Before the year comes to a close, officials from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) turned over the PhP 6.9 million peso check for the Resettlement Governance Assistance Fund (RGAF) to the Local Government of Valenzuela on December 19, 2017.

DILG-NCR Regional Director Maria Lourdes Agustin, DILG-Valenzuela City Director Mary Jane Nacario, Housing and Resettlement Office (HRO) Elenita Reyes and Chief of Staff Ulysses Aguilar were present for the releasing of the check.

The fund will mainly be used for improvements in Disiplina Village Ugong like the construction of a 2-storey evacuation center and barangay outpost, seed capital for several business proposals and for the management of the community’s Tofu Production Facility.

The Resettlement Governance Assistance Fund (RGAF) seeks to capacitate LGUs with resettlement sites to improve and provide a holistic resettlement program. It has two main components: the technical assistance which aims to assist LGUs in terms of structures, process and planning while the financial assistance aims to provide funds for the needed facilities and services of the resettlement sites.

The fund is awarded to complying LGUs who have completed all the requirements set by DILG ensuring that potential recipients of the fund have the capacity and intent to maintain the resettlement sites.

Disiplina Village is a 2017 Galing Pook Award-winning project that will provide 4,594 informal settler families (ISFs) living along the danger zones with new and safer communities.  It will reduce the city’s ISF population along the water ways to zero by 2018.  Disiplina Village Ugong is the first Disiplina Village established back in 2009 for the victims of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) in the city.