economic Zone, said the land the residents occupied will be used by Hanjin for its inland dry docks.

According to sources privy to the relocation program, Hanjin spent as much as P75 million for Nagyantok’s resettlement.

This covered compensation packages for the affected families, who were paid for the developments they introduced in their old settlement, as well as the acquisition of the relocation site and the construction of about 300 housing units in the new village.

The relocation program was coordinated by SBMA, and the construction undertaken by the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Foundation, a nongovernment organization that has developed several housing projects in the country for poor families.

In a simple ceremony on Wednesday, SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga and HHIC-Phil president Jeong Sup Shim distributed the certificates of award to residents, then presented their representative Abner Bais a symbolic key to the village.

Bais, who had lived in the old Nagyantok settlement for 27 years, earlier said the villagers were at first reluctant to leave because of their emotional attachment to their home for several decades.

He added, however, that the residents were willing to sacrifice “if it was for the benefit of the greater number of Filipinos,” referring to more than 5,000 direct jobs generated by the Hanjin shipyard project.

Salonga said the relocation, which also started on Wednesday, starts “the process of molding a new future for the residents of Nagyantok.”

The new village was built in just over two months beginning early February, with GK mobilizing hundreds of volunteers among beneficiaries of its past housing projects. Several civic organizations, including a US Navy crew from USS Frank Cable, a submarine tender that visited Subic early this month, also took part in various construction activities.

Salonga also thanked the local government officials, particularly Subic municipal mayor Jeffrey Khonghun and Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso.

Hanjin’s Shim, meanwhile, shared his pleasure in the success of the project by recalling his family’s reaction when they built their own house only 10 years ago.

Settlers get 300 housing units from Hanjin

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Amid the controversy over the construction by Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. (HHIC-Phil) of an apartment complex, the South Korean investor silently turned over some 300 housing units to families affected by its shipyard-expansion program at the Redondo Peninsula here.

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